Chapter 161
Ellie POV
Sarah arrives thirty minutes later.
I love her. I really do.
But saying she knows how to fill a room would be an understatement.
The second she steps inside and takes in the dining room—an enormous space that looks like it belongs in a palace rather than a home—her eyes widen.
Then she looks at me.
And immediately bursts out laughing.
“Okay. No. Stop. Pause.” She points at me, trying and failing to contain herself. “What is happening? Why are you dressed like a bridal Pinterest board? Why are we at an Alpha estate? Why did you ghost me? I was literally five minutes away from filing a missing persons report.”
I rub my forehead.
“Sarah, I need you to not spiral for the next twenty minutes.”
She opens her mouth.
I raise a finger.
“Please.”
Her mouth closes.
A miracle.
“Just sit. Breathe. I’ll explain everything.”
She drops into the chair across from me, still looking suspicious.
So I tell her.
Everything.
The engagement.
The contract.
The paperwork.
Dominic.
The strange, complicated mess that has somehow become my life.
I even tell her about the agreement between us.
For once, Sarah doesn't interrupt.
Not once.
And that’s how I know she understands this is serious.
When I finish, she just stares at me.
“So…” she says slowly. “You’re engaged to the Alpha.”
“Yes.”
“The same Alpha who is your fated mate?”
“Yes.”
“But you don’t love him.”
“Correct.”
“So this is a fake marriage.”
“Yes.”
“To save your mom.”
“Yes.”
She blinks.
“I’m so lost.”
I shrug.
“No, I think you actually understand perfectly.”
She drags both hands down her face.
“Ellie. I’m not going to tell you what to do. But I have to ask…”
She leans forward.
“Why do you hate Dominic so much?”
“I don’t hate him.”
She gives me a look.
“Okay, that is not even remotely the point.”
I look away.
“You two clearly like each other. You’re fated mates. You’re literally getting married. So why fake it? Why not just…”
She gestures vaguely between us.
“Lean into it?”
My jaw tightens.
“I don’t hate him.”
“That’s not an answer.”
I sigh.
“I just…”
I pause.
Because admitting the truth is harder than I want it to be.
“I need you to help me come up with ways to annoy him.”
Sarah freezes.
Her eyebrows slowly pull together.
“Annoy him.”
“Yes.”
“Like… annoy him?”
“Strategically.”
She repeats the word slowly.
“Strategically.”
“Yes.”
“So he divorces you?”
I nod.
Silence fills the room.
Sarah just stares at me.
Then blinks.
“Okay,” she says finally. “You’re going to have to walk me through that again because I feel like I skipped an entire chapter.”
I sigh.
“I need him to help my mom. And I need him to fix whatever is happening with this weird almost-dying thing I have going on.”
My fingers tighten around my cup.
“After that, I’m done. I get my life back.”
Sarah’s expression changes.
“You’re going to sabotage a rich, powerful, ridiculously smart Alpha who clearly cares about you.”
I hesitate.
“…Yes.”
She points at me.
“You’re insane.”
“I’m being practical.”
She leans back in her chair and narrows her eyes.
“Okay, but counterpoint…”
I already know I’m not going to like this.
“He’s different from when we were kids.”
I stay quiet.
“You still haven’t answered me, Ellie. Why not just stay? Why not give it a real chance?”
My gaze drops.
Because I can’t tell her the truth.
Because in another life, I did give it a chance.
And that chance ended with me bleeding out on cold marble.
I already trusted him once.
I already loved him once.
Loved him in a way that consumed every part of me.
And look where that got me.
So instead, I shrug.
“I need my own life.”
Sarah watches me carefully.
“I don’t want to wake up ten years from now and realize I built everything around someone else.”
For a moment, she says nothing.
Then quietly:
“He stayed at the hospital.”
My chest tightens.
I don’t look up.
“When you were sick,” she continues. “He stayed with me. He didn’t leave.”
My fingers curl against the table.
Ignore it.
“That doesn’t change anything.”
Sarah tilts her head.
“Maybe it should.”
I shake my head harder than necessary.
“It’s temporary.”
My voice comes out firmer than I feel.
“I just need to make things uncomfortable enough that he decides this isn’t worth the trouble.”
Sarah stares at me like I just announced I was planning a crime.
“You’re going to sabotage your own wedding.”
“I prefer the term strategic withdrawal.”
“This is so dumb.”
I smile faintly.
“You love me.”
She groans.
Unfortunately for her, I know she does.
“So,” she says, rubbing her temples. “What’s the plan?”
She starts counting on her fingers.
“Public embarrassment? Weaponized incompetence? Mild psychological warfare?”
I laugh despite myself.
“Those sound extreme.”
“They sound like you.”
I roll my eyes.
“And what’s the timeline? When exactly are you two getting married?”
I open my mouth.
Then close it.
Sarah stares.
“You don’t know your own wedding date?”
“It just happened.”
“That is somehow the least surprising thing you’ve ever said.”
“I’m working on it.”
And then, somehow, we start making a list.
Petty things.
Harmless things.
Tiny annoyances that technically don’t violate the contract but might slowly destroy Dominic’s patience.
By the time we’re debating whether hiding his car keys qualifies as a crime, I’m laughing.
Actually laughing.
And for the first time in days, the tightness in my chest eases.
Maybe this is ridiculous.
Maybe this plan is impossible.
But sitting here with Sarah, pretending I have control over my own life again…
It feels good.