Chapter 76

Judy’s POV

This was the scariest moment of my life. When Matt took a bite of the sandwich and suddenly, he was dropping to the ground, I had no idea what to do. I had never been put in a position like this before. His entire face turned red and blew-up like a balloon as he grabbed his throat; it was clear that he couldn’t breathe.

The only thing I knew at that moment was he needed an Epi-Pen, but Irene was completely frozen and did not hear a word I was saying. Before I knew what was happening, Gavin was bursting through the room. I hadn’t even noticed a maid was present until she followed him in; I was relieved because she went to get him without hesitation, and he seemed to have had an Epi-pen hidden in the parlor desk.

When Matt started to breathe again, my entire body relaxed, and I allowed the tears to flow down my cheeks.

“Call an ambulance,” Gavin growled at the maid. She nodded and rushed away to do as he ordered.

Gavin grabbed Matt out of my lap and cradled him in his own lap. He was breathing on his own now, despite the fact that his face was still very swollen. His eyes were closed too, and I wondered if he had passed out. I leaned against the couch, willing my heart to slow down and stop hammering against my ribcage.

“Who fed him peanut butter?” Gavin said through his teeth, his eyes red with fury.

I glanced at him with a frown; he was glaring at me, like I had somehow did something wrong.

“W…what?” I asked him, my voice coming out as a squeak.

“I asked you, who fed him peanut butter?”

I opened my mouth to reply, but Irene spoke first.

“Judy made him lunch,” she said quickly, pointing to the sandwich that was now on the ground. Gavin grabbed the sandwich and sniffed it; his pupils dilating as his aura darkened.

“Didn’t Taylor go over these things with you? I thought you were given a list of his allergies,” Gavin asked, his tone rising.

“I…” I wasn’t sure what to say; I was dumbfounded. I didn’t put peanut butter in his sandwich. I knew he was deathly allergic to it. I would never be so careless like that… but I couldn’t really explain how the peanut butter got into the sandwich I had made for him.

“Dad, you have to do something,” Irene said, as tears fell down her cheeks. “She almost killed him. She can’t be safe to be around here…”

My heart fell deep into my stomach. I stared at her with disbelief. She was crying, but I could tell there was more to it. She was playing Gavin like a fiddle right now and I was on the other end of this cruel joke.

Why was she suddenly doing this to me? I thought she said we were okay.

I could hear the ambulance in the distance. Matt groaned, bringing Gavin’s attention to him. He wiped strays of damp hair out of his face, cradling him tighter in his arms.

“It’s going to be okay,” he murmured against Matt’s head. “You’ll be okay. I’ve got you.”

My heart ached; he thought I did this on purpose.

I stared at the sandwich on the ground, confusion consuming me. I reached out and grabbed a piece of the bread and gasped when I lifted it and saw the peanut butter in the middle.

How had this been possible?

I glanced up at Irene who was glaring down at me, her eyes narrowed. She was the only other person in the kitchen with me. But would she seriously poison her own brother? For what reason would she have for this? He was only a little boy and did nothing wrong.

“You hurt my family,” Irene said, pointing her finger at me. “You can’t stay here and be Matt’s tutor any longer. Tell her, Daddy!”

Gavin said nothing; he was still focused on making sure Matt was okay.

Irene turned to her father.

“She can’t be trusted, especially with Matt. Her careless mistake almost cost him his life. You have to tell her she can’t return to the villa!” She said as more tears streamed down her cheeks.

Soon, the parlor was crowded with different EMTs and gamma warriors. I remained frozen on the ground while Irene pointed her fingers at me. She remained ignored though while Gavin spoke to the pack gammas and EMTs.

“I’ll meet you at the hospital,” Gavin finally said after they took Matt out of the room. He turned to Irene and narrowed his eyes. “Go with your brother,” he ordered.

She bit her lip and wiped at her moist eyes as she nodded. When she brushed past him, she paused and looked up at him.

“She can’t be trusted.”

He said nothing; he waited until the parlor was completely cleared and the sounds of the sirens faded off into the distance.

Taylor remained at the doorway though, his arms folded across his chest.

“Investigate what happened in the kitchen,” Gavin ordered him.

“Um… Alpha…” Taylor said, almost nervously. “The camera footage in the kitchen had been broken for the last couple of weeks, remember? You never ordered anyone to fix it.”

Gavin let out a growl that sent a chill down my spine.

“Do I need to make you do everything?? It should have been automatically fixed,” he stated through his teeth, his Alpha aura darkening as his anger grew more intense.

“I… I apologize,” Taylor said, lowering his gaze. “It was an oversight, and it won’t happen again. I’ll make sure it’s fixed by the end of today.”

“What good does that do me now??” Gavin asked, turning to face him fully, his eyes red with fury. “My son was poisoned, and we have no camera footage showing us who was responsible.”

“I’ll do what I can to investigate,” Taylor assured him. “The good news is Matt is alive.”

“If I was a second later—”

“But you weren’t,” Taylor said, stopping his thought process. “You have to think on the positive side.”

Gavin’s back was tense, and he released a shuttering breath that shook his broad shoulders.

“Find out what you can,” Gavin said, after a beat of silence.

“Yes, sir,” Beta Taylor said, nodding. He glanced at me, giving me a wary look before retreating from the room, leaving me alone with a very fuming Gavin.

I wasn’t sure what to say; my entire body was trembling as I watched Gavin pace back and forth like he was on the hunt, and I was his prey. He was looking everywhere but me though and it unsettled me even more. The Gavin I was starting to know was nowhere to be found; now he was just a giant ball of fury, and it left me feeling sick to my stomach.

He finally paused and looked at me, his eyes shining with difference.

“You were careless with my son’s life,” he said through his teeth, his eyes narrowed.

“Gavin—”

“Alpha!” He roared.

I trembled and lowered my gaze.

“Alpha…” I repeated, my voice coming out with a breathy whisper. “I don’t know what happened. I—”

“What happened was my son was fed peanut butter, and he had an allergic reaction. I trusted you to care for him and you let me down.”

“No, I—”

“Are you telling me you didn’t hand him the sandwich with peanut butter?”

“I’m saying I didn’t know there was peanut butter in it…” I said, tears spilling out of my cheeks.

He scoffed, curling his lips up in disgust and making the knot in my stomach tighten.

“It was your job to check for these things before allowing him to consume anything,” Gavin said slowly like I was incompetent of understanding him. I opened my mouth to speak, not sure what to say, but knowing I had to say something to calm him, but he cut me off with his harsh tone. “Leroy will take you home.”

“But—”

“I don’t want to see you in my villa for the unforeseen future,” he said sharply.

My heart cracked; he was kicking me out of the villa… and his life.

“Leave,” he ordered, pointing at the door. “And stay away from my family.”

…….

There was a knock on my bedroom door, and I lifted my head to see my mother standing at the doorway. She had a small frown on her lips and worry lines beneath her eyes. I had been locked in my room for the last couple of days, on and off crying. I hadn’t told her what was wrong, but she assumed it was because we were moving. The last place I wanted to move was Ethan’s family house, but at that moment, I didn’t have much of a choice.

I hadn’t heard from Gavin in almost 3 days and time was now running out. My mother sold the house to Meredith’s friend, and we were expected to be out by the end of the day. I spent most of yesterday packing and now my room was practically bare besides a few items of clothing and my bed.

“How about you come downstairs and enjoy lunch with me,” she suggested, her tone soft. “It’ll be the last time we eat as a family in this house.”

I wiped the tears off my cheeks.

“I’m not very hungry,” I murmured.

She sighed and stepped into my room, shutting the door behind her.

“I know you are upset about this move,” she began gently. “But you have to understand, I’m doing what’s best for our family. Once your father is out of prison and we are back on our feet, we can get a new house and move out of the Cash family mansion. I just need you to be a little patent.”

As upset as I was about this move, it was nothing compared to how upset I was because of Gavins’ distrust in me. I wanted to see Matt in the hospital… I called the hospital the other day and asked if he was awake and able to have visitors, but as soon as I gave them my name, they told me I wasn’t allowed to visit him and to not call again, right before they hung up on me.

Gavin won’t take any of my calls and Irene blocked my number completely. I was so lost… and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.

“Come on, sweetie,” my mom said, putting her hand on my back. “Let’s get some food and then we can discuss what our lives will look like in the upcoming weeks.”

I knew what our lives were going to look like… they were going to look like hell.