4. Two-faced Ex

~Jess~

“Dominic,” I feel his words absolutely absurd, “You believe her?”

Dominic doesn't seem to be in the mood to hear me out, even if I wanted to defend myself.

“Just because she doubted the authenticity of your gift and cautioned you for dabbling in shady deals, you had to get revenge by pushing her?”

I should have realized sooner. He would always side with Rosie unconditionally, “think whatever you want, I don't care anymore.”

"Of course, so unreasonable!"

I feel cold all over. My arm throbs where a rusty iron edge cut me when I scrambled out of water.

But he doesn’t even look at my direction.

Then I watch him scoop Rosie into his arms, and try to leave.

Rosie taps him gently, pretending to care, "Oh, Alpha, I know you're so upset right now. But... what about Jess? She-"

Dominic cut her off coldly. “I can't believe you'll be worried about her after she just tried to kill you. She should get herself to the hospital.”

The other guests exchange uneasy glances before finally casting pitying looks at me.

“Did you see? The Alpha just walked out on his own girlfriend.” One of the guests says, not even bothering to speak in a hushed tone.

“Clearly, he loves Rosie more.” Another adds.

“Rosie is his rightful Luna. Not an overambitious joke of an Omega who thinks she's worthy to be in the same room with the likes of us.”

I turn around and slowly take in most of the people at the pool. Alexa Hardy is at one edge, staring mockingly at me. A few of Alpha Dominic’s friends, whom I've met, are also around.

But none of them makes any move to help me.

It was so stupid of me to think Alexa would be different from the others in Dominic’s circle.

By the time I got to the Pack hospital, I was burning up.

The hurt I feel is overpowering, but I'm very grateful to the Moon goddess for the clarity Dominic’s action tonight brought me.

Doctor Dorothy, one of the emergency doctors and a close friend, rushes over on spotting me from across the entrance of the hospital building.

The first thing she notices is the deep cut on my arm and my flushed skin. Alarmed, she called one of the nurses to make a bed in one of the staff's private emergency rooms.

“What happened to you, Jess? Oh my goodness, we need to get you into dry clothes immediately."

She leads me towards the private room as she rattles off why the other doctors in the emergency ward are nowhere to be found.

"The Alpha came in with some lady, he says the lady was pushed into the pool, and she almost drowned. He called all the emergency doctors and nurses to attend to her, but she’s totally fine. Even though she keeps insisting she's not.” Dorothy tells me.

We're about to take a turn to the staff private emergency rooms when one of the doors to the emergency wards opens and a pissed-looking Dominic walks out.

He sees me, and his anger seems to triple as he storms toward me and grabs me forcefully, asking why I wasn't answering my phone because he called me a few minutes ago.

Does this man even understand that I almost drowned less than thirty minutes ago and I need urgent medical attention right now?

Of course, he doesn't, when I'm not Rosie. So, instead of giving him an answer, I simply shrug him off.

The nurse who had gone to set up the bed in the staff's private room walks over to inform Dorothy and me that she's done.

She sees the way Dominic grabbed my arm, and it probably piques her curiosity.

The nurse asked what the Alpha’s relationship with me is and who the woman he had carried in earlier was.

I've never been one to discuss my relationship at my workplace. In fact, there is only one person who knows about my relationship with Dominic, and that person is Dr. Dorothy.

"He's an acquaintance," I reply to the nurse.

Dominic stiffens instantly, he stares at me: “An acquaintance?”

“Is that what we are now, Jess? You’re seriously denying me in front of them?”

Wasn’t he the one who kept our relationship a secret all along? And now he acts to be offended because I returned the favor?

The nurse must have gotten what he said because her eyes widened in surprise.

I can't seem to understand Dominic, though. He abandoned me at Alexa's party even though it was obvious I needed help, and now he's acting all possessive around me?

That's ridiculous.

Luckily, Dorothy intervened, "Umm, Alpha, we need to attend to her. She's running a fever, and her wound needs dressing.”

That must have reset Dominic's senses because he finally looked up to notice the deep cut on my arm.

"Shit, I'm..." his face morphs with concern and maybe empathy, can't be too sure. "You didn't tell me you hurt yourself."

Does he mean he didn't see me almost drown in the pool?

"Did I even get a chance to tell you?"

"Jess...why are you getting aggressive after Rosie got back?"

I try to turn my back on him, but he catches me, scooping me up into his arms, "You're sick. I'm your boyfriend, and I'm taking you to the ward."

Pissed and hurt that he thinks I would appreciate him ever touching me again after everything he's done, I wriggle my frame to free my body from his grip.

"Put me down, Dominic!"

“Stop wriggling or you'll fall. And if you fall, don’t blame me.” He scolds. Then he turns to Dorothy and asks her, “Which way?”

Dorothy points in the direction of the staff ward.

Just as Dominic is about to head that way, Rosie comes out from the hospital ward and sees that he's carrying me.

Her expression falters for a moment, but since many eyes are on her, she composes herself quickly and steps forward to meet us.

“Jess, are you okay?”

I don't bother myself responding to the pretentious being.

"She is weak. It was so bad that she almost slumped." Dominic offers his latest girlfriend an explanation instead. "So, I'm helping to take her to her ward."

"Oh, my goddess, I'm so sorry, Jess," she singsongs. “There's no need to explain anything to me, Alpha. Jess is your girlfriend. Of course, you can take care of her.”

'Can?'

She's indirectly saying she's permitting him to care for me…

"I think I'm fine now,” Rosie continues. “Maybe my fever has reduced, I'm not sure. But I'll manage. Please take care of Jess. Don't blame her for trying to drown me."

I know what she's doing, I understand her game. All these antics are her way of trying to paint me worse than she already did.

She also wants to stir up a reaction from me so as to solidify her false claim that I’m a mean girl.

I don't bother arguing; Dominic won't side with me anyway, and any reaction from me will instantly make me the villain.

"So nice of you, Rosie," Dominic praises her, but the pretentious girl suddenly stumbles back like she's about to fall.

In an instant, Dominic drops me flat on the floor and rushes to her, holding her up.

It happened so fast that I had no time to keep my frame up as I hit the bare floor, pain racking my entire body.

"Oh no, I'm... I'm so sorry.” Rosie starts to say.

"Come on, I'll take you back inside. You shouldn't have left your bed." Dominic tells her.

"I was worried about you." Rosie starts sobbing. "I thought something bad had happened to you."

Dominic lifts her in his arms and carries her towards the ward she stepped out of earlier.

Dorothy helps me up from the floor and leads me to the staff's private emergency room. She also helps me into a dry cloth, and turned up the room temperature.

"How do you feel, Jess?" She asks.

"Like shit," I confess.

I watch as she takes my vitals, a deep frown on her face.

"Why is the Alpha with some lady who is pretending to be on the verge of death, even though we've checked her thoroughly and found nothing wrong with her? And why did he put you down like that?"

She slips a tablet of Tylenol into my mouth and hands me a cup of water from the dispenser nearby.

After swallowing the tablet, I shake my head. "I don't know."

"Is he cheating on you?"

Dorothy is born into the line of powerful Gammas, and that makes her a very high-ranked female in the whole of the Westwood Pack.

Yet, she has never treated me like shit, especially since it's not a secret that I'm a low-level Omega.

"It's a long story, Dorothy. I need to... I just need to rest my head for now."

"Yeah, sure," she replies, swatting aside my curls. "Rest now, I'll get something for your arm wound.”

A few hours later, after Dorothy had tended to my arm, checked my vitals, administered my prescribed drugs, and left, I was drifting off to sleep when the door opened, and an unexpected visitor walked in…

Rosie.

What the hell is she doing here?

“Oh, Jess,” she murmurs, approaching my bedside. “You poor thing.”

I force my eyes open, just enough to see her. “What are you doing here?”

“Why? I'm checking on you, of course,” She says that with a gentle smile that doesn’t reach her eyes.

She leans closer, her voice a whisper. “I'm here because I want to let you know that I've won. I always win. Did you see who would Dominic choose when both of us meet danger?”

“Only you treat him like treasure now.”

“Keep acting tough.

If you know what’s good for you, you have to pack up and scramble back to where you came from!”

My chest tightens. “You aren’t scared if I’ll tell him the truth?”

Rosie looks at me with pity. “You really don’t get it. Dominic believes every word out of my mouth. That’s simply how the world works. An Omega is born to be stepped on.”

With that, she walks away.