Page 46 of Alpha-Ex Wedding Ruse
“There is no us.”
“I’m not lying. I swear—”
“Stop it, Leila!” His voice boomed through the room, bringing everything to a halt. I flinched at his tone. “I didn’t believe it at first until I saw. Your father is swamped in debt. Thousands of dollars. Gambling. Loans. You expect me to believe you didn’t know? That this wasn’t planned?”
“What?” Planned? My head spun. “Yes—he has problems, but I never—Luca, please. You know me. You know me.” My voice cracked on the last sentence, like I was trying to convince myself more than him that he believed me. That he trusted me.
He shook his head, the features of his face pulled taut and hard. Those eyes that once held me with love and admiration now looked at me like I was the dirt beneath his shoe. He dipped a hand into the inside pocket of his suit, pulled out an envelope, and tossed a stack of photos at me. My gaze followed them to where they landed at my feet.
It was a photo of me. In bed. With a man I didn’t recognize. His arm was thrown lazily over my waist. My eyes were closed. My bare shoulders exposed.
I staggered back. “That’s not—” My voice cracked. “That’s not real. I don’t even know who that is—I swear to you, Luca, I don’t know how—”
“I said enough!” he snapped, his voice rising now, drawing more attention. Heads turned. Gasps fluttered through the atmosphere like feathers in a storm.
“You used me,” he said, his voice cracking around the edges—like the words scraped his throat on their way out. “You played the role perfectly. The innocent, harmless thing. You wormed your way into my life…into my bed.” He shook his head, jaw tight, eyes glittering—not just with fury, but something deeper. Something broken. “And all this time,” he continued, softer now, “you were just another performance. A scam.”
I froze.
My throat burned. My eyes stung. A wave of dizziness crashed over me—sudden, suffocating.
It felt like the child growing inside me could feel the weight of his words, too.
Luca looked away for a second, like he couldn’t bear to look at me. Then he forced his eyes back to mine.
“I should’ve listened,” he said, more to himself than to me. “They said you were after the money. That you saw a rich Alpha and latched on. And I—” He stopped, his jaw flexing. “I defended you. I chose you.”
Tears blurred my vision. I wanted to speak, to scream, to beg him to believe me—but I couldn’t push past the thundering in my chest. The pressure behind my ribs. The crowd watching us unravel.
He stepped back, just slightly, but it felt like a chasm opened between us.
“To hell with the Mate bond, Leila,” he said. “I reject you. As my Mate. As anything.”
His eyes met mine one last time. And there was devastation in them as he added. “You mean nothing to me.”
Silence dropped over the crowd like a curtain.
My heart cracked. In front of every single pack member, every Vaughn Industries employee. The rejection echoed louder than any slap ever could.
“Security,” he called, not even sparing me another glance. “Escort her out.”
I didn’t even feel my legs as two guards approached from either side, placing firm hands on my arms. Laughter rippled from the edges of the crowd—soft, malicious, satisfied.
As they dragged me past the stares and whispers, the tears slipped freely down my cheeks. My hands clutched my stomach.
He hadn’t just rejected me.
He’d rejected us.
Chapter Eleven
Luca’s POV
Present Day
I stared at the dinosaur, Labubu, on my desk like it was a ticking time bomb. Small. Grinning. Big yellow eyes, round and wild, stared straight through me—mocking me. No—judging me for what had happened at the cafe yesterday.
My thoughts drifted back to her face as she hastily packed her things into her bag. Her movements had been rushed, jerky, like she was trying to outrun the humiliation. Her mouth pressed into a thin line to keep it from trembling. Her lashes were damp and her gaze glassy, just in the way someone would look if they were trying like hell not to break down in public. Or trying not to cry in front of the very people cutting them open.
