Chapter 161
SOPHIA’S POV
The afternoon was kinder than the morning had been.
The cases were straightforward. I had a follow-up consultation, two routine check-ins, a young wolf who had shifted too aggressively during training and strained the muscles along his ribcage.
By the time I sat down at my desk for the first quiet moment of the day, the tension in my shoulders had dropped by half.
I remembered the hand cream that Lance gave me. I took it out now, unscrewed the cap, and began rubbing it carefully around the edges of the bandage on my right arm.
As I rubbed it in, my phone rang.
I glanced at the screen expecting the hospital’s internal line, or Marco checking in early, or possibly Bianca with a question about filming schedules.
It was George.
I picked up immediately, because I always did with George. Whatever else had broken down in the Stone family, my feelings about Damien’s grandfather had never been part of it. That man had been kind to me in a household that wasn’t, and that counted for something that didn’t expire just because a marriage did.
“George?” I answered. “Is everything alright p>
It wasn’t.
I knew before he even spoke properly. I could hear it in his breathing His wolf energy, even through the phone, felt agitated.
“Sophia.” He spoke. “I need you to come. Something has happened p>
I sat forward. “What happened? Are you hurt p>
“No, no. I’m not hurt. It’s Damien.” A pause, and I heard him swallow. “He and Tiffany. They’ve had a terrible quarrel. I don’t know all the details. Franca called me, she was frightened by how loud it became. He’s – Sophia, he’s enraged. I haven’t heard him like this in years. I think they may be finished, the two of them p>
I was quiet for a moment.
Something moved through me at those words. I didn’t feel satisfaction that I might have expected months ago, and not grief either. what moved through me was something more complicated and harder to name.
“George,” I said carefully, “I don’t think I’m the right person for this p>
“You are the only person p>
“Damien and I are divorcing.” I kept my voice gentle but firm. “Whatever is happening between him and Tiffany, that’s between them. It’s not my place to walk into that situation and try to manage it. It wouldn’t be appropriate p>
“Sophia p>
“You should talk to him yourself. You’re his grandfather. He respects you more than anyone.” I meant that sincerely. “If anyone can reach him right now, it’s you p>
“I’ve tried.” His voice cracked even more “He won’t listen to me. He won’t listen to Simon, he won’t listen to his beta. He has locked himself in his study and he isn’t speaking to anyone. But he will speak to you. He has always spoken to you when he wouldn’t speak to anyone else, even when you two were at your worst p>
I sighed. “George p>
“I am an old man, Sophia.” His breathing got heavier. He sounded really worried “I don’t say that to manipulate you. I say it because it’s true and because I need you to understand that I would not call you like this if I weren’t genuinely frightened for my grandson. This may be the last thing I ever ask of you. After the divorce, after all of this, I will never ask again. But tonight, I am asking p>
The room went very quiet around me.
I stared at the hand cream sitting open on my desk.
Why should I do this? Why should I drive to that house and stand in the middle of Damien and Tiffany’s disaster and try to put things back together for a man who never once tried to put me back together?
The questions were valid. Every single one.
And yet.
George was an old wolf and his voice was shaking. This man had sung alone at my birthday dinner because no one else would, and he had eaten the sweet dessert he wasn’t supposed to have just to make me feel celebrated. He had looked at me across a table full of people who tolerated me at best and treated me like I mattered.
I couldn’t ignore that.
“I’ll come after my shift ends,” I said. “I can’t promise I’ll be able to reach him. I can’t promise anything, George. But I’ll come p>
He sighed with relief. “Thank you, my dear. Thank you. I knew you would. I told myself, Sophia will come. She always p>
“Don’t thank me yet,” I said gently. “Just rest. I’ll be there in a few hours p>
I ended the call.
The hand cream was still open. I screwed the cap back on slowly. My mind was already moving ahead – past the end of my shift, down the road toward Stone Manor, into whatever I was going to find when I got there. I tried to construct what I would say to Damien, what tone to use. I wondered whether he would even let me into the study.
I mean, what do I saw to my ex husband and his side chick? This was ridiculous.
I didn’t have answers to any of my questions.
I put the hand cream in my bag, straightened my coat, and went back to work.
My shift ended at six-thirty.
I took longer than necessary packing up my things – folding my stethoscope, straightening papers that didn’t need straightening, standing at my office window for a moment looking at the car park below.
I was stalling.
Eventually I picked up my bag and walked out.
The drive to Stone Manor took twenty-five minutes. When I got there, I parked outside and sat in the car for a moment.
I thought about what George had said. He has always spoken to you when he wouldn’t speak to anyone else.
I didn’t know whether that was still true. I didn’t know what version of Damien I was walking toward. I didn’t know whether I was walking into a conversation or a wall.
What I knew was that George had asked me and I had said yes. And now I was here, sitting in a parked car outside a house that had never fully been mine, about to walk back into something I had been trying to walk away from for months.
I kept wondering in my head – what exactly am I going to say to Damien when I get in there?