The Wolf Came on Christmas (Johanna and Alexander) novel Chapter 120

Chapter 120-1

That proved he had kept his promise: he was protecting me, in his strange way.

“Surprisingly well. Your team works so fast they assured me that in two weeks I’ll be able to move in,” I paused for a moment and sighed with a calm smile. “I truly appreciate it, Alexander. You didn’t have to c that–I could have handled it.”

“Don’t thank me–thank the architect. Richie insisted on handling it himself.”

I frowned, thrown off. I hadn’t expected that either.

“…wait–Richie is an architect?” I had to confirm.

“He’s a partner in his cousins‘ construction company, although he usually works in Sydney and its surroundings. It’s his people, not mine,” he assured me, with a hint of pride in his voice. “I only asked who wanted to lend me a hand with that, and he volunteered automatically. He said he could rebuild your

house as if nothing had ever happened.”

At that moment I laughed again, remembering all the ideas I had formed about Richie when I first met

him.

“What’s so funny?” Alexander asked, intrigued.

“Myself. I thought Richie was a rancher. You know–because of the hat.”

We were having such a good time talking, as if years had passed since we had seen each other, that we didn’t notice I had been on the phone with him for almost an hour. And I had no intention of hanging up, even though he sounded a bit tired and I should have appealed to common sense to leave him alone.

I didn’t want to hang up, because I was afraid of not hearing him again after that.

I wanted to ask him so many things–so many! But everything crowded my mind at once. I wanted to know if he knew who had alerted his brother, if he knew the Arab lions had appeared to take Haydar, if he had news about Haydar’s fate; how he was handling the “return” to his family…

I managed to find out more about the children, about his brother and his parents… but on those last two topics Alexander did not give many details. From what little he told me, I sensed the situation was somewhat delicate So I asked about the others instead, not to keep making him uncomfortable

My relief was immense when he told me all his companions were well That Nika was recovering–the

shot had destroyed her clavicle and she couldn’t move her left arm for a few weeks, but she was very much alive That Christian’s and Ishida’s wounds were of little importance, and that Richie would limp on his leg for some time until the injured muscles healed According to him. Richie had also been shot. although the wounds were hot as severe, they kept him hospitalized for a few days in the same clinic

Rex had it worst. Apparently the doctors fell on him practically in his last breath and saved him by very little. He was still in intensive care Nika was also alive thanks to the red wolf, who had found her in the

office and helped her resist.

In turn, I told him Luke was fine and had helped us a lot; his wounds were superficial and he was alread

recovered.

He didn’t mention anything about Hans–and at that moment I didn’t want to say anything either.

And before I could voice my greatest concern, he said it in my place:

“I’ll call again as soon as I can, alright?” he assured me, and my heart stirred for a moment and then settled just as quickly. “I suspect Andre is waiting for a chance to speak to you. He hasn’t said it yet, but know that when he finds out I was able to communicate with you, he’ll want to say a few words.”

I accepted his promise with a smile and nodded. Hanging up was less difficult with that hope.

That same afternoon, after thinking a lot about what I had spoken with Alexander and about the new ide circling in my mind, I decided to contact Eric, my editor, and told him I was going to delete everything I

had written for the ending of my trilogy.

Chapter 120-2

When he asked why–very shocked and not understanding where such a radical change was coming fi -I explained it with the simplest words in the world: it was time for everything to follow its course, an the best thing the protagonist could do for her ghost boyfriend was to let him rest in peace. Trying to t him to the house, or resurrect him in the body of his best friend who was in a coma and about to die, would only keep things stagnant… not only for her, but for the dead boy.

It seemed to me that was the best way to resolve everything–even if it wasn’t the perfect, ideal ending that supernatural love story that had cost me so much to develop.

Eric did not receive the idea kindly–but I didn’t care.

I had to let him be.

There was no other way to move forward.

A good part of the reasons that motivated me to travel to my parents‘ place for a while was tied to the fear that one of Alexander’s relatives might decide to look for me to “silence” me. I shuddered just thinking about the possibilities, and that was the only issue that still wouldn’t let me sleep peacefully.

However, I tried to fool myself by telling myself that Alexander might be advocating for me, even in his condition; that helped me focus on preparing for the trip.

I mean, almost fifteen days had already passed since the incidents, and I was still alive.

More than that – they were rebuilding my house! If someone in Alexander’s family had objected to him helping me like that, that wouldn’t have happened either, and Alexander wouldn’t have been able to

communicate with me by phone.

Stopping the thought that everyone wanted to kill me was the first step toward getting my normal life

back.

Well, I already knew I would never again have what you would call a “normal” life, but it was a matter of

dealing with it and moving on.

in the end, I decided to stay in Wyoming a little longer and travel two days before Christmas

I took a train to Minnesota and my parents went to pick me up at the station. Since I don’t have brothers or sisters, it was race to see just the two of them and be able to hug them tightly. My mother found it a little strange to see me so emotional, but it passed quickly when we started talking

It was good to see they still had toby, Paul’s labrador, and that the dog still recognized me and barked at me happily

Something that hadn’t changed

I ended up telling my parents about the explosion of my house during dinner, and I tried to make it sound as harmless as possible so they wouldn’t keep asking questions Of course, my father was scandalized

and my mother started crying, and I had to assure them a thousand times that nothing had happened to me because I wasn’t anywhere near the property at the time (which wasn’t entirely true, but my hair hid the pink scar on my forehead, the only injury I received in the blast) and that everything was already under

control.

I also had to endure the scolding for not having talked about it earlier (they weren’t stupid; it didn’t take

them long to connect my silence on the phone with what had happened, especially my father), and as

soon as I could, I steered the conversation toward other topics, like the reconstruction of the damned

house and how well it was going.

My father offered to make me new furniture, and I had to accept.

Taking advantage of my stay there, I visited my in–laws. For Paul’s parents it was a pleasant surprise to see me; had dinner with them and promised to see them again for Christmas and to stop by for a glass of punch on New Year’s Day.

The emotion of meeting them wasn’t the same anymore, and at that moment I wasn’t able to explain to myself why.

However, I think that in some hidden corner of my soul, I felt somewhat ashamed of continuing to treat them as my in–laws when I was already a widow, and on top of that I was thinking far too much about a man who wasn’t their son.

I assumed everything would return to its course eventually, that one day I would have to leave them behind, place Paul and his family in a special place, and think of them properly but without expecting anything more.

As I thought of the baby I had lost.

I would never again have what had been taken from me, and this time, being in the house where Paul and I had spent lovely evenings and enjoyed family gatherings hurt me like never before in recent years.

Time passed so quickly and everything was so different in Minnesota that at times everything I had lived felt unreal.

I tried to use that feeling of familiarity to tune myself back in with myself.

My parents‘ house is within the urban area of Minneapolis, so all you see is asphalt and other houses, to reach the forest you have to leave the city.

The good thing is that the neighborhood was always quiet

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