Chapter 95

Chase’s POV

Chase didn’t believe that for a second. Alice’s necklace was gaudy, if anything, but magical? And being used by Amber to keep Julian in her life?

If that was true, why would Amber flee the pack to begin with? Why move out to this boring middle-of-nowhere town and live a quiet life? Why not go after Julian and his fortune while she was still within his pack?

Olivia was beyond the point of seeing reason. Her jealousy and the many years of waiting for Julian to become her had clouded her reason and made her vicious. As long as Chase had known her, she’d always been vindictive, always plotting and conniving, but never so impatiently, or so recklessly.

To go after the child in this situation was low, even for her.

What would she do when her plan to steal the necklace resulted in nothing? Would she then decide Alice needed to be out of the way permanently?

Chase knew he was a vile, greedy asshole for agreeing to go along with Olivia’s plans for this long. But even a lowlife as he considered himself to be had some lines. Hurting children was one of them, and he wouldn’t cross it.

“What power could a necklace possibly have?” he asked her. “How could Amber be using a necklace of all things to twist Julian into wanting to be with her?”

“I’m certain that the necklace is helping Alice generate a scent that Julian detects as belonging to his pup,” Olivia said.

Chase didn’t know such a thing existed. That Olivia had come to that conclusion so readily made him wonder if that was something she herself looked into once upon a time.

He decided not to pry further into that line of thinking, honestly not wanting the answer.

With Olivia though, he already knew it was likely she had. Perhaps that was why she was so quick to assume the worst of Amber. She was merely projecting onto Amber the things that she herself would do in the same situation.

“If we remove the necklace, then the false scent should dissipate, and Julian will see once and for all that the child isn’t his,” Olivia said.

“But what if Alice is his,” Chase said again.

She continued to refuse to accept that as a possibility. “It’s just not possible,” Olivia said. “Any unborn baby would have died in that plane crash, whether Alice manifested her wolf or no. Most likely she became Roman’s lover shortly after he saved her, to help secure a place for herself in his pack.”

Chase tried to imagine Amber doing such a thing. He didn’t know her terribly well but what he did know told of a proud woman who was protective of herself and her child. Chase truly couldn’t imagine her becoming anyone’s lover either on a whim or for a selfish purpose.

She wouldn’t even sleep with him for fun.

“But –” I started to say.

Olivia clucked her tongue, silencing me. “I won’t hear anything more about this. If the necklace isn’t disguising that brat’s scent, then it has no real purpose, does it? So removing it should not be a big deal for you, Chase. It shouldn’t cross any of your precious moral lines.”

Chase wasn’t so sure.

If that necklace was magical – which Chase could admit was a possibility, as both Amber and Alice were so protective of it – then who was to say what its actual purpose was?

Would removing it really be so easy and innocent? Would it truly not harm Alice to do so?

As if she could see the conflict on his face, Olivia spoke up, “You have no choices here, Chase. You will do as I say. Unless, of course, you’d like all of high society to know you are broke. And then there’s those medical bills…”

How long was she going to lord money over him?

Until she no longer needed him, he suspected.

Knowing he didn’t have any other choice, he sighed a bit in defeat and said, “I assume you have a plan.”

She replied with a vicious grin. “I have several.”

Amber’s POV

Eventually I took Alice back home. She seemed happier then, and promised to talk to me rather than running away again.

Still, even after I tucked her in bed, I couldn’t find any sleep myself. I kept having to check her room, worried each time I opened the door that she might be gone again.

After a long, restless night, I readied myself for work. I could only truly relax when I dropped Alice off at school, knowing her teachers and the school employees would be keeping an eye on her. Yet now was no time for sleep.

I had plenty of appointments today. As the only healer in this town, I couldn’t just call out.

When I walked into the clinic, Carla, for the first time ever since I’d known her, gave me something of a dark look.

“Good morning, Carla,” I said.

“Yeah,” she replied.

Weird.

But I pressed on. The rest of the staff was friendlier, but each of them seemed to gossip and whisper behind my back. They all fell quiet as I turned toward them though, looking for explanation. Before I could ask, they scurried off in different directions.

By the time I walked into the office I shared with Anna, I was both exhausted and confused, entirely at my wit’s end.

“What’s going on around here?” I asked. If the employees wouldn’t talk to me, perhaps they would to Anna instead.

“I was hoping you wouldn’t notice.”

“I noticed,” I said.

Anna huffed a breath. “Everyone thinks you and Chase are an item. I’ve tried to set them straight, but it’s the talk of the office.”

“That’s why Carla’s mad at me?”

“I’m afraid so,” Anna said. “I’ve never seen her so gloomy. I think she actually likes that guy.”

“She can do better than him,” I said. Though, thinking back, Carla never had much luck in love. “He’s a playboy. She deserves someone more stable.”

Anna hummed.

Just then, there was a knock on the door to the office. I looked up, bracing myself for whatever the day might have in store for me this time.

I was relieved to see it was only Julian standing there.

“Julian? You are early,” I said. Typically he didn’t come in to volunteer until mid-morning.

“I know,” he said. “That’s because I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Should I leave?” Anna asked.

“No,” Julian said. “It’s nothing like that.”

I waved him forward and he came into the office.

He continued, “I was just hoping that we could start planning our project again. Alice is almost done with school for the summer, and I thought it might be a good time for all three of us to go and help people… and maybe bond some…”

His voice trailed. Likely he meant, bond as a father and daughter. I couldn’t imagine he meant to include me in the mix, but… then again, he had said things about wanting to be a family.

Would it truly be so bad to go and help people and see how things developed for our small trio?

Anna gave me an expectant look. Julian was looking more like he was wearing his heart on his sleeve, asking for something more than just if we were going on the trip we already agreed to.

Yet, just as I was opening my mouth to give him an answer, Carla appeared beside him at the door.

“Healer Amber,” she said dryly. “Chase is here for his morning appointment.”