Alpha's Regret: Losing His True Mate-Chapter 160

The silence in the Audi was deafening. It was the kind of silence that used to terrify Elodie, the quiet that meant Dante wasn’t home, or worse, that he was home but in a mood.

Now?

It just felt like peace.

She drove with one hand, the city lights of the Bellini Pack territory blurring into streaks of gold and red. Her mind wasn’t on the road, though. It was on the spreadsheet Johnny’s lawyer had already emailed her.

It was beautiful.

___________

Meanwhile, the air in the hospital VIP ward was thick with the smell of expensive lilies and antispetic.

Levi leaned against the wall in the corridor, the phone pressed to his ear, listening to the wind howling on the other end.

"Matteo is preparing to divorce Freya," he said, keeping his voice low.

Harry stopped. Levi could practically hear the brakes screech in whatever random European Pack Harry was terrorizing for business. "What? Are you sure?"

"Dude, I was there. I watched her walk out with a goddamn smile on her face," Levi hissed. "And get this, he’s not giving her custody of Liora. At all."

A sharp intake of breath. Then, the sound of Harry moving fast. Footsteps. A door slamming. "I have to go. I’ll call you back."

Then the line went dead.

Levi pulled the phone away, staring at it. "...Okay? Rude."

——————

Harry didn’t mean to be rude. He just felt like he was on fire.

He paced the marble floor of his hotel lobby, his heart hammering against his ribs. Divorce with no custody.

Matteo was insane. He was actually going to do it. And Freya... God, Freya. She must be a wreck. She was probably curled up in a ball, crying her eyes out, wondering how the man she loved could just erase her and her daughter.

Harry’s thumb hovered over Freya’s contact.

He shouldn’t call. Matteo would kill him. But he couldn’t not call. He had to hear her voice. He had to know if she was breathing.

He hit dial.

***

Elodie had just kicked off her heels in the foyer of her house. The phone buzzed in her purse. She pulled it out, saw Harry Becker flashing on the screen, and answered without thinking.

"Mr. Becker? Is there something you need?"

Her voice was... fine.

Harry froze in the middle of the lobby. "You—"

You what? he screamed internally. You okay? You heartbroken? You dying?

"How are you?" he blurted out. It sounded so stupid. So empty.

Elodie frowned, walking into the kitchen to pour a glass of water. She assumed this was about their kids’ school charity thing. Harry was always so weirdly involved in that stuff.

"If it’s about meeting Daisy," she said, leaning against the marble counter, "I have something to handle tomorrow and might not be free. Could we do next week?"

She had the lawyer at 10 AM. Then Johnny was coming over to help her move some important stuff out. She didn’t have time for small talk.

Harry blinked. Daisy?

Oh. Right.

He should correct her. He should say, *‘I don’t care about our date right now with Daisy, I care that your husband is throwing you in the trash.’

But her voice... it was so calm. So bored.

"Alright," Harry said weakly.

Elodie waited. She drank her water as she checked the time. "Mr. Becker? Is there anything else?"

Harry stood there, thousands of miles away, feeling completely useless. He’d prepared a speech. He’d prepared to be her shoulder to cry on.

And she was asking him about a playdate.

Was she in shock? Was this how people snapped?

"I’m here," he said lamely, still struck that she sounded normal.

"Okay..." Elodie drew the word out. She really didn’t have patience for this tonight. "If not, then we’ll leave it at that? I’m kind of busy."

Harry’s ego took a hit, but his worry was bigger. "Alright," he whispered.

________________

The phone hit the velvet sofa with a dull thud. Elodie didn’t even look at it.

For years, a call from one of Dante’s friends would have sent her into a spiral. Did I say something wrong? Was I too quiet? Too loud? Did Dante tell them he’s ashamed of me?

Now? She just felt... nothing. Just the quiet hum of her own house. A space that was finally, finally starting to feel like hers.

She walked past the living room, past the bar where Dante used to pour scotch and ignore her, and sat down at her desk in the corner. The mahogany was cold under her elbows.

She flipped open her laptop. The screen flickered on, casting a blue-white glow on her face.

There was an unread email from Professor Nolan. She clicked it open.

Elodie... The data set you sent over is brilliant. Seriously. Organize the final citations and send it back to me by Thursday. If this holds up, we’re submitting to the Bellini Economics Review. This is career-defining stuff.

A small, sharp smile cut through the numbness.

Career-defining.

She’d almost forgotten she was allowed to have one. For three years, her only job had been "Dante’s Wife." Managing his schedule, smoothing things over with the Pack elders, pretending she didn’t see the texts from Sienna. She’d buried her own brain under a mountain of his laundry.

But not anymore.

She opened a blank document. The cursor blinked.

It sounded like a countdown.

She started typing. Not because she had to. But because she wanted to. This wasn’t survival. This was ambition. And God, it felt better than any orgasm Dante had ever given her.

***

Harry stared at his hotel room ceiling, the expensive silk canopy doing nothing to calm the storm in his chest.

He hit redial.

Levi picked up on the first ring, sounding frantic. "Harry? Dude. Tell me I’m crazy."

"You’re not crazy," Harry said, his voice low. "She really signed?"

"She really signed," Levi hissed. He was back in the hospital corridor, pacing a hole in the linoleum. "Divorce. Custody. The whole nine yards. I watched her do it, Harry. She didn’t even blink. It was like she was ordering a coffee, not giving away her kid."

Harry sat up, swinging his legs off the bed. "Liora too? She just... gave her up?"

"Gone. Poof." Levi stopped pacing. "Okay, here’s the thing. Here’s what I’m thinking. It’s a power move."

Harry rubbed his temples. "A power move."

"Yeah! Think about it. If she fights, she’s the crazy ex. If she cries, she’s weak. But this? The Ice Queen? She’s messing with his head. She’s making him feel guilty. It’s 4D chess, bro. She’s trying to win him back by walking away."

Harry was silent. He thought about the voice on the phone.

Did that sound like 4D chess? Or did it sound like she’d already forgotten the board existed?

"How did Dante look?" Harry asked suddenly.

"Huh?"

"At dinner. When she was signing. How did he look?"

Levi paused. "Weird. He looked... weird. He kept staring at her. Like he was trying to figure out a puzzle. I’ve never seen him look at her that much in ten years."

"So it’s working," Harry muttered. "Her trick."

"Obviously! She knows exactly what she’s doing. She’s been obsessed with him since she was sixteen. You think she just wakes up one day and stops? No way. She’s playing him."

Harry stood up and walked to the window, looking out at the Milan skyline. "Or," he said slowly, "maybe she’s not playing."

"What else would it be?"

"Maybe," Harry said, the words tasting like ash, "she’s actually done."

Levi laughed. A loud, disbelieving bark. "Done? Elodie? Harry, come on. She literally breathes for him. She’s faking it. She has to be."

"People change, Levi."

"Not her,” Levi insisted. "Trust me. I know women. This is a tactic. Anyway, who cares? This is good news! Once you get back, and Sienna is out of the hospital... we gotta celebrate. Finally get rid of the dead weight."

Harry didn’t answer.