Olivia It’s Christmas. The coldest and my favorite holiday. After working almost nonstop for 72 hours for the restaurant’s holiday campaign, I was declared fired. Nowhere to go. “Olivia. Give me your apron.” My eyes widened as my boss’s cold words silenced the kitchen. It came out of nowhere, and when I turned to look at him, it was clear that he wasn’t making a joke or playing a prank on me. His aging, stern face looked entirely indifferent as he held out his hand for my apron. “W-Why?” I asked, feeling the weight of the silence of my coworkers. My boss didn’t even answer. He just held his hand out for me still and blinked slowly at me with an expectant look on his face. As I untied my apron, my hands shook and my eyes began to well up with tears. Around me, I could hear my coworkers — ex-coworkers now, I guessed — snickering about what was happening. I slowly handed my boss my apron. He snatched it out of my hand and calmly walked out of the kitchen, leaving the door swinging in his stead while a single tear rolled down my cheek. That apron was the only symbol of belonging I had; this job was the one thing keeping me from starving to death. “She’s so stupid,” I heard one of my coworkers, a fellow waitress named Emily, whisper behind my back. “Anyone who thinks that the capitalists are their family should learn their lesson soon enough.” “I guess the boss’ brainwashing really got to her,” one of the cooks, a middle-aged man named John, said. He didn’t even try to keep his voice low. They knew that I could hear them, and they didn’t care. Before they could see me cry, I yanked my jacket off of the hook and burst out of the restaurant. I stumbled into the brick alleyway, already shivering from the cold winter air. “Ryan will help me,” I whispered to myself as I put my coat on and stormed away. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and sniffled sadly while I dialed his number. But the phone just rang… and rang… and went to voicemail. Hey, you’ve reached Rya— Cursing, I hung up and resisted the urge to smash my phone. Of course my boyfriend didn’t answer. He hadn’t been answering my calls or texts for a week now, and it was stupid of me to think that he would suddenly answer now, when I really needed help. As I walked down the street, I passed by the rows of shops that were filled with excited holiday shoppers and happy families. Despite the cold, these people were warm because of their families and their lovers. And I had no one. My boyfriend, who had wanted me first when we started dating, ghosted me out of nowhere and couldn’t even be decent enough to officially break up with me. My pack evicted my father and I ten years prior. My father died, leaving me alone. I was hopeless. This year, the holidays were going to be worse than ever, and I didn’t even have so much as a shoulder to cry on. Life really had hit rock bottom. Suddenly, as I shivered in the cold beneath my thin jacket, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. My heart leaped in my chest — “Ryan?” I whispered, pulling my phone out. But it wasn’t Ryan. It wasn’t a number that I recognized; in fact, it was probably a scam call. I was desperate, though, and answered just on the extremely rare off chance that maybe — just maybe — it would be some good news. “Hello?” I answered, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk and nearly being bowled over by a group of teen girls who were happily swinging their shopping bags back and forth and who were snickering about my ratty winter coat. “Is this Olivia?” a male voice said on the other end. “Um… Yes,” I responded. “Who is this?” “I’m calling from your former pack,” the male voice said. “It’s about your eviction.” Suddenly, I felt sick. Why was my old pack calling me? I hadn’t spoken to anyone from that pack in years; the last time I saw any of them was when my dad and I got kicked out by the Alpha for no real reason. This had to be some sort of sick joke. “What about it?” I asked. I almost considered just hanging up, but I had to admit that I was somewhat curious. “Your eviction order has been lifted, effective immediately,” the man said in a warm tone of voice. “You may return any time you wish.” My eyes widened. “R-Really?” I asked. “Can I come back now?” The man paused. “Like I said, you can return any time you wish,” he said. I felt like jumping for joy. A cheer almost escaped my lips, but I clapped my hand over my mouth just in time. The man started to say something else, but suddenly a group of Christmas carolers started singing loudly right beside me, and I couldn’t hear him “Sorry, sorry,” I said, ducking into another alleyway so I could hear her. “What were you saying?” The man chuckled. “I said that the Alpha is also getting married,” he said. “And you’re invited.” “Oh.” I scrunched my eyebrows together. It was odd for the Alpha to invite someone like me to his wedding. I was already a low status werewolf before my dad and I got evicted, and now I was even lower as someone who was just allowed back in the pack. “Are you sure he meant to invite me?” I asked. “Yes,” the man replied with another laugh. “You’re Olivia Wild, are you not?” “I-I am,” I said sheepishly. “If you don’t mind me asking, who is the new Alpha? It just feels odd—” “Nathan Ford.” At the mention of my old friend Nathan’s name, my eyes went even wider than before. My joy was immediately replaced with utter shock. I hadn’t talked to Nathan in years, not since he stood by idly and allowed the old Alpha to expel me and my dad. And now he was not only the new Alpha of our pack, but he was also getting married? I did want to go back to the place that I left ten years before. After all… I didn’t have anywhere else to go, did I? And besides: I missed my old home. The thought of going back and starting over made my heart feel light. “Um… Thank you,” I said. “I’d be happy to come back.” ———— My only remaining relative was my aunt, who owned a villa. My aunt was an eccentric older woman. She didn’t have any children of her own; in fact, I was pretty sure that she just didn’t even like children to begin with. She was always indifferent toward me, and after my dad and I were evicted from the pack, she never tried to contact either of us. I would have preferred not to go to her for help, considering the fact that we were never close. But it was freezing cold out, it was getting late, and I had nowhere else to go. As I made my way down the street, my aunt’s villa slowly came into view at the end of the street and instantly filled me with an overwhelming sense of nostalgia. I walked up to the tall wrought iron gate and pushed on it. It swung open with a loud creak.
Olivia The tall hedges that surrounded the property reminded me of the days I would spend with my childhood best friends, Nathan and Alvin, as we would play hide and seek amongst the thick branches. The cupolas on either side of the house reminded me of how we would climb up there against my aunt’s wishes so we could look at the birds’ nests, and how we would get a good scolding from my aunt afterwards. Inside, I could see a light on upstairs in my aunt’s bedroom. Seeing that light filled me with a bit of warmth, and I paused for a moment to look up at it with a smile on my face. “Olivia?” a somewhat familiar voice suddenly said. It sounded different, gruffer, but I still recognized it immediately. I spun around to see my aunt’s gardener, an old man named Clint, standing behind me in his wool sweater and worn overalls. “Clint,” I said with a smile. The gardener, who was getting on in years now, walked up to me and wrapped his arms around me. He had a limp now, which he didn’t have before. “Your leg…” I muttered, pointing. The old gardener shrugged. “Arthritis,” he said. “They weren’t lying when they said that getting old ain’t for the faint of heart. Anyway… You’re back in the pack now, huh?” I nodded. “My eviction order was lifted,” I said. “But I don’t have anywhere to go. I hope my aunt will let me stay here until I get back on my feet.” Suddenly, Clint’s eyes went from smiling to full of sorrow. “You haven’t heard?” he asked quietly. I shook my head and scrunched my nose. “No. Haven’t heard what?” “Your aunt died six months ago,” he said. “In her sleep.” At that moment, I felt my heart sink and absolutely shatter at the bottom of my stomach. I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing would come out other than a strained squeak of pain. Sure, my aunt and I didn’t have the best relationship, but she was all I had left now. But now, it seemed as though I really had no one. Before anything could be said, I stumbled forward and threw my arms around the old gardener. He stiffened for a moment before he wrapped his arms around me and let me cry into his shoulder for several minutes. When no more tears would come, I stepped back and wiped my nose with my hand. “Sorry,” I muttered. “It’s just…” Clint shook his head. “Here.” He reached into his pocket and withdrew a sealed envelope, then handed it to me. “I’ve been keeping it with me in case you show up. Your aunt asked me to make sure that no one opens it except for you.” I took the envelope, still scrunching my nose as I blinked back tears. But when I opened the envelope, that look of despair turned into one of surprise. It was a deed to the house with my name on it, along with a key. After all these years, my aunt had left her villa to me. I was stunned. “R-Really?” I whispered, looking up at the gardener with tears in my eyes. He nodded, and smiled slightly through his thick mustache. “Yep,” he replied. “I don’t know what’s there. But that was the blessing your aunt left you.” My eyes were wide as I looked up at the old villa. As if I was in a trance, I slowly walked up to the front door and put the key into the lock. I turned it and heard the satisfying click before I swung the door open and looked into the place of old memories and new beginnings. As I walked in and flicked on the light, a gasp caught in my through. It looked perfect, as though it had been renovated. I guessed that my aunt must have fixed it up before she died, which was confusing considering the fact that she was always so particular about the style of the house. Before, it was rather outdated and now, it was fully outfitted with modern appliances, freshly painted walls, and even the old, rattley windows had been replaced. “Clint—” I turned around, but he was gone. I was alone now in this house, but I didn’t mind. As I slowly walked in, still in shock, I ran my hands along the wooden table in the dining room. I peered into the old living room to see that it was outfitted with all new furniture, although my aunt’s old rocking chair still sat in the corner. Just seeing it brought more tears to my eyes as I imagined her still sitting there, her knitting needles clicking together furiously as she listened to the radio. The radio was still there, too. I headed upstairs next. The stairs still creaked as I walked up them, but it was like music to my ears. I trailed my fingers along the wall as I slowly walked down the hallway, and finally stopped in front of my aunt’s old bedroom. The light was left on; maybe Clint was cleaning and forgot to turn it off. The door was closed, but I could see the light spilling out from underneath the door. I couldn’t bring myself to open it — I couldn’t bring myself just yet to look into the room where my aunt used to sleep, and where she died. Not yet. I headed to the guest bedroom next, where the bed was freshly made with crisp white sheets and one of my aunt’s handmade quilts. The room was much more airy now, with light white curtains in the windows and lace throw pillows on the bed. It was a far cry from the way that my aunt used to keep it decorated, but I liked it. As I threw myself down on the bed, I let out a loud, bittersweet sigh. I wished that I could have talked to my aunt one last time… But the fact that she left her villa to me filled my heart with warmth. After all these years, I was just excited to start over fresh within the walls of my aunt’s villa that looked over the sea. … The morning sun was shining through my window when I woke up the next morning. But honestly, I could have slept longer if it weren’t for the fact that I could hear voices coming from downstairs. Did someone break in while I was sleeping? I quickly sat up, furrowing my brow as I tried to remember if I had locked the doors before I went to bed, but I knew that I did it. I was always so careful with those sorts of things. Maybe it was Clint or someone else, but either way, I grabbed my small folding knife out of my bag and slipped it into the sleeve of my sweatshirt before I slowly made my way down the stairs. With each step, the voices became clearer. And none of them sounded like Clint. “I’m thinking that we should convert this into a nice set of French doors,” a male voice said. “My fiancee likes to have her morning tea and do her yoga outside, so I think she’d like a nice patio area for that…” I swallowed, confused. French doors? Fiancee? What were they talking about? This was my house now— surely they had the wrong house. Suddenly, as I was slowly making my way down the stairs, my sock slipped on the wood and I found myself tumbling down the last few steps. I fell to the floor with a bang and a groan, and my pocket knife fell out of my sleeve and slid across the floor, right toward the location of the voices. There was a brief silence, followed by the same male voice. “Who’s there? Stay where you are!” the voice said. I scrambled to my feet, cursing under my breath, as I heard hurried footsteps approaching. Suddenly, I came face to face with my childhood friend, Nathan— the new Alpha of my pack. He was much older now, more handsome and no longer the awkward teenage boy that I remembered. As he looked at me, his square jaw and Cupid’s bow lips were lit from one side by the morning sun shining in through the window, and I couldn’t deny the fact that my heart melted a little just looking at him. His eyes widened as he saw me. Slowly, and without a word, he took three steps toward me. The smell of grapefruit salt on his skin floated across the air toward me, further bombarding my senses. There was a flash of bewilderment in my childhood friend’s eyes, followed by what looked like surprise. But there was something else there, too. Was it a hint of irony that I saw in my childhood friend’s eyes? Why was Nathan in my villa? There was something strange about my childhood friend’s demeanor as he stared at me. I could feel it. “Olivia?” Nathan asked, taking another step forward. The smell of grapefruit salt on his skin became even stronger now that he stood closer to me. “Why are you here?”
Olivia I blinked slowly, still taken aback by this sudden and unexpected interaction. We hadn’t seen each other in such a long time, and Nathan looked so… different now. He looked so much more mature than the rambunctious teen who I last saw before my dad and I got evicted by the old Alpha. “Nathan,” I muttered, smoothing down my messy hair from a night of sleep, “it’s… it’s good to see you. You’re so tall now.” Nathan stared at me for a moment. There was what looked like a ghost of a smile playing on his lips for the briefest of moments before his face turned stony. He seemed to drink in my appearance, as though he was appraising me. “You look good,” was all he said. I thought back to what the operator on the phone told me last night. Nathan, my childhood friend, was getting married now. He looked so mature now, but it still felt odd to think of him as a groom-to-be. It made me wonder… “Who is your bride?” I blurted out. Nathan looked at me in a surprised way for a moment, almost as though he didn’t expect me to even know that he had a bride. “Her name is Layla,” he finally said. “She’s the Alpha female from our neighboring pack.” “Oh,” I muttered. In a strange way, it made me a little sad to hear it. I had no clue who Layla was; Nathan, who was once my closest friend and someone who I told everything to when we were kids, someone who knew every little thing about me up until ten years ago, now had a life that didn’t have anything to do with me anymore. It felt strange and uncomfortable, and part of me wished that it was different. Suddenly, Nathan said something that took me by even more surprise. “Olivia, I didn’t think that you’d really dare to come back.” I was taken aback by this statement. The operator last night had told me that my eviction order expired, and that I was invited to the new Alpha’s wedding. Why was Nathan now acting as though he didn’t even expect my return? “What do you mean?” I asked. “I figured that you were the one who lifted my eviction order and wanted me to come back for your—” Nathan shook his head and folded his arms across her chest. I just now realized that his arms, which were once thin and twiggy, were now thick and muscular. He exuded the appearance of an Alpha. “Someone must have made a mistake,” he insisted. “Your dad’s eviction order did expire, but… I wouldn’t have invited you to my wedding. Why would I invite you?” Now, I was even more taken aback. “We were friends,” I said, trying to hide the shake in my voice. “Best friends… since we were kids. I thought that you wanted to rekindle our friendship.” Nathan looked puzzled. He paced away for a moment, leaning his hands on the dining room table with his back turned to me. Through the glass door that led outside, now that he had stepped out of the way, I could see that there was a team of craftsmen who were standing there and looking at us through the glass. When they saw me looking, they all turned away in unison and appeared to be looking at blueprints together. That must have been who Nathan was talking to. “That was a long time ago,” Nathan finally said, turning back to face me while he leaned back on the dining room table. He crossed his legs at the ankles and leaned back on his palms, his blue-green eyes staring at me in a stern way. But there was a hint of humor to it too, and that only made him look all the more handsome. In a strange way, his new stern Alpha appearance drew me to him. “We hardly know each other now. We were friends so long ago, when we were just kids. Both of us have changed. I wouldn’t invite a stranger to my wedding…” I was dumbfounded by my friend’s indifference, but even more than that, I was dumbfounded by his apparent disinterest in inviting me to his wedding when he was supposedly the one who invited me himself. At least, that was how it seemed. Was he just feigning indifference, I thought to myself? He had to be. “Look,” I said, deciding that it wasn’t worth it to get into what he said about our ‘little friendship’, “The operator told me specifically that I was invited to your wedding. Just last night, over the phone, he said that my eviction order was lifted and that I was invited—” Nathan waved his hand dismissively and chuckled. His voice was so much deeper now than when I had last seen him. Maybe he was right; maybe we really didn’t know each other anymore. “It must have been a mistake,” he said. He paused then and licked his lips, before standing up straight again and shrugging. Everything about his mannerisms exuded the spirit and arrogance of an Alpha, and it was a far cry from the awkward and heartfelt teenage boy who I used to know. “Well, since you know about it, I won’t be rude,” he said. “It would be disrespectful, after all, not to let you come after all of this. So, I guess you can come, Olivia. It seems to be important to you.” “Important to me?” I asked, feeling the beginnings of anger starting to bubble up inside of me. “I could care less about your damn wedding! Why would I want to go to a wedding if I’m not welcome, anyway?” Now, Nathan seemed to be the one who was dumbfounded. We stared at each other in shocked silence for a few moments, and during those moments I was reminded of all of the little cat fights that we had as kids. We were both bullheaded and emotional children, and our clashing personalities often led to arguments. Once or twice, we even got into physical scuffles over minor things, like who was allowed to have the last slice of pizza or who cheated during our games. I could tell that Nathan seemed to be remembering those days, too. The air between us felt electric, like we would burst out laughing at any moment now over this argument. Maybe then, we would be reminded of how close we used to be and we could rekindle what used to be a good friendship. In fact, the tension between us seemed to slip away as we stared at each other. A smile played on Nathan’s lips, and I couldn’t help but smile too at the ridiculousness of the situation. But then, suddenly, I remembered where we were: we were in my aunt’s villa, the morning after I received a key and the deed to her house with my name on it. Why, then, was Nathan in here first thing in the morning with a team of craftsmen, who were now all looking back through the windows again? “Nathan,” I said, shaking my head incredulously, “why are you even here? This is my villa.” Nathan frowned. The hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his lips instantly faded, and he narrowed his eyes. “Your villa?” he asked. “This isn’t your villa. This is my wedding house.”
Olivia “Your villa?” Nathan’s voice sounded disbelieving. “This isn’t your villa. This is my wedding house.” “What?” I scoffed. “You have to be joking.” Surely Nathan was just playing a joke on me. My aunt left me the deed to the house with my name on it, and her gardener, Clint, never mentioned any of this. Maybe Nathan was in charge of the renovations, and it was supposed to be a surprise. But the more that I thought about it, I was only reminded of how he had mentioned his fiancee’s needs when he was talking to the builders. “Isn’t it obvious?” Nathan asked. “This is my wedding house. I paid a high price for the most beautiful villa in town.” This all felt unreal. My aunt’s villa was my childhood playground. My aunt and I didn’t have the closest relationship, but I spent a lot of my time here growing up. I knew this house and its surrounding property like the back of my hand. In fact, I had spent a lot of time as a kid talking to Nathan about how I would change this place if I owned it myself. In fact, as I looked around me now, I suddenly realized that all of the renovations Nathan had made so far were exactly how I imagined it. He stole my vision, only for this to become his home with another woman! I felt heartbroken. There was so much I wanted to say, but all I could do was grit my teeth. Without a word, I stormed over to the kitchen area where I left the envelope that Clint gave me and shoved it in Nathan’s face. “My aunt left me the deed,” I said, watching with satisfaction as Nathan’s eyes slowly widened in surprise while he read it. “I’m her only living relative. Why would she leave the villa to you?” … A little over an hour later, Nathan and I were standing in the County Recorder’s office. Both of us had deeds in our hands; as it turned out, the pack’s treasurer sold the villa privately… and then immediately fled town, leaving us with two deeds, each with our respective names on them, and both of them were perfectly legal. “This is an uncommon occurrence, but it’s not entirely unheard of,” the clerk said, pushing her glasses up on her nose. “You’ll have to go to court if you want to settle it.” Before I could stop it, an audible groan came out of my mouth. I didn’t want to go to court; I just wanted to finally settle down after a decade of instability, and I wanted the comfort of a home that I knew well. Was that too much to ask? Nathan and I walked out of the office then and stopped in the street. The longer I looked at him, the more I seethed. “Listen,” he said, frowning. “We can either do this the easy way, and you can give up the house. Or we can go to court and it’ll be a pain in the ass. I don’t think either of us wants to do that.” “Why should I be the one to give up the house?” I growled. “It’s my aunt’s home. She left me the deed on her deathbed. If anything, I think that you should be the one to give it up. Not me.” Nathan frowned deeply, causing a shadow to cast over his handsome face. “I’m getting married, and I paid a lot of money not only to buy the house, but also to renovate it,” he said. “I’ve spent the past six months personally designing all of the renovations. The wedding is just a few days away, and I can’t possibly prepare another house in that amount of time.” I scoffed and folded my arms across my chest. “It was your father who saw to it that my dad and I were thrown out on the street,” I declared loudly, not caring if anyone else on the street overheard us arguing. “This is the only place that I have to live. I won’t just lie down and let you take it from me.” “I’m sorry you had to leave,” Nathan said quietly, sounding sincere. “But getting you back was the best that I could do. And now, I need this house to make sure that my wedding goes smoothly.” For a few moments, Nathan just stared at me with wide eyes. The blue-green hue of his irises glinted in the morning sunlight, and for a moment, he really did look like the kid that I once knew. Seeing him like this made me soften, and I sighed. “I won’t fight you for ownership of the house. At least, not before the wedding. I do want your wedding to go well, Nathan,” I said, internally noting the hopeful look in my childhood friend’s eyes. “So if you want to use the house for your wedding so you can host all of your friends and family there, it’s fine. But after that, we’ll have to sort all of this out.” Nathan nodded slowly. His blue-green eyes averted away from mine and stared unblinkingly down at the ground, and he chewed his lower lip just like I always remembered him doing when we were kids. Even though so much was different now, it seemed as though some things really did never change. Finally, he looked back up at me. His face seemed apologetic, and I felt myself soften a little bit more. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have been such a jerk earlier… Even though it was all just a mix-up over the wedding invitation, I do think my wedding would be more complete with you there. You were my best friend, after all, and I’d like you to be there.” I was a bit taken aback by this sudden change. It made me wonder if the Nathan who I saw earlier that morning in my aunt’s villa was his true self, or if it was all some sort of act. I thought that he changed so drastically, but now as I looked at him and saw the way that his blonde hair bristled in the salty morning breeze coming in from the ocean, all I could see was the kid who I had left behind ten years ago. “Well?” he asked with a sweet smile. “Will you come to my wedding, Olivia?” I chewed my lip for a moment, thinking, before I finally nodded. “Alright,” I said. “But afterwards… I want to work this villa situation out.” … Nathan let me stay in the villa for the next couple of days leading up to the wedding, which felt ironic considering the fact that this was still supposed to be my house and I shouldn’t have had to get permission to stay there. But I obliged, because I really did want my friend’s wedding to go well. It felt disorienting, though, being back in this place that was so different now. The house felt entirely changed, and although it was beautiful, it still felt odd to walk around in a place that I once knew so well. One thing didn’t change, however: my aunt’s bedroom. Nathan had seemingly kept her room mostly the same. I tried avoiding her room at first, but on my second night in the villa, I couldn’t contain my curiosity any longer. I held my breath as I pushed the door open, as though she would be sleeping in there right now. But her bed was empty, and the handmade quilt that I remembered watching her make when I was little was perfectly folded. I sighed as I walked over to the bed and ran my hand along the quilt’s smooth fabric, taking note of the way that her reading glasses, which were now covered in a fine layer of dust, were still sitting on the bedside table along with an equally dusty book that was dog-eared in the middle. I sniffled as I picked up the book that she didn’t even get to finish and thumbed through it. When I looked down, I noticed that the drawer to her side table was cracked open a bit. Once again, I glanced over my shoulder as though she would be standing behind me, before I pulled the drawer open. The photo album that she kept there was still in its place. Unlike the book and the glasses, the photo album was clean and not dusty at all, which made me wonder if anyone had been looking at it recently. Smiling, I pulled the old photo album out and sat down cross-legged on my aunt’s creaky bed. For over an hour, I couldn’t help but look through it again and again, smiling at old Polaroid pictures of me and my friends when we were just kids. We felt so grown-up at that time, but now looking back at our missing teeth and ripped overalls, I realized just how little and innocent the three of us were. But at the same time, seeing those old photographs of Nathan and me as kids, before his wife-to-be ever came into the picture, filled me with an unexpected sense of bitterness. I quickly snapped the photo album shut and shoved it back into the drawer. “It’s just nostalgia,” I whispered to myself as I shut off the light and returned to my own bedroom. “Nothing more.”
Olivia On the day of the wedding, I got dressed up and arrived at the church where the ceremony was held. Really, I was wearing a cheap dress with the tags still on it so I could return it after the wedding. Even though my aunt left me the villa, I still didn’t have much money to my name after being evicted from my pack for a decade, and so I didn’t exactly have the luxury of buying fancy new dresses for nice occasions. For this very reason, I felt as though I was sticking out like a sore thumb as I walked up the front steps to the church. Inside, I immediately realized that the church was full of people who I knew from my childhood. A lot of my childhood friends from grade school were in attendance. While many of them looked in my direction, no one said anything to me. In fact, I felt like an outcast; and that was only solidified when Nathan’s father, Colin, turned around in his seat and shot me a dirty glare. Colin was the previous Alpha of the pack. After he joined forces with the pack elders, he was the one who evicted me and my father. I was still haunted by his dark and grim face on the day that he banished me and my dad and heartlessly threw us out on the street. I was still haunted by the fact that Nathan stood by and did nothing when that happened, but at least Nathan seemed to be trying to make a difference now. His father, on the other hand, still seemed to have an abiding hatred for me even though it was ten years since I left and I didn’t have the courage to confront him about it. I instantly felt uncomfortable beneath the gaze of Colin and my estranged childhood friends, and so before I even took my seat, I quickly scurried off to find the bathroom to gather my thoughts. I passed through a set of double doors off to the right of the pews, and headed down a narrow hallway to look for the bathroom. Along the way, I passed by a few different rooms in the church. “The dress really is so lovely… Where is my veil?” I heard a light, melodic female voice say. I passed by the room where I heard the voice coming from, and caught a glimpse of the bride for the first time as she was surrounded by her bridesmaids; she was just as beautiful as I imagined. Although she was thin, pale, and surprisingly looked quite frail for an Alpha female, she was gorgeous nonetheless. Her long blonde hair cascaded down her back in perfect curls, and she had long eyelashes with a cute nose that turned up a little at the end. She had round, pouty lips and a slender neck, which was accentuated by the delicate lace of the demure bridal gown that she was wearing. She was utterly stunning… But as I passed, I couldn’t help but notice a certain subtle sadness about her. Maybe it was just the nerves of a bride on her wedding day. Before anyone saw me, I passed by the door and continued my search for the bathroom. But along the way, I came across another open door. This room was quiet, but there was a certain negative energy emanating from it in an odd way. I paused as I quietly peered in to see Nathan sitting on a couch with his head down. He was clutching his phone so tightly in one hand that his knuckles were white, and his other hand was supporting his head, running his fingers through his blonde hair repeatedly. He seemed nervous at first, but when he suddenly jerked his head up to look at me, I realized that he didn’t seem nervous; he seemed distraught. There was a long silence between us. I wasn’t sure if I should go in there and try to talk to him, or if I should just leave him alone with his thoughts. It seemed, however, that the groom-to-be made that decision for me. “Do you need something, Olivia?” he asked curtly. I swallowed and took a step back. “U-Um… Where is the bathroom?” I asked. Nathan silently pointed down the hall. Without another word said between the two of us, I scurried away with the image of his distressed face burned into my mind. On a day that was supposed to make Nathan the happiest person alive, why did he look so upset? … “Nathan Ford,” the priest said as the bride and groom stood at the pulpit. “Do you take Layla to be your lawfully wedded wife?” Around me, the church was full of smiling people. Older women dabbed at their tears with handkerchiefs while younger women looked up at Nathan and Layla with smiles that secretly showed hints of jealousy. At the pulpit, Layla looked even more stunning in her gown with her veil attached to her head, and she held a bouquet of white lilies in her hands. I even caught myself sniffling a few times; it was a really beautiful wedding. But for some reason, Nathan hesitated just before he was supposed to say “I do”. The longer he waited, the more the crowd began to murmur in confusion. I felt my eyes widen as I looked up at him and took note of the way that he kept opening and closing his mouth, as though he wanted to say the words but couldn’t get them out. Was he just nervous, or was he having cold feet? I thought back to the way that he looked in the room in the back of the church and wondered if he had been having second thoughts the entire time… “Nathan?” the priest said. Suddenly, Nathan shook his head and turned away from the bride, toward the crowd, resulting in a chorus of gasps. “I’m in love with someone else,” he announced. His eyes scanned the crowd, and then landed on… Me. While my heart raced in my chest, Nathan ran down the aisle. Before I or anyone else could stop him, he suddenly grabbed my hands and pulled me to my feet. And then he did something even more strange. “Olivia, I promise that I will take care of you… And our baby,” he said. He then placed his hand on my belly and smiled up at me. My eyes were wide. I felt my blood run cold. Why was he doing this? I wasn’t in a relationship with him, and I certainly wasn’t pregnant with anyone’s baby, let alone his. This had to be some sort of mental breakdown he was having— maybe he was too stressed from the wedding and was having some sort of delusion. But before I could say anything, the wedding goers were already talking in raised voices. At the front, I saw Colin stand up angrily, his glaring eyes fixed on me. I felt as though I was nailed to a pillar of shame, as the rest of the people in this church saw me as a homewrecker who was pregnant with an illegitimate child. Right now, I hated Nathan with a burning passion in my heart. How could he suddenly accuse me of something like this after not seeing me for a decade?
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