Chapter 8

Chapter 8: My Public Shame

“Why choose me, then?” I whispered.

It wasn’t fair that Nathan suddenly decided to choose me to take the fall for

wanting to pull out of his wedding at the last moment. Unless he had real feelings.

it felt totally unwarranted.

for me,

Any honest man would have ended the wedding privately without causing a huge

he could have talked to his fiancee when he found her k*ssing her b*dyguard,

but instead he decided to drag me into it.

scene;

And in a strange way, I didn’t want to shatter the illusion that maybe Nathan chose

me out of all of the other pretty girls in the church because he may have actually

had secret feelings for me after all these years.

But, much to my dismay, Nathan simply shrugged at my question. I felt sickened by

his blase attitude about the entire situation. “Everyone else around here knows each

other well,” he said. “Since you’ve been gone for ten years, you’re the only one

around here who’s untestable.”

Nathan was right; only fated mates knew Wo

their fated mate was. Only the people

involved would be able to know, and/since I had been gone for a decade, no one was

able to test us to see if it was true or not. And besides, my wolf was dormant, so even

Nathan himself wouldn’t be able to know if we were fated mates.

But this fact only made me even more upset, because it just meant that my

childhood friend used me as a shield simply because I was the easiest target.

Not only could no one possibly know if I was his fated mate or not, they also

couldn’t argue much about it because the status of having a fated mate was so

powerful and supreme that it was one of the few reasons that could possibly rationalize withdrawing from a marriage like that.

“That’s really the only reason?” I asked angrily. “You publicly shamed me in front of

everyone!”

Nathan looked up at me. His blue–green eyes looked over me awkwardly for a

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monicontiquess just thought that you would always/help/mmAftealllywe used

be best friends.”

“Useddabbleopied, resisting the urge to yell. I don’t even know wivhgoyouare nowwltissemosikte now you’re just a male chauvinist pig who only thinks about himseblanddooone else’s feelings. Do you not care what you just didi totouny reputatioioiana anime when needed to be working on building up a betteteraputicion

Look Natthas said I’m sorry, Olivia. It wasn’t my originai intention to togtergrou involved inthis ammessi was just a spur of the moinent decision

I couldn’t helppoutauuainatthe stupidity. “Your apology has fallen onderdat ears! growled. Youlveonivyshown me that you’re a childish and impulsive cum wwbha real backboneel wooit toorzige you for doing this to me.”

My childhood feeds mood and shrugged again, seemingly a little embarrassed my words. “Well its sootiltee you’ll stay here for long anyway, right?” he asked! “I figured that you wouldbe gone 3001 and it wouldn’t matter then. I can handlele

everything after thatand gouwon need to be bothered by it for long.“.

I scoffed and foldedunyamsaaccess my chest in complete disbelief. How could he think that I would just up andddaavding place right after I was finally

et back intot the pack? Why wouldd hazeddoanhsochaid for my aunt’s villa otherwise unless bi

was planning on staying?

At least now, on the bright skidel haddabatter chance at keeping my aunt’s villa since Nathan no longer had a validideesoona keep it.

At least one good thing couldcome@otoofthuswhole mess. But what would be the

point in staying anyway ifil was justgoingabea socialpariah who was viewed as a

homewrecker?

Even ifit ever came out that Nathan was dying aboubbeing my fated mate, I would still only be seen as someone who stupiditynddwaaldybbeyed him to help facilitate

his lies

“I don’t have any family left, Nathan,” I snadridd Andd ddon’t have anywhere else to to etther. So no, I won’t be leaving. But thnnits 300rumningumy reputation within the irat week of my return. I guess how that will affetmaneldoenit’timatter to you, does

it?

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Nathan gave me a puzzled look. “What about your dad?” he asked quietly.

My eyes widened at Nathan’s question. “My dad?” I whispered. Already, I could feel

tears beginning to well up in my eyes just at the thought of my dad. “Do you not

know?”

Nathan looked at me for several moments, still with that puzzled look on his face,

before he slowly shook his head.

“No,” he replied. “Why? Did something happen?”

Once again, I scoffed at my childhood friend’s idiotic ignorance. “Gamma Kamran

died five years ago.”

Nathan stared at me in shocked silence. His eyes were wide; he really had no idea

that my father died. I thought that, at the very least, news like that would have made its way back to our pack eventually. Maybe Colin kept that information from Nathan.

“Olivia, I…” Nathan began. I suddenly put my hand up to stop him and shook my

head.

“Don’t even bother,” I said angrily.

There was a long silence between us. The air felt thick and palpable, and it felt so heavy that I felt as though I couldn’t even get a full breath into my lungs. Nathan just looked at me with surprise and dismay on his flustered face for a long time before.

he finally broke the silence.

“Well, either way,” he said, turning away and pacing over to the counter at the back of the room where a coffee machine sat. I watched in disgust as Nathan. nonchalantly poured a cup of coffee for himself.

He turned toward me and gestured to me with the cup as though asking if I wanted one, and I shook my head and scowled. “Either way,” he continued as he stirred his cream into the coffee, “I know you’ll be okay. You have a family man at home, right?

Someone waiting for you?”

I narrowed my eyes. “What do you not understand?” I asked. “I have no one.”

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