Page 115 of Hidden

“You never even visited her!” The stirrings of fury twisted in my stomach. How dare she act concerned! Despite my anger, I fought to maintain my calm.

Abigail shifted in her seat, her attention on the files in front of me. “That’s because…” Her voice had lost some of its earlier strength.

“Don’t misunderstand.” Jonathan leaned forward, grasping his wife’s hand. “Abigail worries about Bianca, but she doesn’t know how to interact with her. She’s scared.”

“Abigail, you were forced into early retirement because of the pressure you were under. We’ve even allowed the both of you to abandon your duties as proxies for the same reason. So what have you two been doing?” I rubbed my temples, trying desperately to keep the accusations from my thoughts. Flying off the handle wouldn’t solve anything. It would only make things worse. Clearly, Abigail had never moved past her own issues.

Once, Abigail had been a powerful witch. She was not as influential as her husband, who outranked her, but she’d been strong enough.

But everything had changed when she lost her sanity.

At the moment, Bianca was fine. I needed to get to the heart of the matter, otherwise I could make the wrong decision. “How did you get pulled into the situation?”

“Jonathan tried to stop me. He said it wasn’t safe.” She watched her lap, twisting her fingers. “There was no one else available, and they needed help.”

It sounded like the truth, but there was hesitance in her tone. I narrowed my eyes. “And?”

She glanced at her husband for help, but this time he didn’t interject. Finally, she crossed her arms. Defiance—and a hint of apprehension—radiating from her. “I don’t know. I can’t explain why I decided to do it. I felt called to take the job. Ihadto.”

I frowned, mentally filing that bit of information away for later. We were running out of time, and I had other places to be. “In any case, Bianca’s abilities are growing stronger. Thankfully, you weren’t able to stop her from growing.”

She bit her lip, and Jonathan straightened. The air in the room seemed to still.

“I—” she began, the fear crossing both of their expressions.

“I don’t have time to hear your excuses,” I cut her off, my patience wearing thin. “Hanah already told me your reasons. We’ll get into that later. I need time to decide what I’m going to do with the two of you. I need to pick up Bianca from class. I don’t want you two anywhere near her unless she seeks you out, and you are to continue to keep her existence a secret. In the meantime, Titus has a job for you. If you want a chance to redeem yourselves, this is it.”

Bianca’s parents had been dealt with—at least for now. But the nurses that had been in charge of Bianca?

They hadn’t escaped unscathed.

Earlier today, I’d stopped by the hospital. It was easy to track down those who’d taken care of Bianca, and I wasn’t surprised to find they were all low-level witches, some of whom barely had any magical abilities at all. Of course they would be afraid of Bianca.

But that was no excuse.

Hopefully having their licenses revoked, and being supervised while on housekeeping and caregiving duties for the next five years might teach them proper bedside manner.

It wasn’t enough. It was far from enough. But it would have to do…for now.We had other problems to deal with.

Crossing my arms, I glared at the laboratory door, mentally willing the class to end.

My heart was racing in anxiety, and my skin felt tight across my chest. Nothing was going to happen. Bianca was perfectly all right. I’d already peeked into the room earlier, so I had seen that for myself.

However, the sick feeling that rose in my chest during my talk with Abigail wouldn’t recede. I couldn’t wash the picture of her from my thoughts. The way she carried herself, the short temper, the paranoia—she reminded me of my mother.

Shehonestlythought she had been helping.

And what was Jonathandoing? I had never really known him, but his mother had been a proxy Er Bashou. Kathleen disappeared when I went to France, but she did what she could before I left.

Why was he enabling his wife?

Why didIfeelguilty? What was I supposed to do about this?

And what in the world was taking so long? It was only a three-hour lab—whatever was on those petri dishes couldn’t be all that fascinating.

Before I reached for the door again, I caught myself. I couldn’t interrupt his class. Bryce would get all pissy, and now we had to live with him. I forced out a low breath.

Bianca was perfectly fine.