Chapter 18
Mallory was set to meet Vincent at the Academy. It was a couple of hours before the end of the day, but she was still nervous to be there. She and Vincent had been out several times since she had agreed to the coffee. He was just as charming and just as devastatingly handsome as he ever was. It made being around him all that more complicated. There were so many times that she wanted to tell him about Ethen, but it just never came out. Mallory worried how he would take it. She also worried about what that would mean for the future.
When she got to the Academy, Mallory parked in the back and made her way around to the front of the building. She had this strange feeling, one she usually would listen to. In the past, she would run the other way. Something bad was about to happen.
The feeling got so strong that Mallory almost called Vincent to meet her in the back. She didn't know what was going to happen but knew that it was something that made her want to go the other direction.
Then, she heard her name and Vincent was waving at her, coming toward her. Mallory could no longer leave. She, instead, tried to look like her heart wasn't beating a mile a minute. She couldn't look around like she wanted to, knowing that something was about to happen.
He hugged her and gave her a kiss, before she backed up and he asked her what was wrong.
“Nothing, let's just get out of here.”
Vincent looked at her strangely. Then he agreed and they were about to turn away, when she heard her name called again, only this time it was the last formal version of it. It was the one that Ethen called her.
“Mommy! Mommy!”
Ethen was running toward her and she tried to ignore the look that she was getting from Vincent. He was staring her down, and it was burning the back of her head, it was so intense.
She lifted him up, because he was careening into her arms before she knew it. Mallory gave him a kiss and told him that she was just there to talk to Vincent. Ethen thought that he was going to get to go home early and was very excited. Considering the conversation that she was about to have with Vincent, Mallory figured that might be the best option she had.
Vincent was speechless. He had this sharp look on his face, and he kept looking from her to Ethen.
She set him down and told him to go back with his class. Mallory didn’t want to look him in his eyes. She started to walk back toward where she was parked and it took Vincent several minutes to get anything out.
“You have a kid?!”
“Yeah, I do. Ethen.”
He just shook his head and Mallory looked forward again. The awkwardness between them was almost stifling and she just wanted it to end. Mallory should have said it right then. She should have told him that it was his son, but it didn't take long for Vincent to start to do the math.
“So, he's about three?”
“A little bit older.”
“Like a little bit older, meaning that he's my son?”
Her heart stopped, as did her feet. Miraculously, they were in front of her car.
“Why don't we go get a drink?”
“Why don't you tell me the truth, right now?”
Finally, she met his eyes and said it as simply as she could. “Yes, you’re the father of my son Ethen.”
“Are you sure?”
She gave him a dirty look. He shook his head. “Hell, no, you don’t get to be mad at me. You should have told me!”
He was getting mad and Mallory knew that this was the most common scenario that she had seen coming. She knew that he had a temper, he always had one, and he had a valid reason to be upset. It’s why she hadn’t told him, though she had to figure that if she would have told him, instead of him finding out in that way, maybe he wouldn’t have been so angry.
“Look, if you want to do this here, we can, or we can go somewhere else.”
“Yes, somewhere else, now.”
He shifted into his dragon form quickly, not even waiting to see if she was going to follow. He expected her to, and even though Mallory dreaded the conversation that came next, she knew that they had to have it. Her own shift took just as little time, but he was already almost out of her human eyesight when she took to the skies. They were pushing limits. It was still daylight, but Vincent was mad, and he didn’t think straight when he was mad.
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