Chapter 163
She pulls back, scanning my face. “Good or bad?”
“Good.”
Her hands tighten around mine as I explain. The paperwork. The reopening of the case. The process. The likelihood of release.
She listens without interrupting, her expression shifting slowly from cautious hope to something brighter.
“They’re reopening it?” she asks, almost afraid to believe it.
“Yes. It’s already in motion. But it might take some time to go through, so, just…hold on.”
Tears gather in her eyes. She covers her mouth, shaking her head like she cannot process it.
“How did you manage that?” she asks.
And there it is.
The question I have been avoiding since this morning.
I look down at our hands, still tangled together.
I could tell her the truth. That I am engaged. That it is contractual. That I traded my future for her freedom. She would see right through me. She would tell me not to do it. She would tell me she would rather stay here than watch me bind myself to something I do not want.
Even if part of her always liked Dominic.
“I…” I start.
The door opens behind me.
I don’t have to turn around to know who it is. I can feel when he is close recently.
Son of a b-
Dominic steps into the visiting room like it is a strategy meeting instead of a concrete box with flickering lights. Shoulders straight. Chin level. Calm in a way that makes him look born for rooms like this. It irritates me how well he fits anywhere.
He offers my mother a respectful nod, the kind that manages to be formal without feeling stiff.
“Miss,” he says smoothly. “I hope I’m not interrupting. I thought it was only fair you hear the rest from me. I never did get the chance to ask your permission.”
My stomach drops straight through the floor.
He doesn’t look at me when he says it. He looks at her.
“We’re engaged,” he continues, steady and clear. “And I wanted you to have the same courtesy my parents did.”
His hand settles on the back of my chair, not possessive exactly, but close enough that I feel the warmth of him at my back.
My mom stiffens, her eyes darting to me.
I hesitate for half a second too long.
Then I nod.
To my complete shock, her face softens in a way I haven’t seen in awhile. It’s like someone turned the lights back on behind her
eyes.
“Oh,” she breathes, hand flying to her mouth. “Oh, Ellie.”
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She pulls me into her arms again, and this time she’s crying openly. “I knew you two would find your way back to each other.”
Back?
The word lands like a bruise.
She has always believed in fated mates. In second chances. In destiny circling back around when you’re too stubborn to see it the
first time.
But for some reason, the way she said it rubbed my wrong.
I paste on a smile that feels almost real. I nod when she talks about my father, her fated mate, about how proud he would be, about how strong Dominic and I will be together. How relieved she is that I found my mate.
Dominic stands beside me, composed and devastatingly convincing. He lets her believe it, lets her build the picture in her head. If there’s guilt in him, it doesn’t show. Only quiet confidence.
Then he glances at me out of the corner of his eye.
And mouths, very subtly, “Woof.”
I almost choke.
He turns it into a cough, clearing his throat like he said nothing at all, back to being the charming future Alpha.
A part of me wants to kick him.
Another part of me wants to laugh.
And the worst part of all is how easily we play this role together. How natural it feels to stand beside him and let the world
believe it.
Still.
When we get back to the car, he is absolutely dead.
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