LOGIN0111~Aria~The house felt different.Not loud. Not chaotic. Just… tense. Like something had shifted and everyone could feel it, even if no one was saying it out loud.I got out of the car before Luca could come around to open my door.Josie didn’t hesitate. She gave me a quick “see you later” and went straight upstairs. She had read the room perfectly and removed herself from it without making it a thing.I stood in the entrance for a moment, clutch still in my hand, just breathing. Then I went to find my father.He was in his room.Sitting by the window with his coffee.He looked like he hadn’t slept much. Like he had been up for hours, waiting. Worrying.That part hit me more than anything else.I shouldn’t have let him feel like that.He looked up when I walked in.I didn’t give him the chance to speak first. I crossed the room and sat opposite him.“I’m sorry,” I said. “For worrying you. For not telling you where I was going. For making you hear it from Pierre.”I held his gaze.
0110~Aria~The ceiling was unfamiliar.That was the first thing I noticed.I lay there on my back, still and slightly disoriented, my head pounding in a slow, steady rhythm. For a few seconds, I did not know where I was or how I got there. Everything felt distant, like I was waking up from something heavy.I stayed still.Let it come back on its own.The ceiling. Clean. Neutral. The kind of space that felt expensive without trying too hard. The sheets were soft, the pillow smelled like fresh linen, not mine. Light filtered through curtains that were not mine either.Then the rest followed.The club.The drinks. Too many.Josie.The music. The lights. The way everything blurred at the edges.And then the words.The things I said.I closed my eyes for a second, then opened them again slowly.Pierre’s apartment.Of course.A quiet kind of embarrassment settled in my chest.I had said all of that to Pierre.I lay there without moving, replaying fragments. Not everything, just enough to f
0109~Luca~Marco had the estate camera footage up in four minutes.That was all it took from my call to him standing beside me in the security room, the monitor glowing in the dark, both of us watching in silence as Aria Santoro climbed out of her window at two thirty in the morning.There was something in the way she moved. Not hesitation. Not fear.Determination.I watched her pause and look around, careful, alert, taking everything in like she was making sure no one would stop her.Then I saw it.The side gate.She knew.She had known about it, known exactly where to go, exactly how to leave without being seen. She crossed the grounds quickly, reached the street, and got into a car that was already waiting for her.The footage cut there. The estate boundary.Marco looked at me.I kept my eyes on the screen, on the empty stretch of road where she had disappeared.“She planned it,” he said.No judgment in his voice. Just a statement.“Yes,” I said.There was no point denying it.She
0108~Pierre~Landon had been asking me to go out for three days.Not in a pushy way. That wasn’t him. Just steady. He mentioned it once, then again, then casually brought it up whenever the moment allowed until it stopped feeling like a suggestion and more like something inevitable."One evening," he said. "That’s all. No commitment. Just show up.""I’m fine," I told him."You’ve said that four times this week," he replied, "and none of them sounded convincing."He wasn’t wrong. And I didn’t have the energy to argue with accuracy.So I got dressed, put on a jacket, and went.---The club was exactly the kind of place Landon liked. Good music, just loud enough, the right crowd, the kind of energy that made a Friday night feel like it had earned itself.He already had people there. Familiar faces. Not close friends, but enough to sit with, talk to, exist around without effort. That kind of company where no one expects anything from you.I was there.At least physically.I had a drink,
0107~Joan~The look on her face had been worth everything.I had replayed it at least forty times since the night of the party, and it still didn’t get old. Yes, call me mad if you want, I don’t care. That exact moment, the word landing, the slight crack in her composure. Just enough. Just where I wanted it.Right in the chest.Aria Santoro, shaken.Worth every minute of planning. Worth the drive. Worth the luggage. Worth standing out in the cold waiting for the convoy to come through the gates, timing everything down to the second with Isabella beside me and everything exactly where it needed to be.She stood there in that beautiful gown and took it. I watched the ground shift under her feet.I won’t lie. It was satisfying. The most satisfying thing I’ve felt in a long time.Serves her right.Thinking she could walk into a life and take whatever she wanted. Step into Luca’s orbit with her Harvard degree, her CEO title, her father’s name, and assume everything in that space was open
0106~Luca~ Sleep had not been an option.I had tried. Laid on the bed, stared at the ceiling, closed my eyes, waited for my brain to cooperate. It didn’t. After an hour, I gave up and sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the wall.Three days.Three days of watching her move through the house and the office, deliberately avoiding everyone. Everyone in the house. Even her own father. All caused by me. Three days of her eyes passing over me instead of landing on me. Three days of the professional version of herself like she was relating with her bodyguard and not Luca.One-word responses, nods that said received and nothing else. She was entirely right to do so. But it was destroying me.I had let my Aria slip through my fingers.I had done this. That was the thought I kept circling back to. Not Joan. Not timing. Not circumstances. Me.My decision to wait for the right moment. My certainty that I could manage the situation. I didn't think it through, I didn't know it was going to blo
0043~Aria~Pierre.I let the name sit for a second. Just a second."Interesting name," I said.He raised an eyebrow slightly. Still with that unhurried quality, like the supermarket aisle and everything in it was operating on his schedule rather than anyone else's."And yours?" he asked. "Or shoul
0021~ Aria ~The words hung between us, heavy and intoxicating, making every nerve ending in my body light up with anticipation. I could already feel myself getting wet, my body responding to the dark promise in his voice with embarrassing immediacy.Yes. God, yes.But then his expression shifted.
0013~ Aria ~I woke up sore.Not the pleasant, lingering ache of a good workout, but the deep, bone-deep soreness that came from being bent into impossible positions and fucked with relentless intensity. My thighs protested when I shifted in bed. My hips felt bruised. And there was a tenderness be
0007 ~ Luca ~In my adjoining room, I paced like a caged animal.This was insane. All of it. I was supposed to be controlled, professional, above base urges.Instead, I was completely obsessed with my boss's daughter. Couldn't think straight when she was near. And tomorrow night, I'd have to watch







