Alpha's Regret: Losing His True Mate-Chapter 179

Elodie was about to leave when Dante walked over, coat draped over his arm.

"Where do you want to eat?"

Before she could answer, Liora’s hand shot up. "BBQ! That place we went to last time!"

Dante reached down and pinched her cheek lightly. "That place is too far. You’ve got class this afternoon. We won’t have enough time."

Liora’s face fell. "Oh... okay. Seafood then?"

Dante didn’t answer her. Instead, he looked at Elodie. "What do you want?"

Elodie shook her head. "You two go ahead. I’m not coming."

Liora’s eyes went wide. "You’re not?"

"No, sweetheart." Elodie reached down and smoothed Liora’s hair gently. "I have to get going. You and your dad have fun, okay?"

"Okay..." Liora’s voice was small, disappointed.

Elodie gave her a soft smile, then turned and walked away without looking back.

Dante stood there watching her go. He didn’t call out. Didn’t even try to stop her.

After a moment, he looked down at Liora. "Let’s go."

"Okay."

---

They’d barely gotten into the car when Dante’s phone rang.

He saw it was Nonna.

He answered, already bracing himself.

"Did you really open a project for the Brown and Green families?!" Her voice came through sharp, furious. "At home and at the company?!"

Dante leaned back in his seat, completely calm. "Yeah. Just finding out now?"

"You—!" She sputtered. "What are you thinking? Are you planning to divorce Elodie or something?!"

Because that’s what it looked like. Bringing Sienna and her family into Wilson Corporation business, making it public, not even trying to hide it... that meant he didn’t care anymore. Didn’t care what anyone thought.

He’d already made up his mind.

Before he could respond, Nonna kept going.

"I don’t agree! And if you insist on this project, fine... but you change the people working on it. If you don’t, I swear I’ll—"

"Nonna." Dante’s voice was quiet but firm. "I kept my promises to you. I married Elodie like you wanted. Now you need to honor your promises and stop interfering with my decisions."

Translation: Sienna and the Browns were off-limits. Stay out of it.

Silence on the other end.

Dante had been running Wilson Corporation for years now, and every single year, the company had grown. Profits were up. Reputation was up. They had expenaded into new markets.

The shareholders trusted him completely. The executives followed his lead without question. If Nonna tried to push back against him now, they’d side with him, not her.

Wilson Corporation needed Dante.

Dante didn’t need Wilson Corporation.

She couldn’t leverage the company against him anymore. That card was gone.

And emotional manipulation?

Like he’d said... marrying Elodie had already been his compromise. He’d done what she asked.

Nonna knew her grandson well enough to know he wasn’t the type to keep bending. Once he’d given what he was willing to give, that was it. He was done.

And if she pushed him too hard now...

The silence stretched out. Nonna had backed down.

Dante’s voice softened slightly. "Have you eaten?"

Click.

She hung up on him.

Dante looked at his phone and let out a quiet laugh.

Liora leaned over, eyes wide with curiosity. "What happened?"

He set the phone down calmly. "Your great-grandmother’s mad at me."

"What? You made Great-grandma angry?"

"Yeah."

"Are you gonna say sorry?"

"Not right now. Maybe later."

"Oh... okay."

---

When Elodie got back to the office, Johnny didn’t ask about the event. Just looked up from his desk and said, "You’re back? Did you eat yet?"

"No." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"Come on then. I’ll buy you lunch."

She smiled a little. "Alright."

---

They ended up at a nice restaurant downtown. And of course, because the universe had a sense of humor, they ran into Mr. Lee from Wilson Corporation in the lobby.

He was there with his family. When he spotted Johnny, he told them to go ahead to the private room and walked over.

"Mr. Gray! I thought maybe we’d get another shot at working together, but now..." He trailed off, shaking his head.

Johnny smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. "I heard your new project’s going well though?"

"Oh yeah, it’s solid. President Wilson handpicked it himself, so you know it’s gonna be good."

"Mm." Johnny’s tone was flat. Then he asked, almost casually, "I heard the Brown and Green families have pretty big roles in it. Nobody at your company had a problem with that?"

Mr. Lee hesitated. "Well... some people weren’t thrilled. But it’s not a huge deal. When the company’s working on a good project, all the shareholders want their people involved, you know? And President Wilson doesn’t usually step in and assign people directly, so it’d be weird to make a fuss just because he chose the Browns and Greens for part of it. Besides, they’re capable. They follow the rules. So honestly, it’s fine."

Johnny said nothing.

He was done with this conversation.

"Alright, I won’t keep you from your family. We’ll catch up another time."

"Yeah, yeah, sounds good," Mr. Lee said, clearly relieved, and hurried off.

Once he was gone, Johnny turned to Elodie. "Let’s go in."

"Yeah."

---

After lunch, they went back to the office.

Not long after, someone came in to let them know Rex Hardin was downstairs. Waiting.

Elodie and Johnny exchanged a look. Neither of them moved.

Rex didn’t leave.

By evening, when Elodie was heading down to the parking garage, he was already there.

"Miss Miller."

She stopped and turned, her voice cool. "Mr. Hardin. Can I help you?"

Rex looked at her for a long moment. "Let’s talk."

Elodie’s eyebrow lifted. "Talk? Or lecture me?"

He paused, clearly caught off guard. Then he straightened up, his tone turning serious.

"I’m being sincere here. I think you need to put aside whatever personal issues you have and focus on work. Don’t let emotions get in the way and hurt your company’s interests."

Elodie almost laughed.

She tilted her head. "Funny. I was about to say the exact same thing to you."

It was obvious. Rex had let his feelings about Sienna cloud his judgment when it came to business.

But in his head? She was the one being unreasonable. She was the one abusing her power.

Elodie didn’t bother arguing. She just turned, got in her car, and drove off.

Rex’s expression darkened as he watched her leave.

His phone rang.

He answered it, climbed into his own car, and drove away too.

---

Half an hour later, Rex walked into a private dining room. Yves and Jimmy were already there, drinks in hand.

Yves took one look at Rex’s face and smirked. "Didn’t go well, huh?"

Rex had been to Cole two or three times in the past few days. Johnny refused to see him every single time.

So Rex had tried going after Elodie instead.

Thinking about the way she’d completely blown him off, Rex shook his head.

"Johnny won’t talk to me. Miss Miller won’t talk to me. So yeah... looks like the Cole project’s off the table."

Yves leaned back in his chair. "If we can’t get it, we can’t get it. There are other projects out there. Cole’s not the only game in town."

Rex frowned. "I’ve actually looked into the Cole project pretty closely. I’m legitimately interested in it."

Even without his personal reasons, he would’ve wanted in on this deal.

"Alright, alright," Yves said. "So what’s the plan? We need another way in."

That’s when Yves turned to Jimmy, eyes lighting up.

"Hey, Jim. Last time at that boat thing, you and Miss Miller seemed to hit it off. She was pretty friendly with you, right? Rex can’t get anywhere with her... maybe you could smooth things over? Play mediator or something?"

Jimmy set his tea down and shook his head. "I don’t really know her. We talked for like ten minutes. That’s not enough to ask favors."

"Fine, fine. What about Johnny then? You two go way back, don’t you?"

Jimmy paused. "I could try. But I don’t think he’ll listen."

He’d noticed something at the event. Elodie and Johnny didn’t seem romantically involved... at least, not from her side. But Johnny? He clearly cared about her. A lot.

So asking Johnny to make nice with Rex for Sienna’s sake? Yeah, that wasn’t happening.

Yves groaned. "So we’re back to square one. We don’t know Miss Miller. We can’t exactly walk up and start bribing her. Should we... I don’t know, look into her? Find some leverage?"

Rex shook his head. "No. I’m done wasting time on her. I’ll contact the old man instead."

Jimmy caught on immediately. "You mean Professor Nolan?"

"Exactly."

Johnny had been Nolan’s student. If Nolan asked him to reconsider, Rex was betting Johnny wouldn’t say no.

They didn’t waste any more time talking about it.