Alpha's Regret: Losing His True Mate-Chapter 115

Elodie’s POV~

Johnny went still beside me. Then he leaned forward, his voice dropping to a whisper like Nolan could somehow still hear us. "Professor... why does Dante want to meet with you? Can you tell us?"

There was a pause on the other end. Brief. Detached.

"He said he wanted to introduce someone to me."

And just like that, the line went dead.

I stared at my phone, the screen going black, and felt something cold settle in my stomach.

Johnny turned to me, his face tight with realization. "You don’t think..."

"Sienna," I said flatly.

"Shit." He dragged a hand through his hair. "The Brown family has their own tech company, right? And Sienna wanted to work with us on cuap before—"

"Before Dante blocked her from joining Cole Technologies," I finished. My voice sounded hollow, even to my own ears.

Cuap. The programming language the world thought Professor Nolan’s team had developed. The one Sienna had been *so* eager to get her hands on. The one she’d probably been whining to Dante about ever since I’d shut her down.

Johnny’s jaw clenched. "So now Dante’s going to introduce her to Nolan directly. Get her in through the back door."

I didn’t answer. I didn’t need to.

It made perfect sense. Dante couldn’t let his precious Sienna suffer, could he? Couldn’t let her feel like she’d lost something because of me. So he’d found another way. A better way.

He was handing her my professor. My mentor. The one person in this world who’d seen me for what I could do, not who I was married to.

"Elodie..." Johnny’s voice was tight, angry on my behalf. "If she’s actually talented, if Nolan thinks she’s worth teaching—"

"Then he’ll take her on," I said, cutting him off. My throat felt tight, but my voice stayed steady. "Nolan doesn’t care about personal history. You know that. If she’s good, he won’t turn her away just because she’s..."

Because she’s the woman sleeping with my husband.

I didn’t finish the sentence.

Johnny looked like he wanted to punch something. "This is such bullshit."

"Maybe." I closed my laptop and stood up, grabbing my coffee even though it had gone cold. "But it doesn’t change anything. We keep working. We keep getting better."

That was all I could do. Focus on myself. On my work. On the things I could actually control.

Everything else? The constant humiliation, the stolen moments, the way Dante kept chipping away at the few things I had left?

I couldn’t think about that. Not if I wanted to survive this.

---

I stayed late at the office that night. Later than usual. By the time I got home, Nonna had already gone to bed, and the house was dark except for a single light in the hallway.

Dante’s car wasn’t in the driveway.

Of course it wasn’t.

He was probably still out with Nolan. And Sienna. Playing the doting boyfriend, showing off how brilliant and charming she was, paving her way into yet another space that used to be mine.

I climbed the stairs slowly, exhaustion pulling at my bones. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

But when I pushed open the bedroom door, I froze.

Dante was there.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, still in his dress shirt and slacks, scrolling through his phone like it was any other night.

My steps faltered. For a second, I just stood there, staring at him like he was a mirage.

He glanced up, our eyes meeting for a brief, unreadable moment.

I gave him a small nod, barely a greeting and headed straight for the bathroom.

I didn’t ask him about Nolan. Didn’t ask how dinner went. Didn’t ask if Sienna had charmed my professor the way she’d charmed everyone else in my life.

I didn’t want to know.

And Dante didn’t offer.

He just looked at me for another second, then got up and walked past me into the bathroom without a word.

The door clicked shut behind him, and I stood there in the empty room, listening to the sound of running water and wondering how much more of this I could take.

---

The next morning, I woke up late.

My alarm had gone off, but I’d hit snooze one too many times, and by the time I dragged myself out of bed, the sun was already too high in the sky.

I threw on clothes and headed downstairs, my brain still foggy with sleep.

Nonna’s voice hit me before I even reached the bottom step.

"Last night, I was in bed by ten, and you still weren’t home!" She was standing near the dining table, hands on her hips, glaring at Dante like he was a misbehaving teenager. "I thought you weren’t coming back at all!"

Dante sat across from her, calm as ever, sipping his water like she hadn’t just verbally torn him apart.

He didn’t respond. Didn’t defend himself. Just drank his water and stared at some spot on the table like this conversation wasn’t even happening.

Nonna rapped her knuckles on the table, her expression somewhere between furious and fond. "Say something! Stop sitting there like a statue!"

Dante set his cup down with this deliberate slowness, his eyes flicking to me as I reached the bottom of the stairs. Our gazes met for half a second before he turned back to Nonna.

"Didn’t you say I had to come back and keep you company this morning?"

"Hmph!" Nonna crossed her arms. "I thought you’d ignore me like you do everything else!"

"I wouldn’t dare."

His tone was so flat, so utterly devoid of emotion, that it almost sounded sarcastic. But his face gave nothing away. No guilt. No discomfort. Nothing.

Nonna looked like she wanted to throw something at him, but instead she just huffed and waved me over. "Come, cara. Sit. Eat."

I slid into my seat quietly, keeping my head down.

"Grandma," I said, reaching for the coffee pot, "are you going out later?"

"Not just me, we!" She beamed at me, her irritation with Dante momentarily forgotten. "We’re all going together. Where would you like to go, tesoro? Nonna will follow your lead."

I paused, cup halfway to my lips.

I was possibly the most boring person alive. I couldn’t think of a single place that sounded fun or interesting or worth dragging everyone to. My idea of a good time was staying home with a book and pretending the world didn’t exist.

"I’m fine with anything," I said carefully. "Whatever you want."

Nonna’s smile widened, like she’d been waiting for me to say that. "How about the hot springs? Last time we were supposed to go, but we never made it. I ended up sick from the disappointment." She shot Dante a pointed look. "And someone owes me for that."

Dante didn’t even flinch. He just sipped his tea like Nonna hadn’t just publicly called him out. Like it didn’t matter. Like I didn’t matter.

Because to him, I never had.

I looked away, focusing very intently on my breakfast.

I’d already been to the hot springs. With Harry Becker’s family, no less. It wasn’t exactly a thrilling prospect to go back. But Nonna looked so pleased with herself, so hopeful, that I couldn’t say no.

"Alright," I said, forcing a small smile. "Sounds good."

---

After breakfast, I went upstairs to pack.

I grabbed a small suitcase from the closet and started pulling things together, my comfortable clothes, toiletries, and a book I probably wouldn’t read. Just like the usual.

But I only packed for myself. Not for Dante.

My hands stilled for a moment as I stared at his side of the closet, at the perfectly pressed shirts, the expensive watches lined up. It would’ve been easy to grab a few things for him. That’s what a wife would do, right?

But I wasn’t really his wife.

Not in any way that mattered.

He was Sienna’s. And I had no interest in touching his things, organizing his life, pretending we were something we weren’t.

So I zipped up my suitcase and left his side of the room untouched.

Sabina was handling Liora’s things, and normally I would’ve hovered, double-checking everything, making sure nothing was forgotten. But today, I didn’t.

I just grabbed my bag and headed downstairs.

Liora and Dante came down a few minutes later. Liora was chattering excitedly about the hot springs, clutching a stuffed animal she’d insisted on bringing. Dante followed behind her, his phone already in his hand.

We piled into the car, and the drive was quiet except for Liora’s occasional excited squeals.

When we finally arrived at the resort, Dante immediately peeled off, his phone pressed to his ear, and his voice low and clipped as he walked toward the gardens.

I watched him go, something bitter curling in my chest, then turned and followed Nonna inside.

---

I was in my room, unpacking my things and trying not to think about how Dante had barely looked at me all morning, when Nonna knocked and slipped inside.

She was holding a box.

A fancy one. Wrapped in tissue paper with a little ribbon on top.

"Tesoro," she said, her eyes twinkling with mischief. "I got you something special. You have to wear it when we go to the hot springs later."

I stared at the box, my stomach sinking.

I already knew what was inside.

"Nonna..."

"No arguments!" She pressed it into my hands, her smile widening. "You’re a beautiful woman, Elodie. It’s time you reminded certain people of that."

She gave me a pointed, knowing look and I realized exactly what she was trying to do.

She wanted me to make Dante notice me.

My throat tightened. "Nonna, I don’t think—"

"Just trust me, cara." She patted my cheek gently. "Trust your Nonna."

And then she walked some steps back, and left me standing there with the box in my hands and a knot in my chest.

I set it on the bed and stared at it for a long moment.

Part of me wanted to throw it away. To tell Nonna thanks, but no thanks. That I wasn’t interested in playing dress-up to get Dante’s attention, an attention he’d never given me, and probably never would.

But another stubborn part of me wanted to open it.

Wanted to see what Nonna thought could make a man like Dante Bellini look at me twice.

So I did.

I lifted the lid.

And my breath caught.

Oh, Nonna.

What the hell are you trying to do to me?