Chapter 61

Amber’s POV

Olivia was likely here to see Julian, so hoping to avoid her, I looked around for my morning appointment, to get that patient to the back before Olivia could see me. Unfortunately, Olivia was the only one in the office at the moment.

This gave me a sinking feeling, like a dark intuition, I could almost predict what was about to happen…

“Oh, Healer!” Olivia said. Spotting me, she stood and walked over. “Thank you so much for accepting my appointment at the last minute.”

I glanced at Carla who gave me a thumbs up.

Yes, I did take last minute appointments for people in need, but I’d left Olivia in the hands of Healer Eric and others from the Thorn pack. With her infertility cured, those doctors should have been able to look after all of her needs without issue.

Her appearance here felt like a trap, but since I didn’t know what she wanted, I didn’t see anyway of not walking right into it.

“What’s the problem?” I asked her, with us both still out in the waiting room.

Olivia lifted a brow. “Isn’t that something we should discuss privately? I doubt you make your other patients discuss their personal health issues right here in the lobby.”

She was right. Even Carla was starting to look at me strangely.

“Very well,” I said. Turning, I led Olivia into the examination room that I had intended to use for my first patient of the day. That patient, I guessed, was Olivia.

I held the door, waiting for her to enter as I always did with patients. Once she was inside, I closed the door to give us the privacy she insisted upon.

Looking at her, I didn’t detect any discomfort. She was standing confidently, with her hand on her hip and her head held high. With a smirk on her lips, she didn’t appear to be in any kind of pain.

“Have you had some reaction to the fertility treatment?” I asked her. I was grasping at straws, trying to guess her issue. I didn’t want her to be unwell, but I was hoping she had some actual medical issue for coming to see me, and not what I suspected, that she was here to stir up trouble.

I already had plenty of that all on my own without her help.

“No, nothing like that,” she said. “In fact, your treatments worked like a dream.” Delicately, she placed her hand over her stomach, which was flat as a board. “I’m carrying Julian’s child. Soon, we’ll have a baby all our own. Isn’t it wonderful?”

Of course she was. Of course Julian would want a child with Olivia, his fated mate, as soon as possible.

Yet… if she was pregnant, what was he doing here? Committing to a three month project to travel to different packs with Alice and me. Shouldn’t he be at home taking care of Olivia?

Inside, my heart seemed to shrivel and my wolf whimpered in pain.

I thought of Julian, Alice, and me sitting around that table at the ice cream place, and how we could have been a happy little family.

Who was I kidding? Julian was never going to be a part of my family. In fact, he probably wanted to take Alice back to the pack so she could be raised by Olivia.

The thought made me so angry that I very nearly started to shake. It was only by my strong will that I kept from showing my fury on my face. I’d handled difficult patients before. I knew how to wear the mask of indifference even as my emotions raged just beneath the surface.

“You surely didn’t come all this way just to tell me that,” I said, though knowing Olivia and how much she seemed to dislike me, maybe she would travel this far just to see the look on my face when she told me. I kept my features schooled, hoping to deny her the satisfaction.

Olivia’s face fell. “He came here for something. I don’t know what, but he lied to me about where he was going and what he was doing. I wasn’t surprised to discover that he came to you, though I am disappointed that you didn’t immediately send him on his way. I would have thought you didn’t want to be the other woman anymore.”

Anymore, she said, like she hadn’t broken up with Julian for a time, in which he married me. Like he and I weren’t still married.

But what could I say to her to defend myself here? The only option, the truth, was that Julian hadn’t come for me but for Alice, our daughter. To admit to Olivia that her child would have competition to be the heir of the pack felt like opening a door of danger.

This was just one more reason that Alice shouldn’t return home. Julian should just focus on his and Olivia’s child, make her the heir. Keep Alice out of it.

“You will send him away, won’t you? Now that you know I’m pregnant,” Olivia said. Her face shifted then, losing its cockiness to take on a more pleading façade. I had no idea if it was real, but I knew she could play pretend very well if she wanted to. I couldn’t trust her.

“I don’t want him here,” I said, though the words felt like lies on my tongue. “It would be better if he returned home.”

“Then you’ll send him away?” Olivia asked.

“It’s not that easy,” I said. Though I didn’t want to tell her the specifics, I couldn’t just pretend he would actually listen to me if I told him to leave. “You know how stubborn he is.”

She frowned. “Yes. Unfortunately, I do indeed.”

“He won’t listen to me.”

“Is he here?” she asked.

He was, just in the other room, taking appointments and making phone calls as a dutiful assistant.

She must have seen the answer on my face. “Take me to him.”

“I’d prefer you have your arguments somewhere else,” I said.

“You want him out of your hair? Take me to him,” she said again, more firmly.

I debated just asking her to leave the clinic. I was under no obligation to take her to Julian.

Yet, now that I knew the full truth of the dangers Alice would face if she were to return to Thorn pack, I felt a kind of panic rising up within me.

I hadn’t wanted her in that environment to begin with, but believing now that she would live in constant fear of Olivia and her child, and have to compete for everything, it made me even more dedicated to protecting her from that fate.

So, for Alice’s sake, I nodded and led Olivia to the office where Julian was working.

When I opened the door, he looked at me with a smile. “Amber. You’ll be pleased to know that I finished filing those…” His voice trailed as he saw who was darkening the doorway behind me. “Olivia. What are you doing here?”

“Don’t you mean to ask, how did I find you?” she said.

“I’ll leave you two to talk,” I said, and started backing out of the office, allowing Olivia to step forward into my place.

“Amber, wait,” Julian said, standing from his desk chair.

Olivia immediately stepped into his way. “How could you do this to me, Julian? To us?”

I didn’t want to hear anymore, so I closed the door.

I only walked two feet down the hallway before I felt my knees go weak. I stopped, leaned against the wall, and closed my eyes.

I wanted Julian out of Alice and my lives, but not like this…