dreams whisper through silence by mae 221

 

Chapter 221 

Ellie’s POV 

Dominic popped the octopus into his mouth. For a’moment, he didn’t chew, just closed his lips around it and winced, and I thought for certain that he would spit it out. 

Or vomit. Whichever came first. 

But to my complete and utter surprise, he didn’t do either of those things. He began to chew, shutting his eyes as his fingers gripped his utensils, then swallowed. 

He opened his eyes. They were red and watery from trying not to gag. 

I thought for sure that he would be done. 

And yet, somehow, he reached for another piece of the octopus. 

“How are you eating that?” I blurted out. “You hate octopus! You’ve said before that anything with tentacles is disgusting!” 

Dominic finished swallowing the second piece with great effort, then picked up his wine glass and chugged half of it. Setting the glass back down on the table, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and said, ” 

It’s not so bad.” 

I blinked. “You’re visibly trying not to gag right now.” 

“I don’t want to waste it,” he said. “Besides, Vivian went to all that trouble to prepare this. It would be rude of me not to at least try it.” 

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Before I could stop myself, I blurted out, “But she only did this to impress you and make me look bad! I saw her take the list because I was the one who wrote it!” 

The second those words came out of my mouth, I felt my cheeks go aflame. Dominic froze. Vivian sputtered 

on her wine. Both looked at me in shock. 

“You were the one who wrote on my list?” she asked. Her voice was high and sweet, like a child who just found out someone stole their Halloween candy. 

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I didn’t answer, not that it mattered. It was too late. Instead, I stared down at my plate, suddenly feeling ashamed. 

“You tried to trick her,” Dominic said. It wasn’t a question. 

“Only because I knew she’s only helping with the festival for her own gain.” 

“So what?” Dominic asked. “She’s helping regardless. And she’s doing the job that you’re supposed to be doing.” 

Slowly, I looked up at Dominic through my lashes. His face was cold, his expression set hard like a mask etched into stone. I couldn’t decipher anything beneath it. 

“Well, if she’s so concerned about actually helping, she would have actually looked into the matter,” I said. “Not blindly taken a few notes made in the margins and ran with them the moment she thought they could 

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The room fell even more silent than before. I held Domítric’s gaze, but it was Vivian who I was really focused on. I could feel her staring at the side of my head. Sneering at me. 

This was just like my past life, I realized; back then, they had banded together like this, too. Maybe not in this exact way, but close enough. One moment, I belonged here, and the next, I was an outsider in my own 

home. 

In a strange way, it was even worse this time around. At least in my past life, Dominic never acted under any pretense of loving me. 

And yet in this one, he had lied to me. Told me he cared for me. Treated me like I mattered. Only to intentionally ensnare me with a contract and false vows, then turn around and buddy up with my evil sister in the same breath. 

The realization made my fingers tighten so hard around my wine glass that I was certain it would break. 

I couldn’t sit here anymore. Not with Dominic looking at me like I was nothing more than an unruly child. And not with Vivian sneering like she knew exactly what was going to happen next. 

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