Dr. Jalisco waved the others off. “Yes, West. Come to my office.”
“Can’t I just see her? Do we really need to waste time with the formalities?” I demanded.
“You know very well that formalities are important. She’s still having her wounds cleaned, and we certainly don’t allow that to happen while alphas are in the vicinity. Employee safety. You understand.”
I grit my teeth, but nodded. “Fine. Office.”
The small omega woman gestured for me to go back out the door I’d come through. Then she took the lead, taking me further down the hall until we reached a small office with huge windows on two walls.
I’d been in it a hundred times.
She tried to make it comfortable, but I hated this place with a fiery passion. It was where she’d give me updates on Violet’s condition, and the progress had always been far slower than I’d wanted.
I sat down in the bulky armchair in front of her desk, tapping my foot on the ground as she made her way around to sit in her ergonomic desk chair. She took a folder out of a drawer, flipping through the pages without a word.
“Get the paperwork over with, doc. What do you need to know?” I asked, leaning forward.
“Why haven’t you visited Violet?”
My heart kicked. “That has nothing to do with Talia.”
“I wasn’t lying when I said her wounds were still being tended. You can’t see her yet, so I’d like to talk about your sister.”
Dr. Jalisco tapped the end of a pen against her paperwork, peering at me with kind brown eyes. The way she looked at me… It was unnerving as fuck. Like she could see inside my soul. Knew what I was thinking.
I broke eye contact before answering. “Violet does better when I don’t visit.”
“That statement is inherently false. My data says the opposite, both for your sister and for omegas in general. Those with positive family support always show greater signs of psychological recovery than those who are alone here.”
She didn’t understand.
I wasn’tpositivefamily support. My sister had come to me for help and ended up here because I couldn’t protect her—I was only a reminder of what happened.
“How does Violet’s data say she does better when I visit? Can you really measure that sort of thing?” I asked.
“It’s in her assessment results. When you were visiting on a regular basis, we saw more consistent improvements on anxiety and depression screenings, as well as the omega-specific wellness screenings. Once you stopped visiting, she regressed for a while before those scores started to climb again. Even then, the scores didn’t improve as quickly as when she had you around.”
It sounded like a lot of psycho jargon to me.
But I’d trusted Dr. Jalisco with so much already—with my sister’s care, with Talia’s—it didn’t make sense to brush her off completely.
Could she be right about Violet needing me?
Violet’s words in the lobby hit me again, like a freight train to the stomach.
‘I would have improved faster if I’d had my brother’s goddamn support.’
“Are they done tending to Talia’s wounds yet?” I grunted instead of acknowledging any of that. “I’d like to see her.”
Dr. Jalisco sighed, dropping her pen. “They should be. Head back to the nesting lobby. I’ll call ahead that you’re good to go in with her.”
“Thanks.”
I fled her office like I had hellhounds on my heels, desperate to see Talia and put at least one of my worries to rest.
Chapter
Five
