Chapter Ten
Idris
One phone call and my dreams were smashed to pieces. One damned phone call.
I had the perfect alpha, for a moment. I waited for him in the car, and when he came, I shoved over into a corner away from him.
“I’m so confused, omega. Tell me what’s going on.” He didn’t deserve to hurt and it killed me to give him the cold shoulder, but what he’d done had wrecked everything.
I’d seen more emotion at a fast-food counter over the whole thing as well. He owned this brilliant organization, community, group of people, all gathered under the banner of a company they believed in, and now, he spoke of it like it was just some deal.
“I can’t. I can’t speak about it. You’re not who I thought you were.”
“Please, Idris. I don’t understand.”
How could he?
He was the one who sold the company to those vipers and pretended to be some loving, kind person?
How could someone be two people at once?
I wrapped my arms around myself while the driver took off. With my forehead pressed against the window, I commanded my tears not to fall. He didn’t deserve them.
My anger was toward him, the alpha who’d thrown away something great for money. My unshed tears were for the life I’d opened myself up to and now couldn’t have.
There was no way I could live a life with this man.
One minute, I was daydreaming of a life where he and I loved each other and maybe had a family and the next, well, all of that was gone.
Maybe?
Could I find it in myself to forgive him? It was business, after all.
No. No, it wasn’t just business. It was personal. To me. To the people who’d lost their jobs and investment in the company. Whose lives had changed because of his decision.
He didn’t say anything else in the car. Part of me wanted him to, but the other part wanted him to suffer a bit. Ugh. No matter what he’d done, his suffering broke my heart. He probably didn’t even realize the damage he’d done.
Once we got back to the bed-and-breakfast and the car drove away, I considered telling him, but the words stuck in my throat.
I turned to look at him and the sorrow in his eyes made my chest tight.
“Idris, I don’t know what I did. Please tell me and I’ll fix it. I swear.”
“You can’t fix this,” I answered.
“We can fix anything. Together.”
I opened and closed my mouth several times before turning on my heels and heading into the house. “Not this,” I murmured before walking up the stairs. “Not this.”
Of course the alpha didn’t take the hint. He followed me up the stairs. I stomped. He climbed gently. I huffed and puffed. His breathing was steady.
The even breaths of a very rich man who was unconcerned that he’d destroyed people’s lives.
“Mate, let’s talk about this. We have to talk through it.”
Hearing the word mate come from his lips broke the dam of my tears. I stopped at my door and turned on him. “There’s nothing to talk about. It’s done. I knew this was too good to be true.”
I walked into my room and slammed the door. On him. On us. On the possibility of a life I didn’t think I’d ever have.