Amber’s POV

    I froze, my blood going cold.

    I wasn’t ready yet for people to know the full truth, especially Alice, who was within earshot.

    Chase wasn’t going to let this go easily though, I could tell from the way he was looking at me with wide

    eyes, waiting for a response.

    While I didn’t want Chase to know the full truth, I knew I couldn’t t out lie either, not without hurting

    Alice, who would eventuallye to know who her real father was. For her sake, I had to find a way walk

    the line here between truth and lie, without leaning too far in either direction.

    “Alice wants Julian to be her father,” I said to him, and hoped that would be enough.

    “And I’d be happy to be so,” Julian said then, from across the table. I’d hoped he hadn’t been paying

    attention, but of course he had. He’d been watching Chase and me so closely. Also, with his amplified Alpha hearing, he didn’t miss much.

    Olivia didn’t take kindly to Julian’s words, casting him a long sideways nce. “How easily you rece

    the child we lost,i” /ishe said. “Here you are, trying to rece them with another.”

    “I will never forget them,” Julian said, but he lowered his gaze away from all of us. Leaning back in his

    chair, he seemed to iste himself for a moment, building up his internal walls to keep everyone out.

    I’d seen this before. So often in our past, he had built up those walls to keep me out. It was strange to see that happening again, here and now.

    “Our child deserved better,” Olivia said.

    “I will never forget themi,/ii” /iJulian said.

    I carefully watched the dynamics of the pair, how Olivia seemed to use the fate of their baby as a way to

    cow Julian, and how Julian seemed caught in her guilt maniptions.

    Because that was what this was. I could see it clearly. Julian clearly mourned the loss of their baby. Why did that mean he couldn’t also care for Alice? He could love two children at once, even if one was lost and the other living.

    That didn’t seem to satisfy Olivia though, who seemed convinced that Julian’s love for their lost baby was all or nothing.

    What a sad existence, to be trapped in so much grief….

    To see this situation unfold made me feel sympathy for Julian. At the same time, though, I could also see the distance pushing Olivia and him apart.

    They didn’t seem as close as they once had, before I left the pack. In fact, looking at them and their stilted bodynguage, it almost seemed like Julian was friendly to her only because he was beholden to her for

    some reason.

    Because of their lost child?

    I wasn’t sure. I didn’t have clear answers. Nor was I willing to ask about it.

    Yet, the strangeness between Julian and Olivia wasn’t the only dynamic at y here at this table.

    Curiously, Olivia seemingly kept shooting nces at Chase, who would nce away a momentter.

    Perhaps they knew each other from Julian’s pack, but, even so, for them to act like this, as if they were

    trading secret nces in a crowded room, made some suspicions rise up within me.

    …Did they know each other more than they were letting on?

    It wasn’t my ce to ask, though it did make me think twice about building a friendship with Chase. If he

    was friends with Olivia, then did he trulye here under honest pretenses?

    Or was I simply being paranoid? After all, Chase really did have a heart condition, one that I was actively

    working to cure.

    Maybe I was simply chasing shadows.

    Maybe I just really wanted this evening to end. Though we hadn’t even eaten yet.

    “Amber,” Chase began, and I braced myself for whatever he was about to say.