Chapter 36: The Last Card

Dominic started with flowers.

He chose a bouquet of white flowers to say he was sincerely sorry.

Victoria didn’t suggest this. She simply said, "Be personal again."

The arrangement arrived at Vance Holdings on a Monday morning without reporters waiting outside, photographers conveniently nearby, or any accompanying social media post.

Just flowers.

And a handwritten card.

I’m sorry. No excuses. Give me ten minutes to explain.

The flowers came back before lunch.

The card didn’t.

For several minutes, Dominic stared at the returned arrangement.

"Did he say anything?"

The deliveryman shook his head.

"No, sir."

Nothing.

He assumed Alex kept the card instead of throwing it into the wastebasket.

Dominic was back to square one.

He tried to remember Alex’s favorite food, but he couldn’t think of one. He almost called Alex’s father but decided against the idea. Their last phone call didn’t end well.

Tried another contact.

Vincent, the executive assistant, answered the office landline after the second ring. "Vincent, this is Dominic. What is Alex’s favorite food?"

"I’m sorry, you called the wrong number. This is not a dating center." He hung up before Dominic could say another word.

"Shit." His frustration was mounting.

Three days later, he brought no gifts.

He simply waited patiently outside Vance Holdings. From time to time, he looked at his reflection in the glass panel, checking whether a strand of hair was out of place.

"Handsome as ever," he told himself.

Alexander emerged shortly after seven, flanked by two members of his security detail.

"Alex."

The CEO stopped.

That alone felt like a victory.

"I need five minutes."

"No."

"Three."

"No."

"Then one."

Alexander looked at him.

Dominic had rehearsed several versions of the apology. Somehow, standing face-to-face with the man he’d left outside the Marriage Bureau stripped most of them away.

"I was wrong."

Alexander’s expression didn’t change.

"I know."

"I shouldn’t have left you there."

"No."

"I shouldn’t have lied."

"No."

"And everything afterward..."

For the first time, Alexander’s gaze sharpened.

"Was a choice."

Dominic fell silent.

Alexander continued.

"Leaving me there might’ve been cowardice. What you did afterward required planning."

"I was angry."

"So was I."

"I thought you were trying to destroy me."

"I wasn’t."

That was somehow the worst part.

Alexander hadn’t needed revenge.

Dominic had lost his position largely because of his own decisions, while Alexander had simply stepped away and protected what was his.

"I want to fix this."

Alexander studied him for several seconds.

"Too late."

And walked away.

The apology hadn’t worked.

So Dominic stopped trying.

At least publicly.

For more than a week, he made no calls, sent no messages, and stayed away from every place Alexander might reasonably expect to encounter him.

Alexander didn’t come looking.

Then Dominic became ill.

That part, at least, wasn’t planned.

Weeks of stress, poor sleep, and drinking more than he should’ve finally caught up with him. By the time he was admitted to a private clinic with a high fever and exhaustion, several mutual acquaintances already knew.

Dominic found himself watching his phone.

Nothing.

An hour passed.

Then another.

Eventually, one of their friends mentioned that Alexander had been informed.

Dominic sat straighter.

"And?"

The friend hesitated.

"He asked whether you were receiving proper medical care."

Dominic stared at him.

"That’s it?"

"He also asked whether your family had been notified."

"And?"

"Your mother already knew."

Dominic slowly leaned back against the pillows.

Alexander cared.

Or at least Dominic wanted it to mean that.

He extended his clinic stay, hoping Alexander would visit. But the elderly physician cleared him for discharge.

"Stay in a hotel for an extended vacation." He tapped Dominic’s shoulder for emphasis.

After his discharge, he sent a message.

I heard you asked about me. Thank you.

Alexander replied several hours later.

I’m glad you’re recovering.

Dominic read the sentence more times than he cared to admit.

It wasn’t warm.

But it wasn’t cruel either.

That was enough to keep hope alive.

Two weeks of bliss were shattered by a road accident.

A minor collision left Dominic with bruising, a bandaged wrist, and a badly damaged car. He wasn’t even driving.

Alexander heard about that too.

This time, Dominic called him directly from the private room.

To his surprise, Alexander answered.

"Are you hurt?"

Dominic closed his eyes.

There.

That immediate concern.

That familiar instinct.

"Nothing serious."

"Good."

"I thought you’d want to know."

"I do."

A faint trace of satisfaction slipped into Dominic’s voice.

"Then you still care."

Silence.

His expression changed. What could have been the start of a pleasant conversation turned sour.

"Alex?"

"I don’t want you dead, Dominic."

The words landed strangely.

"That’s a low standard."

"It’s the one you’re asking about."

Dominic gripped the phone.

"We spent years together."

"Yes."

"You can’t switch that off overnight."

"I didn’t."

Hope rose.

Alexander continued before it could settle.

"But caring whether you’re injured isn’t the same as wanting you back."

Dominic’s jaw tightened.

"I don’t want you back. Ever."

Dominic’s voice started to quiver.

"Is this because of Giovanni?"

"No."

"It has to be."

"That’s your problem."

"What is?"

"You still think our relationship ended because someone replaced you."

Alexander’s voice remained infuriatingly calm.

"It ended because of what you did."

The call ended soon afterward without saying goodbye.

Dominic stayed seated, phone in hand.

Flowers hadn’t changed anything.

Neither had the apology.

Disappearing hadn’t made Alexander miss him, and being sick had earned him nothing beyond ordinary concern.

Even an accident hadn’t brought him any closer. In fact, it made it worse.

Meanwhile, Giovanni Mercer continued saying absolutely nothing.

And somehow, that silence kept occupying more and more space.

Dominic finally reached the conclusion desperate people often reached when ordinary attempts stopped working.

If Alexander wouldn’t come willingly...

Then Dominic needed to give him a reason he couldn’t ignore.

The message went out late one evening.

No reporters and no press release.

This wasn’t meant for the public.

It was meant for Alexander alone.

The warning was deliberately vague but alarming enough to suggest that Dominic might be in immediate danger and that his recent behavior had raised serious concerns about what he might do to himself.

Alexander responded.

Of course he did.

Just not the way Dominic expected.

Emergency professionals were the first responders. Then came members of Dominic’s family: Victoria and Andrei.

Alexander arrived only long enough to make sure the situation was in the hands of people equipped to handle it.

Once he knew Dominic was physically safe, he turned toward the door.

Dominic tried hard to make Alex stay longer.

"You’re going?"

Alexander stopped.

"You needed professional help."

"I needed you."

"No."

The answer was quiet.

"You made me believe you were in danger."

Dominic’s face changed.

"I was desperate."

"That doesn’t make it better."

"I didn’t know what else to do!"

"Do nothing."

Dominic stared at him.

Alexander’s expression remained controlled, but whatever sympathy had brought him there was rapidly disappearing.

"You could’ve done nothing."

"After everything we’ve been through?"

"After everything we’ve been through, you could’ve respected my answer."

Dominic’s breathing turned uneven.

"So that’s it?"

"Yes."

"You don’t care what happens to me?"

"I came because I was told you might be in danger."

"Exactly."

"No, Dominic."

Alexander looked at him steadily.

"Don’t confuse my unwillingness to let someone come to harm with permission to use that against me."

Silence filled the room.

Even Victoria said nothing.

Perhaps because, for once, there was no clever way to rearrange what had happened into something more flattering.

Dominic looked toward his mother.

Something passed between them.

Recognition, perhaps.

Victoria understood exactly what her son had tried to do.

Create the right circumstances.

Apply enough pressure.

Make the other person believe there was only one acceptable response.

It was disturbingly familiar.

Alexander turned toward Andrei.

"He’s with family?"

"Yes."

"And everything necessary has been arranged?"

"It has."

Alexander nodded.

Then he left.

Dominic didn’t call after him.

For the first time since the Marriage Bureau, he seemed to understand he’d made things worse rather than better.

Victoria waited until the door closed.

Then she looked at her son.

"That was foolish."

Dominic laughed bitterly.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"I wonder where I learned it."

Victoria’s expression hardened.

"I never taught you to lose control."

"No."

Dominic looked toward the empty doorway.

"You taught me that if someone won’t give you what you want, you keep changing the circumstances until they do."

"Dominic."

"Food. Gifts. Augustus’s approval. The engagement."

"That’s different."

His gaze returned to her.

"Because you succeeded?"

Victoria didn’t answer.

For once, Dominic didn’t need her to.

He had spent years believing his mother’s greatest lesson was that family protected family.

Now he was beginning to understand that Victoria protected something far more specific.

Position, influence, and inheritance.

The ability to remain necessary.

But that didn’t explain everything he’d done.

Victoria hadn’t sent the flowers.

She hadn’t waited outside Vance Holdings.

She hadn’t made the calls.

And tonight’s crisis had been his idea alone.

Dominic looked at his reflection in the darkened window.

For several seconds, neither he nor Victoria spoke.

Then Andrei’s voice came from behind them.

"There’s something else you should know."

Dominic turned.

His brother stood near the doorway, phone still in hand.

"What?"

Andrei looked directly at him.

"Alexander has instructed his security team not to grant you unscheduled access to him again."

Dominic went still.

"No calls through his office, no waiting outside Vance Holdings, and no approaching him at private functions."

Victoria’s expression changed.

Dominic’s didn’t.

Not immediately.

"And if I do?"

Andrei slipped the phone into his pocket.

"Then this stops being a broken engagement."

A pause.

"It becomes a security matter."

Dominic’s eyebrow raised.

"That’s absurd. He would need a restraining order for that."

"He already secured one."