Chapter 339
Author’s pov
Harper returned to the private room, her thoughts still spinning from the call.
Cecilia and Tang had already picked out their food, the menus resting on a weathered wooden table between them.
“Harper, here’s what we picked,” Cecilia said, sliding the menu toward her. “Take a look, see if there’s anything else you want p>
Harper sat down without a word. Her eyes drifted to a faded painting of ocean waves on the wall, but her mind was somewhere far away.
[ Alpha Xavier had somehow gotten into Tiffany’s phone. That wasn’t random. He’d clearly gone out of his way to make it happen. ]
[ But why?
Was he trying to get I to talk Cecilia into ending the pregnancy? That didn’t add up. He knew I would never go along with that. ]
[ So what was the point?
Was he just trying to mess things up between Cecilia and Alpha Sebastian? ]
“Harper? Hello? Earth to Harper?” Cecilia waved a hand in front of her face.
“What? Oh…sorry,” Harper blinked and looked back at her.
Cecilia pressed the menu into her hands. “Just check if there’s anything else you want to add p>
Harper glanced down, barely reading the words.
“You went to the bathroom and came back like you saw a ghost,” Cecilia said, her tone shifting. “What happened p>
Harper quickly marked a couple of dishes, then looked up. “It’s nothing serious. My stomach’s been a little off again. I just needed a second to pull myself together p>
There was no way she was telling Cecilia aboutAlpha Xavier’s latest stunt.
Not right now. Cecilia was pregnant, and the last thing she needed was more crap from her crazy ex.
Cecilia gave her a look but didn’t push it. She nodded and let it go.
The three of them finished their meal, laughing and chatting like everything was fine. None of them knew Alpha Xavier had used that call to track Harper’s phone. He was already on the road, closing in fast.
Luckily, they were gone by the time Alpha Xavier got there.
But the restaurant’s security camera had caught a shot of their license plate. That was all he needed to narrow things down.
At one o’clock, they arrived at the lake house. It was built right into a rocky hillside, tucked above the waterline of a quiet mountain lake. The place looked incredible.
From the outside, it looked like part of the pine-covered slope. The entrance was barely visible unless you knew exactly where to look. The place was quiet, tucked away, and practically invisible.
Most importantly, only Alpha Sebastian knew it existed.
“Holy shit,” Harper muttered as their SUV drove straight into the hillside garage. “Rich people really do live in a different universe p>
Inside, the living room was huge. You could probably run a spin class in there. Tall windows gave them a clear view of the still blue lake and the forested mountains beyond.
Harper stepped further inside, slowly turning in place, taking it all in. Her eyebrows lifted. “Okay… now I get it,” she murmured. “Sebastian doesn’t rent Airbnbs. He builds Bond villain lairs p>
Cecilia didn’t even look. She pulled out her phone and checked for service. Nothing. No bars at all.
She sighed, not in frustration, but like she’d expected it. Her thumb hovered over the screen for a second longer than necessary before she locked it and slipped the phone back into her hoodie pocket.
Just like Alpha Sebastian said it would be. The house was completely cut off for security.
That afternoon, Cecilia took a long nap.
When she woke up, feeling like a new person, she dragged Harper into the kitchen and insisted they cook dinner from scratch.
The next four days went by in a calm, almost dreamlike way.
The lake house had everything: a modern kitchen, a rooftop garden, a stone-lined hot tub, and a private trail that led down to the water’s edge.
Tang spent most of his time outdoors, either scaling rocks like a mountain goat or jumping into the cold lake like he was auditioning for a wilderness survival show.
Cecilia and Harper relaxed under the aspen trees on the rooftop deck, sipping cold drinks and watching the ripples spread across the water.
Every now and then, they also watched Tang. His shirtless hikes were turning into surprisingly fun entertainment.
It was so calm, so ridiculously luxurious, that for a while they actually forgot they were hiding.
Every night, after the girls went to bed, Tang slipped out to a spot on the ridge above the lake where he could finally get a signal.
He called Alpha Sebastian and sent him short videos.
Sometimes it was Cecilia sitting on the dock, watching the reflection of the trees.
Other times, she was laughing while cooking or lying on a lounge chair with a book in her lap.
It helped calm Alpha Sebastian down. He was completely lovesick.
“She hasn’t said anything about me?” Alpha Sebastian asked one night, trying to sound casual and failing miserably.
“Oh, totally,” Tang replied. “At dinner she said she misses you so much, she can’t sleep p>
He said it with a straight face, but his eyes flicked toward the video he’d just sent.
Alpha Sebastian stared at the video Tang just sent him. Cecilia was fast asleep under a blanket on a deck chair, a paperback resting on her chest.
Her mouth was slightly open, her hand still loosely holding the corner of the book like she’d fallen asleep mid-sentence.
Seriously? This was her version of insomnia?