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Chapter Twenty-Two

L ILA WINTER

I’ve made a lot of mistakes over the years, some I regret, some I don’t.

But this?

This feels like the biggest one yet.

I woke Lina up, chose the right moment to hail a cab, and sneak past Ethan while he was busy checking the surveillance feeds. And the most gut-wrenching part of it all? I switched off my phone.

Alaric will be home. He’ll see that Lina and I are missing and call. And if he calls...I know myself. I’ll answer. I’ll fold.

But I can’t gamble my daughter’s life on the hope that someone else can save her because only Julian can do so.

“Mommy? I want to go home.”

Lina’s voice is small, barely a whisper. She tugs at my dress like she’s afraid that time is going too slowly and we’ll be stuck here.

The way she says home, though, makes Alaric’s house sound like it’s ours. Like it’s not just a word...and it almost shatters my resolve.

I press a kiss to her curls and whisper back, “We’ll be home soon, baby. I promise.”

That calms her for a moment. She curls tighter into my lap, her little fingers gripping my blouse like I’m her anchor in a storm.

We’re seated in one of those high-end rooftop restaurants with a panoramic view of the city. It has sleek floors, soft lights, and silverware that probably cost more than our entire apartment.

To my right, is a gorgeous couple dressed like a perfume ad, lost in each other like the rest of the world doesn’t exist.

To my left, a solitary man in a crisp suit, a lawyer, if I would have to guess. He’s sipping a glass of the complimentary wine and scrolling through documents on his tablet.

And seated right in front of me is Julian, all dressed up in a tailored navy suit and with his hair slicked back with enough gel to cement a brick wall. There’s a charming smile on his face and a gleam in his eye, but I see through it.

He cleans up well, I’ll give him that. But the stench underneath? No amount of cologne can hide it.

This man might’ve charmed me once, but now I’m just here to get what I need and leave.

“Do you want to get anything? The chef here is one of my best friends, and he makes some of the best food in the city. I promise you it’ll be worth it, peaches,” Julian says with mirth, swirling his wine while he gives me a once-over.

I don’t share the same sentiment.

“I’m not hungry,” I say flatly.

His smile falters, just a flicker, before he sets his glass down and steeples his fingers together like we’re negotiating a business deal.

I don’t waste time. “You said you’d do anything for us. Did you mean it?”

Julian lets out a dry chuckle. “Goddess, peaches. At least let me buy you dinner before you throw the test questions at me.”

“This isn’t a date.” I’m already losing patience. “It’s not even a truce. It’s a transaction.”

He hums, leaning back in his chair. “Always so dramatic. I remember when you used to laugh more, you know. You were pretty when you did that.”

Lina shifts in my lap again, clearly uncomfortable. Her eyes flick to Julian, then back down. She knows she doesn’t like him. Children always have a sense of this. They sense danger before adults even smell smoke.

“Come on, I bet she’s hungry. Lina, right?” He leans in with a forced smile. “Kids your age like chicken nuggets, huh? What if we order a hundred of them? Would you like that, kiddo?”

Lina doesn’t answer. Instead, she lifts her head, looks him dead in the eye, and says, “Alaric said only he gets to buy me treats. And feed me and Mommy, too.”

She says it so innocently, so matter-of-factly, that I almost choke on a laugh.

Julian? He stiffens. The smirk on his face drops like a stage curtain, and something bitter flickers in his eyes.

His jaw clenches. His question is directed at me. “You’re staying with my uncle?”

The way he says uncle like it’s an abomination, like it’s poison on his tongue, pisses me off.

I tilt my head, suddenly too tired to sugarcoat it. “Why? You gonna get jealous and drug me again?”

“Lila…” He scrubs a hand over his jaw, lowering his voice like that’ll make it all better. “Any man would be jealous hearing the woman he loves is living with another man. But yeah...you’re right. I don’t have the right. Not yet.”

He adds the last part like it means something. Like it’s supposed to move me.

“Good. I’m glad we’re on the same page.”

Julian leans forward, raising his hands in mid-air for dramatic effect. “I’m not here to fight. I want to make things right. I’ve changed, peaches.”

I snort, and he catches it.

“Fine,” he sighs. “But can you believe me when I say I regret everything? I want to be better. For you. For our little girl.”

She’s not your little girl.

The words burn in my throat but never make it out.

He gestures to the menu. “Let’s start over. I’ll feed you. Then we talk.”

“You think a plate of steak will make up for everything?”

“No,” he smiles. “But it’s a start. What’ll you have, peaches?”

I end up ordering an arugula salad. That’s the last thing he’d poison if he had any ulterior motives.

The fact that I’m even questioning whether or not he’d poison my dinner makes my wolf shiver in indignation.

I feel sick for even being here.

Lina eats two reluctant forkfuls of the salad before she turns her eyes up to me again. Her voice is quiet but firm. “Mommy…I wanna go home now. Please.”

Home. Alaric might be home.

The thought of him being home, waiting, maybe worried, maybe angry...

The thought of him realizing I ditched Ethan, switched off my phone, left without a word...it burns like acid on my tongue.

He’ll see it as betrayal.

Maybe it is betrayal.

Julian watches me eat when he thinks I’m not paying attention. His eyes linger too long on Lina. Then on me.

He looks like he’s already claimed us, like we’re his prize.

Like he can almost taste the win.

I finish the salad in under ten minutes, more out of desire to try to keep this quick and less out of hunger.

I set my fork down and meet his gaze. “I ate, just like you wanted. Now it’s time for us to talk.”

Julian dabs the corners of his mouth with a linen napkin. His hands rest just inches from mine on the table, almost like he’s reaching for something that isn’t his anymore.

“Talk to me, peaches. Anything you want is yours. My attention. My time. And now that I’m divorced, you get to have me—”

“You said Lina was yours.”

My voice is raw. I cut my words down to avoid Lina catching on. “Suppose I believe that. Suppose I agree she’s your daughter. Would you do anything for her?”

“Without a fucking thought, baby.”

I flinch. The pet name is a turn-off but his admission raises something as delusional as hope inside of me.

“Then…” My throat thickens. “Lina is yours. And she’s sick, Julian.”

At first, his expression brightens, like I’ve just handed him the golden key to the city.

But then the word sick drops like a guillotine, and I watch the joy fall right out of his eyes.

He falters, just slightly.

Despite the wine, the candlelight, and the suit he’s wearing, they are not quick enough to hide the crack in his mask.

“She has an illness that’s rare. Genetic. And the healer said the cure…it depends on her parents.”

My hands shake as I place them gently on top of his. “The blood of both biological parents is needed. I’ll do my part. But I need you to do yours.”

He doesn’t move.

Doesn’t blink.

“I’m asking for a little blood,” I whisper, like he didn’t hear me the first time, “from her father.”

Julian pulls his hands back like I burned him.

“Lila—”

“You’re her father, right?” I press on, the desperation in my chest tasting like pennies. “Then prove it. Give her what she needs. A few vials of blood is nothing compared to saving her life.”

He stands abruptly, his chair scraping against the floor with a sharp screech.

I go still.

The lawyer to our left looks up. The couple by the door, the ones I’d noticed were perfect, glance over at our table.

But they don’t react like normal strangers. No.

They’re too calm. Too aware. They are not curious about what’s happening.

The thought of digging into what their demeanor could mean makes my stomach bottom out and my breath puncture its way out of my lungs harshly.

Julian catches on quickly to my curiosity about the other folks at this restaurant because he says, “The results already say I’m her father. I don’t have to do anything.”

Wait.

What?

I’m desperate and I’m on the verge of tears, but there’s no denying what I just heard.

“How do you know about the test results?” I ask slowly. “I never told you about them or that they were back.”

Julian’s silence screams at me that something’s wrong.

And the minute everything feels off, I stand up, wrap my arm tighter around Lina, her body curling protectively against my chest as I rise, ready to walk…no, run out of here.

I take one step.

Just one step.

Before the second comes, a shadow cuts across my path.

The lawyer who was drinking wine alone?

Yeah, he’s no longer eating or drinking, for that matter. He’s no longer even pretending.

He’s standing right in front of me, holding a…is that a taser?

Ice shoots up my spine and my lungs nearly collapse.

I look for another exit in this madhouse only to realize that the couple who were lovey-dovey a few minutes ago are no longer romantic. No longer civilians.

They’re guards.

I look around again and again, and my heart pounds violently inside my chest once I realize something horrifying.

No one in this restaurant is real.

No one here is a stranger.

They’re all here for Julian.

Julian’s voice slithers behind me like a serpent meant to kill me with its venom. “I wanted to do this the easy way, peaches. I really did.”

He steps closer, “But you always force my hand. This could have been a celebration, you know? Our second chance. Our little family, whole again.”

He gestures to the guards. “But you ruined it.”

One of them steps forward.

Lina screams.

The world narrows into a tunnel.

All I know is I have to run.

Even if it’s the last thing I do.