Chapter 187 One has to be fixed
_Rowena’s POV_
The following morning, I called Celeste the moment I woke up. These days I felt like I was disturbing her too much because I was always calling her to clean up after the messes I found myself in.
She picked up immediately, I told her about the post, sent her the link, and she was already working on it before I finished explaining.
She never always complained, no matter what it was.
“I’ll have it down within one hour,” she assured me and began working.
But funnily, the post wasn’t down within one hour. I checked at the forty minute mark and it was still there, the share count got even higher than before. I checked again twenty minutes after that and it had moved to a different platform, the same photographs reposted by accounts I didn’t recognize with slightly different captions that were all asking the same question in different words.
I called Celeste back immediately to ask why.
“Someone is keeping it up,” she hurriedly explained and I could hear a tinge of frustration in her tone. The first time something stressed her out. “Every time I get one taken down another goes up. They’re working faster than my team right now which means they are prepared for this.”
“Prepared for it? What do you mean?” I asked, feeling confused.
“The photographs were taken deliberately,” she continued. “This isn’t someone who happened to see something and posted it. This is someone who had a person positioned at the hospital with a camera to capture anything serious to post.”
I sat with that for a moment. “Could it be Kaelen?” I asked slowly.
“Possibly,” she said, I could picture her shrugging. “I’ll keep working though.”
I ended the call and called Kaelen next, It rang four times and directly went to voicemail.
I didn’t give up and called again, but I got the same result.
The third time I called he finally picked up on the second ring.
“Rowena......”
“The photographs circulating everywhere,” I started. “The ones at the hospital yesterday. Were you responsible?”
“What photographs?” He asked instead, leaving me confused.
“Don’t even pretend, Kaelen.” I warned.
“Rowena, I genuinely don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, and his voice really sounded like he was in a state of confusion. “Send me the link. I’ll look at it.”
I hurriedly sent him the links, not just one because he needed to see what was ongoing at the moment.
He was quiet for a while before saying, “I didn’t do this,” he said. “I wouldn’t do this. Whatever you think of me right now, I wouldn’t do this. I swear.”
I ended the call, not letting him continue because I actually believed him, which made the situation more complicated rather than less because if it wasn’t Kaelen then I needed to think about who else had reason to want that photograph in circulation.
Thankfully, it didn’t take me much time. The answer came to me a few hours.
Alaric was being discharged that morning, I arrived at the hospital to find Brielle in the corridor outside his room, speaking to one of the nurses about his aftercare instructions.
She looked up when she heard my footsteps and her expression arranged itself into something pleasant. “Hi Marchioness Ro,” she beamed. “How are you?”
“The photographs,” I didn’t bother exchanging fake pleasantries with her. I already knew it was her the moment I walked into this hospital and now seeing her wide smile, it gave me confirmation I needed.
She tilted her head slightly. “I’m sorry?”
“The photographs from yesterday,” I said. “At this hospital, someone had a camera positioned and someone kept the posts up when my team tried to take them down.” I looked at her evenly. “That someone had access to information about who would be at this hospital and when.”
Brielle looked at me with an expression of mild confusion that was very well constructed. “I’m not sure what you’re suggesting,” she feigned ignorance.
“I think you are,” I said straight.
She held my gaze for a moment and then the mild confusion shifted into something else, “I’m a doctor, Marchioness.” she said. “Not a photographer.” She picked up the aftercare folder from the nurses’ station. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a patient to discharge.”
She walked past me down the corridor.
I stood there, watching her go and felt frustration build up in my chest. Instead of crashout, I let out a cold laugh.
The worst part was that I had only my intuition, I had no real proof that she was the one. I sighed, turned and walked the other way.
Alaric had already been discharged by the time I got to his room and was actually gone.
He was in a meeting, Kasper informed me a few minutes later when I found him near the elevator.
He had been discharged and had gone directly into a meeting that had apparently been waiting for his availability for several days and couldn’t be pushed further.
He would be available later in the afternoon.
“Brielle is in the meeting with him.” Kasper added, looking at me intently.
“Brielle is in the meeting?” I asked, trying to stay calm.
Kasper nodded, “She has medical expertise relevant to the discussion,” he said. “It’s a consultation about pack health protocols. Alaric didn’t arrange it, honestly.”
“I know he didn’t arrange it,” I said, which was a lie, I just needed to convince myself.
“Rowena.” His voice was even. “Don’t give this more weight than it needs, okay? He doesn’t know about the photographs yet, just tell him when he’s out of the meeting and he’ll handle it.”
I looked at Kasper and nodded. He was right after all, there was no need being this way. Since Alaric hadn’t seen it, I would wait till he came out of the meeting to inform him myself,
“Don’t think about it too much.” Kasper chided.
“I’m not thinking about it,” I lied.
He gave me a look that said he didn’t believe that but wasn’t going to pursue it. I thanked him and decided to leave the hospital.
By the time the doors of the elevator opened to the garage, I had already decided what I was going to do with the rest of my afternoon.
I called Ezekiel first and he picked up after two rings. “What’s wrong?” he asked, “don’t tell me you really went back to Kaelen!”
“Nothing’s wrong and I didn’t do such a thing. The pictures are fake.” I said. “Are you free this evening?” And asked directly.
“For what? It depends.” he replied.
“Dinner,” I said. “And drinks after, somewhere nice.”
“Rowena Ashthorne, Are you stress spending?” He asked with a slight chuckle.
“I’m spending,” I said. “The stress part is optional.”
“I’ll be ready at seven!” he sounded excited, thank goodness.
I ended that call and made the next one. The next person on the list was Pierre.
Pierre picked up after three rings, I told him the same thing, dinner, drinks, this evening, and somewhere nice.
“I’ll be there,” he said, and hung up before I could say anything else.
I sighed, since I couldn’t fix my life and things falling apart, then I’d fix their relationship. One has to be fixed.