Seasons of Fate (11 page)

  
‘I’m sorry, I don’t want to leave you, but we talked about this. Your life is here, mine, ours is in the UK. We can’t stay.’

  
‘You could, I mean you could if you stayed with me. I can take care of both of you.’

  
‘Yes I know that and I love you for your generosity and kindness, but our visas only allow a certain amount of time.’

  
‘Not if you were a US citizen!’

  
‘What? What are you talking about?’

  
‘You could marry me, and then you wouldn’t need to worry.’

  
‘Baby, I’m not going to marry you just to stay here. That wouldn’t be fair.’

  
‘I don’t give a shit about fair, I care about you and Lily being with me. I love you both and I’m not letting you go.’

  
‘Oh Mase, I’m not letting go either but we can work it out without you having to risk your career. Please lets talk about this later, I want to enjoy today with you and it’s my last night with my friends before they go back home.’

  
‘Ok but this conversation is far from over, I’m not going to let anything or anybody tell us we can’t be together.’

He smiled down at me and kissed me before grabbing my hand. Thank god, the thought of him being angry with me was painful.

   ‘Ok, Lily come on lets get going, Lys? John? Would you like to come?’

  
‘Actually we thought we could have a few hours to just do some last minute shopping and sight seeing before tonight if that’s ok?’

  
‘Of course, we’ll meet back here at say 6ish, and then we can decide what to do.’

We left together but going our separate ways out front. Mase and I took Lily for lunch then we went to the park, we had such a nice afternoon I could almost believe we were an actual family.

Chapter 9

Summer

   After an emotional night with my friends, we were up early preparing for their trip home, Mason had offered his plane but they had refused, so he decided he would take them to the airport instead. With their bags packed we sat down for some breakfast.

   ’Are you sure you want to go back today? You could stay for a while longer.’

  
‘Nah we still need to sort out the new house and give notice at work before you come back.’

  
‘Yea well that creates a whole new list of problems for me, I have no idea what to do about Mason, and the thought of leaving him is killing me. Lily will be devastated, and Mase, well he has already made his feelings clear.’

  
‘Sweetie, just because you feel the need to go back it doesn’t mean you have to give him up, like we said, he’s loaded and has his own plane. Travel is no issue for him, tell her John.’

  
‘Lys is right, if its really meant to be then nothing will change, stop worrying about saying goodbye and think about saying hello when you get back together, in the mean time your still here so why worry about it now when you still have time together.’

  
‘Yea I know your right. I need to talk to him about this, but not today.’

I stood up to get the paperwork for the property I had looked into

   ’This is the final house I looked at and the one you guys preferred. I have been in touch with my solicitor to finalise everything and have given them your details so you can get the house ready, after all we will be living together it needs to be right for all of us.’ Lys smiled and said

  
‘Oh goodness it’s stunning, we’ll get right on it as soon as we’re back.’ I sat back down to finish my tea when somebody knocked on the door.

  
‘I’ll get it, finish breakfast. We need to leave soon.’ When I opened the door his big smile warmed my heart.

  
‘Good morning pretty girl, I know it’s early but I thought you may want to get a head start on traffic.’

  
‘That’s very thoughtful of you,’ I stood up on my tip toes and kissed him ‘Did you have a good night?’

  
‘Well I have to be honest, I didn’t sleep much. It would seem that I don’t do well sleeping alone.’ I blushed before pulling him inside. He was greeted with solemn hellos apart from Lily who gave him her usual tight hug.

  
‘I’m coming too, so I can say goodbye to Auntie Lys and Uncle John.’

  
‘That’s great Princess I’m sure they appreciate that.’

  
‘Hey man can I have a quick chat with you? In private.’ Mason looked a bit concerned but followed John into the other room.

  
‘What’s that about?’ I asked

  
‘No idea hun, maybe it’s a guy thing, whatever. Hey we need to leave soon.’

  
‘I know its going to be weird without you guys here. Make sure John doesn’t do anything silly when you get back. If all goes as planned we’ll be at the new house in a new place soon.’

  
‘I will, don’t worry.’ I turned to check on Lily just as the boys came back in.

  
‘Everything ok?

  
‘Yea no worries, I just gave Mase the big brother talk.’ I stood with my mouth open before he grinned at me.

  
‘Just kidding, oh my god your face is a picture. What did you think we were talking about? I just needed to tell him something that’s all.’

  
‘Ok no worries.’ Mase walked over to me and put his arm around my waist

  
‘Stop over thinking everything baby, it’s just a guy thing,’ well that shut me up, I was not going to get any other information so rather than try I filed it away for another day.

   We left soon after making sure they had everything, it was a short trip to JFK airport. We said our goodbyes before they checked in, and with a promise to call when they were back safe, we turned to leave. Before we left the building a sudden flash of cameras lit up in front of us forcing Mason to lift Lily into his arms and push me forward toward the car, the sudden noise was deafening.

   ‘Mason, Mason are you leaving on a trip? Is this your girlfriend? Whose kid is that? What brings you out of hiding? Oh My God what the hell was happening, this sudden ambush had me reeling. We had spent so much time together with no issues I assumed the reporters didn’t really bother with him but I was obviously wrong, Mase unlocked the car and quickly buckled Lily into her seat, we jumped into the car and he quickly drove away.

  
‘I’m so sorry I had no idea that would happen, I should have thought ahead. They usually have reporters at the airports just in case, I don’t usually need to worry about it. I need to get in touch with my lawyers,’ he carried on babbling about what happened and apologising but it wasn’t his fault. It was probably a real coo for the photographers to get a picture of him seeming he never really goes out.

  
‘Mason, stop. That was not your fault, how the hell were you supposed to know. We’re fine, Lily’s fine. Is it going to cause a problem for you?’

  
‘What? Don’t be ridiculous my only concern is you and Lily. I will need to give them something or this may get worse and I don’t want your time here to be ruined by me.’

   
‘Babe, you can tell them whatever you need to but don’t worry about us. It just caught me off guard that’s all. I mean we’ve been all over the city with no issues so I just got comfortable that they just leave you alone,’ he didn’t say anything so I asked if he would like to come stay with us.

  
‘You want me to stay with you? I would love that but you don’t have to.’

  
‘I would love it, that way we could spend more time together.’

Mase agreed so we went back to his place to pick up his things and drove back to the hotel. We spent the afternoon just chilling with a movie. He received several calls from his lawyers regarding what happened and apparently it was going to be a bigger deal than we thought so Mase arranged to discuss it with his team, they wanted to make sure any stories written were accurate and not inflated with total shit, so he left for a while. I took the time to give Lily a bath and put her to bed.

When he returned I was lying in bed, he looked exhausted.

   ‘How did it go?’

  
‘It’s taken care of. I agreed to do some publicity and give an interview. We will need to confirm what you want me to say about you, and Lily of course. The press can turn things so easily I don’t want this to follow you home. I’m sorry again.’

  
‘Oh baby, it makes no odds to me. Nobody knows who we are, tell them the truth, just omit where we live, they will never know to follow us back to the UK. My only concern is how it will affect you.’

   
‘It won’t, they will be happy getting me on camera as it’s a rare thing. I need to let me family know so they don’t say anything but apart from that it’s taken care of.’ I smiled up at him and decided to change the subject.

  
‘We haven’t been alone for a while, want to take a bath with me?’

  
‘That sounds like heaven,’ so I walked into the bathroom and run the water, including some relaxing bath salts. He joined me in the bathroom and I locked the door, just in case Lily woke up. We slipped out of our clothes and into the warm bath. I melted into his arms as he pulled me into his chest. I sighed blissfully happy to just be with him, no pretence, no need for words, just us together. We lay together until the water started to cool, at which point I got out. I wrapped myself in a robe and opened a large towel out which he walked into. I folded it around him, and held on tight. Looking into his eyes I felt safe and warm, there were no words spoken as we walked out into the bedroom and curled up on the bed before falling asleep in each others arms.

   The next morning Mase was up early preparing for his interview while I got Lily ready for the day, we agreed that he would answer any questions as truthfully as possible without giving too much away. Mason was adamant that we remain unknowns for the most part so we could continue to enjoy our time here before we needed to head home to the UK.

  
‘Hey babe I’m off, I need to talk to my publicist before I go into the interview. I’ll text when I’m on my way home.’

  
‘Ok, don’t stress its going to be fine. We’re just going to the park so we shouldn’t be too long. How about we order a take away and watch a movie when you get back?’

  
‘Sounds great, love you.’

  
‘Love you too, see you later’ with a kiss to the cheek he was out the door. Lily and I left shortly after, everything seemed the same when we left the hotel so I didn’t give the interview a second thought. I didn’t see any photographers hanging about so we made our way to the park. We’d been there for about an hour before I got a text from Mase.

Babe

I
’m on my way back, where are you?

We’re at the park. Is everything ok?

No. I just got ambushed by the magazine. They asked a lot of questions about me, you, and Lily. It would seem they have more info than we anticipated. I’m sorry but I need to talk to you in person so wait for me ok. Love you xx

Ok. We’ll be here. Love you too xx

   I didn’t know what to think, my heart began to pound, what the hell. How could they have any information about us? While my mind began to race with possible implications I noticed a man walking toward Lily. I sprinted toward her and lifted her up just before this guy lifted a camera and started to take pictures of Lily, and then me.

  
‘What the hell are you doing? How dare you take pictures of us, especially my daughter? I’m calling the police.’

Before I had the chance to pull out my phone I noticed more people running toward us. Panicked I started to back away toward the exit of the park, the photographers began following me so I started to run, I tried to call the police but had trouble making a call while I was running with Lily in my arms. Lily hid her face in my jacket but I could hear her sobs and I knew she was terrified. Before I could get through the park gates I was bombarded with more flashes and questions being thrown my way. I had no idea what to do. I was scared shitless and had no way to get away. Before I knew what was happening I was surrounded by strong arms and pulled back toward his chest.

   ‘What the fuck do you all think your doing? You ambush my friend and her daughter, terrifying them both and don’t seem to give a shit. How dare you? You will be hearing from my lawyers. I tried to be civil about this but you clearly have no idea how to conduct yourselves.’

He then turned to me saying
’Girls, get in the car I’m taking you away from this circus.’

I had never seen Mason so upset and angry, I carried Lily to his car and hid her as best I could from view. The darkened windows helped. After about ten minutes Mase got into the car and quickly sped away. The anger radiated from him so I remained silent giving him the time he needed to process everything. When he finally spoke he seemed so upset.