“It’s quite all right, sweetheart. Sam does it all the time.” She sticks her tongue out at me before picking up her trash and putting it away. I look at my watch. “We’d better get going before we’re late.” We’re just steps away from the front door when I hear keys turning in the lock. I’m momentarily surprised because I thought Aidan would be long gone by now since he’d taken today off. Maybe he’d forgotten something and had to come back.
I see his familiar face as the door opens. He steps to the side and ushers someone ahead of him. I brace myself for an awkward run-in with Monique or some other one-night stand. When the woman turns toward me, my world screeches abruptly to a halt. “Oh my God,” I hiss, feeling like I’m in the middle of a bad dream.
Aidan looks up at the sound of my voice, blanching when he sees me gaping at him. “Luc. What’re you doing here?” I am incapable of answering him as I continue to stare at the woman beside him. Her hair is pulled tightly away from her face in a ponytail. She’s pale and doesn’t appear to be wearing any makeup. She’s also thinner than usual—almost waif-like.
When Lia takes my hand, I give her a helpless look, not even knowing what to do or say at this point. I can tell she’s curious. She gives Aidan a warm smile saying, “Hi, Aidan. Lucian came by for some papers and we stayed long enough for me to have a snack. We were just on our way to meet some friends for dinner.”
Aidan’s voice is strained as he says, “Um…hi, Lia. Good to see you again.” This whole moment in time is so fucking strange to me that I can hardly believe it’s happening. Aidan looks like he’s been hit by a bus, so I have to believe he’s feeling the same way. Lia keeps shooting quick glances my way as if trying to figure out what to do next—and Cassie, dammit to hell—she’s standing before me looking completely and utterly blank.
Lia suddenly extends a hand toward Cassie with a shy smile, and alarmed, I try to pull her back. She places a hand on my chest to stop me before turning back to the other woman. “It looks as if everyone has forgotten their manners around here. I’m Lia, and you are?”
Cassie looks from Lia’s face to her hand and back again. Then she does something that stops my heart. She steps toward Lia and places a hand on either side of her swollen stomach. “My baby,” she says in a childlike voice that chills my blood. Both Aidan and I freeze while Lia looks at me uncertainly.
“Why do you have my baby?”
Horror floods Lia’s face as she steps back quickly. Her actions shake me from my stupor and I jerk forward, taking her arm and pulling her through the partially open door. I pass within inches of Cassie and I think I will shatter if she lays one hand on me. Thankfully, though, Aidan has reached over and pulled her farther inside the apartment and away from us. I hear him speaking softly but shakily to her as I hurry Lia toward the elevator. When the door closes behind us, I collapse back against the wood panel, unable to comprehend what just occurred. The elevator continues to sit in place as neither of us has pushed a button yet. “Lucian. What just happened in there?” Lia asks in a tight voice.
“Fuck if I know, baby.” I shudder, trying to recover enough to function. I’d never expected to see Cassie again and I damn sure hadn’t imagined running into her in some random way. I could only assume that Aidan had followed through with the doctor’s suggestion to bring her for a visit. Why in the hell hadn’t he told me—warned me that he was doing just that? I wouldn’t have been anywhere near his apartment if I’d known and I sure wouldn’t have put Lia right in her path. I’d felt physically sick when she’d touched Lia’s stomach as if it were her own. Fucking hell!
“That was Cassie, wasn’t it?” Lia asks, in a voice that says she already knows the answer.
“Yes.” I sigh.
“Why didn’t you tell me she was out?” Lia’s voice sounds like a mixture of hurt and pissed off.
I pull her into my arms, closing them around her protectively. “I didn’t know, baby. Aidan told me a month or so ago that her doctor suggested having her come home with him for a day to see how she responded, but he never told me that he’d scheduled it. He usually visits her on the weekends, and to my knowledge, that was all he was doing this time.”
Lia shivers against me and I know it has nothing to do with the temperature in the elevator. “Did you see the way she looked at me? Touched me?”
“Yeah, I did,” I say hoarsely. “I shouldn’t have let you near her. Shit, let’s get out of here.” I lean over to punch the button for the ground floor, thinking it wasn’t a great idea to linger just feet from where Cassie was.
“Is she better now?” Lia asks. “I mean, from the few things you’ve said, I assumed she would never be…out again.”
“It’s supposedly the new medication they have her on. I told you that she’d been responding to it. I mean, I hardly believed it when Aidan first mentioned it, and I just shoved the information aside. Especially when I put Aidan solely in charge of her care and removed Max.”