TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 253

Two hundred and fifty three

Cameron POV

The house had gone quiet after Evangeline stopped filling the empty spaces. She hardly came downstairs anymore, and at mealtimes she barely touched her food before pushing the plate away.

Before finding out who she really was, I would’ve thought she was sick again. Now I didn’t know what I was looking at.

Sometimes I’d find her staring through the sitting room window. A maid would call her name, and she’d flinch before turning, like she’d forgotten where she was. Dark circles settled beneath her eyes.

She drifted through the upstairs hallway without speaking, then wandered into the garden with nowhere to go. watched it happen and couldn’t make sense of any of it.

“Is she losing her mind?” Nadia asked as we stood behind a pillar, watching Evangeline disappear into her room.

“I almost feel sorry for her,” she muttered, then snorted.

“She should at least tell us what she did before she completely loses her mind.”

“That’s unlikely,” I said.

“Why?”

“She could be trying to fool us. But even if she isn’t, cornering her will only make her shut down. She already knows she’s lost.”

“Waiting for her to confess is a stretch.”

Evangeline wasn’t carrying herself like someone who’d won. She looked hunted. That didn’t mean she’d tell the truth. She could still take every answer she knew to her grave.

We stepped onto the balcony and leaned against the rail.

“So what’s the plan?” Nadia asked.

“You stay close to her.”

She shot me a look sharp enough to cut.

“Talk to her. Don’t interrogate her. She might tell you more than she realizes.”

Nadia laughed. “Easy for you to say. You can’t stand her anymore. You used to fuss over her whenever she was around. Now you barely notice she’s here.”

She wasn’t wrong.

I was tired. Pretending I still needed Evangeline wore me down more than fighting Dominion ever had. Every smile felt rehearsed. I didn’t want her dead. I wanted whatever had wrapped itself around her life to let her go, and let me go with it. Too many people had already paid the price.

“I’m not promising, but I’ll see what I can do.”

I managed a half smile. “Just don’t push.”

She rolled her eyes, but she understood. Evangeline was hanging by a thread.

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Franklin joined us. He’d spent all of yesterday avoiding me, including my calls. He already knew why I wanted him. “Any news?” I asked.

Nadia excused herself as Franklin watched her leave.

“I spoke to Susan again this morning. She said Lisa’s fine. I also confirmed with Kieran.”

“And?”

“She said she’ll call when she’s ready.”

I held his gaze.

That was the same answer he’d given me for days. Franklin lied when he thought it protected me. I’d hated it, but I’d understood it. This felt different.

His eyes drifted over my shoulder.

Very typical.

He cleared his throat. “About the park hospital…”

I cut him off.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

“Come on, Cameron. I’ve told you everything I know.”

I shook my head.

“You’ve told me everything you want me to know. You expect me to believe nothing happened to Lisa?”

“Then call Susan,” he snapped.

I said nothing. He knew I was tired of calling her. Every conversation sounded the same. Every answer came wrapped in the same careful tone.

“Did Meridian take Lisa?”

Franklin scratched the back of his neck. His mouth opened, then closed.

“Of course not. If they did, nobody would hide that from you.”

“Then why is everyone hiding where she is?”

His eyes shifted past me.

I turned.

Evangeline stood in the hallway. She looked at us, then walked upstairs without a word.

Neither of us spoke until her footsteps faded.

“Why is she acting so creepy?” Franklin muttered.

“Let’s get back to Lisa,” I said quietly. “More than anything, you know I hate being kept in the dark.”

“I know. I promise you, if anything comes up, you’ll hear it from me.”

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The rest of the afternoon passed in meetings, phone calls, and work that demanded my attention. None of it stopped my mind from circling back to Lisa. Every quiet stretch ended the same way.

Where was she?

A knock broke through my thoughts.

“Alpha, you have a visitor.”

I looked up. After the visit from that strange woman weeks ago, I’d changed one rule around my office. Nobody walked through that door without being cleared first.

My assistant handed me a folder.

“It’s Kade, Evangeline’s brother.”

That caught me off guard. We’d never been enemies, but we weren’t friends either. He’d never hidden how much he hated Lisa becoming my surrogate. After everything with his sister, I couldn’t think of a reason he’d come looking for me.

“Send him in.”

“Of course.”

He stepped inside a short while later.

The swagger I’d always associated with Kade was gone. His shoulders sagged, and the strain on his face made him look like he hadn’t slept.

I gestured to the chair across from my desk.

“What brings you here?”

He sat, rubbed a hand over his beard, then looked up.

“I think my sister’s in trouble.”

I hadn’t expected that.

“What makes you think so?”

“It’s obvious she’s not okay.” His jaw tightened. “And whatever assignment they gave her, she’s running out of time.”

My pulse kicked.

He told me about the arguments at home. His mother and sister barely spoke anymore. Drivers and assistants suddenly stopped answering simple questions, and anyone he pressed became defensive.

“It feels like I’m the suspicious one for asking.”

I let him talk.

Part of me waited for the trap. The rest listened.

But nothing in his voice sounded rehearsed. Nothing about him suggested he knew what Meridian really was. He only knew his family was falling apart.

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“And your father?”

Kade let out a dry laugh.

“That one? He’s practically a vegetable. He does whatever my mother tells him.”

If only he knew.

I explained Dominion without giving away more than he needed.

We compared what we knew. His answers filled holes in mine. Mine explained things he’d never been able to make sense of. He confirmed his mother’s behaviour hadn’t been normal for years. I confirmed Evangeline was hiding far more than either of us had realised.

“The only person who knows the whole truth is your sister,” I said. “She’s either too scared to tell it or she thinks she can’t.”

Kade rubbed his face.

“This is messed up. How can someone need help this badly and still keep quiet?”

Silence settled between us.

Then he looked at me.

“Lisa called me a few weeks ago.”

My grip tightened on the armrest.

“She did?”

He nodded.

“She asked questions about Eva and our mother. I thought she was reading too much into things until I saw how those two couldn’t stand each other anymore. Then people started warning me to stay out of it.”

Lisa reached out to him.

Why him?

Why not me?

“You think your mother dragged your sister into this?”

“I do.” He met my eyes. “And she owes her a way out.”

He wasn’t wrong.

If Nadia had been pulled into something she didn’t understand, I’d be sitting exactly where Kade was.

“We can only do what’s in front of us,” I said. “Getting her to tell us the truth is the hard part.”

He nodded.

“I’m going to your house. I’ll stay with her. Maybe she’ll talk.”

It wasn’t a bad idea.

“I’ll be there when I’m done here. We’ll speak to her together.”

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He had barely reached the door when it opened.

Franklin walked in with a stack of files.

“These need your signature before…”

He stopped when he saw Kade.

The two exchanged nods, and Kade left.

Franklin shut the door behind him.

“What was he doing here?”

I leaned back.

“He told me Lisa called him.”

His brow creased.

“She did?”

“A few weeks ago. She was asking about Evangeline.”

His eyes dropped to the files.

“I see.”

“Do you?” I asked. “Because I didn’t tell her to call him.”

“Defensive already?” I picked up my pen and pointed it at him.

Then I grabbed my keys.

“I’m going to find Lisa.”

“Cameron, no.”

“No what? Everyone keeps hiding her from me.”

“You won’t find her.”

I stared at him.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s all I know.”

He pulled out his phone and held it toward me.

“Call Susan.”

I didn’t move.

He answered the call himself, then handed me the phone.

“Susan. Let me speak to Lisa.”

Silence.

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“No.”

Her voice was calm, but the warmth she usually forced into it was gone.

“Cameron, Lisa is safe. She’s where she needs to be.”

The same answer.

Exactly the same.

I closed my eyes.

“When do I see her?”

“When the baby is born.”

My head snapped up.

“That’s months away, Susan.”

“I know.”

“You expect me to accept that? She’s carrying my child.”

“I expect you to trust that she’s being protected.”

“Protected from who? I’m fine now.”

Nothing.

Not a word.

I lowered the phone and ended the call.

It took everything I had not to throw it across the room.

I handed it back to Franklin.

“Whatever you know, start talking.”

“Cameron, don’t drag me into this. All I know is they took her somewhere safe and they’re making sure the pregnancy is monitored.”

“And we’re supposed to trust them?”

He shrugged.

“The same way she trusted you after you almost hurt her.”

The words landed hard.

“That was low.”

“Someone had to say it.”

I dropped into my chair.

Everyone I trusted knew where she was.

Everyone except me.

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My fingers drummed against the desk.

One way or another, I was going to find her.

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