Chapter 99

Julian’s POV

Even the addition of the bear at the dinner table could not ruin the otherwise perfect evening that I spent with Alice and Amber.

We gorged ourselves on pizza, then watched a movie. On the couch, Amber and I sat on the ends with Alice between us. Halfway through, Alice started to doze, eventually falling asleep on my arm.

When she started snoring, Amber stopped. “We should get her to bed,” she whispered.

Having never tucked my daughter in before, I was thrilled to oblige and scooped her up into my arms, with her head resting against my shoulder. She so easily curled into me, her little hands gripping my shirt. My heart ached with how precious she was, my treasure sleeping soundly.

I followed Amber down the hallway to Alice’s room. While Amber moved to the wall to plug in the nightlight, I carried Alice to the bed. The bed was made, so it took some shuffling to get the covers drawn back, but once they were, I gently lowered Alice down.

Even with her legs kicked under the blankets, her back resting on the bed, and her head on the pillow, she didn’t want to let me go, her little fists still holding onto my shirt like her life depended on it.

Gently, I brushed my fingers through her hair. “Shh,” I told her. “It’s okay. Starting tomorrow, we’ll be on our trip, and you will see me every day.”

I didn’t know how asleep she was, if she was caught somewhere between dreaming and wakefulness, or if she was in full-sleep mode yet still somehow able to hear me. Regardless, my words seemed to reach her and she calmed.

With a sigh, she turned her face more fully into the pillow. At the same time, she released me, cradling the pillow instead.

With her eyes closed, she looked so peaceful, yet at the same time, so helpless. It was incredibly difficult to force myself back, to not sit beside her bed and keep watch in case the monsters tried to enter her dreams.

Her dad would protect her. She could depend on me.

I didn’t know if she knew that yet, and that broke me. Someday, she would see me as her champion.

But, today, Amber was waiting for me at the door. I had to trust the nightlight to keep the monsters away in my stead.

I touched Alice’s cheek. “Goodnight, princess,” I told her. Then I forced myself away and walked out of the room. Amber gently closed the door behind us, as we moved out into the hallway.

“We could finish the movie?” I asked her, somewhat hopeful, though I knew better than to get my hopes entirely raised.

I had a long way to go yet earning Amber’s trust. It was still too soon.

I could tell from her look alone, the way she was side-eyeing the door that she was trying to think of a way to get me to leave.

Not wanting to overstay my welcome, I quickly amended, “Actually, I better get a good night’s sleep before tomorrow and our trip. I’m not sure how well I’ll rest on the road.”

I could sleep anywhere, if I was tired enough. But this was the excuse I gave and she seemed relieved for having heard it.

She showed me to the door. I had to drag myself through it, not wanting to leave my family.

But I had to. I couldn’t argue with Amber to make her want to be my wife again. That kind of finesse needed a softer touch, and over the next few months, I would put the effort in. I would spend the time to romance her properly, showing her the attention and love I should have shown her from the beginning.

“Thank you for tonight,” I told her, once I was out on the porch.

“Thank you for visiting,” Amber replied. “You made Alice very happy.”

‘And you?” I asked.

She didn’t say no. Instead, she said, “Goodnight, Julian,” and closed the door.

I walked down the porch with a spring in my step, looking forward to tomorrow.

Amber’s POV

After Julian left, Anna came over to help me finish packing. Though once she was actually in my half of the duplex, we did little actual packing and more talking.

“I think Julian wants us to be a family,” I said.

Anna gave me a strange look. She always had mixed feelings about Julian, not liking the way he treated me in the past, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from this conversation.

She surprised me by asking, “That’s what you want too isn’t it?”

“I don’t know.” I shook my head. “It’s easy to say I want that, and it’s easy for Julian to promise we’ll be a family. But it’s so much harder for it to actually happen, especially with Olivia around.”

“She won’t be on the trip,” Anna pointed out.

I wasn’t so sure. Olivia always seemed to show up at the worst possible moments where Julian was, like she was tracking him or something.

But, even if she didn’t physically appear during the trip, the thought of her would still haunt us.

“While I do feel close to Julian, closer than I’d ever been, even when we were actually together…” When he kept me as his secret wife, tucked away. “With how much he feels he owes Olivia, I don’t think he would ever put me, or Alice, first.”

He might have thought he would. He might even make promises about how things would be different this time.

But I knew the truth.

If Olivia were to need him, he would feel obligated to go to her, regardless of whatever else was going on in his life.

When he already had commitments like that, I didn’t know if I could ever fully trust him.

I never wanted to feel like I was second again. And I wasn’t going to let Alice go through that either.

“Maybe, just see how things go,” Anna said. “Be open to it.”

I shook my head. “I already know how this ends.”

Chase’s POV

When Chase returned to his hotel room, Olivia was already waiting for him inside. He had no idea how she managed that. He certainly didn’t give her a key. She must have charmed someone at the front desk.

He really just wanted to get some sleep, tired of the moral uncertainty he was feeling, but Olivia’s presence denied him that, as did her words.

“Tell me everything that was said.”

So he did, and then he showed her the text messages. As she read through, her smile grew and grew.

“This is perfect,” she said.

“I’m just saying goodbye,” Chase said.

“No, Chase. You aren’t just doing that. Can’t you see the opportunity here? Goodbyes culminate in hugs. When you go in to hug Alice – oops! The clasp opens on her necklace and it falls to the ground. Julian gets a whiff of her true smell and realizes this isn’t his daughter. The entire trip is canceled.”

As she was talking, her eyes went a bit wild. She’d always been ruthless, that was nothing new, but this… manic sort of desperation made Chase feel incredibly uncomfortable.

Like this, she was unpredictable. And he knew that ruthlessness of hers could so easily turn against him, even if he did everything she asked.

His eyes turned to ice as she raised her glare to him. “You will not screw this up, Chase. Or you won’t like what happens next.”