Chapter 182

I sat on the loveseat, watching as Andrew paced the length of the sitting room to his private chambers. He had been at it since shortly after dinner, and I was certain that he was going to wear down the carpet at this rate. I knew that he only needed to work out his frustrated energy, but it was difficult to watch him being so hard on himself.

“I should have been able to protect her,” he muttered, more to himself than to me. “I should have been able to keep her and Bob apart.”

“We tried to warn her,” I said. “That’s all that we can do.”

“We should have tried harder.”

“Short of showing her the evidence—”

“We didn’t need to show her the evidence. That would have just put her in more danger. We could have told her more that he’s done.”

I cringed. That wasn’t exactly the path that I would have wanted to take, re-living everything that Bob had done to me since I had been released from prison. It wouldn’t have worked, anyway.

“She would have just thought that we were making more stuff up without solid evidence to back up the claims.”

Andrew sighed and shook his head.

“You don’t understand. I’m her father. There must be something that I could have done.”

“You did all that you could have done.”

He clenched his fist and pounded it against the palm of his other hand. His feet hit the floor to the rhythm of his hammering fist.

“No, I didn’t. That’s the problem.”

Curious, I leaned forward. I laced my fingers together and set them in my lap.

“What do you mean?”

“I have known the threat that Bob serves for a while now. I shouldn’t have waited so long to try and stop this wedding. Maybe if I had gotten to her sooner…”

Andrew plopped on the loveseat beside me and put his face in his hands. I put my hand on his back and rubbed his shoulder blade in small circles.

“I don’t think that it would have made a difference even then,” I argued. “Bob already had his hooks so far into her by that point that I doubt that anything would have changed her mind short of something disastrous.”

Under my breath, I added, “I would know.”

Andrew must have heard what I said. He lifted his head to look at me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. He held me close and kissed the top of my head.

“You know, that’s probably the worst part of this,” he said.

“What is?” I asked as I nuzzled my head against his shoulder.

“That I allowed Lisa to date Bob at all. I let this…snake into my garden in the first place.”

I took his hand and brought it to my lips, planting a kiss on the knuckles.

“You didn’t know the kind of monster that he was. He can be very charming when he wants to be…and when it serves his purposes. He’s also very good at hiding his true motives.”

“But that’s the problem. As Lisa’s father and the Alpha King, I’m supposed to sniff out all those people who try to get close to her with their charm just to use her or hurt her. I failed.”

Andrew leaned his head against mine.

“I’m a horrible father.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Lisa thinks I am.”

“I’m sure that she doesn’t.”

Andrew straightened in his seat and pulled out his phone out of his pocket.

“Take a look at these and tell me that you don’t think that she thinks that.”

He handed his phone to me. I arched a brow at him but took it regardless. On the screen was a text from Lisa.

I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT YOU AND THAT BITCH TEAMED UP AGAINST ME TODAY!!!

I blushed. Well, so much for Lisa hating me slightly less than she had when we first met. I didn’t need Susan to know that “10” was back to a zero.

Bob and I are together. We are getting married. You need to accept that.

I braced myself as I scrolled to read the next line.

If you don’t accept my relationship and officiate our wedding ceremony, LIKE YOU PROMISED, then I will never forgive you. I will never talk to you again. I will never have anything to do with you again.

This Crystal girl is a bad influence on you…

I couldn’t read the rest. I knew the kind of things that Lisa thought about me already. I didn’t need a written reminder.

I pursed my lips and handed the phone back to Andrew.

“I don’t know what to do,” he said, his voice sounding drained. “I can’t stand against the wedding now, or she’ll never speak to me again.”

He groaned and ran his hand over his face.

“At the same time, I can’t officiate a wedding that I’m so strongly against. It would kill me inside, and I don’t want Lisa to think that she can throw her weight around like this and make me do whatever she wants me to do.”

Andrew’s groan turned into a growl.

“There’s no way out!”

I reached up and gently brushed back Andrew’s hair. He smiled sadly at my tender gesture, but it did not quite reach his eyes.

It broke my heart to see him so resigned.

“Is there anything that I can do?” I asked.

Andrew seemed about to tell me no, but then he tilted his head in thought.

“Actually, there might be something.”

“Anything! Just tell me.”

“You can try talking to Lisa on your own.”

My eyes widened. I bit my lip, unsure of how to respond.

“Me…talk to Lisa alone…about her and Bob?” I asked.

Andrew nodded.

“I don’t know…”

Andrew grasped my hands in both of his. He stared straight into my eyes.

“Please, Crystal, you have to. You’re the only one who knows everything that Bob has done as well as I do…better, in fact.”

I couldn’t stand to look into his eyes at that moment. It was such a commanding stare, yet also imploring. I could get lost in those eyes, and I would not be able to say no.

I pulled my gaze away, casting my eyes toward the carpet.

“I don’t think that she’ll be very eager to talk to me, of all people, right now. You saw that text.”

His grip on my hands tightened at the mention of the text and what she had called me.

“I know, my love, but I can’t talk to her again,” Andrew argued. “She’ll disown me just for refusing to officiate the wedding. Yet I can’t let her go through with this, not without one last try.”

I exhaled through my nostrils. I knew that Andrew was right. This was the only way that he could try to help Lisa, even if she didn’t accept what we had to say.

“All right,” I said reluctantly. “I’ll try.”

Andrew smiled, more genuinely this time, and pulled me in for a bone-crushing hug.

“Thank you, Crystal,” he said. “You don’t know what this means to me.”

I returned his embrace.

“No problem,” I replied. “I just hope that it works.”

“It will have to,” I heard Andrew say under his breath.