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God, Julian, why didn't you just tell me?

Tania just nodded, clearly lost in thought. Her cheeks looked paler than they had a few minutes ago.

I desperately wanted to know what was going through her mind at that moment. Was she worried about him? Did she ever think about him?

She didn't seem like someone who hated children and had given her son away for that reason. She seemed warm but also vulnerable, almost fragile. And yet she radiated resilience.

“I tried to keep an eye on him, but he's stubborn,” Alarik continued, and Tania raised both eyebrows with her lips slightly parted.

“You tried to keep an eye on him?”

Alarik looked at her for the first time, and I immediately noticed her posture stiffen.

“Yes. Does that surprise you?”

Tania immediately pounced on his comment.

“It almost sounds like you’re taking on responsibility.”

Her words didn’t seem to leave him cold. On the contrary. He stared at her a little too long.

“He lets Julian get away with all kinds of shit,” Nash scoffed.

I remembered the fight between the two of them and how they had recently talked to each other as if they had been friends for years, which Julian later had confirmed to me.

“Nash,” Tania admonished him again, sighing.

“I’m just being honest. Without him, Julian might have joined the pack long ago.”

Now he looked Alarik straight in the eyes, his expression full of unspoken accusations.

“He was never ready,” Alarik replied firmly.

Nash shook his head.

“Bullshit.”

“Nash, please.”

Tania seemed to want to avoid conflict – something I knew well from myself – and yet she couldn’t let the subject of Julian go.

I was surprised when she turned to me next.

“And you’re friends with this… Julian?”

It took all my strength not to tell her everything about him while looking at her with pity. She was obviously interested in her son.

“We're friends, yes.” Tania nodded attentively, and I felt compelled to continue. “At first we were just neighbors, but he helped me find my way around here.”

“Just the fact that you managed to get him to live with the witches,” Nash continued, trying to provoke Alarik.

“Is that true, Alarik?”

Tania suddenly looked concerned.

“There was no other place for him and his family,” Alarik replied, again without looking at her. “I negotiated something with the mayor for the Bardots back then.”

Tania stared at him before looking back at me.