Chapter 279
Ellie’s POV
I didn’t sleep much that night. Or at all, really.
Dominic and I still hadn’t spoken a word to each other by the time we got home. The cab pulled up to the gates, and Dominic paid. He held the door open for me, but he didn’t look at me. We entered the house and went our separate ways and I heard his
door slam shut. And that was that.
After peeling off my dress and scrubbing away the lingering sensation of his hands and mouth on my skin in the shower, I laid in bed and tried to sleep. It didn’t come. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Dominic’s face moving beneath the club lights. I saw his tongue darting out to wet his lips like he thought I couldn’t notice. I saw the alleyway, dark and private until our shame was on full display.
Eventually, I gave up on closing my eyes, because it was too disturbing. Instead, I stared at the ceiling above my bed until the shadows grew long and the sky shifted to gray in the light of the early morning.
All night, Dominic’s words flickered through my mind on a constant loop.
“I’m not sure if I know who you are anymore.”
By the time the sun came up, I was no closer to deciding how I felt about it.
Maybe he was right. I’d considered that angle multiple times during the night, in the spaces between rest and wakefulness.
I hated that it kept coming to mind. That maybe, a small shred of what Dominic had said was true.
I thought about all of my actions recently. Since the wedding, my life had been a whirlwind of protection and revenge- constantly trying to shield myself against the inevitable and acting out in ways that were often painful, even to me, all for the sake of making sure history didn’t repeat itself.
Meanwhile, perhaps I was only making the events of my past life careen faster and faster toward me. Like a runaway train, and all along, unbeknownst to me, I was the conductor without even realizing it.
By the time the sun rose fully, turning the sky pink and orange and the grass steamy with dissipating dew, I’d begun to wonder
if it was all true.
Still, I couldn’t stop thinking about those days leading up to my death. How alone and helpless I’d felt. Vivian wearing my crown
while Dominic couldn’t even be bothered to come to my bedside.
How could I just move on from that? How could I let myself believe that there was any alternative in this life to what had happened in the past one?
Dominic could dress things up in as many pretty words as he wanted to, but nothing could change what had happened. That was just the way it was.
The house started to wake around me, the sound of voices and doors opening and closing filling the quiet air. I gave up entirely on sleep and got up. I showered, got dressed, and was halfway through a cup of coffee at my desk, watching through my window as a distant, thick stormcloud rolled through the sky in the far distance, when something slid under my door.
I stared at it for a second, then got up and crossed the room.
It was an envelope. Plain, cream-colored, sealed with nothing, my name written across the front in handwriting I recognized.
Lucas’s.
I turned it over once, then opened it.
The note was short. He wanted to meet, it said. The clearing off the trail. Today. Around noon. Said he had something he needed to tell me, said to come alone, and said not to mention it to Dominic.
I tilted my head and studied it closely.
+30 Bonus
The handwriting was Lucas’s. Or rather, it seemed like it was supposed to be. But the letters were shaky, like someone had tried to emulate his style. I knew, then, that this wasn’t written by him.
Dominic’s name came to mind immediately.
He had been furious last night. Maybe this was his way of catching me in the act; forging a note from Lucas, getting me to go out there, only to reveal himself and point at me and say “Ha! I knew you were a cheater!”
That was why my first instinct was not to go. I wasn’t sure if I had the energy to deal with this today.
And yet… A small part of me couldn’t help but feel at least a little curious. And maybe hopeful, too.
Hopeful that Dominic might finally see this as the final straw and divorce me.
The thought sent a pang through my chest, making my wolf curl in on herself, but I shoved it down before it could take root. No; I would not feel pain over a divorce. It was what I’d been hoping for, right? To free myself of this marriage?
To avoid the future that Dominic painted last night? A future in which I was forced to remain by his side as nothing but a trophy wife and broodmare until I died?
Just like my past life?
With bitter resolve, I folded the note and tucked it into my pocket.
Fine. If he wanted to play it like this, then I could play it like this.
At a quarter to twelve, I put on my boots and headed for the trail.
The forest was cool and quiet as I began to walk along the familiar path. The stormcloud had rolled closer, promising to shower down on us within the hour. Whatever Dominic had planned, I hoped it would be over before I got soaked.
The clearing was about a fifteen-minute walk in. I smelled it before I saw it, or rather, I smelled food-something warm and buttery drifting through the trees that made my stomach growl despite itself.
I pushed through the last line of trees and stopped.
There was a picnic laid out in the center of the clearing. A blanket was spread across the grass with a wicker basket sitting in the middle of it. But it was abandoned.
Curious, I looked around the clearing. I saw nobody. Not Dominic, Vivian, or even Mara.
I walked slowly to the edge of the blanket and crouched down, lifting the lid of the basket to look at the food. Cheeses, fruit, bread, and some kind of small pastry were nestled next to a bottle of wine and two glasses.
I stood back up and looked around again.
“Okay,” I said aloud, turning slowly with my hands spread wide. “Very nice, Dominic. Are you going to come out now?”
There was no response.
I folded my arms and waited. A minute passed, then two, then ten. Eventually, my legs grew tired and I sat on the blanket. A bird moved somewhere in the branches above me. The basket sat untouched. The temperature dropped a little, and the wind picked up, making the blanket flutter. The earth started to smell like incoming rain.
Dominic didn’t appear.
I checked my watch. Twenty past twelve. If he was trying to “catch me in the act”, then he wasn’t doing a very good job of it.
Another few minutes passed. I was starting to consider heading back to the house when I heard a twig snap behind me.
2:2
+30 Bonus
I turned around, already composing the expression I wanted to have on my face when Dominic stepped into view. Something knowing and, dare I say, a little smug.
But it wasn’t Dominic who came through the trees.
It was Lucas after all.
P
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