Chapter 72

Sienna’s POV

I was pregnant.

Those words had been on repeat since I’d first looked at the test a few days ago. I’d taken another in the hopes that the first had been wrong, but…the second was positive, too.

Pregnant with Asher’s child, I whispered, fear locking itself around my bones, freezing me in place. I had no idea how I was going to tell him this.

I’d sent Simon out on a mad hunt for Asher, but he said he couldn’t find him anywhere at all. He’d completely evaporated, a ghost in the wind.

Now I wasn’t sure if he’d ever be back. Had he really said goodbye? It’d been two days since he’d said he was going to be ‘away’…whatever that meant.

His mystery and secrets were expected. That’s just who he was, a part of him I’d come to accept.

But what was he so desperately hiding?

I peered out the front window, the silence in the house becoming haunting. Of course the six months would come to an end — that was something I’d always known, and been okay with.

Except now, I was starting to realize it wasn’t okay. It had never been okay.

My breath caught in my throat when I saw Asher walking up towards the house, my stomach sinking to the earth’s core when I realized Mia was next to him. He was shaking his head, murmuring something to her, his brows furrowed.

Oh, I thought, my entire mood souring in an instant. Of course he was with Mia.

There’s a knock at the front door, and I’m surprised Asher didn’t just walk in. Had he really just…left like that? Alpha house was already no longer his own?

I opened the door, my expression empty as I met Mia’s bright eyes and Asher’s calm, collected ones. “Hello.”

“Sienna,” Asher smiled, though it was more detached than it had ever been. “I didn’t want to intrude.”

“Have you heard the news?” Mia asked with wide eyes, already knowing that I clearly hadn’t. Asher glanced to her, a nervous look flashing through his eyes.

What is he hiding?

“Um, no,” I said, my hand starting to sweat as I gripped the door so tightly my knuckles went white.

Mia pushed her way past me, just inviting herself in, when I’d planned to keep them both out on the porch as long as possible.

“Alaric is back,” she said with twinkling in her eye, her lips curving up into a smirk. I didn’t like that look on her.

Her words struck me exactly as she’d intended them to. Hard.

“What?” I managed to choke out, not sure I heard her correctly. There was absolutely no way, not in any universe, that she’d said Alaric was back.

“Today, at the memorial,” Mia beamed, stars in her eyes. She glanced to Asher, who was looking anywhere but at her.

I didn’t know what to say, couldn’t quite formulate the words. “Um, I — ”

“Speechless, right? Coming back like that after ten years is insane!” Mia was mostly talking to herself at this point, because I sure had nothing to say.

“Why are you here?” I directed the question to Asher, already annoyed with Mia.

Why are you here with her? That’s what I really wanted to ask.

“I thought you should know.” It sounded like Asher was forcing out the words as if they were tar. “Considering the way you feel about him.”

“Right,” I said, my words coated with bitterness. “Sure, I’d like to go down there and confront him, but what’s the point?”

“To get answers,” Asher responded, his eyes holding mine. “To everything.”

It seemed like he was saying something else with those words, but I couldn’t put my finger on what. The mystery he exuded was reminding me of Archimedes and his damned mask.

These men and their secrets.

“Well, thank you for telling me.” Part of me wanted to sprint down there right now, though I didn’t want Asher to know that. That was something I would do alone.

“You absolutely should confront him,” Mia grinned, and I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that she was holding something over my head that I didn’t know about.

Something I’d want to know about.

“What business of it is yours?” I mumbled, the awkwardness of the situation settling on my shoulders. I wanted them both out.

Alaric is back, Alaric is back, Alaric is back…

I couldn’t stop thinking those three words. This changed everything, and it meant I could finally — maybe — get some answers.

“Thank you for coming by, but I have some things to attend to.” My eyes landed on Asher, and my eye twitched. I didn’t like the way this was ending.

“I also wanted to tell you again that I’m going to be away for a little while.” Asher gave me that sad look, the one that screamed he had more to say but couldn’t say it.

“I know.” All I could give him was a quick nod of acknowledgement, because if I looked at him too long, I might break. “I assumed our contract was over.”

“Not officially,” he said gently, and I heard the invisible but that he stopped himself from saying.

“But it’s coming,” I said for him anyway, watching as he nodded and averted his eyes to the floor. Maybe this was hard for him too.

I’d like to think it was. That maybe, somewhere in there, he had the same feelings for me, only we both knew somehow that it couldn’t work.

It’s not that it can’t work, a voice in me countered. It’s that you’re scared of how good it could be if it did.

It was hard for me to admit the truth, but there it was. Asher was slipping out of my hands, soon to disappear back to his own life — wherever that was — and forget I’d ever been his temporary wife.

I’d never forget him as my husband though. Not ever.

“Face up to him,” Asher encouraged me, his voice low, for only my ears. “You know you need to.”

He headed for the door, Mia in tow. She stayed close to him, leaving us no time to ourselves, not even for a single whisper.

She does that on purpose.

“Take care. I’ll be in touch, okay?” Asher hesitated at the door as Mia lingered in the frame, waiting for him.

Why are you with her?

Where are you going?

What are you really hiding?

The questions sat at the edge of my tongue, desperate to be voiced and answered.

Instead, though, I swallowed them back, drowning them in the sea of other unanswered questions that swirled in my mind.

My chest hurt as Asher walked away, Mia’s shoulder brushing against his. I should have known he’d end up with her in the end, right? It’s why I’d always been so jealous, why I’d shut down so often when she was around.

I stood there at my front door, watching them fade away down the street until they were two specks in the distance, accepting the fact that I had absolutely no idea when or if I’d see Asher again.

Finally, it seemed as though I’d run out of chances.