Chapter 328: Caught in the middle
"Will you please just give me his personal contact? I need to move quickly before some other woman decides he looks available and starts working her way into his life. I have been unsettled since this morning and it is completely unlike me, I don’t know what to do with myself." Laila said, and then seemed to catch herself, as though only now realizing how much she had just laid bare to someone she had treated as an enemy not so long ago.
She didn’t even fully understand why she was telling Viola any of this. But the woman was listening, actually listening, without judgment or mockery, and with the entire pack having turned its back on her the way it had, that was more than anyone else had offered her today.
"I really wish I could help, but Miss Serrano—"
"Call me Laila from now on," Laila interrupted, then continued without pause. "It seems like you’re about to turn me down, but I really hope you understand how the mate bond works. I need to be close to him, or I’ll be filled with pain and restlessness. As a woman, can’t you help another woman in need?" she asked, using a line she had once found cringeworthy, a line another she-wolf had once used on her during a she-wolf council meeting after Laila had refused to help with her own mate problem.
It had made Laila’s skin crawl at the time because she didn’t think any woman should manipulate another with words like those just to get help. But it seemed to be something they all reached for eventually.
Viola felt torn. But when it came to the matter of a true bond, a real fated one, was there anything she could realistically do to help Zoe fight against it? And seeing as Laila had swallowed whatever pride she had left and brought herself here, it must have been something she genuinely couldn’t control, and she would be relentless about it regardless.
Furthermore, if she helped the she-wolf get closer to her mate, it would sever every little thread she might have once had with her own mate, and Viola would no longer have to worry that she would try to seduce Sebastian in the future.
"All right. But please don’t tell him I gave you his contact, since he never gave it to you himself." She fished out her phone, noticed several missed calls from Nick, and let out a quiet sigh before searching for Gilbert’s contact information and sharing it with Laila.
Viola was caught completely off guard when Laila stood up and pulled her into a hug. "I owe you one. If you ever need anything, reach out to me and I will help you. Do you have any other tips about Gilbert I should know?" She asked, gripping Viola’s shoulders and looking at her with an eagerness that sat strangely on her usually arrogant, entitled face.
"Uhm... I only know that he eats a lot of shrimp and puts his work before everything else." Viola offered, and received another hug that stunned her just as much as the first before Laila held out a small contact card and said, "Here, I’ll be in touch if I need more."
Before Viola could clarify that this wouldn’t be becoming a regular arrangement, Laila had already reached the door and was waving back at her, looking lighter than she had all day. Viola stood there with pursed lips staring at the closed door.
"What on earth just happened?" She wondered aloud.
She shook it off and picked up her purse, ready to finally leave, when another knock came at the door just few minutes after Laila was gone.
This time it was Zoe, flustered, red-faced, utterly disheveled, and on the very edge of tears. She launched herself into Viola’s arms the moment the door opened and cried out, "I just did something really crazy, Vee. Oh goddess, I want to kill myself, but I also don’t want to die."
Viola held her and it became immediately clear that she was not going to make it to dinner with Nick tonight. Not with Zoe looking like a tomato that had also been crying. She set her purse back down on the couch, reasoning that if Nick came outside and didn’t find her, he would eventually come up and she could explain in person. Sebastian might be on his way by now too and maybe they could all have dinner together here.
"What’s wrong? What did you do?" She asked, feeling very much like a counselor who had somehow double-booked her clients, given that Laila had only just walked out of this same door moments ago.
"Do you remember when I told you I was going to work up the courage to finally ask my Doc out? Well, I just did." Zoe said, biting her nails anxiously. "I was feeling really low at home because I didn’t go into work today, and I picked up my phone and just... texted him. Told him everything. My feelings and all of it."
"You didn’t go to work? I thought you had clients to meet?" Viola asked, remembering that Nick had mentioned Zoe being busy, too busy to be his company.
Zoe pursed her lips. "Vee, there is a funeral happening in Silver today, what client would I possibly be meeting? Oh goddess. I tried to delete the message but he had already read it. I turned my phone off immediately and ran here. Will he think I’m undesirable? Should a woman really approach a man first? I’m going crazy. Tell me what to do."
Viola found herself swallowing hard, torn in a way she hadn’t been prepared for today. She had just helped Laila get closer to the very man Zoe had just poured her heart out to. If the matter came down to a fated mate bond, Zoe was going to be hurt regardless of anything Viola did, but she couldn’t possibly tell her that Laila was Gilbert’s mate. Could she?
"Oh Vee, say something, I feel like I can never show my face outside again. Maybe I should turn my phone back on and check his reply. Or maybe I shouldn’t. I really thought I could just stop having these feelings for him, I tried, but I couldn’t. I can’t forget that day in the main quarter when he put his hand on my back and carried my bag. And he said he liked my fashion house." She sighed from somewhere deep. "I think I am in love with him and it was hurting me that he couldn’t see it, so I texted him. How did you manage to win my brother’s heart, Vee? Tell me."
