Risk // Sebastian Sallow

Chapter 68: Delaying

Sebastian

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Shut up!

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Stop it!

Thump. Thump. Thump.

If my heart didn't leap out of my chest at this very moment, I was going to tear it out myself. The pounding in my ears of the blood coursing through my body at a pace I'd never had before had my vision blurring.

Focus, Sebastian.

I closed my eyes and squeezed. Then opened them. She was gone.

My legs developed a mind of their own and began meandering their way to Amelia Walters office.

My brain must have been left behind because there was not a single logical thought coursing through my head in that moment.

"Walters!" I bellowed, barging straight into her office.

"Sallow! What on Earth do you think you are doing bursting in here like that? I am your superi—"

"Quite frankly, Walters, I don't give a fuck what you are right now! What is going on with Olive!?"

She looked taken aback, but to my shock, she didn't immediately get me arrested alongside her.

Yet.

"I understand it was a bit of a shock, but there was nothing I could do. It's above me, Sallow. They want accountability. Accountability for—"

"For your fuck up! I assume she's being arrested for Harris' death which is entirely on your hands! You didn't want it on record. You sent us out there, three graduates entirely unprepared to take on someone as powerful as him. But we did it like you wanted and Olive saved my life in the process. If it wasn't him dead, you'd have another completely innocent dead Auror on your hands!"

Walters simply sat. And she listened to me. And the words came out of me like vomit. I couldn't stop.

"I know what goes on here. It's fucked up, it's barbaric! The death penalty. You realise that's what you've subjected her to, right? Someone completely innocent!"

As much as I tried to hold them back, tears began to slide down my cheeks. So, so many tears. From every corner of my eyes. From my nose. I was a fucking mess.

"And you know what else? Someone else innocent is going to die because of you because she's pregnant. You sent her to her death and she's fucking pregnant! That's my kid in there, Walters! You've not only lost me my beautiful, intelligent and talented wife who would never do wrong by her career, you've taken away my baby that I haven't even had the opportunity to meet yet and now I never will!"

Shit. It was happening. Something that hadn't happened in a very, very long time. And Olive wasn't here. And Ominis wasn't here. Hell, even Lawson wasn't here.

Fuck.

My breathing came in ragged, my chest feeling like it was caving in on itself.

I dropped to my knees and squeezed my eyes shut, my hands pressing into my thighs, my nails nearly breaking through my pants.

Breathe.

Breathe, Sebastian.

One. Inhale.

Two. Exhale.

Three. Inhale.

Four. Exhale.