Chapter 21
Chapter 21
“Rosie! ROSIE!”
His desperate cries echoed down the street, raw with anguish and regret.
In the car, Alistair glanced at the rearview mirror, watching Dante’s diminishing figure running
frantically behind them. He turned to Rosalie with a concerned expression.
Taking a deep breath, he asked softly, “Rosie, can you tell me what happened between you two?”
Rosalie looked up, her lips trembling slightly.
She began slowly, then the words came faster, like a dam breaking. Each revelation tore open
the
wounds she’d tried so carefully to heal–the manipulation, the betrayal, the videos, the setup at the club. With each memory, her voice grew more strained, the pain as fresh as if it had happened
yesterday.
“He was recording us the entire time,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “Three years of what I
thought was love… all for a revenge plot against you.”
Before she could continue, Alistair pulled her into his arms. “Stop,” he said gently. “You don’t need to
relive this.”
As he held her, self–recrimination crashed over him. If he had spoken up sooner, if he had confessed his feelings years ago instead of hiding behind brotherly affection, maybe she would have been spared this pain. Maybe Wolf would never have had the chance to hurt her.
“I should have protected you,” he whispered into her hair. “I’ll never let anyone hurt you again.”
As Rosalie leaned into his embrace, finally allowing her tears to flow freely, Alistair glanced back at Dante’s diminishing figure in the rearview mirror. Cold fury crystallized in his chest.
Without hesitation, he spoke to the driver. “Turn around. Drive toward him.”
The driver hesitated momentarily, his eyes widening in the rearview mirror. “Sir?”
“You heard me,” Alistair said, his voice unnervingly calm.
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Married Your Fromy My Stepbrother
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Chapter 21
Seeing the deadly resolve in Alistair’s eyes, the driver complied.
When Dante saw the car turning, hope flared in his chest–perhaps she had changed her mind. But in the next instant, the vehicle accelerated directly toward him.
The impact was devastating.
His body arced through the air before crashing violently to the pavement.
Dante felt an explosion of pain, coughed up blood, and then darkness consumed him.
In the hazy realm of unconsciousness, Dante found himself reliving his first encounter with Rosalie–but differently.
His friends were pointing her out, laughing. “That’s Lima’s sister. We’ve arranged for a car to hit her–nothing serious, just enough for you to swoop in and save her. She’ll fall for you instantly, and
you’ll have the perfect weapon against Lima.”
In this dream version, Dante’s mind recoiled in horror.
“Stop it!” he shouted, pushing his friends away. “Call it off! I’m done with revenge–I don’t want to
hurt her!”
But it was too late.
The car was already moving toward her.
Dream–Dante ran desperately, pushing her out of harm’s way, taking the impact himself. When she
looked at him with frightened eyes, he smiled gently despite his pain. “I’m Dante. I’ve been waiting my whole life to meet you.”
The dream shifted. They were laughing together at a café. Dancing under stars. Walking
hand–in–hand through Central Park in autumn. Living a life where revenge had never entered the
equation, where he had recognized from the start what she meant to him.
Stay here, he thought desperately as the dream began to fade. Let me stay in this version. Let me
never wake up if it means I can be with her here.
But reality pulled at him, dragging him back to consciousness against his will.
In the sterile hospital room, Dante jerked awake, his face ashen.
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The Ultimate Payback: When I Married Your Enemy, My Stepbrother
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Chapter 21
His chest was heavily bandaged, blood seeping through the layers, but he seemed oblivious to the pain as he tore back the covers, attempting to get up.
His friends, who had been keeping vigil, jumped to their feet. “Wolf! You’re awake!”
Dante’s mind was still caught between dream and reality, his voice a ragged whisper. “Rosie…
where’s Rosie?”
For one disoriented moment, he believed he was still in that alternate timeline–the one where he had made different choices, where he had loved her honestly from the beginning.
“We were at the café,” he mumbled, trying to rise. “I need to meet her. She’s waiting for me.”
His friends exchanged worried glances. “Wolf, you’ve been unconscious for two weeks,” Marcus said carefully. “The doctors weren’t sure you’d wake up at all.”
Dante’s expression was confused, caught between universes. “Two weeks? No, that can’t be right. We just had dinner last night. She was wearing that blue dress she knows I love.”
After a painful silence, Jason finally spoke the words that would become Dante’s totem–the brutal truth that would distinguish dream from reality.
“Rosalie and Lima’s wedding is today.”
The words hit Dante like a second car crash, shattering the dream world completely.
Reality crashed down on him with merciless clarity. There was no alternate timeline, no world where he had made better choices. There was only this one–where he had manipulated and lost the
only woman he had ever truly loved.
“Wedding?” he whispered, his voice breaking as the last fragments of his dream life disintegrated.
“They’re getting married… today?”
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The Ultimate Payback: When I Married You
