Eminence (Wattpad Edition)

Note 15 - Warren vs. the World

After lunch, Warren drove everyone back to the clinic. The meal hadn't gone quite the way Jack had hoped. Emanon kept circling back to the topic of Vaan, and Jack kept steering the conversation elsewhere. The result was a lunch filled with scattered discussions that jumped from topic to topic without any real connection. Anika seemed entertained by the banter, but the restaurant staff clearly was not. Jack and Emanon had been told more than once to lower their voices, and Warren was sure the waitstaff cheered the moment they left.

The way Emanon and Jack interacted, it was easy to mistake them for childhood friends, almost like they were the same age. No one watching them would have guessed that Jack had once dated her son, or that she even had an adult son. Not that he was still alive.

Warren found himself wondering how Jack managed to act so casually around Emanon. When did he make time to mourn? Did he ever see Vaan in Emanon's eyes? Jack had once told Warren that he saw Emanon and Eminence as two separate people, but did he really?

And then there was Theo. He had known Emanon even longer than Jack had. So why did he see her as the same person? Why couldn't he let go?

These days, Warren seemed to collect more questions than answers. Emanon felt like she was drifting further out of reach, further beyond the version of her he thought he was coming to understand. Maybe he never really knew her at all. And that realization was beginning to weigh on him. He wanted to know more about her. More than Jack did. More than Theo ever could.

Did she have a family once? Friends? What was she like before the memory loss? What did she hate? What did she love? Oh. Right. She loved the ocean.

"Should we go back to the shore this weekend?" Warren asked aloud, half to himself.

"What was that?" Jack asked from the passenger seat.

"Do you mean it?!" Emanon asked, her voice bright with sudden excitement.

"The weather's supposed to be like this all week. Seems like perfect beach weather for us," Warren said.

"The beach?!" Anika chimed in from the backseat. "That sounds like so much fun! Can I come too?"

"Of course. The more the merrier," Warren said, glancing at her through the rearview mirror. "And Jack already has a motel for us. Right, Jack?"

Jack sighed. "The motel actually called me yesterday, and said our checkout date is coming up. If there are four of us, I'll find a new one."

He shot Warren a sideways look. "Not like I have a choice. You sure love spending my money."

"You just have so much," Warren replied with a smirk. "And you love me."

Jack groaned, and Anika laughed.

"Oh, I'm definitely going now," she said.

As they entered the clinic, Emanon stopped and stared ahead.

"Theo?" she asked, her voice caught somewhere between surprise and concern.

"Yo..." Theo replied casually. He and Dr. Galvan were seated in the waiting room.

"Warren, we need to talk," Dr. Galvan said, standing up. He motioned for Warren to follow.

They walked past the reception area and down the hallway to a small office. Dr. Galvan closed the door behind them as Warren sat in one of the chairs.

"Okay," he began, settling across from him. "I have some news."

Warren waited.

"Theo's parents know what happened. The lawyer had to inform them. Because Theo is from the Ashford household, any incident involving him must be reported. And the thing is, Theo isn't just some guy. His family... they're nobles."