The Alpha Who Never Loved Me (Serena and Kieran) novel Chapter 85

Chapter 85

Kieran

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The car disappeared around the corner and took my wife with it.

I stood on the curb and the pain sat in my chest and Cora growled low and rough inside me; the sound vibrated through my bones and scraped against the underside of my skin.

I turned toward my car and a white sports car pulled up behind me. Trevor climbed out and shut the door and

scanned the empty street.

Just the sight of him alone could make my blood boil. “What are you doing here?” I inquired the second he was within earshot.

“I knew Serena was leaving today.” He walked toward me. “I wanted to come say goodbye, but it seems I’m too late.” His eyes moved to my face and a grin spread across his. “Did you come to take her to the airport and she left with another man?”

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“If you have nothing to coy!! I said “chut un !!

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Trevor laughed. “Serena doesn’t want anything to do with you anymore. Accept it and grant her the divorce.”

“If you don’t have anything useful to say, then leave.”

Trevor shrugged.

A figure turned the corner at the end of the street and walked toward us. I squinted and my jaw tightened.

Sophie.

Trevor saw her too and his head tilted. “It’s strange that Sophie keeps showing up around here. Does she live close to this place?”

She did not live close to this place. Her apartment was across the city and her mother’s house was not in this neighborhood either. But she was here the last time too, the visit that ended with Josh injured, and now she was here again.

“Sophie follows you,” Trevor said; his voice was flat and certain. “She monitors your movements. I’m willing to bet that when she walks up to you, the first thing out of her mouth will be that she was just around the corner:37

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I rolled my eyes.

Sophie reached us and smiled. “I was just around the corner and I wanted to say hi.”

Trevor’s face was unbearable. He did not say a word; he just looked at me with an expression that said everything his mouth chose not to.

“What do you want, Sophie?” I asked.

She reached into her bag and pulled out a sheet of paper. “Ethan’s school gave them a project. They drew family portraits.” She unfolded the drawing and held it up; crayon lines and stick figures and a small handwritten label that said Daddy beside a tall figure with dark hair. “He wants you to add more details to your drawing. He wants it to look more real.”

“Okay,” I said.

We got into my car for somewhere comfortable to sit. I took the drawing and spread it across my knee and studied the crayon lines.

“Sophie.” I looked up at her. “What are you doing around

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this area? Your house isn’t close.”

“My family’s house is nearby,” she said. “They’ve been going through some trouble and I’ve been coming here to help.”

I looked at the drawing again. “I can’t add details to this.”

“Why not?”

“Because it isn’t proper.” I held her gaze. “We tell the

world I’m Ethan’s father, but you should not lie to Ethan himself. He is a boy and he doesn’t deserve to be deceived by his own mother.”

Sophie’s face crumpled. “Ethan is too small to

understand. He shouldn’t have to deal with this at all.” Her voice dropped. “He’s just as unlucky as I am, and all he ever wanted was a dad.” She pressed her palms together. “I’m too scared to remarry after everything I went through. Please, Kieran. Just fulfill his small wish and add the details.”

She held out the colored pencils.

Ålooked at them and then at the drawing and the stick figure with my name beside it.

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I took the pencils.

I understood her suffering; I understood that none of this was her fault and that Ethan was innocent and that what

she went through happened because of my family. I owed her that much.

I filled in the details on my figure, added color to the hair and the clothes, drew the outline of a jacket because Ethan always saw me in one. When I finished, I handed the drawing and the pencils back to Sophie.

She smiled and the gratitude on her face was real. “Thank you.”

“I have to go to work,” I said.

She climbed out of the car and I drove away.

Serena

I returned to the country and on the second day, I went

back to work.

Misha walked into my office and dropped a stack of files en my desk; the thud echoed off the walls and I looked up

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at him.

“New patient,” he said. “You’ll be attending to this one.”

I opened the first file and my eyes moved down the page. I opened the second one and my fingers paused on the third paragraph.

“I can’t help with a case this complex,” I said.

“Look through all of it first,” Misha said.

I picked up another file and turned the pages and the information got denser with every sheet; the condition was layered and the history was long and the treatment would require a precision I was not sure I possessed.

“This is too complex for me,” I said.

“The treatment plan you developed has been working for several of our patients.” Misha leaned against the edge of my desk. “It’s doing a good job and I believe you can handle this.”

“What if I can’t?”

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“Stop questioning yourself and think about what comes

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with it.” He crossed his arms. “When you return home, we’ll open a separate department for you. One that you will manage.”

My pulse kicked up. A department of my own, a name I built myself, a career that belonged to me and not to Kieran’s title or Kieran’s money or Kieran’s shadow.

“Okay,” I said. “Thank you.”

“Stand up,” Misha said. “I’ll show you the patient.”

I followed him down the corridor and my heart hammered against my ribs because the files told me this was a high-profile case; the family behind this patient was wealthy and powerful and a mistake on my part would

carry consequences.

Misha opened the door to a private room.

A man sat inside; he leaned back in his chair with his phone in one hand and his legs crossed at the ankle. He did not look up when we entered. He was young, close to my age, with sharp features and the kind of careless posture that came from never being told no.

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Misha did the introductions. “Andrew, this is Dr.

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