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“Because I have to,” he said, exasperation creeping into his tone. “If I didn’t come here, Jane would have had to and she’s got enough on her plate.”

“I agree, which is why neither of you should’ve jumped when the lawyers called.”

Alex stood firm. “Look, you still don’t have to let him back into your life. He’s asking for one conversation, not a relationship, and you carrying this much anger⁠—”

“Is what he deserves after everything he’s done,” I snapped, finishing the sentence for him. “My anger is my problem, Alex. Not yours.”

“You might think that, but just hear me out.”

I scoffed and swiped my bag up from the counter, heading straight for the door. “I have class. Don’t come back here if it’s about my father. There’s a key under the mat. Lock up when you’re done with your coffee.”

As soon as I reached the door, I yanked it open and took off. Alex was trying to protect Jane. I got that, but they were letting Court in and look where that was leading. For me, protecting Alicia—and myself—meant staying as far away from that man as the press would let us.

CHAPTER 36

ALICIA

When I heard the first whispers erupt, I figured it was just people who thought I’d admonish them for speaking in the library. The women cut off when I looked at them, turning back to whatever they were reading and bending their heads even closer together, but the second group was different.

Three men stood near the water fountain, outright scowling at me and not looking away or shutting up when I glanced in their direction. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. What the heck?

By the time I reached the circulation desk, I’d noticed at least a few more stares and one more group whispering, so I stopped, pretending to straighten a stack of returned picture books while I tried to figure out what was going on. One of the junior librarians glanced at me as I shuffled the books, then immediately looked away when I caught her staring.

I frowned. People here didn’t look away from me like I’d busted them cheating on their homework, least of all my coworkers. Children sometimes hid behind their mothers if they were shy, but that was about it. This, however, was not that.

The junior librarian wasn’t even discreet about it when she sneaked another peak at me. Then she shot up from her chair and pulled out her phone, typing furiously as she practically ran in the opposite direction. I put the books down, relieved when I saw one of my friends from work walking toward me.

“Good morning,” I said, smiling.

“Morning,” Sarah replied too quickly, then hurried away like she might catch a contagious disease if she stayed within five feet of me for more than thirty seconds.

I sighed, my head shaking as I finally walked to the children’s section and dropped my purse in the drawer. Two moms were standing beside the dinosaur display, speaking quietly until they saw me approach. The first woman’s mouth snapped shut mid-sentence while the other gave me an apologetic smile.

“Can I help you find something?” I asked. “If your son is interested in dinosaurs, we’ve got⁠—”

“No, thank you,” she cut me off, sliding forward to put herself between me and her little boy. “We’re fine.”

I nodded, but I definitely sensed hostility from her for some reason. Why she’d felt the need to physically protect her child from me, I didn’t know, but I needed coffee if this was what the day was going to keep throwing in my direction.

When I walked into the employee lounge, I was almost at the ancient coffeemaker when I noticed a newspaper spread across the table. Normally, I wouldn’t even have given it a second glance, but today, the sight made my stomach drop and my heart stammer.

I drifted closer on numb knees, convinced I was hallucinating until I was right next to the table, but this was very, very real. Someone had even circled the photograph splashed across the center page in black ink.

It was a picture of Holden and me arriving for the Halloween Gala at this very library. My hand was tucked into the crook of his arm and his body was turned slightly into mine, like he’d been trying to shield me. Underneath it was a headline printed in such a large, bold font that it felt like it was screaming accusations at me. Thayer Heir Marries as Patriarch’s Release Looms.

Bile pushed up the back of my throat as I stared down at it, realizing it’d been published hot on the heels of another article detailing Mr. Thayer’s early release. He stared up at me from the page, the picture another of him wearing orange prison scrubs and a cold, hard expression.

It was just him this time. No Alex or Jane. I looked down at that face, properly able to see what he looked like for the very first time. Last night, I’d been so focused on how much he looked like Holden that I hadn’t been able to see past it, but right now, I found myself searching for differences rather than similarities. Unfortunately, outside of the obvious age difference, there weren’t nearly as many as I would have liked.

This man’s name had become synonymous with everything Holden hated and yet, a quick skim of the article about us revealed that the public didn’t see it that way. One paragraph described Holden as notoriously private and difficult, known for his icy temperament.

According to the next paragraph, a source had called him, “brilliant but volatile. Holden definitely has that same ruthless streak that defined his father.”

Oh, my God. That was Holden, but it also wasn’t him at all. Heaven knows, he can be rude and difficult, arrogant and dismissive, but he’s not ruthless. He’s certainly not cruel. Who the hell would say that about him?

As I read the rest of the article, tears started burning at the backs of my eyes. I thought about last night, about how torn up he’d been and how hesitant. I thought about his gentle kisses and the way he’d pulled the blanket over me as I’d been falling asleep. I remembered the Holden from this morning, shooting the breeze over six a.m. coffee with two old men who just so happened to live on our block. My mind drifted back to that morning when he’d been trying to fix the lawnmower and how he’d spent all night trying to install the espresso machine himself.

That wasn’t the man in the article, but at the same time, I knew Holden could be icy. I’d seen the way he could reduce someone to silence with just one sentence. Hell, I’d used him as a weapon against Nancy just a couple days ago.