THE ALPHA’S REGRET

CHAPTER TWO

The parking lot swallowed her whole.

Leslie’s heels caught on the pavement as she stumbled past the valet stand, past the murmurs still trailing her like smoke. She didn’t look back. She couldn’t.

Her hands shook so badly it took three tries to unlock her phone.

*Searching for nearby drivers.*

“Come on.” Her thumb hovered over the screen. “Come on, come on—”

*No drivers available in your area.*

Of course not. Nobody called cabs to a place like this. People here had drivers. Private cars. Names on lists.

She refreshed the app. Same result. Refreshed again.

*Estimated wait time: 25 minutes.*

Twenty-five minutes standing in a parking lot that smelled like her own humiliation, waiting for a ride nobody else here would ever need.

She backed into the shadow of a concrete pillar, arms wrapped around herself, and tried to disappear.

“Well, well, well.”

Leslie’s spine went rigid.

Victoria stepped out of the dark like she’d been carved from it—red dress catching the light, heels striking the pavement in a slow, unhurried rhythm. Like she had nowhere else she’d rather be.

“Having trouble getting home?”

“Leave me alone.” Leslie’s voice barely held.

“Why would I?” Victoria stopped a few feet away, close enough that her perfume cut through everything else. “This is the best part of my whole night.”

Leslie’s nails bit into her palms. “What do you want?”

“Nothing.” Victoria smiled, and it didn’t reach her eyes. “You don’t have anything I want. I’m just enjoying the view.”

“You did this.”

“Prove it.” Victoria tilted her head, all mock sympathy. “Go tell Tony. Tell Catherine. See who believes you.”

The words landed exactly where they were meant to.

“Why?” Leslie’s voice cracked. “Why me?”

Something shifted in Victoria’s face—the performance dropping away for just a second, replaced by something rawer.

“Because you took what was mine.” Her voice went flat. Quiet. Worse than shouting. “Five years, Leslie. Five years with Tony. A future. And then you show up, and suddenly I don’t exist.”

“Tony chose—”

“Tony doesn’t choose anything.” Victoria’s composure cracked further, jaw tight. “His mother does. And for some reason she wanted *you*. Not me.”

“I don’t understand what you—”

“Of course you don’t.” A short, bitter laugh. “Tell me something. Why does a billionaire’s son marry a waitress? Does that sound like a love story to you?”

Leslie’s mouth went dry. She had no answer. She’d never had one—not since the day Catherine sat across from her with a contract and a number large enough to erase every debt her family owed.

“That’s what I thought.” Victoria’s smile was small and cruel. “You don’t even know why you’re here. You’re a piece being moved on a board you can’t see.”

Leslie’s jaw tightened. Her fingers curled into her palms. “And what does that make you?”

She lifted her chin, voice shaking but steady enough. “You’re standing in a parking lot torturing someone you think is beneath you. Does that fill the hole he left?”

Victoria went still. “Careful.”

“No.” Leslie’s hands were fists now, dog filth and all. “You want the truth? I feel sorry for you. Five years, and he threw you away without blinking. At least I know what I am—temporary, fake, a name on a contract. You thought it was real. You thought he loved you. And now the only way you know how to feel anything is by hurting someone smaller than you.”

Silence dropped over the parking lot like a lid.

Victoria’s face drained of color. Her hands curled at her sides, knuckles whitening.

For one long second, Leslie thought she might actually strike her.

Then Victoria laughed—brittle, sharp, wrong.

“Oh, Leslie.” She shook her head slowly. “You have no idea what you just did.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I was going to let this be the end of it.” Victoria stepped closer, close enough that Leslie could feel the heat of her fury. “Let you crawl through your little contract and vanish. But not anymore.”

Her voice dropped to something almost gentle. Almost worse for it.

“Now I’m going to make every single day of your marriage hell. I’m going to make you regret every word that just came out of your mouth. And when they finally throw you out like garbage, there won’t be enough of you left to recognize.”

Leslie’s stomach turned to ice.

Victoria stepped back, her red dress catching the light.

“Enjoy the rest of your night.” Her smile sharpened. “Try to wash that smell out. Something tells me it’s going to stick.”

She turned and walked toward the gala without looking back, her laughter trailing behind her, bouncing off glass and steel and Leslie’s ruined dress.

The glass doors swallowed her, and the warmth and music sealed shut behind her.

Leslie stood alone in the dark, Victoria’s threat settling over her like a second skin she’d never be able to scrub off.

Suddenly her phone buzzed.