Piss Off, Alpha! You Lost Me Forever novel Chapter 173

Chapter 173: Chapter 173 Almost Free

SOPHIA’S POV

Zade paused at the door.

Leaving through the front door felt ironic to him. He had usually come into Sophia’s house through the window, leaving the same way.

This time felt different.

He turned around.

Sophia was standing in front of him. The whole house was quiet.

Zade looked at her for a long moment - at her face, her loose hair, the way she stood. He felt his wolf stir inside him, responding to her.

He walked closer to her and kissed her forehead gently. He held it for one second, then two. He kept his eyes closed, breathing her in.

Then he pulled back.

"I’m not going to believe in your promises anymore," he said quietly. There was no accusation in it, no anger. His tone was flat. "I’ve been telling myself that you’ll come around, that if I wait long enough, if I get it right enough, if I show you enough-" He paused. "I’m done waiting for a promise you haven’t made. It hurts less, I think. Not believing."

Sophia said nothing. She looked at his face and her wolf sat heavy inside her chest.

Zade looked into her eyes for one more moment. Then he turned, took the rope, and went out without another word.

Sophia stood in the empty room and listened to the sound of his footsteps. She waited until the sound of his car starting and pulling away had faded completely.

Then she sat a near couch, pressed both hands flat against her knees, and breathed.

-

Damien came home to Stone Villa at eleven that night.

The house was mostly quiet. Franca had left dinner wrapped in the kitchen. Ashley was asleep upstairs. The only light still on was in the living room, where Tiffany was curled on the sofa with a medical textbook open on her lap.

She looked up when he came in. She noticed that he had a worried look on his face.

"What happened?" she said.

Damien set his keys on the table and sat across from her. He leaned forward as he spoke.

"George is in the hospital," he said.

Tiffany closed her book. "How serious?"

"Serious." Damien sighed. "His heart. They’ve stabilized him for now, but the doctors are saying the stress level needs to come down significantly. They say he needs complete rest. He keeps asking for Sophia. He keeps asking how she is, whether we’re happy, whether the marriage is good." He paused. "He doesn’t know the divorce is about to be finalized. If he finds out-"

Tiffany was quiet.

"If he finds out," Damien said, more carefully now, "the doctors are concerned about what it would do to him at his age, with his heart in the state it’s in." He raised his eyes to Tiffany’s face. "I need to ask Sophia to come back, not permanently - just to visit him, to act the part, for however long it takes for him to stabilize properly."

Tiffany’s eyes went wide with shock as she realized what he was saying.

"You’re asking her to pretend to be your wife," she said.

"For George. Only for George."

For a moment, there was silence between them. Tiffany looked at the closed textbook in her lap for a long moment. Then she looked up at Damien.

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