Chapter b68 /b

    Julian’s POV

    +15 bBONUS /b

    I was sitting in the office when Beta burst in to tell me about Olivia’s interview. After watching the clip, I sighed, pushed away my half–finished coffee and bagel, and stood.

    “Alpha?” Beta asked.

    “Get the car,” I told him. “I need to go see Olivia right away

    When I arrived at Olivia’s house, the maid let me in, then asked me to wait in the front sitting room. I paced impatiently, waiting ten full minutes before Olivia decided o grace me with her presence.

    “Sorry for the wait,” she said. “The maid woke me, and I rushed down as soon as possible.”

    That exined her state of dress. She was in a nightgown with acy low–cut bodice. Though she was wearing a housecoat, it was open at the front, allowing her cleavage to remain on full disy. Her hair was in loose waves down around her shoulders.

    I’d seen bedhead on women before. This was not it. These locks were feathered to perfection.

    And her makeup. I highly doubted she only spent ten minutes hiding her pores with foundation, and applying deep purple eyeshadow. And then there were the fake eyshes.

    But, fine. If she wanted to pretend like she woke up like this, I wouldn’t call her out on it. Though it was incredibly annoying to be made to wait for her trivialities, I had bigger issues with her this morning than my wasted time.

    She seemed utterly indifferent to my annoyance. As she walked closer to me, she seemed to jut out her chest more, like she expected me to look my fill.

    She’d tried to seduce me many times over the course of our knowing each other. Though since finding Amber the first time, I’d never felt any temptation toward Olivia, this attempt of hers still felt like theziest.

    I was done wasting time.

    “I saw your interview with the press regarding Elder Jeffers,” I said, getting straight to the point.

    Immediately she seemed to realize the true nature of my visit. Her entire posture seemed to sink. Closing her housecoat over herself, she scoffed as she walked toward one of the couches and sat down.

    “Then you understand my feelings on the matter,” she said

    “I know you dislike Amber, but there is no reason to go after her like this.”

    Olivia rolled her eyes. “Ken Jeffers is the one going after her.”

    “You are putting your support behind Ken,” I told her. “And you had your own disparaging remarks to make about Amber yourself.”

    “I’m only calling it like I see it.”

    “Then you should stay out of it,” I said firmly. “You aren’t my wife, but our closeness does give your words weight. In speaking to the press like that, you have opened many doors of harassment toward Amber.”

    “She’s a famous Healer. I’m sure she’s faced criticism before.”

    She wasn’t listening to me and it was utterly infuriating. She got like this sometimes, when I pushed back against

    her getting her way.

    “It isn’t about what she is ustomed to that concerns me I said. “You will not contribute to this campaign against her.”

    “I am a woman bof /bmy own mind.”

    “You will stay out of Amber’s affairs,” I said more forcefully. I towered over her, standing as she stood.

    She wasn’t intimidated though, looking up at me with irritation in her eyes.

    “You are always so quick to defend your ex,” she said. “Where were you when I needed defending? When I was driving to see you and had that car ident that lost our baby? Where were you for me then?”

    A familiar sense bof /bguilt churned up from my stomach. I knew what she was doing, manipting me with the death bof /bour unborn child, yet I was powerless to stop the guilt or the dread or the pain of the memory and the weight it added to my life since the moment it happened.

    Because of that terrible night, because of the loss of our child, I was permanently indebted to Olivia.

    She yed on that feeling of responsibility for years, bringing it forward every time we were having an argument.

    I hated how helpless I was against it, yet even so, it still worked every time.

    I was responsible. I should have been there. We should have a child right now, not just a memory.

    In one final attempt, I tried to bring us back on course.

    “Just stay away from Amber, Olivia. Stay out of this. None of this has anything to do with you and by involving yourself you are only making things worse.

    She huffed a soft breath. “I’ll think about it.”

    I already knew that meant no.

    Amber’s POV

    Day drinking was probably not a great solution to any problem, especially one like this that involved guilt and life and death, yet here I was, sitting in my kitchen in the middle of the day, splitting a few bottles of wine with Anne and Noah.

    They both had the day off too. At least that was what they said. I wasn’t certain if they hadn’t just called out. I supposed it didn’t matter. They knew what they were doing and now we were all together in my kitchen, getting tipsy on wine.

    “I know I did the right thing, honoring the patient’s request,” I said. This got easier to talk about, the more sses of wine I had. “But that doesn’t make it easier. They act like I’m some unfeeling statue, able to make these decisions and see these wishes carried out without any thoughts of my own. I feel things… I feel things too much sometimes.”

    “I know you do,” Anna said.

    “No one thinks you are a statue,” Noah said.

    “Ken Jeffers does,” I said. “He thinks I didn’t care about his father at all, and that I just went through some kind bof /bchecklist for basic care.”

    “We made that whole potion just to make it easier for him to wake up,” Noah said.

    “I don’t need credit. I don’t even need anyone to be nice to me. They can be mad at me if they want,” I said. “But

    to ibe /iused of not caring of neglecting my patients… of letting him die just because that was more convenient to the personally…”

    I shook my head wildly. Somehow I also shake my ss and I spill a few some over the side and onto the floor. “Oh, shoot.” I said and ce my ss down. Standing, I go to the sink to grab a towel. There, above the sink, was a window that showed the frontwn and the road beside. As I was looking, I could have sworn I saw Julian’s car parked there on the street.

    Laughing once, out of pity for myself, I turned away from the window and took the towel to clean up the spill. “What’s so funny?” Anna asked as she moved to help me.

    “I thought I saw Julian,” I admitted. “I swear, he must always live in my brain.”

    Anna gave me a knowing look but didn’t call me out on anything. Noah just refilled all of our sses at the table.

    Just then, my phone rang.

    For some foolish reason, my heart leapt into my throat and thought it might be Julian calling.

    Hurrying to stand, I reached for my phone.

    My heart fell when I saw the name on the screen.

    Roman.