Chapter 277
Vivian’s POV
I stopped in the hallway, looking around quickly.
“Vivian? Can we talk?”
I cursed, biting my lip, then spotted the nearby utility closet and slipped inside, shutting the door mere moments before Colt’s footsteps rounded the corner.
“Viv?”
Colt’s footsteps slowed outside the door.
I held my breath. Viv. Like some kind of pet name. It made me sick.
Finally, after a long moment, the footsteps moved on.
I exhaled and leaned back against the shelves. I couldn’t believe I was hiding in a closet that smelled like mothballs and detergent. Like a goddamn teenager.
I was not a teenager. And I did not like Colt.
My wolf chuffed at that.
I was considering whether it was safe to leave yet when I heard another set of footsteps in the hall. These ones I recognized; they were quick and purposeful. I cracked the door open an inch and peered out.
Mara.
“In here,” I hissed, grabbing her wrist as she passed and yanking her inside before she could make a sound.
She stumbled in and I pulled the door shut. In the dark, I could make out her startled expression.
“Miss Vivian-”
“Shh!” Keep your voice down,” I said. “What do you have for me?”
Mara straightened as well as she could in the limited space. “I followed them.”
“And?”
She counted on her fingers. “First, they went to a lounge where they had drinks, and, um… oysters.” She frowned. “There was an incident with a phone call. I couldn’t hear what they said, but Dominic grabbed her phone and it made her angry, and she stormed out.”
“Good,” I said, nodding. “Then what?”
“She went into a club down the street. He followed her. I tried to get in, but the line was so long…” Mara sighed. “I saw them in the alley, though. It was… intimate.”
“Intimate?”
Her cheeks flushed. “They were making out.”
My heart stopped.
“Making out,” I repeated.
She nodded. “It seemed like it was going to go further, but some people came out and interrupted them. After that, she pushed him away, and then it escalated into an argument. They climbed into a cab after. I came home as quickly as I could.”
1
I was quiet for a moment, turning that over in my head.
So Dominic and Ellie were careening wildly between wanting to kill each other and wanting to tear each other’s clothes off. It wasn’t entirely out of the ordinary for them, but they’d never made it quite that far, at least not as far as I was aware
Either way, this was a problem.
Dominic was never going to divorce Ellie if the bond kept dragging him back every time they were within ten feet of each other Furthermore, Colt had been here for less than a week and he was already attempting to corner me at every opportunity.
If I didn’t get this sorted soon, he was going to do something drastic, like attempt to mark me before Dominic and Ellie got divorced. And if that happened, then I would never get a chance to swoop in and become Dominic’s next Luna.
I needed something that would make Dominic leave Ellie despite the pull that still existed between them, and quickly. Something that would make him want to mark another woman-like me-just to get rid of his bond with her.
Dominic’s jealousy was, in many ways, the greatest weapon available to me. It had derailed the entire festival. It had nearly ended their marriage multiple times already. And the thing about that kind of burning, intense jealousy was that it didn’t require evidence; it only required a suggestion.
Lucas was the obvious choice. He always had been. Dominic had been convinced for months that something was going on between them, and every time Ellie insisted otherwise, he almost believed her, and then something else happened and the doubt crept back in.
All I needed was to make it undeniable this time.
If Ellie showed up somewhere and Lucas was already there, waiting, and Dominic found out about it-especially if it looked like she had arranged it herself–that would be the thread that finally unraveled everything.
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