Chapter 260
Chapter 261
ALEXANDER
My secretary’s voice came through the intercom while I was going through some contracts I had
to review.
“Sir, Miss Diana Brown is here to see you.”
I frowned slightly. Diana?
What reason did she have to be here?
“What is she doing here?” I asked. She shouldn’t need to see me for anything related to her land issue.
“She said it’s urgent, sir.”
I leaned back in my chair, irritation prickling beneath my calm. I had made a deliberate decision to
remove myself from her case. That wa
remove myself from her case. That was the entire point of assigning Cole to it.
“Tell Miss Brown I’m busy,” I said. “If it’s important, she can send a message.”
“Yes, sir.”
The line went dead, and I turned back to my screen, already pushing the interruption out of my mind.
Less than a minute later, my office door opened.
“Sir… ” my secretary began, clearly flustered. “I tried to stop her…”
I looked up, prepared to be angry.
Diana stood there.
Whatever sharp words I’d been about to say lodged in my throat.
Her eyes were swollen, rimmed red. Her face looked drawn, exhausted in a way that had nothing to
do with theatrics. She didn’t look triumphant or calculating. She looked… broken.
“It’s fine,” I said after a beat, my voice tighter than I intended. “You can go.”
My secretary hesitated, clearly uncomfortable, then nodded and slipped out, closing the door
behind her.
The silence that followed was heavy.
I straightened in my chair. “What is the meaning of this?” I asked coolly. “You can’t barge into my office like that. This isn’t the pack house–and it isn’t my father’s office anymore.”
Chapter 261
The words landed. I saw it in the way her shoulders stiffened.
“I know,” she said quietly, lowering her gaze. “I’m sorry.”
That surprised me.
“I shouldn’t have come in like that,” she added. “I truly am sorry.”
I stood. “Then explain why you did.”
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She lifted her head slowly, and when she spoke, her voice wavered. “Because I didn’t know what
else to do.”
I crossed my arms. “Go straight to the point, Diana. I have work.”
Her lips trembled. “I can’t take this anymore.”
Before I could respond, she dropped to her knees.
“What are you doing?” I asked sharply, stepping around my desk. “Get up.”
She shook her head. “Please. Just listen to me.”
“This is not appropriate,” I said, my tone low. “Stand up.”
“I can’t,” she whispered, tears spilling freely now. “I really can’t.”
“Diana-”
“I know you hate me, Alexander,” she cut in, her voice breaking. “And I deserve it. I know that. I know why you put Cole in charge of my case. You didn’t want anything to do with me.”
I didn’t deny it. In fact, I was glad she knew that.
“At first, I thought I could accept that,” she went on. “I told myself it was fair. That I had no right to expect anything from you.”
She laughed weakly, the sound hollow. “But after today… after my meeting with Cole… I realized it’s over. For my family. If you don’t intervene yourself.”
“Cole is handling the matter,” I said firmly. “As he should.”
She shook her head harder. “You don’t understand. If you don’t step in as Alpha, we’re finished.”
I frowned. “Is this why you forced your way in here?”
“Because you
won’t listen to me any other way,” she said, tears streaking down her cheeks. “You
won’t even look at me.”
“Get up, Diana,” I said again. “Now.”
She didn’t move.
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“I can accept it if you truly have no feelings for me anymore,” she said softly. “If you’ve moved on. I
can accept that.”
Something in my chest tightened.
“But there has to be something left,” she continued. “Even if it’s just pity.”
I clenched my jaw.
“My father is already sick from worrying,” she added. “I don’t know how much more he can take.”
I closed my eyes briefly and exhaled.
“Enough,” I muttered.
I stepped forward and reached for her arm. “Get up
Reluctantly, she allowed me to pull her to her feet.
“This is an office,” I said stiffly. “Not a place for scenes like this.”
“I know, ” she whispered.
I meant to step back immediately, to put distance between us… thinking she’d do the same.
Instead, Diana leaned forward and kissed me on the lips.
I shoved her back instantly.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I snapped, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, anger cutting through the room. “Have you lost it?”
Diana staggered a step, shock flashing across her face–but I barely registered it.
Because something moved beyond her shoulder.
Through the glass wall of my office, I caught a glimpse of a figure in motion–too fast, already
turning away.
“Faye…”
The name didn’t even make it past my lips.
All I saw was her retreating shape disappearing down the corridor, the door swinging shut a second too late for me to stop it.
My chest went hollow.
I stood there, hand still clenched at my mouth, the room suddenly too quiet, my mind scrambling to catch up to what my eyes had just seen–confused, stunned, and completely speechless.
!!
Chapter 261
FAYE
I barely remember how I made it out of the building
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Everything after that moment in Alexander’s office blurred together, as if my body had taken over while my mind lagged behind, stunned and numb.
My feet carried me down the corridor, through the doors, into the open air, but none of it felt real. It felt like I was watching myself from a distance, like had stepped outside my own skin.
I saw Cole by the car.
He was leaning casually against it, phone pressed to his ear, his posture loose, unbothered. He was smiling faintly at whatever was being said on the other end.
I walked straight toward him.
“Cole,” I said. “Give me the keys.”
He glanced at me mid–call, eyebrows drawing together immediately. “Faye?” he said into the phone, distracted. Then he lowered it slightly. “What’s wrong?”
“Give me the keys.”
My voice didn’t sound like mine. It was tight, sharp, stripped of its softness.
He pulled the phone fully away from his ear now, his attention finally locked on me. “Hey–wait. What’s going on?”
I didn’t answer.
He hesitated, confusion flickering across his face as his fingers tightened around the key fob. That hesitation–small, instinctive–was all it took.
“I don’t have time for this,” I
Snapped.
I reached out, grabbed the ke
from his hand, and turned away in one swift motion. I heard him call my name– once, then louder–but I was already opening the driver’s door, already sliding into
the seat.
“Faye–wait!”
The door slammed shut, cutting him off.
My hands were shaking as I shoved the key into the ignition. For a second, I just sat there, staring through the windshield, chest rising and falling too fast, my vision blurring as tears welled despite my efforts to stop them.
Then I started the car and pulled out.
I didn’t look back.
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The road stretched ahead of me, straight and open, the buildings slipping past too quickly. My foot pressed harder on the accelerator than it should have, but I didn’t slow down. I didn’t want to slow down. I wanted distance–space between me and that office, between me and the image burned
into my mind.
Diana’s mouth on his.
The way she had leaned into him.
The way I had frozen.
I told myself I hadn’t seen everything. That Alexander must have pushed her away immediately. That it was nothing, that she had forced herself on him, that I had walked in at the worst possible
moment.
But the ache in my chest didn’t care about logic.
Pain curled deep in my stomach, sharp and humiliating. I hated it. Hated how fast it had taken hold, how it made my thoughts irrational and messy and ugly.
I had trusted him.
I still did.
And yet-
My grip tightened on the steering wheel.
Why hadn’t he told me she was coming to see him?
Why had I found out like that?
Why did it feel like everyone else knew what was happening except me?
The questions piled up, one after the other, until my chest felt too tight to breathe properly. I laughed weakly, the sound breaking halfway through, because it was ridiculous–wasn’t it?-to feel this undone over a single moment.
But it hadn’t just been a moment.
It was what that moment represented.
The fear that I was always one step behind. That conversations were happening without me. That decisions were being made in rooms I wasn’t invited into. That I was standing in the middle of my
own life, watching pieces of it move without my consent.
Tears spilled over before I could stop them. I wiped them away angrily, blinking hard, forcing my eyes back to the road.
“Pull yourself together,” I muttered.
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But my thoughts wouldn’t settle.
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I thought of Alexander’s face–how gentle he could be with me, how steady, how certain. The way he looked at me like I was something precious, something irreplaceable.
And then I thought of the way Diana had fit against him so easily, like she knew exactly where to
stand.
The contrast hurt more than I wanted to admit.
The car sped along the highway, the hum of the engine loud in my ears, drowning out everything else. A horn blared somewhere behind me, sharp and sudden.
I flinched, my hands jerking slightly on the wheel.
“Focus,” I whispered, my voice trembling.
I inhaled shakily, trying to slow my breathing, trying to force my mind to stay in the present instead of spiraling through what–ifs and half–formed fears.
What if I had stayed?
What if I had confronted him instead of running?
The road curved ahead, sunlight flashing briefly across the windshield. I wiped my eyes again, my chest aching, my thoughts tangled and racing faster than the car beneath me.
I didn’t see the other vehicle until it was too late.
There was a sudden screech of tires.
A flash of metal.
A violent impact-
And everything shattered.
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