Chosen by the Beast Alpha

Chapter 78: Chapter 78

Lena’s POV

As she spoke, Lena kept a close eye on Dominic’s face, catching every tiny shift in his expression before she went on. "Samuel and I get along just fine. Daniel’s always treated me with respect. As for Eliza..."

She let out a cold little laugh, sharp and dry.

"The second she followed my Instagram, I knew she wasn’t coming in peace. Whether she leaked our situation or not doesn’t even matter. As long as this arrangement between you and me is still in place, and as long as you keep seeing her, sooner or later we’re going to end up on opposite sides."

"She followed you?" Dominic frowned right away.

Lena lifted a brow. "Yep. And I saw her posts. Most of them were about you. About how much you matter to her, how close you two are. Maybe I was reading too much into it, sure, but every single post felt like it was aimed at me. Like she was talking straight to my face, reminding me how important she is to you."

Dominic’s frown deepened. He pulled out his phone and opened Eliza’s Instagram.

He tapped into her page, but there was nothing there. No personal posts. No emotional captions. Just flower shop promos and a few normal photos.

"You can’t see them?" Lena stared at him, genuinely thrown off. "She blocked you from them?"

That was... kind of wild. All that sincerity, all that longing, all those feelings—and she’d hidden them from the one person they were supposedly meant for.

Unless they were never meant for him in the first place.

Dominic immediately called Samuel. "Take screenshots of Eliza’s Instagram posts and send them to me."

"What? Why would I screenshot them? Just go look yourself."

"Just do it."

He hung up without another word. A few seconds later, Samuel’s screenshots came through.

Flower shop content. Photos from opening day. A few nicely arranged bouquets.

Nothing personal. Nothing emotional. Exactly the same stuff Dominic had just seen.

Dominic looked at Lena, suspicion plain in his eyes.

Lena narrowed hers. "What’s with that look? You think I’m making this up?"

She took out her phone, opened Eliza’s profile page, and handed it to him.

He took the phone from her, and what he saw was nothing like the screenshots Samuel Clarke had sent. Post after post was packed with carefully chosen words, every line dripping with the kind of longing that didn’t need to say the word love out loud to make it obvious.

Every post Lena had seen—the Christmas one, the dramatic "I want to go back to him" confession, even that hospital photo with only a man’s legs in frame—had existed on her screen, and hers alone.

Dominic Voss kept scrolling, his jaw locked so tight it looked like he might crack a tooth.

Lena glanced at his phone. Samuel’s screenshots were still there, clean, harmless, almost painfully innocent. Side by side, the contrast was so ridiculous it was almost funny.

"Wow," she said lightly, lifting a brow. "Looks like I’m really special to her. She even built a whole custom page just for me and set it to ’Lena only.’ Honestly? So thoughtful."

At that point, Eliza’s little game was fully exposed. Every single thing she had posted had been planned down to the last word. Not public. Not shared with Dominic. Not shown to Samuel Clarke or anyone else.

It had all been tailored for Lena.

Just to make her feel small. To remind her that Eliza and Dominic shared something Lena could never touch, never reach, never steal.

It was pathetic. But yeah, she had to admit it was also smart in a nasty way.

Lena took her phone back. "Dominic, you obviously still can’t let her go. She’s clearly all in on you. All you have to do is end our arrangement, and you two can get back together. Seriously, I don’t mind. I’ll just count it as my good deed—making sure all that devotion of hers doesn’t go to waste."

"You’re the one who wants to get back with your first love." His cold gaze cut across her face.

Her chest clenched hard for a second. But she recovered fast and covered it with a smile. "Yeah, sure. I’d love to get back with Reid Calloway. So let’s help each other out, okay? End this mess, everybody wins."

"No."

Dominic picked up his phone and stood. He looked down at her, his expression hard and unreadable. "I already told you. I’m seeing this through. With you."

Then he turned, walked into the bedroom, and shut the door behind him.

Lena stared at the closed door, both hands clasped behind her back, silently acting out a few violent punching motions in the air.

What was wrong with this man?

And what was the point of any of this?

"Dominic, if you’re seriously going to be this stubborn, then don’t blame me for what I do next!" She marched to his door and shouted through it, "You’re going to regret it!"

The door flew open.

His face was scary enough to make her scalp tighten. Lena swallowed with effort, but she still held her ground and tipped up her chin. "You’d better let this end nicely while you still can."

"What exactly are you going to do?" His voice was calm—way too calm. That kind of calm was the worst.

Lena cleared her throat. "Whatever I want."

"Go ahead. Try."

She forced out a tight smile. "Just watch."

Then she turned and strode into the bedroom, slamming the door so hard the wall gave a little shudder.

Behind that closed door, Lena called Anna and spilled everything. Every detail. Every sentence. Every single maddening second of it.

When she finished, she drove her fist into the mattress.

Anna was way more shaken by the nightclub incident than anything else. "If Reed hadn’t shown up, what would’ve happened? I seriously can’t even think about it!!"

"Me neither." Lena could still feel the jagged weight of the broken bottle in her hand.

"Okay, but you made it through, right? You know what people always say. Once you survive the worst part, the good part comes after."

"Yeah, not really."

"Fine, forget that." Anna switched gears fast, giving her a pep talk. "If he won’t end the arrangement, then stop torturing yourself over it. He wants to play games with Eliza? Cool. Then you play your own game. On paper, you’re his partner. She’s not. You can post whatever you want."

Lena dropped face-first onto the bed. "I know I shouldn’t care, but what that woman did on Instagram made me so mad. Posting stories only I can see? Who even does that?"

"Someone who’s scared of you." Anna’s voice sharpened at once. "She can only move in the shadows. You get to do things out in the open. You bought the ring, right? Then post it. Next time he’s stretched out on the couch looking all posed and expensive, take a picture. You two don’t have feelings for each other? Great. Then you’ve got nothing to lose. Show his face and that body off to the whole world. Why keep all that ammo to yourself?"

Even like this, Lena laughed. Anna always knew how to drag her out of the dark.

"Reed saved your life," Anna said, her tone turning soft. "And he still has feelings for you. That part is obvious."

Lena stared at the ceiling, replaying the moment Reed burst through the door again and again. The raw panic in his eyes. The way he grabbed her hand without even a second’s hesitation.

When someone you once loved shows up at your lowest point and pulls you straight out of hell, there’s no way you feel nothing.

"Lena, do you really not feel anything for Reed anymore?" Anna asked quietly.

Lena let out a long breath. "Before this? Honestly, no. I was completely over it. But after what happened... I can’t pretend he doesn’t exist."

"Then let it be what it is." Anna’s voice was calm now. "I know it’s messy because of the agreement before, but Dominic doesn’t love you, and you don’t love him. Dragging this out isn’t helping anybody."

"He won’t end the arrangement. And even if he did, that doesn’t mean I’d end up with Reed."

"Then still, let things happen naturally. Dominic hasn’t exactly honored the arrangement either. You don’t owe him loyalty. He was never loyal to you."

"I know," Lena said, and she meant it.

They talked a little longer about random, pointless stuff. By the time she ended the call, the fire in her chest had cooled bit by bit.

She was seriously wiped out. She closed her eyes, and within minutes, she was asleep.

When she woke up, the room was pitch-black. She reached for her phone and opened Instagram. Eliza had posted a story two hours ago.

"He told me he still loves me."

One photo. One white rose.

Lena let out a cold little laugh. This woman really did not know when to quit. She wanted to start a war again? Fine. Then let it be war.

She got out of bed, rummaged through her bag, and pulled out the pair of rings she had bought a few days earlier. They were cheap, basically worth next to nothing, but they were delicate silver rings, pretty and bright, catching the light with a soft shine.

She placed them on the white bedsheet, adjusted the angle, tapped to focus, and took the shot. Clean. Intimate. The kind of picture that looked like it was quietly whispering a promise.

She added a caption:

"Maybe this is where love truly belongs."

The second she read the words back, she almost choked on her own cheesiness.

But if Eliza wanted to play the feelings card, then Lena could play too. And unlike Eliza’s little post, hers was public. Everyone could see it.

Because she had nothing to hide.

Anna liked it first. Then Samuel Clarke. Then Daniel.

Someone commented, "Wishing you two a lifetime of happiness."

Lena smiled and replied under her own post, "We’ll be together forever."

She knew Eliza would see every single word she wrote.

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