Chapter 0116
Cara’s POV
I watch my daughter’s chest rise and fall in a slow and steady rhythm, sleep finally taking a firm and well–deserved hold on her. My head is spinning with complicated emotions.
This isn’t the first time Mia has asked me to give her a Daddy. I know her little heart yearns for a father… yearns to be like all the other kids who have two parents.
I so greatly want to be able to grant her wish. As a mother, I want to give my daughter everything her heart desires.
Bedford had just asked me to marry him, but there’s no way I could let someone like him be the father of my child. If there’s a quickest and most fitting solution to this… it might just be Alaric.
But Alaric, but this…This is such a complex, indescribably tenuous situation… How could I begin to explain that to my six–year–old daughter?
I can’t, because she could never understand.
So here I sit, lost in thought at her bedside, watching her sleep.
There’s a knock at the door. Maybe it’s one of the nurses coming to tend to Mia.
“Come in,” I say quickly.
My breath catches in my chest when I see Alaric enter the room, closing the door behind
him.
He has a paper in his hand. “Dr. Marlow had to step away for a moment, but some of Mia’s test results came back. She wanted me to show this to you, and she’ll come back later to discuss it further.”
Alaric furrowed his brow, looking genuinely worried about Mia. “She smells… disoriented…
11
I reach for the paper, and see lots of charts and tables, numbers and symbols that only make sense to me thanks to all of our routine trips to this hospital. I realize how much I’ve learned during all of the visits.
I study the paper, deciphering the information. It appears that Mia has temporarily stabilized, but we still aren’t any closer to curing her underlying condition.
There are still plenty more questions with no answers.
“Is everything okay?” Alaric asks me, his force so low he almost sounds hoarse. “With Mia?”
I nod, not tearing my eyes away from the paper At least Mia is safe for now… Until the next time she has to shift into wolf form…
I make several mental notes about the test results, questions to be asked when Dr. Marlon comes back later.
Alaric clears his throat, looking at me with those light blue eyes. “I heard about your friend, Ruby. She mentioned that she’s leaving Pack BloodyMoon?”
I nod, “Yes. She’s been offered a spot at the Illari Medical School. They have specialists there who understand quite a bit more than we do about Mia’s condition.”
Alaric nods back at me. “That’s wonderful Please give her my congratulations for securing a spot at such a prestigious institution.”
“I will,” I say simply.
Alaric leans down to sit in the seat next to me. He looks at Mia, watching her sleep just as I had been doing for the last hour or so.
SANTO
We sit like this in silence, keeping vigil at our daughter’s bedside. But only one of us knows that she’s OUR daughter.
Finally, Alaric speaks. “I just… Well, I don’t understand…” He speaks slowly, seemingly choosing his words very carefully. Like he’s trying to be… delicate?
Alaric… delicate? I never thought I’d see the day.
I raise an eyebrow at him, unsure at what he’s getting at.
“Any man would be lucky to have Mia… and you…” his deep voice trails off quietly.
I blink at him, unsure how to respond. I’m flattered by his words, but I don’t understand where he’s going with this. I don’t even understand what he’s still doing here by Mia’s bedside.
“Cara, you must know that you deserve better. You both deserve better,” Alaric says.
I look back to Mia, to my daughter resting peacefully, not trusting myself to say anything back to Alaric.
“Why isn’t he here? Your husband?” Alaric is speaking a bit faster now.
“You shouldn’t be asking this.” That’s all I could reply to him.
“He should be here!” Alaric widen his eyes, his tone ting with anger..“You shouldn’t have to go through all of this alone, not when he could be here to support you. To support both of you!”
