‘I shouldn’t get close to him again,’ she told herself silently. ‘Getting close to him will only make me fall for him all over again.’
The thought hit her hard, making her chest tighten painfully.
She quickly stepped out of his house and called a cab back to the apartment. By the time she arrived, it was already late.
The moment she opened the apartment door, loud laughter echoed from inside.
Amara frowned slightly and stepped in.
Jasper and Juliette were sprawled across the couch together, laughing uncontrollably while staring at something on Jasper’s phone. The table in front of them was littered with empty beer bottles and half-finished glasses of alcohol.
Both of them were clearly drunk.
Amara blinked in confusion before walking closer.
“And here I thought you were going to wait for me,” she muttered, looking directly at Jasper. “Didn’t you say we were going to grab dinner together?”
Jasper looked up at her, completely drunk out of his mind. The second he heard her words, he burst out laughing.
“I am drunk as hell right now,” he slurred lazily, pointing at himself. “But if you want me to eat, I’ll gladly eat.”
Still laughing, he pushed himself off the couch while dragging Juliette up with him.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go—”
Before he could even stand properly, Amara immediately reached forward and shoved him back down onto the couch.
“You are in no condition to go anywhere,” she snapped. “You can barely walk to the bathroom. And you want to go to a restaurant?”
Juliette burst into laughter again while Jasper groaned dramatically and dropped his head back against the couch.
Amara crossed her arms and stared at him.
“Look at your face,” she said. “You’re about to drop dead. There are dark circles under your eyes, and you look like you’re seconds away from passing out. You don’t look like someone who should be anywhere near food right now.”
Jasper groaned louder in frustration while Amara shook her head helplessly.
“Let me get changed,” she told them. “I’ll come back.”
A little while later, she returned wearing a soft pink cotton nightdress that fell comfortably to her knees, the loose fabric making her look relaxed and at ease. She settled down with them on the floor beside the table, grabbed one of the glasses, and started drinking with them.
As they sat there together, she finally told them everything that had happened at Elias’s house.
By the time she finished, both Jasper and Juliette were staring at her in complete shock.
“I can’t believe your grandfather kept something this huge a secret from everyone,” Juliet said, her voice filled with shock. “And he asked Elias to hide it too?”
Jasper leaned back against the couch slowly, still trying to process everything.
“I wonder why he married you,” he muttered.
Juliette immediately looked at him.
Jasper rubbed a hand over his face before continuing drunkenly, “No, listen. I mean… why did he marry you if he didn’t like you?”
He frowned deeply, clearly trying to think through the alcohol.
“And even if he was only respecting your grandfather’s wishes… I still don’t understand what he was thinking. Why marry someone he knew he supposedly wouldn’t even be able to sleep with?”
