When Alex stepped out of Giovanni’s place, Joe, his personal driver, was already waiting for him beside the car.
"Did you manage to get the things I asked for?"
"Yes, sir. I received them directly from Mr. Vincent while you were in your meeting," Joe replied as he opened the back door for him. "Everything’s been properly stowed in the car."
Alex nodded, satisfied.
"Good. Thanks, Joe."
With that, he ducked into the back seat through the door his driver held open for him.
__
The drive from the Mercer Penthouse to the private club took longer than expected.
Night traffic gave Alex far too much time to think about his bold decision.
He answered a handful of text messages.
Ignored hundreds more.
Somewhere along the way, he had even asked a high school classmate he hadn’t had a proper conversation with in years to marry him, all for the sake of stabilizing Vance Group, salvaging his own reputation, and hopefully meeting the marriage stipulations needed to claim his inheritance.
The explanation had come belatedly, though Alex guessed Giovanni had expected as much, given that he wouldn’t have voiced such an unusual request without some rather extenuating circumstances behind it.
Of course, maybe he could’ve led with the explanation, but Alex was also familiar with the method of preempting with a far more scandalous headline so the actual issue could seem milder by comparison. And while that may have sounded stupid, he would personally vouch for it since it had clearly worked.
Though, to be fair, the whole ordeal had almost fallen apart if not for a bit of help and maybe even divine intervention.
Still... Giovanni hadn’t made fun of him for choosing this method, nor had the guy treated him differently once Alex started explaining his reasons for such an absurd proposal.
If anything, Alex figured that being relatively upfront about them would reassure Giovanni that this had a lot to do with tangible goals rather than some sudden bout of insanity and unfounded claims of everlasting love.
So in the end, Alex didn’t feel quite as crazy about what he’d done, especially when things could’ve turned out far worse.
Not that things hadn’t already been bad enough from the beginning, considering he’d just experienced something that would’ve been right up the alley of a resident psychologist.
Then again, he wouldn’t know how said doctors would react if he told them he’d deliberately scheduled his breakdown for a later time because he needed to act as fast as he could instead of hyperventilating back at the marriage bureau.
Maybe they’d be proud of him.
Or maybe later, once he experienced the alleged benefits of making himself too busy to think, he’d be the one feeling proud.
Who knows?
But for now, he was on to the next item on his agenda.
__
He had since condensed that day’s earlier events into a hazy blur, but even so, he recalled Giovanni telling him to feel free to iron out whatever kinks he wanted, and he couldn’t help but think of several.
With the issues regarding the takeover and his new engagement more or less settled, the next and perhaps most vile thing left on his plate was dealing with his shitbag of an ex.
Right. Ex.
He needed to repeat that over and over again until he got used to it, letting that small sting dull a little more each time until he could eventually ignore it altogether. Some might say he was overreacting, but considering how he’d long since made his relationship with Dominic practically a personality trait, Alex felt this level of personal intervention was necessary.
Yes. Now that he was looking at it from the eyes of someone who had been jilted, even he could understand why others would consider him naive at the very least.
Doing things for Dominic, taking care of responsibilities on his behalf, and juggling far more than he needed to, all for the sake of their supposed future together.
What a load of bollocks that turned out to be.
Especially when that would be putting it nicely, when the specifics that are now too embarrassing to even mention would’ve been enough to get him dragged along to some group intervention about people who would probably be willing to give their kidneys to some scammer in the name of love.
"..."
Yeah, talk about his dark history.
"..."
Still, that had been his reality for the better part of his life, whether he liked it or not, and apparently, it had taken getting hit on the head this hard by reality for him to finally wake up from his delusions.
There was no him and Dominic anymore.
None of that smiley rascal who had chased after him until he eventually became willing to get into a relationship that was still considered unusual for people in their positions.
And none of those days they cuddled together as though they could take on the world.
Ah, but hell, maybe all that time he thought they were happily together didn’t even exist when he managed to gaslight himself enough to even ignore the glaring presence of Andrew in their relationship.
All those times he’d been sent away to take care of business, with Dominic swearing up and down that it was an emergency and only Alex could handle it, apparently hadn’t been signs that Alex was finally earning the Sebastian family’s trust and recognition.
Hah! They were probably just sending him away so that guy could do whatever he wanted in peace.
The contemplating Vance heir could only shake his head as he stared out the window toward the bright lights of the same city he’d grown all too familiar with but was suddenly seeing in a different light.
Just like all those times he’d stupidly believed Dominic’s claims that blocking his number and socials and avoiding his calls were simply ways to make sure he wouldn’t contact Alex too much when he was supposed to be working on something important.
Back then, he’d thought of it as consideration, especially when Dominic had always been rather clingy in private.
Worse, he’d even thought that all those mysterious but still rather public posts from before they were officially "arranged" to be engaged had been Dominic’s way of protecting Alex’s public image until Augustus Vance, his grandfather, became comfortable with their unconventional relationship.
But now that the newly jilted groom was actually thinking about the past, all those posts may not have even been meant for him.
Gosh, even Alex couldn’t resist laughing at his own naivety.
Because looking at everything now, in the eyes of the public, he probably looked like the obstacle standing between Dominic and Andrew’s fairy-tale love story of a lovestruck CEO and his struggling but allegedly pure employee.
Had people always thought that the person Dominic used to post about was someone else?
That cheating scumbag used to privately tell him that those posts were filled with things he wished he could publicly say to Alex. But now, how could he be sure that any of those declarations and celebrations of love had really been about him or their relationship?
Worse, maybe that shitbag was even the reason someone as questionably incompetent as Andrew had gotten into their company in the first place, just so the two of them could spend as much time together as they wanted while Alex slaved away under a workload fit for two CEOs.
Then again, maybe he was being too cynical.
Alex was well aware that he wasn’t exactly in the best mental state right now, and he didn’t want to go so far as to doubt everything Dominic had ever done, especially when the man had once saved his grandfather’s life, which eventually ended their struggle to have their relationship recognized.
But he just couldn’t help it.
Just how much of the life he’d known had actually been an illusion?
Back then, had the decision to announce their union as an "arranged marriage" meant to honor a life-saving debt, instead of admitting they’d already been in a relationship for years, really been about protecting both families’ business interests?
Or had it simply been a convenient way for Dominic to save face in case he ever got tired of their relationship?
"Like this, the board will think we’re joining forces because the elders are pushing for it."
Funny how Alex remembered asking if Dominic was actually alright with that, considering it would mean hiding their long-standing relationship and making the whole thing sound far more transactional than it really was.
But all he’d gotten in return was a reassuring, "What’s a little inconvenience when it’ll be better for you? I know how much you value your company. Besides, it doesn’t matter what others think when, in the end, we’re still getting married."
Look how that turned out.
Alex really should’ve known better when Dominic had always placed so much importance on public displays.
From the very beginning, he’d been very vocal about having affection for his undisclosed partner, posting all sorts of nondescript images alongside those romantic captions. So maybe it should’ve struck him as strange when Dominic readily agreed to terms that even Alex had thought were weird.
"..."
"Tch."
Ah... Who would’ve thought there would come a day when Alex would seriously consider such things?
But now, he’d really have to be too stupid not to see everything for what it truly was.
Thankfully, he never started a dumb fund, or he would’ve lost who knows how much money to it...
Alex closed his eyes and rubbed them tiredly, almost as if wiping away tears that had never actually fallen.
When he opened them again, however, there was a newfound clarity in his gaze.
He really couldn’t stay like this anymore.
Because no amount of stupidity, his own or anyone else’s, was worth sacrificing his self-respect for.
It was time to finally forge a path entirely for himself.
Oh. And maybe if he were being generous, he’d factor Giovanni in too. After all, he’d been gracious enough to want things on paper, unlike a certain someone who may even go so far as to disrespect his name, even if he had it hypothetically tattooed on Dominic’s forehead.