Invidious Betrayal (37 page)

Soft snickers and giggles caused Ian to groan, then pull away. Aria raised her head to see Tanner and Mandy standing together watching them, both with a glimmer of amusement on their too perfect faces. Aria also noticed that the large machine that had fallen with them was safely on the ground a few feet behind the children.

“Hey, guys,” Selene yelled. They all looked up, but they didn’t see her.
Good girl
. She stayed away from the ledge. “I don’t like it up here alone.”

A
SECOND CHANCE WAS WHAT
Aria had offered. Well, third, if he was technically keeping track. The incident with the tractor had scared her into confessing her feelings for him. It had scared the hell out of him too, so Ian promised himself he would never let anything come between them again.

“You all right, son?” Poppa Morel asked. He eyed Ian suspiciously from the driver’s seat of his truck. The old man had been weary of their description of events when John had brought help to the picnic site a few weeks ago. Ian, Tanner, and the girls were packing up when John returned with Poppa Morel and François. Minutes after the men arrived, emergency vehicles pulled up. Ian and Aria had explained to his three cousins that telling anyone what happened would get Ian in a whole lot of trouble, so they all lied.

Thank god this was the era of superheroes, because that was probably the only thing that convinced the children that he needed to maintain his secret identity. Tanner pegged him for an
X-Men
type, grasping at the possibility of an evolutionary genetic leap, hoping he would evolve too. Mandy associated him with a secret magical boy like Harry Potter
,
and Selene just liked the fact that she was keeping a secret.

Ever since that day, Aria, Ian, and his cousins had been very close, and often were caught talking in hushed voices. The others seemed to know they hid something, but no one pressed them.

Ian decided that he needed to keep his abilities from the rest of his family, so instead of telling his grandfather that he was thinking about telekinesis and wondering what else he was capable of, he deflected. “If I could figure her out, I’d be better off,” Ian admitted. The truth was, even with her declaration of love, Aria was still an enigma to him.

After a throaty, jolly laugh his grandfather shrugged. “When you do figure it out, let the guys and me know.”

Maybe he didn’t need to figure Aria out. Just letting her know that he loved her seemed to be enough. The fact that she loved him in return still amazed him. Aria accepted him regardless of their history and his complex issues. She hadn’t once thrown it in his face that she wouldn’t be in any of this mess if it hadn’t been for him.

Aria had asked him for nothing.

He knew she desperately wanted him to accept the baby she carried, but she hadn’t brought it up. In fact, Aria never spoke of the baby with him, and if someone did, she found a way to seamlessly change the subject.

I’m such an ass
, Ian thought. Aria was the most amazing woman he knew and he was a complete ass. He sighed, thinking about how happy she made him…and how he kept failing her.

“Pillar Hilt is a very good hospital,” Pop Morel said, filling the silence in the car. “And Dr. Cartwright is a skilled obstetrician. Aria will be fine. She’s in good hands.”

Ian didn’t doubt the capability of the hospital staff or Dr. Cartwright, because since Aria had been admitted two days ago for fatigue, dehydration, and spotting, the staff had been wonderful. He just wondered if his issues were connected to what was going on with her.

It was just that since the levitating incident, Ian had been experiencing odd things. His emotions that he’d held in check his entire life had gone haywire. His body’s core temperature had been slowly rising, and memories long forgotten had been coming back to him in full force.

Those long-gone memories were slowly becoming clearer throughout the week. Ian remembered one of the rare times his brother had talked about their mother. She’d been in the early stages of pregnancy with Ian and had gotten very ill. No one knew what was wrong or how to help her. It was all too much of a coincidence—his mother’s illness and Aria’s. Eventually his uncle was able to figure out what was wrong and was able to help his mother. Vincent wasn’t able to save her from the effects of his birth, though.

Ian now also remembered that someone had come to him the one and only time he’d been hospitalized. The entire memory of that night had all but disappeared. Then last night while Ian sat in the hospital recliner with his eyes closed and his head nestled against Aria’s hand as she lay in the bed, he’d recalled the incident clearly.

“You’ll be fine now, Ian,”
Marroe had told him when he’d appeared in Ian’s hospital room after everyone had left. Ian’s recall of that memory opened the floodgates, and Ian now recalled another time he’d had an odd conversation with the man that had usually avoided him. But when Dr. Marroe wasn’t ignoring him, he had always spoken to Ian like he was a child and not like he was an adult like everyone else did. Ian liked that about him.

In fact, that day—the day the doctor decided to talk with him—stood out because it was on Ian’s birthday, February 29, 2000. Every four months for as far back as he could remember, Ian had been taken to his uncle’s lab for an allergy shot, but that day Dr. Marroe was there to administer it. It wasn’t often that someone other than Vincent handled his medical treatments.

What was most odd about the visit was that after Dr. Marroe had checked him out, drew the usual blood work, and given Ian his injection, he had left the room and come back a few minutes later with a small cake that held a single candle.

“Happy Birthday Ian,
”
Dr. Marroe had said, as he held it up for Ian to blow out the candle.

Ian remembered being shocked that the doctor who had otherwise ignored him on a personal level would do something so out of character. For the first time in his life, Ian had been given a cake, of sorts. Raised to hide his emotions until he practically buried them, Ian remembered feeling a hint of happiness from the kind gesture. He also remembered that as he and the doctor shared the cake they had a friendly ‘almost normal’ conversation for the first time.

They’d discussed Ian’s birthday and how the doctor thought that it falling on a leap year was interesting. Then Dr. Marroe had told Ian of a man named James Milne Wilson, who had been the Premier of Tasmania. Wilson had died on his birthday, which of course had happened to other people, except the Premier’s birthday was also on February 29
th
just like Ian’s. Now that he remembered this incident, Ian had a strong feeling that conversation had some special meaning, that Dr. Marroe had been trying to tell him something, but he wasn’t sure what.

Poppa Morel pulled the truck into the hospital parking lot, ripping Ian from his thoughts.

“Thanks for everything,” Ian said, as he unbuckled his seatbelt. Thanking his grandfather for just the ride just seemed silly when the man had given them so much more.

“It’s nothing, Ian.” Poppa Morel patted him on the back. “I’ll give you some time alone with her. You can find me in the cafeteria when you’re done.”

Ian gave his grandfather a nod as he stepped out of the truck. There was no way he would ever be able to repay this man for his generosity. All of the Morels had embraced him and Aria, taking them in and making them comfortable, without knowing a thing about them, and knowing that they were in some kind of trouble.

Absently following the signs to the floor Aria was on, Ian pressed the button to enter the secured wing. “Francis Morel for Ria Morel,” he said into the intercom. It was his grandfather who had suggested that they use aliases with the hospital once they smoothed it over with Dr. Cartwright. Ian used his middle name and just dropped the A in Aria’s. The door buzzed and he pulled it open. Ian made his way to the nurse’s station. “Has Dr. Cartwright been in room ten today?”

“The doctors are in with her now.” The nurse smiled sympathetically.

Hearing that, Ian rushed to the room and got there just as the doctors were exiting. Dr. Cartwright said a few words to her colleagues then focused on him when they were left alone in the hallway.

“How is she?” he asked.

“Not doing well.” She sighed. “She’s weakening. I ordered another round of testing when you left, so she’s tired.” The doctor touched his shoulder. “I’m dedicated to helping her to make it through this.”

“And the baby?” Ian asked. The question was a valid one, but one he wasn’t sure that he wanted the answer. Her answer may confirm his suspicions and create a score of new fears.

Dr. Cartwright smoothed her hand down his arm and smiled sweetly. “Strong and thriving under the circumstances,” she answered.

I was right
. The baby was like a parasite that was slowly zapping Aria’s strength, her life. Dr. Cartwright said some other things to him, but Ian wasn’t listening. She touched his arm again and Ian nodded, then the doctor walked away.

Aria was all he wanted right now, so why was it that he couldn’t move. Ian stood outside her room door for several minutes, unable to move. He breathed deeply before pushing open her room door and going to her.

Ian sat in the chair by Aria’s bed and took in her radiance, even with her pale skin. Her hair, still in the long plait Roxanne had tied it in, spilled over her shoulder and arm, resting just under the side of her breast. Her eyes were closed and her lashes clung together. She’d been crying.

His heart ached for her.

Ian touched her cheek and pulled his hand away suddenly; her skin was so cold.

Nothing had ever hurt him more than seeing Aria like this. And the thought that he had to leave her in order to get her some help deeply pained him. Ian sucked in a breath. He knew what he had to do and he would do it. He lowered his head and prayed to a God he rarely acknowledged.

“You need to sleep.”

Her voice was weak and she needed to rest, but Ian was happy that she was awake. “I’m fine,” he told her, trying to look the part by straightening up.
Not tired, just sad
. Her eyes slowly took him in, then they moved away from his, giving Ian a sense of loss.

“I love the way that feels.” She smiled bright.

The way what feels
? Ian followed her gaze to her stomach where his hand was actually moving in circles over her swollen abdomen. Without even realizing he’d done it, he caressed her belly…their baby. Tensing, he was about to move his hand when the most amazing thing happened. He felt…it. Not in the physical sense like it kicked, but in the spiritual. He felt a connection to the life inside Aria. Ian added a little more pressure to his touch and spread his fingers to feel more.

“Are you all right?”

Ian nodded, but didn’t turn his eyes away from her belly, afraid he would break whatever connection he had. He went over Aria’s question in his head. Was he all right? No, he might not ever be all right.
Not if I lost them
.

Them
. The word was foreign in the context he was using it. He mentally linked and then strengthened his connection with his child. The babe thrived, just as the doctor said.

“I didn’t want to be a father, Aria, because I don’t think I’ll be a good one.” His tone was almost a whisper. “My father was cold, and I learned early on that I had to keep anything I felt locked inside or it displeased him.” Ian looked up at her. “And I wanted to please him so badly, but nothing I did ever warmed him to me. I mean, he provided me with a cushy life, but what I wanted he couldn’t afford.”

“You’ll be a wonderful father, Ian. You just have to want to be. I know you can be,” Aria said with conviction.

Ian didn’t have that much faith. He did know that he would move heaven and hell to make things right. “I can try,” he said to her, but swore it to himself.

“Good.” Aria’s smile was so sweet. “So where did you go?”

Switching the topic, Aria had unknowingly forced Ian into a corner. He rubbed her stomach as he searched for the words he needed to say. He finally settled on the bare facts. “Poppa Morel has a friend who owns a private airfield. He knows a pilot. There’s someone I need to see.”