Chapter 84 Chapter 0084
•MASON•
It felt strange when I hopped out of my car outside Cassandra's home. She and I hadn't been in proximity except at the hospital when Alena was still admitted.
She had given me a few days before I could take Alena out so we could get to know each other better.
I didn't even know how to feel about the whole situation. Damon had reminded me that she tried to kill me, but I didn't want to think about that. She had given me a wonderful daughter and was the mother of my son as well.
Even though things would probably never be the same between us, I didn't want to take my daughter forcefully from her.
I hoped peace would reign and she would agree to share custody without taking the matter to court.
I knocked and waited.
The door opened and it wasn't Cassandra standing on the other side.
My chest tightened immediately. A man. Tall.
"You must be Mason," he said. "I am Dante Lark."
I looked at him for a moment before I responded.
Cassandra had mentioned him when she told me he had been there since the beginning, raising Alena like his own child.
Standing in front of him now, I understood why she had said it with such certainty.
He carried himself like someone who had been in this house for years and had no intention of leaving it.
"I'm here for my daughter," I replied.
"Of course." He stepped back from the door. "Come in."
I stepped inside and could already imagine him fucking Cassandra in every corner of the house, and making her scream his name.
The thought almost paralyzed me before I cleared my throat and got rid of it from my mind.
Dante turned toward the hallway. "Alena," he called. "Your father is here."
A beat of silence. Then the sound of small feet hitting the floor and moving at speed.
She appeared in the doorway of the living room with her green dinosaur tucked under one arm.
She looked at me and broke into a wide smile that did something immediate and uncomplicated to my chest.
"Daddy," she said, and walked toward me.
I crouched down and she came straight into my arms and I held her for a moment longer.
I looked at Dante when I straightened up.
"I want to thank you," I said. It was not easy to say and I didn't pretend otherwise. "For being here for her. For being here for both of them."
"Cassandra made it easy," he replied. "She and I have been through many things together. And I would never abandon or cast her aside."
I swallowed hard before I extended my hand towards him. And he accepted with a smile.
We shook hands.
The grip was firm from both sides, two dominant males measuring each other without either of them making a conscious decision to do it.
"Have her back by two," he said.
"I will," I replied.
Alena talked for the entire car ride.
She told me about her dinosaur, whose name I learned was Gerald, and about a girl in her class named Poppy who had cried because a bird flew into the classroom window.
I listened to all of it and found myself smiling.
"Uncle D is funny," she told me at one point, swinging her feet against the seat. "He makes Mama laugh really loud sometimes."
"Does he?" I replied, my chest tightening.
"Yes." She nodded. "And they are getting married on my birthday in five months." She looked at me. "I get to be the flower girl. Uncle D said I can throw as many petals as I want."
I said nothing for a moment. I should be happy that Cassandra was getting married to someone else and not trying to kill me anymore, but I wanted to drive a dagger through Dante's heart before that could happen.
"That sounds like a wonderful birthday," I replied, clearing my throat.
She beamed. "It will be the best one."
When we arrived at the restaurant, Alena ordered pancakes with strawberries on the side, and I ordered coffee with a bagel.
I took out my phone and took a few pictures of her while she wasn't paying attention.
I looked at the pictures for a moment. Then I opened Cassandra's contact and sent them with a message.
Me: "She is wonderful. I want you to know that if I had known you were pregnant when you left, I would not have let you go until after she was born."
I set the phone down and drank my coffee. And two minutes later, Cassandra called.
I answered.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"I meant it as a—"
"Don't you dare," she sneered. "Don't send me something like that and think it will come off as a joke after what I went through because of you. You should be grateful that I let you see my daughter without someone monitoring you."
"I was trying to say that I would have taken care of you," I replied, keeping my voice low.
"You want to take care of me now?" She scoffed. "You let your pack chant for my banishment while I was carrying your child, Mason. Nobody took care of me. I took care of myself."
"I didn't know about the pregnancy."
"And I didn't know my husband would stand back and watch me be thrown out of my own home," she replied. "We both learned things."
I pressed my fingers against my temple. "Cassandra—"
"You accused me of trying to kill you," she answered. "You had me banished and stripped of everything I had worked hard for. And now you come back and want me to speak with you as if nothing happened and you never took my son from me?"
"I was angry when I saw those texts," I replied.
"And I am angry now," she replied. "So we are even."
"You did try to kill me," I scoffed. "Whatever the reasons were, whatever was happening at the time, that is what happened."
"Go to hell, Mason," she answered before she hung up the call.
I sat with the phone in my hand for a moment, and then I set it face down on the table.