Ex-Mate Wants Me Back (Seraphina and Mortimer) novel Chapter 78

Chapter 78

Third Person’s POV

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Mortimer didn’t even know what he wanted Velda to do yet. He just needed her out. “Go home,” he rasped, his voice dropping an octave. “I’ll call you when I have a move for you.”

Velda shrugged, completely unbothered. “Whatever. Try not to break anything.”

The second the door shut, Mortimer scrambled for his phone. He remembered the unfinished draft to Seraphina.

But when he hit the screen, the blood drained from his face. The message was gone. Marked as ‘Sent.’

Across town, Seraphina had just finished with a patient when her phone vibrated on the desk. She glanced at the notification.

It was a photo of a cloud from Mortimer.

Underneath it, a single line of text, “Look at how stupid this dog looks. Reminds me of you.”

Seraphina blinked. Was he… insulting her?

That was her first and only thought.

It’s not like the man had some hidden romantic streak; he’d been a ghost for days, and now he pops up to tell her she looks like a “stupid dog”?

She didn’t have the energy to wonder if he meant she was “cute like a puppy.”

She knew better than to think an Alpha like Mortimer did “flirting.”

She stared at the text for a cold second, then tossed the phone into her desk drawer without typing a single character. “Next patient, please,” she called out.

Back in the penthouse, Mortimer was staring at the ‘Sent’ timestamp, past the window for a ‘Delete for Everyone’ move. He had one singular, violent thought, “I am going to murder Velda.”

She had to burst in right when he was editing.

The phone must have ghosted-dialed the ‘Send’ button in his pocket while he was fending her off.

Mortimer’s face was a lethal shade of grey. His eyes were glowing a faint, jagged red with pure frustration.

He started hammering at the screen, trying to explain that the sentence wasn’tfinished, that it was a typo, that he wasn’t calling her stupid.

But he stopped. If he sent a frantic string of apologies now, would she just think he was backpedaling?

Or if he left it, would she decide he’d gone out of his way to humiliate her?

For the first time in his life, Mortimer realized that fixing a text message was a hundred times harder than closing a multi- billion dollar hostile takeover.

“Screw it. I’ll go get her. I’ll explain it to her face.”

He slammed the phone onto his desk, trying to cage the predatory static buzzing in his brain.

He tried to focus on the mountain of paperwork in front of him, but the corporate clauses looked like gibberish.

Two hours before the official end of the day, he walked out.

“Go home, George. I’m driving,” Mortimer said, snatching the keys from his driver’s hand.

Chapte

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“But Alpha Mortimer, your hand… the stitches. Driving is going to pull the wound.”

Mortimer looked at the heavy white gauze wrapping his right palm. He could feel the dull, rhythmic throb of the tear.

“I’ll manage,” he muttered. He had a plan.

Since he wouldn’t take no for an answer, George stepped aside.

Mortimer climbed into the driver’s seat, gripping the wheel with his good left hand and flooring it toward Shadowfang Healing

Center. 1

At the healing center.

“So? How was the place? You taking it?” Trista asked, catching Seraphina in the locker room as they swapped into street clothes.

Seraphina had spent her lunch break checking out the apartment Trista’s friend was listing.

It was perfect. Prime location, right on the edge of the healing center district.

A hundred-yard walk to the front doors of the healing center.

Minimal commute. Maximum freedom.

And most importantly? The landlord was cool with pets.

“It’s great. Dash gets discharged tomorrow morning. I’m picking him up and moving in straight after. I’m done with the villa.”

Trista paused, her hand on her locker door. She looked worried. “Sera… you’re 100% on this? No second thoughts?”

Seraphina knew what she was asking.

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