Once a Doormat Now Untouchable (Caleb and Sydney) novel Chapter 134

Chapter 134

“You came back with your sister and didn’t think to give me a heads-up?” Raymond whined.

Julian’s expression stayed cold. “And when did you get so loose-lipped?”

He dropped onto the couch and lit a cigar, each movement edged with hostility.

They’d been friends for years, so Raymond sat across from him without hesitation, knowing exactly what that look meant. “Dinner didn’t go so well, huh?”

Julian snorted. “Charlotte showed up.”

“What was she doing there?” Raymond asked.

“Eating with us,” Julian replied.

“So… Sydney wasn’t happy about it?” Raymond guessed.

Julian’s voice turned glacial. “Unhappy? She can make Charlotte her sister-in-law whenever she wants.”

“Yeah, not happening,” Raymond muttered.

He smirked and twisted the knife. “She doesn’t even acknowledge you as her brother right now.”

Julian shot him a glare. “Whose side are you on?”

“Yours, obviously,” Raymond deadpanned.

He wandered over to the liquor cabinet, pulled out a bottle of Macallan, and opened it with deliberate care. “But honestly, with that temper of yours? Sydney won’t marry you even in her second lifetime.”

“You think I care?” Julian snapped.

“Sure, sure, you don’t care.” Raymond poured a glass of whiskey and slid it across the table. “But remind me- back when she swore she’d only marry Caleb, who drank himself into the hospital with stomach bleeding?”

The room fell silent enough to hear a pin drop.

Julian lowered his eyes, his voice rougher than usual. “Say, back then…”

“You weren’t wrong,” Raymond said quietly. “Given the circumstances, you couldn’t even guarantee your own life. Cutting ties with her was the only choice.”

He raised his glass and tapped it against Julian’s. “But Sydney loving Caleb wasn’t wrong either. If you can’t get past that, you’ll only push her further away.”

Two days later, Harold called to tell Sydney the replica of her pendant was finished. She stopped by his studio before heading to the clinic.

Harold, still awake after another all-nighter, dropped two pendants into her palm. “Go on, guess which one’s yours.”

Looking down, Sydney saw he’d even distressed the chains to make them identical.

She didn’t hesitate. She picked the one on the right. “This one.”

1/2

Chapter 134

“How’d you know?” Harold asked, surprised.

She smiled. “Gut feeling.”

Because of the detour, Sydney reached the clinic just in time.

“You’re cutting it close, Dr. Wilson,” the nurse teased. “First time in years.”

“Really?” Sydney laughed, slipped on her white coat, and began calling patients.

The morning flew by. As soon as her last patient left, the door slammed open.

“Sydney! Where’s it?!”

It was Penelope.

Sydney frowned. “What what?”

“Don’t play dumb,” Penelope growled.

She stormed to the desk, yanked Sydney’s bag open, and rifled through it as if her life depended on finding something.

Sydney calmly opened a drawer, pulled out a pendant, and held it up. “You mean this?”

Penelope snatched it, inspected it, then shoved it into her own bag. “How’d you trick Cal into giving this to you?”

“I just told him I liked it,” Sydney said with a light smile. “So he handed it over. Said I could play with it for a few days.”

“Impossible. He’s always treasured this more than anything-more than me…” Penelope spat through clenched teeth.

“Oh? More than you?” Sydney’s smile deepened, her gaze sharpening. “Are you sure this pendant is actually yours?”