Chapter 83

Amber’s POV

Alice tugged insistently on my hand. Knowing she would run straight to Julian, I finally let her go.

Despite all the problems Julian and I might have been facing, I couldn’t keep Alice from her father, especially not when she was so happy and excited to see him here.

To diminish my daughter’s joy would cause me great pain. I could only hope Julian felt the same. Though he seemed to, smiling as brightly at Alice as she was smiling at him.

Once I released her hand, she darted forward, rushing to Julian as I expected. Only, before she could reach, Olivia stepped in the way, she bent over, so that she was more on Alice’s level, though she still towered over her somewhat.

Alice stopped in her tracks. I started forward, slowing when I realized Olivia was only introducing herself.

“Hello,” Olivia said. “I’m Julian’s friend, Olivia.”

If Olivia was only being polite, I didn’t want to pull Alice away too quickly and teach her that it was okay to be rude. Alice, not knowing Olivia, wouldn’t understand the reason for my rudeness.

“I’m Alice.”

Olivia smiled. Though I was certain she was trying for kind, the smile had a bit of an edge.

I wasn’t sure how Alice would react to Olivia. Not being able to see my daughter’s face as she was turned away from me, I still couldn’t be sure.

“Alice,” Olivia said. “That’s a pretty name for a pretty little girl.”

Alice paused a moment. Then she said bluntly, “You have lipstick on your teeth.”

Olivia immediately straightened and covered her mouth with her hand. When she lowered it again, her smile had vanished and her brow was pulling together in clear annoyance.

“Well, your hair is full of knots,” Olivia countered.

Close enough now, I placed my hands on Alice’s shoulders and eased her back.

At the same time, Julian over around Olivia to her side. “That’s enough. She’s only a child.”

Olivia made a “humph” sound, her glare still on my child. “Someone needs to teach that child some manners. Her mother certainly hasn’t.”

“Don’t talk about my mom!” Alice shouted.

“Olivia,” Julian said, more firmly. “That’s enough.”

His more forceful tone of voice seemed to snap Olivia out of whatever vindictive mood she was feeling for Alice. Her annoyance was gone in a flash, and in its place, she began to pout as she looked at Julian with her most pathetic doe eyes.

“I was only teasing,” she said.

I didn’t believe her for a moment, but whether Julian did or not, I couldn’t be sure.

Alice looked up at me and then over at Julian. “Daddy?”

Olivia smartly positioned herself away, picking up a nearby conversation with Carla and one of the nurses. Before she turned away though, she made sure to spare a second to glare at me.

Though I only stared back, the feelings of dislike were mutual.

I still didn’t know what she was doing here. Did Julian invite her? But who invited him?

This evening had only begun and already it felt like a disaster. I couldn’t just walk out though, not with all my employees here. It was my name on the door to the clinic. How would it look if I abandoned everyone who worked for me, when we were supposed to be celebrating?

Julian knelt down and opened his arms. Alice tugged away from me once more and flew into Julian’s arms, and he hugged her tightly.

“I missed you,” Alice said, and my heart broke a little. If she missed him after only a couple of days, what would it be like when he had left us for good?

“I missed you, too,” Julian told her. I had known Julian a long time. He could be difficult to read at the best of times, but in this case, I swore he sounded so sincere that my heart broke twice.

When they pulled away, Anna distracted Alice by pointing out the nearby arcade games. Alice immediately wanted to try the claw machine. After giving me a knowing look, Anna went with Alice to try her luck, leaving me with Julian.

Immediately, I wished that I had gone to play the claw game, because the first thing Julian said when Alice was out of earshot was, “About the other night…”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said.

“If you’d let me apologize –”

“What are you even doing here?” I asked.

He straightened a little at my sudden change of subject, but answered, “Carla invited me this morning… before I left the clinic. She said I was part of the staff and should come.”

In my mind, I cursed. I couldn’t be angry at Carla. Without knowing the full context of Julian and my history, she couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t want Julian here. To her, he was a generous Alpha who had given up so much of his precious time for the good cause of helping to heal sick people.

To her, he might as well have been a saint. At the very least, he was someone who worked at the clinic.

She hadn’t been wrong to include him for this celebration, but it still hurt having him here, especially after what happened last night – much of which I still didn’t remember. And what I did remember made my cheeks burn in embarrassment.

I pushed away all of those thoughts for now by instead motioning toward Olivia. “And who invited her?”

Julian clenched his jaw. He didn’t look pleased at all as he too glanced at Olivia, still in light conversation with Carla and a few others who now joined them.

“No one,” Julian said.

“Then why is she here?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Julian said.

“Amber!” Chase called as he stepped closer, firmly implanting himself between Julian and me. “How good to see you. And what a surprise to find so many others have joined the celebration tonight…”

My brow pulled together. “Didn’t we agree everyone should come?”

He sighed, though he smiled as he did so, so I knew there was no hard feelings. “We did, yes. I might have thought that you… Well, it hardly matters now, does it? I’m very much looking forward to spending time with everyone tonight. Tell me, was that your daughter who was here just now?”

“Yes, that’s Alice,” I said, realizing now that Chase had never met her. “Would you like to meet her?”

“I’d love to,” Chase said.

“That’s not a good idea,” Julian tried to say, but I was firmly done talking with him at the moment. Instead, I waved Chase over and together we walked toward the claw machine. Julian watched our every move, though did not follow us.

We arrived at the machine just in time to watch a stuffed animal slip from the metal claw back down to the pile of other plush animals.

“You almost had it!” Alice said with encouragement.

Anna, at the controls of the machine, just shook her head. “Sorry, Alice.”

“Perhaps I could try?” Chase asked.

Anna and Alice both turned to look at us.

“Alice,” I said. “This is Chase. The one who is treating us tonight. Chase, this is Alice.”

Chase held out his hand to shake Alice’s. Alice seemed confused as the rest of us for a moment. Usually people didn’t treat children like adults.

It made me wonder if Chase had ever really been around children before…

Still, Alice seemed somewhat charmed by it and shook Chase’s hand.

“Nice to meet you, Alice,” Chase said.

“Nice to meet you…” Alice repeated somewhat awkwardly.

Then Chase turned toward the machine and said, “Now, let’s see about winning you one of these bears…”

A few moments and far too much money later – enough that Chase could have just bought her a far nicer bear at the store for less – Chase finally pulled a plush animal from the machine and handed it to Alice.

He looked relieved.

Alice held it closely to her chest, both arms wrapped around it. “Thank you!”

Chase smiled. “Happy to.”

“Party of fourteen! Your table is ready,” the hostess called.

We all followed the hostess in a long train, to where they had pulled several of the dining room tables into a long row. People scurried for seats.

When the dust settled, Alice sat between Anna and me, but there was an open seat on the other side of me and one across the table beside Olivia.

Two hands fell on the chair beside mine.

One belonged to Chase, and the other to Julian.

They glared at each other.