I don’t know if I trust her. She’s a shitty liar and she seems sincere, but of course Mia thinks Mateo loves Dom. Like Carly said, it benefits him to make her feel that way. “He is provoking me.”
“I know,” she says, placing a calming hand on my arm, like old times. “Please resist. I know you love Dom. I can see that. I loved him immediately, too. I get it. But please don’t throw away your last chance at happiness for him. Please. I’m so happy you found Carly, I’m so happy she’s surviving this week, don’t throw it all away. I can see that look in your eye, and if I can see it, so can Mateo. He will pounce. He’s running out of time. He has one day left to make you screw up. Don’t fall for his tricks.”
I shake my head, looking down at Dom. “How am I supposed to…?”
“Trust me,” she says, simply. “I love Dom. He’s my world. He’s our world. Dom is well taken care of. He’s a happy kid with loving parents. Mateo is, to an extent, performing for you. I’m rooting for you so hard. Don’t screw up in the home stretch. We don’t need saving.”
It’s hard to trust her words. It’s hard to reconcile what I know about Mateo with the idea of him having legitimate affection for a child I foisted on him. Then I look down at Dom and he hits me in the face with an Easter egg. He squeals with delight and grins up at me, and just like that, my resolve weakens. He’s already stolen my heart and I’ve only known him for a few days. Maybe he has worked his way into Mateo’s. He’s half Mia, after all. Maybe he got my looks, but he got Mia’s lovability. And I haven’t seen them together much, probably in part because Mateo is trying to convince me he’s a shitty father so I want to save him, but when I got under his skin in the bedroom, when Mateo came over and took Dom away from me, I saw Dom’s affection for him. Would he give his trusting adoration to someone who didn’t love him?
“I can’t trust anything in this house,” I mutter.
Mia nods sympathetically. “I know. Trust me, I know. It’s usually calm here, but you know how it can be when Mateo is running a show.”
“You promise he’s good to Dom?”
Mia nods fervently. “Cross my heart.”
The door flies open and Mia jumps back. I think we both expect to see Mateo, but Cherie stands on the other side, eyes wide. “What the hell are you two doing?” She looks at me holding Dom, then back to a guilty-looking Mia and scowls. “Stop messing with my brother’s head.”
“Cherie, she’s not. Back off.”
“And why are you so obsessed with Mia’s baby? What did Francesca mean earlier?”
I sigh, looking down at Dom. Seeing us together, I feel like she should see it just looking at him, but I guess that’s because I know. It wouldn’t make sense to Cherie that Dom could be mine. She knows Mia was with Mateo when Dom was conceived.
“Dom’s mine,” I tell her.
I’m already braced for her to shake her head, face twisted up in confusion. “How the hell is Dom yours? You and Mia split up years ago.”
I don’t want to fucking tell her this. The words get caught in my throat, but I force them up. “I came back. Last year. For Mia.”
Not being a complete moron, Cherie loses some of her fire. Now instead of barging in here to tell off Mia for fucking with me, she has to consider something else. Something she doesn’t want to consider. “Mia was with Mateo a year ago,” Cherie states, but her tone is already subdued. I can see the dread I feel mirrored back at me. Once she hears the truth, there’s no taking it back.
I nod my head. “She was. I…”
“We were drunk.”
Cherie’s head snaps to Mia. I look at her and frown.
Mia nods her head, clearing her throat and looking down. “We had too much to drink. It was just one time. But… you know, it only takes once. It was obviously a mistake, but Mateo was willing to get past it on account of… well, he slept with someone else for four years, so one drunken one night stand with my ex—is it even called that with an ex? I don’t know. Anyway, yeah. Let’s not mention that to anyone else, huh?” She forces a completely fake laugh. I want to smack myself in the forehead because she’s such a bad liar, but I can’t push away the life raft she threw me.
I look at Cherie to see if she bought any of that. She appears mildly skeptical, but since she wants to believe it, she tries really hard. “You cheated on Mateo,” Cherie repeats, unconvinced.