Chapter 95

Aria’s POV

I came to check on Harold again, but before going inside of the room, I stood outside taking and reviewing his chart from the holder it had sat in beside the door. The overnight crew had kept a close eye on Harold as I requested, but other than snoring a little, there was nothing to report.

The snoring, I was certain, wasn’t a new symptom.

As I was reviewing his latest bloodwork, Lucian came out into the hallway, leaving his father’s room with a frustrated expression on his face. The minute he spotted me, he cooled that expression beneath a calm façade.

I had seen it though, so I knew it was there, no matter how much he tried to hide it from me.

“Dr. A,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting you…”

“I’m just doing the rounds,” I said. I lifted the folder holding Harold’s charts and medical paperwork so Lucian could see. I wasn’t sure why he hadn’t expected me. This was a hospital, after all, and I was a Healer. Specifically, I was the healer assigned to Harold.

But Lucian seemed distracted, somewhat out of it, looking off to the side even as I answered.

“Is your father alright?” I asked him.

“Yes,” Lucian said, glancing back at me. “Yes, he seems alright.”

I nodded. “Are you alright?”

Maybe it was none of my business. Lucian and I had agreed to split ways, we’d broken our mating bond, and a divorce was imminent. Yet, even so, it still troubled me to see him so unhappy. And I could tell he was unhappy, no matter how much he tried to hide it.

“Can I ask you something?” he prefaced.

“I… suppose.”

“You don’t have to tell me if it’s too personal,” he said, “But… now that I know someone else wishes to leave the pack behind. Why do you wish to leave Nightfall pack behind for another?”

Someone else was leaving? Who? Or… oh… Maybe Harold and Julia had just told him Aria was planning on leaving. I couldn’t hope for that. Lucian had never taken much interest in me like that before, and he shouldn’t now, since with my absence he had everything that he wanted. Namely, Sheila.

It must have been someone else who was leaving, and that was what was bothering him. Taking pity on him, I answered.

“I just need a change of pace. I did everything I feel I could do here. There’s a lot left out there for me to see and do. If I can help others, in other packs, just as I had done here, then that is my obligation and my privilege to do so.”

“What about the people you would be leaving behind here?” Lucian asked. “Are they in your consideration?”

Yes, I thought but didn’t say. They were part of the reason I was so eager to flee. If I could live in a world where I didn’t see Lucian and Sheila on the news, I would be contented. I didn’t want to think about them at all.

I imagined Lucian would be impossible to forget, but perhaps, in time, without being faced with the pair of them every day, I might begin to heal.

Placing my hand on my stomach, I said, “I just need space for a while.”

Lucian noticed, his eyes drifting down. Looking back up at my face, he said, “I don’t mean to pry, Dr. A, more than I already have. But I will tell you that I don’t know if I’m convinced. It sounds to me like you are running from something. Or someone.”

I opened my mouth to reply, about to tell him it wasn’t any of his business, when a crass voice spoke up from behind me before I could.

“Lucian! There you are...” Sheila walked toward us. She glared at me a moment, before turning on the full wattage of her smile, which she directed at Lucian. “I thought about what you said last night, and you have severely misjudged me. I care about Harold a great deal. So I thought I’d stop by today to surprise him with a visit.”

Immediately, I moved to block her path. I’d tackle her if necessary, but I wasn’t going to let her anywhere near my patient, let alone my father-in-law. Not when she was the main cause of the severe stress that landed Harold in the hospital in the first place.

However, before Sheila even reached me, Lucian smoothly stepped forward.

“Sheila, what are you doing here?”

“I just told you, I –”

“You have to leave,” he said firmly.

Her gaze flicked from him to me and back again. With him standing in front of me now, it looked like I was the one being protected by him, not Harold.

“So you choose her again…” Sheila grumbled.

Lucian glanced behind him and saw me. He rolled his eyes. “This has nothing to do with Dr. A. My father just isn’t ready for visitors.”

“He’s seen you,” she pressed.

“I’m family.”

“And so am I!” Sheila said, her voice starting to raise.

Sighing, Lucian said, “Let’s go. I’ll come with you.”

That seemed to lift her spirits so quickly that I nearly got whiplash. “Only if you come with me.”

“I will.”

My stomach twisted tightly. In my head, my wolf whimpered and howled in sorrow once more, a sound I felt echoed all the way down to my heart.

Lucian had chosen another, and I needed to live with that now. For my baby, I had to find a way. Even if that meant moving to another pack, far away.

Lucian’s POV

“If you want to keep me from continually getting the wrong idea,” Sheila pressed, once we were home. “Then you need to hurry forward with the divorce. Else, I will just assume that every woman who interacts with you is trying to move in on my territory.”

“I am not territory. Not yours nor anyone else’s.”

“You know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t. And I’m tired of the inference.”

“Are you going back on your promise?”

“What promise?” I asked. I never promised to marry Sheila.

“That you’d take care of me. After what happened…” Tears began to well in her eyes. “I never thought you’d go back on that…”

“I am taking care of you,” I said, a feeling of defeat starting to build inside of me.

“For how long? I need commitment, Lucian. You need to fulfill your promise by marrying me.”

I was going to lose my patience with her soon. Knowing that, I turned and started walking toward my office.

“Where are you going?” she called out.

“I’m not finished with work,” I said.

“You always leave me!” she shouted and flung herself down on the couch dramatically.

Ignoring her, I continued on. In my office, I closed and locked the door behind me and then sat down at my desk.

Sheila’s motives might have been entirely selfish, but her words weren’t necessarily wrong.

I did need to move forward with this divorce finally, not just for Aria’s sake but for my own too. It wasn’t healthy to hold on like this.

Besides, Aria deserved to have what she wanted. Freedom. Jasper. A new pack.

Steeling myself, I lifted the phone and called my lawyer.

It was finally time to let this divorce progress.