Page 15 of Lost Times

No, that she wasours.

If I hadn’t already been sitting, I would have dropped from how weak my knees went. And before I could absorb that, Thalia herself ran in, a few strands of her hair in disarray and her eyes wide with worry.

When she locked those eyes on us, that worry increased.

It was only when she met my gaze head-on that I saw the dawning realization andfearthat it hit me.

She’d known from the start that Jasmine was mine, and she hadn’t said anything.

Hurt blitzed to the forefront, tearing through my shock. Why hadn’t she told me? This wasn’t something to keep a secret. If I’d known, I would have…donesomething!

Flashes to my childhood came roaring back, memories of both my parents backs as they left without so much as a backwards glance at me. If I’d known she was mine I never would have left Thalia to raise her alone.

But would I have really made a good parent?

The poisonous voice chipped in, dripping its doubts over my still racing heart. I’d never done well with children, I had no good role model to take after when it came to caring paternal figures, and more often than not, I was buried in work.

Was that why Thalia hadn’t told me? Did she sense that too?

Without thinking, I asked, my tone cracking in a way I’d never heard before.

“Thalia, is she?” I couldn’t even finish the question, but the way her eyes shut tight told me all I needed to know.

Jasminewasmine.

Chapter 9

Thalia

Damn it all!

I’d looked away from her for what felt like one minute, and she’d done the exact thing I’d needed her not to. She’d found Ludwig and somehow, he knew.

And there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that he didn’t know, the way he was staring at me, as if he’d seen a ghost, confirmed that.

There was no shoving this back into its bag, he knew, and now it was time to fess up.

Jasmine looked between us, confusion growing more by the minute and I fought the urge to just break down and cry. There was nowhere I could send her, no one who could watch her so I could have this conversation in private.

The pressure of being her only parent pushed down on me, not for the first or the last time, and I fought through the frustration. Forcing a smile for her benefit, I nodded back toward the office.

“Honey, can you go and sit at my desk for a bit? I have to talk to Mr. Evans.”

Jasmine pouted but got up dutifully. “Can I come back afterward? I wasn’t done asking him things.”

That was probably what’d gotten me into this mess, knowing my daughter’s curiosity. Keeping the smile plastered to my lips, I gestured toward the door. “We’ll talk about it afterward.”

She left, Ludwig’s eyes following her as if he couldn’t look away. Once she was out of sight though, that gaze riveted to me, and was that…hurt I saw?

He straightened, still looking as if he’d been bowled over, but now somewhat more composed as he asked. “Thalia, I need a straight answer, and I need itnow.” His tone hardened, and I instinctively bristled.

He shouldn’t be demanding answers from me, he had no right. I’d tried to contact him when I’d first found out. It wasn’t my fault he’d been smoke in the wind.

No, but you could have told him after you started working under him.

The voice came, and it sounded suspiciously like my mother.

Yes, I could have, but just today he’d brushed off her play as being something inconsequential. Didn’t that prove more than anything that he shouldn’t be in her life, ineitherof our lives?

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