Alpha's Regret: Losing His True Mate-Chapter 181

After Johnny and Elodie finished ordering, Rex added a couple dishes and they started talking business.

Then the food started arriving.

At first, Rex thought Johnny had been joking about not holding back.

But as plate after plate came out... lobster, wagyu, some kind of rare fish he’d only heard about, his eyes started twitching.

They’d ordered half the premium menu.

Johnny, completely unbothered, kept piling food onto Elodie’s plate. "Elodie, take your time. No rush."

Elodie nodded. "Okay."

Rex just sat there with his jaw tight.

Johnny was absolutely messing with him on purpose.

Not that either of them actually cared about the bill. It was the principle.

As they ate, the conversation shifted back to serious business talk. Timelines, deliverables, technical specs.

Elodie stayed quiet for most of it, only jumping in when she had something to add.

But when she did speak? Her points were sharp. Insightful.

Rex found himself actually impressed.

He’d assumed she was just... there. That Johnny kept her around because he liked her, not because she was useful.

But watching them work together, it almost seemed like Johnny deferred to her more than the other way around.

Maybe that’s why Johnny was so hung up on her. She wasn’t just pretty.... she was smart. Capable.

That actually made sense.

---

Toward the end of the meal, Elodie excused herself to the restroom.

When she came back out, she nearly walked straight into Dante.

He’d just come out of the men’s room.

They both froze.

Dante looked at her but didn’t say anything. Like he didn’t know what to say. Or didn’t want to bother.

Elodie wasn’t planning to talk to him either. She started to walk past.

Then stopped.

"When can we finalize the divorce?" she asked.

She’d never pushed him on it before. But it had been long enough. She wanted it done.

Dante’s expression didn’t change. "It’ll be a while longer."

"How long?"

"I’ll let you know when it’s ready."

Elodie didn’t press further. She turned to leave.

Then Dante added, "Nonna knows about it now."

Elodie paused. "Good."

At least now the old woman wouldn’t keep trying to force them to play happy family. And Elodie wouldn’t have to keep pretending.

"Yeah," Dante said.

They walked down the hallway together in silence, side by side but miles apart.

That’s when someone came barreling around the corner.

Both of them stepped aside, but the person still clipped Elodie’s shoulder.

She stumbled backward, right into Dante.

His hand shot out on reflex, catching her by the waist to steady her.

The person who’d bumped into her muttered a quick "sorry" and rushed into the restroom.

Elodie realized she was still pressed against Dante and started to pull away—

"You two—"

Rex’s voice cut through the hallway.

He’d come around the corner and stopped dead, staring at them. At Elodie against Dante’s chest. At Dante’s hand still on her waist.

Dante let go immediately.

Elodie stepped to the side, putting distance between them. She didn’t look at either of them. Just turned and walked away.

Rex watched her go, then slowly shifted his gaze back to Dante.

Dante smiled, perfectly calm. "Mr. Hardin. Also here for the restroom?"

Rex’s jaw tightened. "...Yeah."

Dante nodded like nothing had happened and walked off.

Rex stood there, staring after him.

He’d never once thought about Elodie and Dante being... anything. They’d crossed paths at Wilson Corp, sure, but they’d never talked. Why would they? She was low-level tech staff. He was the CEO. Different worlds.

The only time he’d seen them interact was at that banquet. And even then, Dante had probably only approached her because of Sienna.

So what the hell was that just now?

---

When Elodie got back to the private room, Rex still hadn’t returned.

By the time he finally showed up, they were almost done eating. They wrapped things up, paid the bill, and left. Rex headed back to his office to prep some documents. Elodie and Johnny went back to Cole.

---

Around three that afternoon, Harry showed up at Cole.

At almost the exact same time as Rex.

They ran into each other in the lobby.

Rex nodded. "Mr. Becker. So you finalized things with Cole?"

"I did. You here to sign the contract?"

"That’s right."

Harry raised an eyebrow, clearly surprised. At the banquet, Johnny had shut Rex down hard. No hesitation.

And now they were doing business together?

Interesting.

Harry wasn’t sure what had changed, but—

That’s when Elodie and Johnny walked into the conference room.

Johnny didn’t particularly like either Harry or Rex, but his attitude toward Harry was noticeably warmer. Especially when it came to Elodie.

So when they sat down, Johnny let Elodie handle Harry’s side of things while he dealt with Rex.

Rex didn’t seem to care about the arrangement.

But Harry?

Harry smiled. "Then I’ll leave things in your capable hands, Miss Miller."

Elodie nodded. "Of course, Mr. Becker. This way."

---

They sat down and got to work. Elodie talked through specs and timelines with Harry’s technical team. The conversation was detailed, technical, and smooth.

By the time they finished, it was already dark outside.

As they filed out of the conference room, Harry glanced at her.

"Miss Miller, would you like to grab dinner?"

Elodie shook her head. "I’ve got something I need to take care of. Let me check with Johnny first—"

Johnny walked out of the conference room right then, catching the end of the conversation.

"Dinner? Sure, I’m in." He glanced at Elodie. "Go handle whatever you need to. I’ve got this."

Elodie nodded, gave Harry a small wave, and left without even looking at Rex.

Harry stood there, a little thrown.

Johnny turned to Rex. "Mr. Becker’s buying dinner. You coming, Mr. Hardin?"

Rex’s expression was flat. "Yeah. Let’s go."

---

Elodie drove straight to the Miller family house.

She’d come back to talk business with her uncle Jason. Cole was prepping two huge projects right now, and each one had been broken into smaller outsourced chunks.

Elodie had deliberately set one of those pieces aside for Jason to handle.

When she laid out the proposal, Jason was immediately interested.

"Will Johnny have a problem with this?"

"No. I already talked to him about it."

"Good." Jason paused, then frowned. "The thing is, cash flow’s a little tight right now. I’m not sure I can—"

"I’ve got over ten million I can put in," Elodie said. "If that’s not enough, we can auction off those two gifts from Nonna’s birthday. That should cover the rest."

The gifts Dante had given at her grandmother’s party... she’d been planning to sell them anyway. Now that the divorce was moving forward, it made sense to liquidate them. Dante wouldn’t care.

Still, Jason hesitated.

"Dante’s got connections everywhere. If we auction off gifts he gave and he finds out... won’t that cause problems?"

"He won’t care," Elodie said firmly.

Jason studied her face, then nodded. "Alright."

Between her ten million and the estimated thirty million the gifts would bring in, plus whatever Jason could scrape together, they’d have around fifty million. That would be enough.

And if it wasn’t...

Elodie’s eyes drifted toward the window. Toward the villa across the way.

---

The next afternoon, Jason sent the items to the auction house.

Not long after, the auction house called Dante.

His assistant took the call, then walked into his office.

"Sir, the auction house called. Two items registered under your name are being put up for sale."

Dante didn’t look up from his laptop. "Alright."

"Do you want them to hold the items for you?"

"No."

The assistant nodded and left quickly, not wanting to linger.

Sienna, sitting across from him at dinner, looked up. "Something going on at work?"

Dante slipped his phone back into his pocket. "No. Just the auction house."

Sienna smiled, about to respond, when Liora piped up from her seat.

"What’s an auction house?"

Dante cut into his steak, keeping his tone casual. "It’s a place where people sell things. Bid on them."

"Bid on them? What kind of things? Is it fun?"

Sienna laughed. "It can be. Haven’t you ever been to one, Liora?"

Liora shook her head. "Nope."

Her eyes lit up. "Do they have treasures there?"

"Sometimes," Dante said.

"I wanna see what it’s like!" Liora said, practically bouncing in her chair.

Sienna smiled gently. "The things there might not be very interesting to you, sweetheart."

"Oh..." Liora’s face fell immediately.

Dante set down his knife and fork. "You can still come. You could help me raise the paddle when I bid."

"Raise the paddle?"

"Yeah." 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

He grabbed Liora’s tablet from the side table and pulled up a video, showing her how auctions worked. Liora watched, eyes wide, as people held up numbered paddles and nodded at auctioneers.

After a minute, she grinned. "That looks fun! Dad, can we go? Please?"

"Next time I’m free, I’ll take you. You can buy whatever you want."

"Really?!"

"Really."

Sienna just smiled and sipped her wine, letting them have their moment.

---

The next morning, Rex showed up at Wilson Corporation early.

When he walked into the conference room, both Sienna and Dante were already there.

Rex paused when he saw her. "Miss Brown. Didn’t expect to see you here."

Sienna smiled. "I’m still managing the project I was assigned before. Just continuing where I left off."

Rex nodded. "Got it."

He’d assumed that once her family got involved in the new Wilson project, she’d have stepped back to help them. Guess not.

Dante gestured to the chair across from him. "Mr. Hardin. Please, sit."

Rex sat down, but as he did, his mind flashed back to the hallway at the restaurant. Dante’s hand on Elodie’s waist. The way she’d been pressed against him.

He shook it off and focused on business.

They talked for over an hour. At some point, Sienna excused herself to handle something else. She came back a bit later with coffee that Dante’s secretary had prepared, settling into the chair beside him.

Then Dante’s phone rang.

He glanced at the screen, stood, and stepped out to take the call.

Rex watched him leave, and that image popped back into his head. Dante holding Elodie. Again.

"Mr. Hardin, did you want to say something?"

Sienna’s voice pulled him back. She was watching him, her eyebrow slightly raised.

Rex’s hesitation must’ve been obvious.

He shook his head. "Just thinking... Mr. Wilson treats you very well."