Chapter 165

Amber’s POV

I wasn’t angry at Julian, but I didn’t really know how to handle the news. As I had been kept a secret for most of our marriage, I hadn’t really thought that his family thought about me at all. Now, I was slowly coming to realize that they knew who I was but still hated me.

They resented me for taking Julian away from Olivia. They couldn’t see Olivia for the person that she truly was, and now that they had finally come around to that, they still didn’t like me.

What happened with Alice…

I couldn’t let her be in that kind of situation again, which was a shame, as she truly seemed to be bonding with the woman who Julian told me was Aunt Kathy.

Alice didn’t have enough family in her life. I would have liked for her to know and love Aunt Kathy and to be known and loved in return.

Julian and I sat at the kitchen table for a long time, not saying anything, not really moving except to breath.

After several long minutes – I wasn’t able to discern time for a while – Julian received a text message. He checked it then sighed. It had to be from a member of his family.

“They are letting people in to see Mom again but she’s unconscious,” he said.

“She’s stable,” I assured. “She’ll be okay.”

He nodded and typed something back.

As I watched him, I knew his heart was divided. He wanted to be here, but needed to be there too. This was his mother we were talking about, not some distant relation.

“You should be there,” I said. “You can go. Alice and I will be alright.”

He looked up immediately. “My place is here.”

“They are your family,” I said.

“You and Alice are my family, too.” He spoke with such conviction that it seemed to definitely close the end the conversation. “Alice was frightened. She needs her dad. I’m going to be here when she wakes up.”

She had been frightened, worse than she had been in a while. Julian’s closeness would help with that, but I didn’t want him to think this was going to be a short recovery process. She wasn’t going to just bounce back into the person she usually was.

Coaxing Alice into forgiving herself was going to take a great deal of work.

“When she wakes up, she won’t want us around,” I said. “She’s going to try to push us away.”

“All the more reason for me to be here,” Julian replied. “So I can convince her that I’m not going anywhere and that I don’t blame her for anything.” He huffed a breath. “Tony is such an ass. I can’t believe he spoke to a child that way, even one who clawed him.”

“He might have been surprised,” I said, but I didn’t fully believe it. He shouldn’t have talked to Alice like that, and I would hold it against him for as long as I would know him. No one hurt my daughter and easily earned my forgiveness.

An apology would be a good place to start, but if he was as big of an ass as Julian said, then I wouldn’t come to expect that.

We continued to sit in silence for a while, with Julian scrolling through his phone and me staring into the cold coffee. He offered to refresh it for me, but as I wasn’t really drinking it, I didn’t see the need.

After a while, I heard Alice’s soft voice from the top of the stairs. “Mommy? Daddy?”

Julian and I were on our feet in an instant and moving toward the stairs. We went up them two at a time, eager to see and comfort our daughter. Yet, as we came closer, she turned and rushed to her room.

We followed her, but with every one of our steps forward, she seemed to shrink further and further back. We stopped just inside of her room, with Alice pushed up into a corner of her bed.

Just like that, my heart broke all over again.

Julian tensed like he wanted to step forward, but this time, I touched his arm, holding him back.

“We are here for you, Alice,” I said. “Whatever you need.”

“Can you make my wolf go away?” she asked.

Gods, for all my accolades, I was a failure as a Healer because I couldn’t cure my own daughter. For too long, I’d been too complacent in this, trusting in the necklace rather than doggedly searching out a true, permanent solution to this problem.

No more.

I still intended to help Julian’s mom, but my first priority should have been my daughter. Now, I would task myself with curing both people.

“I will fix this,” I vowed to Alice. “I swear to you.”

“And I’ll help her,” Julian said.

I looked at him, surprised. He gave me a warm kind of smile that sparked a fire in me. Since Alice hurt Tony, I’d been trapped in an icicle of my own design, my shock keeping me numb and cold. Now, with that smile, I felt my body thaw and come to life again.

Julian gave me a sad sort of smile. “I am your assistant, after all.”

The smile didn’t last, disappearing back into worry, but it had been nice to see.

“Yes,” I said. “We’ll do it together.”

When we looked back at Alice, she was still frightened, but this time there was also hope in her eyes.

Julian’s POV

I returned downstairs to see about making us some lunch while Amber stayed with Alice. She was too frightened to be left alone, nor did she want to leave her room.

I wasn’t the world’s best cook, but I was sure I could whip up something edible. Yet, as I was in the kitchen, the refrigerator door opened, the doorbell rang.

Right now, I had minimal staff working at the estate, so I went to answer the door myself. I didn’t look when I opened it, so I was surprised when I found some of my family standing there.

Particularly, it was Aunt Kathy, Penny, and most surprising of all, Tony. Tony was wearing a different shirt with short sleeves. With a quick glance, I could see that his wounds had totally healed up.

Aunt Kathy smiled. “Hello, Julian. I hope we aren’t intruding.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“We’re worried about Alice,” Penny said. “We wanted to come see how she is.”

From Aunt Kathy and Penny, I could accept that answer and was grateful for it, as it meant that there was at least some of my family who weren’t against me, Amber, and Alice.

That didn’t explain Tony’s presence though.

Looking past my cousin and aunt, I focused on him. “And you?”

“I’m sorry for acting how I did,” Tony said. “I’ve been reading up on Alice’s condition, and with that education comes shame. She’s been suffering and I’ve been an ass about it.”

Tony’s POV

Julian didn’t fully believe me. I could tell that just by looking at him, but then I hadn’t really expected him to. I didn’t need him to believe me. I just needed him to let me in the door.

Then, as per the plan I had worked out with Olivia, I would leave the listening device that was presently in my pocket in the living room or kitchen – somewhere where juicy conversation was sure to happen.

And from that conversation, Olivia and I could splice together Julian’s own words into something incriminating.

Then, my dear cousin would be shamed and eventually usurped. As he didn’t spend much time in the pack anyway, it wouldn’t be difficult to turn people against him.

Then the pack would need a new Alpha. Someone handsome, charismatic, and ambitious.

Someone exactly like me.