Page 13 of Flawed Revenge

“I can help with the transfusion,” he piped up.

“You don’t have to,” Kate said quickly.

“I know. I want to help. You don’t have to do this all alone anymore,” he added. The toll caring for a sick child all by herself was taking on Kate was obvious, and he wanted to lighten that load for her.

“After that then, Mom, please?”

It felt like he was holding his breath as he awaited Kate’s answer. If she agreed, it was the next step in earning a place in her and her daughter’s lives. Whatever time Ariella had left, he wanted to spend with her, and if the worst happened, he wanted to be there for Kate when she lost her little girl. If the best happened, he wanted to grow into the role of Ariella’s dad.

But all of that could only happen with Kate’s permission.

He’d thought the stakes were high these last ten years, escaping Dr. Gardner, being on the run, hunting the man who had stolen his girl from him with his experimental drugs. But he’d been wrong. Nothing was more important than finding a way to keep his girls close.

March 14th

7:17 A.M.

“There you go, Ari-Bear, you did amazing,” Leo told their daughter as he removed the needle with expert fingers and placed a ball of cotton wool against the small wound on the inside of Ariella’s elbow.

It would bleed for a while, Kate knew that from experience, a side effect of her daughter’s condition, but Ariella never complained about it. While it felt like a mistake to allow her child to form a bond with the man who hadn't wanted her to exist, the way Ariella’s eyes lit up when she looked at Leo meant Kate would never stand in the way of it happening.

If Leo let them down again, she’d be there to pick up the pieces for her daughter, and if he proved her wrong, then she couldn’t deny her daughter this chance when Ariella might not have much time left.

“Can we go outside now, Daddy? To your special spot?” Ariella asked, squirming in her seat.

Leo looked to her first, and Kate nodded to let him know she hadn't changed her mind. It was going to take some getting used to after so many years of being a single parent. She was not, under any circumstances, going to stand in the way of Ariella and Leo bonding. No matter how much she still hated her ex.

So far, she’d been as polite as it was possible to be.

Impossibly polite.

It was the only way to stop her anger from erupting, and stressing out and upsetting her daughter was the last thing she wanted to do.

Therefore, she’d be sticking with her plan. Treat Leo and his friends as she would any stranger she happened to meet. Manners had been drilled into her practically from birth, and she’d always been a people pleaser, a rule follower. In fact, refusing to follow through on Leo’s demands and keeping their baby was the first time in her life she’d actively done the opposite of what someone else wanted.

At least Leo had taken the lie in stride and seemed to be accepting of their daughter. More than that, he seemed to want to bond with her. Kate had been terrified that she’d have to fight Leo to get him tested, and had even looked into whether she had any legal recourse to force him if he didn't want to.

Saving her daughter’s life, or at least giving her every chance possible to live, was all that mattered to her, and to that end, she could suck it up and spend time around Leo. Even let her daughter get attached.

“We sure can, Ari-Bear. Go get your coat on, and I’ll meet you at the front door. Remember the way to your room?”

“Of course I do,” Ariella replied, bounding out of her seat with more enthusiasm than Kate had seen from her daughter in months.

“I read up on aplastic anemia last night,” Leo informed her once they were alone.

That was unexpected. Irritatingly considerate though. But it was good that Leo was taking this seriously, the last thing she needed was him hurting her very vulnerable child the same way he’d hurt her.

“Okay, thank you for that,” she said politely. It meant they didn't have to have a whole conversation where she explained the condition and how it affected their lives. Something she was genuinely relieved about. Polite and keep her distance, that was the plan, and this had made that so much easier.

Leo sighed, like he was frustrated with her, but the smile he gave her seemed genuine. “Still treating me like a stranger. It’s okay to yell at me, Katie-Bear. I deserve it.”

That he thought she needed his permission to be angry only infuriated her further, but she wasn't going to let it show. Instead, she just kept her neutral smile in place and nodded. “You are a stranger to me, Leo,” she reminded him. Then she set about clearing the table, steadfastly refusing to turn around and look at him to see whether her words had hurt him even a fraction of the way that what he’d said to her that day a decade ago had left lasting scars and wounds that had never fully healed.

Instead, he walked away.

Of course he did.

He said she could yell at him if she wanted, but other than a single apology, he hadn't initiated a conversation either. Not that there was any chance of her losing it on him with her daughter so close. Ariella was dying, that was a truth she was struggling to accept, but a truth nonetheless. This was a last-ditch attempt at saving her life, and if it didn't work, then at least Ariella got to meet her daddy before she passed away.