Chapter 66: Chapter 66

GRACE I purse my lips. Sean’s offer is absurd. He…what exactly? Wants to assuage his guilt by getting me a job? It was his fault I’d been unemployable everywhere else in the city in the first place.

I start to walk away from him.

“Don’t walk away from me,” Sean growls. He grabs my arm. I stare pointedly at his hand on me. “I’m still talking to you. Seriously, Grace. I'm already taking a risk by offering to help you!"

"Did anyone ever ask you to take that risk?" I ask flatly. “Did you ever hear of ‘too little, too late,’ Sean?

When I needed you most, you abandoned me.” I shake my head.”There is no need for this. Moreover, aren't you afraid that your fiancee will hear?"

“Hear about what?” a sharp voice asks. Sean’s eyes widen. "What is it that you're keeping from me?"

Sean freezes. He released his grip on Grace's arm immediately and turned to look at Lily, who was walking toward him.

“It’s nothing,” he says quietly.

Lily arches a brow. “Hmm.” She loops her arm through his. "Sean, darling, why did you stop to talk to this kind of person? Aren't you afraid that Alpha Reed will hear about it? You know my sister is the only woman he ever loved. Although my sister has been dead for three years, he has never had another woman..."

Although Lily does not complete her sentence, it’s plain to see where she is going with this.

Sean's face pales.

There are far-reaching effects of angering Alpha Reed. Effects neither he nor his pack can afford.

I’m pretty sure that’s why he deserted me the first time around.

And I guess, to hear Lily tell it, Alpha Reed still wants his pound of flesh from me too.

Well, one battle at a time.

"Grace, you're only fit to be a sanitation worker.” Lily smiles cruelly. “And you’re so good at it!”

My eyes narrow. I’m furious.

Lily’s eyes flash to her wolf, and I realize she is purposely baiting me. She wants me to lunge for her so she can either finish what she started and kill me herself or she’s got some other scheme up her sleeve.

“Do you think Alpha Reed knows that you're already out of prison?” She taps her chin with her free hand. “He made your life a living hell in there, didn’t he?”

I shudder.

“Funny, if he doesn’t know it already, he just might recognize you on the news from our interviews today. Maybe you should think about relocating. I believe that before long, you will no longer be able to survive in this city," Lily says. She leans in to whisper. “You might think you’re safe in these neutral territories. But a lone human female all alone, with no pack or wolf to help protect her…” she tsks.

With that, she walks away with Sean, holding him by the arm.

I watch them leave.

I take my tools and head toward a section of the highway, riding on the bicycle provided by the Sanitation Service Center.

I already buried the feelings that I’d had for Sean. Any emotions I felt, died long ago. They died along with my baby.

Seeing him again, while a bit of a surprise, didn’t stir anything in my heart. It didn’t even raise much amity. He was just…dead to me.

He deserved Lily.

They were two pretentious, self-absorbed people. They might thrive in celebrity circles or in politics, but I can’t believe that their antics are good for the wellbeing of their packs.

I go about my work.

Several times, I feel like someone is watching me. But every time I turn around, I’m alone.

The feeling of someone following me… it doesn’t go away.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

In the news agency, reporter Brian Henderson watches the news about Lily's visit to the Sanitation Service Center to offer her apologies to the sanitation workers.

It isn't the kind of fluff piece he wanted to cover, but she’d been the city’s darling, and his boss had set him on the story so he covered it.

When he sees a dark-haired woman appearing on the screen, he starts to frown. He found this woman familiar, but he can't remember where he had seen her.

"Who is this woman? Why does she look so familiar?"

Brian watches the news footage over and over again, and then he finally notices some other details that pop out to him.

First, Lily’s hands clenched the gift box and her smile turns brittle when this woman exited the Center and approached the press conference.

Second, the woman bore none of the excitement that her coworkers had. On the contrary, she looked positively resentful to be there. Which was odd, considering every employee that participated in the Atkinson “Dumpster Fire”—he laughed at his own pun for Lily’s social media debacle—had been thrilled to receive the compensation check and luxury apparel.

Not this woman though.

Then he notices that in the background, Sean Stevens has visibly paled and begins to look very uneasy the minute this woman appeared.

"Sean ..." Brian seems to have thought of something and he starts to search through the internet.

After a while, he finds a piece of news that had been reported three years ago. A picture of the woman who had received the gift from Lily. Only she looked beautiful, vibrant in a way that he was shocked it was the same woman.

"This is too much of a coincidence!" Brian exclaims.

Three years ago, that woman had been Sean's girlfriend. Fast forward to today, and the successful attorney was sweeping the streets? That was a hell of a tumble. And this woman just so happened to be receiving a gift from Sean's current girlfriend as an apology?

Brian rubs his hands together. If he’d had a mustache, he would give it a twirl. He laughs to himself as his excitement grows.

There is a story here.

A juicy one.

Where others had missed this one integral detail, he’d seen it. And he was going toast on it.

He dug into forming his story and drafting it.

Although there were more salacious ways to capitalize on the direction of his thoughts, he kept to the facts. With a story like this… it wouldn’t matter. He was fine to let the public speculate. That would just encourage more people to read.

When he handed his work to the editor, the editor rejected it and told him to rewrite it.

"Why must I re-write it?" Brian asked unhappily. To be frank, he was offended. He’d done a damn good job catching this anomaly and building out the story around it. “Seriously, why do you want it rewritten?

This is a slam dunk. You have to see that this is headline-worthy.”

“It’s not the story itself… it’s the woman.”