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“It’s not a bad way to be at all except you never deal with the shit you push to the side,” she muttered. “But you’re starting to. Be proud of that. Be proud of coming here for help for whatever happened. That’s a big step for you. Truly.” She poured herself more wine and nodded. “Call help. Please. Yes, but with more wine. Are there egg rolls?”

“Of course and all of your favorites.”

“I knew you really did love me,” she muttered and started digging through the bags I’d brought.

I texted Carla, Alexis, and, after a moment, Jackie Dillon who was the personal assistant for the department heads and me but also used to work as a private investigator. We would obviously need someone well-versed in that.

For her mate to be throwing it all back in her face and trying to beat Renee down, he didn’t expect her to fight.

Which meant we needed to getallof the ammunition.

Then I decided to text Ha-joon and be honest.

Me: You weren’t wrong with what you said earlier. I just don’t think I was either, but I mishandled it. I came to ask Reneefor help and how to articulate where I am better, but found her in bad shape from something personal. I’m not avoiding you but handling that.

Ha-joon: Thank you for making it clear to me. What can I do to help? Is she okay?

Me: No, her mate is cheating—it’s bad. He’s emotionally abusing her and going to take the kids, planning to control her that way. I called in help and—I’ve known her a long time and never seen her so broken.

“Tell Ha-joon I say hi,” Renee whispered. “I want to tell you to run because mating is bullshit, but he seems like a good one.” She snorted and I glanced over to see she was drinking directly out of the second bottle. “I thought my mate was too. I never thought—that geek I met decades ago who could barely talk to a woman would never have cheated.”

Oh boy. This was really going to be bad.

“He asked what you needed,” I told her. “If there was anything he could do. I didn’t tell him much but basically that I wasn’t avoiding him.”

“Tell me what happened before I get shit-faced and help arrives,” she said, pushing when I tried to deflect.

She nodded along as I told her and kept putting more food in her. Now that I was really paying attention and not just quickly seeing her in passing at work, I noticed the state she was in… And it wasn’t good.

Renee had lost at least ten pounds and was down on the tank in every way possible. I was concerned as a doctor, and while wine was the last thing she should be having, if it got her to eat as well—so be it. Now we knew and could take better care of her, get her the help she needed.

“Neither of you is wrong as you recognized,” she said once she seemed done eating, mostly just picking while finishing thatsecond bottle of wine. “You were a bit harsh and maybe didn’t handle it the best, but neither did he.”

“He didn’t?” I checked.

“No, he needs to stop acting like your past with Tommy is ruining your relationship. It’s not, and he was the one who pushed for everything when you admitted you weren’t sure you were ready. Instead of his ‘So this is about Tommy,’ the correct andhealthyway for him to respond is ‘What happened that is making you have such a knee-jerk reaction?’

“You’re hundreds of years old. You haven’t only been with Tommy, and I’m very sure you’ve had strong feelings for other men. You’velived more, and that comes with more baggage and pain. The pup needs to handle that better because you don’t pick on his shit. And he’s got alotof shit for one so young. But he wasn’t wrong or bad, he just needs to be better too.”

“Okay, yeah, that makes perfect sense,” I accepted.

“What happened that made you have such a knee-jerk reaction, Ellie?” she asked gently after a few quiet minutes while I finished my plate.

I sighed and told her, glad when she gave me a pitying look. Not because I liked being pitied, but… It made me feel valid. Like what I’d gone through in that same office even was a real wound.

She promised I was doing much better than I thought, especially with all the chaos and ass-kicking I’d been doing. She snorted as she finished the bottle. “I had something as basic as a cheating mate and tore up my whole house because it felt like a lie now and I’m the head of mental health.”

Renee definitely wasn’t okay.

I was thrilled when the calvary arrived, Carla bringing more wine and mochi donuts because everything was better with donuts according to her. She wasn’t wrong.

And they were damn good donuts.

Jackie asked for access to everything—home security cameras, her phone with the evidence of his cheating… Because the idiot was stupid enough to taunt her over text and voice messages.

Wow, he really thought Renee didn’t have it in her to fight.

Maybe that was true, but she had us, and while I might not be the best at mental and emotional health, I was a warrior.