Mira leaned in toward Jack. "I don't care who your father was! You were the one I fell for. Your parentage means less than nothing to me. What does matter is that you didn't see fit to tell me about it. You didn't trust me enough to reveal that very pertinent bit of information.”

They stared at each other for a long moment.

"I care about you," she whispered, feeling her eyes well up with tears. She blinked them back. No way was she going to let him see her cry. "But I went through this with Ben, and I can't do it again.”

She picked up the coffeepot and walked away. When she turned back, Jack was gone. He'd left his coffee untouched.

She opened the front door of her apartment and tried to turn on the light in the hallway, but the switch flipped on and off, dead.

"Great," she groused, pushing her way through the door with heavy plastic grocery bags hanging from her arms and cutting off her circulation. She slammed the door closed with her foot.

Thomas had sent her a check to pay her bills and rent. She'd mailed her payments yesterday, but that hadn't stopped the electricity company from declaring her late and shutting off her power, apparently.

It was cold in the apartment, too.

"Double great," she muttered.

After tripping and knocking her knee against the kitchen chair and cursing a blue streak, she managed to deposit her bags on the counter. She fished out a few emergency candles from her junk drawer and lit one. By that guttering light, she proceeded to find and light more. Soon her apartment was light enough for her to function without bruising herself.

By candle glow, she put the groceries away. Ripping into a bag of sugar cookies, she snatched one and sank onto her kitchen chair with her coat still on. Munching the cookie, she stared at the flickering flame of the candle on her small table.

Why did he have to come and see her today? She'd been doing fine—okay, she'd been pretending like she'd been doing fine—until he showed up.

She sighed. He probably hadn't told her about being Crane's son because he was ashamed, or because he thought she'd hate him for it. Maybe she'd been too hard on him? Plus, Thomas had said he'd been under orders not to tell her.

Just like Annie had been under instructions from her parents not to tell her about her magick. She'd forgiven Annie, so why not Jack?

The gooshy, hopelessly in-love part of her wanted to use those reasons to forgive Jack for his deception ... but she just couldn't let Jack off the hook so easily. Deliberate deceit hit her in a very tender spot. Loving him as much as she did only made it hurt that much worse.