Chapter 2

Elena's POV

On the third day after Cassian came back, I hosted a small banquet in my parents' place.

My father had arranged it, and the guests were all members of the major clans of the Central territory.

With my parents called away to the border, the hosting fell to me.

I hadn't wanted Lucas out in front of everyone, but he had only just arrived at his grandparents' house and the place was still strange to him. No matter how the servants coaxed him, he would not leave my side.

In the end I had to bring him into the hall with me.

Lucas sat in a small chair beside me, holding a pastry and oblivious to why everyone around him kept looking his way.

Before long, one of the ladies came over.

"Elena, is this the child?"

I frowned, not following.

"Which child?"

She looked distinctly awkward.

"I heard Cassian is back. Everyone is saying he came back to claim his son."

I understood at once.

Cassian had been in the Central territory three days and the story had already gone around.

Five years ago he abandoned a pregnant wife for a human blood servant and took her to the human world.

Five years later he came back and found a child at my side.

As for my remarriage, the wedding had been quiet and few people knew of it.

Afterward I had lived in the North for years and rarely came back to the Central territory for banquets.

So in other people's mouths I had become the poor wife who, even after her husband abandoned her, had given birth to his child and waited alone for five years.

"You have it wrong," I said plainly. "Lucas is two. My current husband and I are his parents. He has nothing to do with Cassian."

The lady blinked at me.

Someone nearby was already coming over with a smile to smooth things over.

"Elena, there's nothing to be embarrassed about. You and Cassian did grow up together, after all. If he's willing to come back and take responsibility now, that can only be good for the child."

I turned to her, my voice cooling.

"What is there for me to be embarrassed about?"

Her smile froze.

I didn't explain any further. I bent down and wiped the crumbs from the corner of Lucas's mouth.

I had expected the banquet to be over soon. Half an hour later there was a commotion at the door.

I looked up and saw Cassian walk in with Seraphina.

Neither of them had been invited.

The servant receiving guests probably still saw him as the golden Blackwood heir of five years ago and didn't dare stop him.

Cassian had barely stepped into the hall before several young nobles who knew him went over to greet him.

One of them asked with a grin, "We hear you came back to claim your son?"

Cassian glanced at Lucas.

Then he nodded, in front of the entire room.

"That's right. He's four already, and I don't want to miss any more of him growing up."

A low murmur ran through the hall.

I set down my napkin.

"Cassian."

He looked up at me.

"How much longer are you going to keep talking nonsense?"

The hall slowly went quiet.

Cassian showed no embarrassment at all. He looked at Lucas and spoke as calmly as if every word of it were fact. "Elena, this was going to come out sooner or later. I'm back now, and Lucas deserves to know who his father is."

Cassian took a few steps closer.

"In five years no one has ever laid eyes on this husband of yours. I know you still blame me, Elena, but you don't have to deny your own child's parentage just to get back at me."

The way the room looked at me began to change.

Some of them pitied me. Others wore the expression of people who thought they understood exactly what was going on.

Cassian must have noticed it too. Instead of stopping, he went on, "For the first two years after I left, you kept sending people into the human world after me, and you called me over and over begging me to come back."

"Then you stopped, and I thought you had finally accepted it. Now I see you're just still sulking at me."

He was actually laying out that whole miserable stretch of my life in front of a room full of people.

The doubt in their eyes deepened as they looked at Lucas.

Seraphina came to Cassian's side then and took his arm gently.

"Elena, we never wanted to hurt you."

Her tone was soft, and it even sounded sympathetic.

"I know how hard it's been raising him alone. Cassian only wants to make up for the years he missed. I'm happy to take Lucas in and care for him the way a mother would."

When she finished, a good number of faces around us softened.

A husband who had walked out on his pregnant wife for five years had suddenly become a father willing to take responsibility.

A human blood servant who had wrecked someone's marriage had become a kind soul willing to take in a child.

And I had become the bitter mother keeping a father from his son.

I looked at the two of them and lost all interest in explaining anything.

This was my parents' estate.

Tonight's banquet was mine to run.

Cassian seemed to have forgotten that he had lost the right to stand here long ago, and that his old standing could no longer be used to push me around.

"Mary."

The maid came over at once.

"My lady."

"Check tonight's guest list."

Mary bent her head over the register and had an answer quickly. "Mr. Blackwood and Miss Seraphina are not on the list."

Cassian's face darkened slightly.

"Elena, I only came to see a few old acquaintances. There's no need to make a point of a guest list."

"Whoever you want to see, you can wait for them outside."

I looked at him.

"This is my parents' estate. Anyone without an invitation is not welcome at tonight's banquet."

The ones who had hurried over to greet Cassian said nothing.

He clearly had not expected me to throw him out in front of everyone.

"I am still the Blackwood heir."

"Are you?"

I smiled, and I did not cover for him.

"Five years ago you turned your back on your clan for the blood servant standing next to you, took the money and ran off to the human world. After you left, the Blackwoods started grooming your younger brother instead. Surely you know that."

Cassian's face changed.

I gave him no chance to cut in.

"You've been back three days. Your father hasn't sent anyone for you, and the clan has not announced your return. So in what capacity are you standing here representing the Blackwoods?"

The hall went completely silent.

The people who had been crowding around him a minute earlier edged away without thinking.

Someone couldn't help asking, "Cassian, does your father really not know you're back?"

Cassian didn't answer.

Another one spoke up hesitantly. "I thought you had already worked things out with the clan."

"That is my family's business," Cassian said coldly.

"Then go home and handle it there."

I let my eyes travel over the hall.

"Everyone here tonight was invited as a representative of their clan. Cassian has been gone from the vampire territories for five years and the Blackwoods have not acknowledged him. As for Seraphina, she used to be a human blood servant in the prince's household."

Seraphina went white.

I looked at the ones who had gone over to talk to Cassian.

"If anyone is willing to vouch for their presence here tonight in their own clan's name, I will let them stay."

No one spoke.

Even the ones who had been urging me to accept Cassian looked away.

Cassian was no longer the heir with a brilliant future he had been five years ago.

He had betrayed his clan, disappeared into the human world for five years, and come back without their acknowledgment.

No one knew what the Blackwoods would do with him.

And no one was willing to drag their own clan and their own future into it for the sake of a little drama.

Cassian stood there, color coming and going in his face, his fangs beginning to show with anger.

"Elena, are you humiliating me in front of everyone on purpose?"

"You walked into my parents' estate uninvited and told a room full of guests that my son is yours.

"So who is humiliating whom?"

I looked at him calmly.

Cassian's hands slowly closed into fists.

I turned to the guards.

"See these two out. From now on they do not set foot on this estate without permission from me or my parents."

Two guards stepped forward at once.

"This way, please, Mr. Blackwood."

Cassian didn't move.

He glanced around as if waiting for someone to speak up for him.

But the few who had welcomed him earlier had melted back into the crowd, and not one of them would look at him.

His expression darkened further. Without a word, he took Seraphina and walked out of the hall, and the doors closed behind them.

The hall was quiet for a moment.

The lady who had urged me to accept Cassian gave an awkward laugh.

"Elena, we were only going on what we'd heard."

"It's fine."

I sat back down.

"Now you know that what you hear isn't always true."

She said nothing more.

The others changed the subject soon enough.

Cassian had meant to use this banquet to make everyone believe Lucas was his son.

Instead he was thrown out in front of all of them.

For him, that much humiliation was nowhere near enough.

Still, watching people who used to know him keep their distance settled something in me.

He had come to my door of his own accord, and I was not going to let him off.

I had all the time in the world to settle the accounts of five years ago.