“Only because I didn’t get the chance,” I argue. “You know I would have done all that stuff. You know that.”
Mia looks away from me, offering Dom a smile and pushing one of his toys closer to focus his attention. “I don’t want to fight.”
“I’m not trying to fight,” I mutter. “I just think it sucks that I have a son and I never get to be a part of his life. He’ll never even remember meeting me. How would you feel in my place?”
I know I have no right to ask that—no right—but because Mia isn’t Carly, instead of telling me that, her face transforms with guilt.
“You’re right. I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to minimize… I feel awful about that. I really wish it didn’t have to be that way, but I can’t convince Mateo otherwise. I’ve tried. He doesn’t bend.”
That’s because he knows better. “I know,” I tell her. “It just still sucks.”
“It does suck,” she agrees. Sighing, she adds, “Anyway, like I was saying before, I can’t send you pictures of Dom, but I send them to Maria. Maria will probably send some to Cherie. If Cherie sent them to you… well, that would be out of my hands, now wouldn’t it?”
Her little idea drags a smirk right out of me. “Look at you, plotting.”
“Hey, I found a loophole,” she says, shrugging innocently. “You have to promise you won’t make me regret it like last time I took a chance on you, though. No kidnapping, no craziness, no mischief. I’m not allowed to keep people alive anymore, so if anyone else messes up and crosses Mateo, my hands are tied. Especially you and Meg. I think I could save a stranger more easily than I could save either of you at this point. Mateo isn’t pleased with how far I’ve gone to try to save your asses and he’s fed up.”
“Yeah, I kind of got the impression he’d rather be burying me than my dad come Monday.”
She doesn’t even disagree.
“What about Meg? What’s she up to these days? I gathered your marriage is a two-person deal now, so no more sister wives?”
Mia shakes her head. “No more sister wives. That was done when I got home from Vegas. Mateo didn’t really want to do it anymore, and then when he thought he might’ve actually lost me… It just wasn’t working anymore.”
I nod, watching her. “So, Meg still comes to dinner—she still lives here, or is she just here for Easter?”
“She doesn’t come to dinner every night, she has a job now, but she still lives here. She didn’t want to live away from the kids and you know Mateo, he’s definitely not going to let his kids move out.”
I can’t help a faintly bitter scoff. Of course he never has to worry about being in my situation. He never has to worry about another man raising his kid, never has to watch someone live the life that should’ve been his. That bastard takes everything he wants and manages to keep it—whether he deserves it or not.
Mia sees my discontent and streamlines her explanation. “Anyway, so she still lives here, but she kind of does her own thing now. She works full-time at Meg’s Place, so that’s why she’s not around as much.”
I wait to see if she says anything else, but she doesn’t. I didn’t expect her to. If Mateo knew that Meg tipped me off on where to find Mia so I could take her away from him, Meg would be dead, not living under his roof and working at one of his businesses.
Of course. Bastard finds out everything else, but this slipped past him.
So now I have to tell him.
It was helpful when I was on the wrong side of things with her, but now I’m here on the floor watching Mia with my kid, and at a little over three-months-old, he’s doing a better job taking care of her than I ever did. But she needs to always be around to take care of him. I can’t keep my mouth shut and cover Meg’s ass, then come to find out her jealousy compelled her to do some shady shit like that again. It won’t be me next time. Suppose Mia gets hurt. Killed.
Nope, I have to tell Mateo.
I’m gonna wait, though. I don’t want to ruin Easter, and Meg isn’t going to pull anything between now and then. Mia doesn’t have any threatening suitors right now that I know of. Rafe has clearly had a taste of Mia in some way, whether in Vegas or Carly’s painful-to-imagine scenario, but he also slept with Laurel last night, so he’s not tangled up in her. He has clear affection for her, but he’s not stealing glances or obsessing, and he left her at the pool last night to openly go have sex with someone else.