CHAPTER 2: No Way Out That I Can See

ARIA POV

I couldn’t sleep at all. Every possible escape plan ran through my head as I lay there in bed, staring at the ceiling, but none of them seemed possible enough. I thought about running, but where would I go? I didn’t have any money on me, and Silas controlled every little connection I had. I could refuse him directly, but I knew that look he always gave me whenever I pushed back. A tired, patient stare that waited for me to calm down and get over whatever had upset me. I could reach out to someone for help, but who would even pick up?

I went through the list of people I could call and only one name stood out.

By seven in the morning, I found myself knocking a little bit harder than I used to on Margot’s door, still wearing the same clothes from the day before.

She opened the door wearing an old college hoodie, her hair piled messily on top of her head. The moment she saw me, her half-asleep expression disappeared completely as concern took its place so quickly that it made my throat tighten. She didn’t even need me to say anything to know something was wrong.

“Okay,” she said, stepping back to let me in. “What happened?”

I stepped into her cozy, if slightly cramped, apartment. Everything in it belonged to her. Mismatched mugs filled her open shelves, while a bookcase overflowed with her overly loved paperbacks, their spines looking worn out from use. My own room paled in comparison to hers. Nothing in there felt like it was lived in. Nothing in there felt like it had ever really been mine.

“Silas is marrying me off,” I blurted out without thinking it through.

Margot’s mouth immediately fell open, and for a throat tightening moment, she just stared at me, as if her mind needed time to catch up with what I had said.

“He’s what?” She said, linking thoroughly.

“There’s a debt, an old family obligation between ours and another family,” I explained, dropping onto her couch as my legs suddenly felt too unsteady for me to keep holding myself up. “He just announced it like it was nothing. Six days, Margot. He gave me six days. And from today I have just five days left.” I said with the feeling of dread taking me whole.

“Who?” Her voice changed, this time turning cautious. “Who’s he marrying you to?”

“Moretti. Dorian Moretti.”

The color in her face drained as she processed the name. Instead of sitting beside me, she lowered herself into the chair across from me, which she rarely ever did, and that was enough to make my chest tighten.

She knew.

“You know who he is,” I said, nodding to myself.

“Everyone knows the Moretti name, Aria.” She exhaled slowly and rubbed her face. “They’re not just wealthy. They’re literally that type of elite wealth you only ever hear about when something goes spectacularly right or terribly wrong. I heard Dorian’s the heir, and also that he’s set to take over the whole company soon.”

“So help me find a way out of this then,” I said, the words tumbling out of my lips almost like a plea.

Margot always knew what to do. She had to.

“Aria…”

“There’s got to be something. A loophole, a lawyer, I don’t know.” I took a pause, leaning forward. “You always find a way. You see angles that I miss…that’s your thing!”

“There isn’t an angle,” She said, quietly, and I hated how carefully she was choosing her words. “Not with a family like that, my sugar pie, and certainly not with a debt this old. If Silas is willing to hand you over, it means he either has no other choice or he’s decided this is the easier route.”

The little bit of hope I had brought into Margot’s apartment began slowly slipping away after those words sank into my head. No. No way this is happening to me.

“You’re supposed to tell me it’ll be fine,” I said, sitting up straighter.

“I’m meant to tell you the truth,” Margot said, leaning closer, and resting her elbows on her knees. There was something in her eyes that made me want to look away. It looked as if she was struggling to say something, and I could already tell I wasn’t going to like it. “Aria, when has he ever let you make your own decisions?”

I didn’t respond.

“I mean it. Think about it. Your school, he chose it. Your job, he took it upon himself to approve it. And remember the one time you wanted to move out? He had six different reasons ready before you’d even finished explaining. This isn’t going to be any different. It’s simply just a bigger version of all the control he’s had over your life.” She said,

“That’s not the same!” I shot back, clearly done with my own situation.

“Isn’t it?”

I opened my mouth to argue back at her but nothing seemed to come out. The panic surrounding the marriage had been so loud that I hadn’t allowed myself to look beneath it. But now, sitting across from Margot, another thought slowly settled into place colder and harder for me to ignore. The marriage wasn’t the ultimate betrayal. It was proof. Proof of something that I had spent years refusing to see.

I had always told myself that Silas controlled my life because he was protecting me. That there was a reason he made my decisions before I could think of making them myself. A reason he always knew better. A reason I had spent twenty-four years of my freaking life accepting things I didn’t want to because arguing with him always left me feeling childish and unreasonable.

“He calls it looking out for me,” I said quietly, the words sounding weaker once they were out.

“I know he does,” Margot said, reaching over and taking my hands in hers. Her touch was warm, and for a moment, I held on to her fingers tightly like I was holding on for dear life m. Although it wasn’t fixing anything, I wasn’t ready to let go yet. “That’s what it usually sounds like… until it doesn’t anymore.”

We sat in silence for a while after that. I stared at her bookshelf, at all the books she had chosen and loved, and a small ache formed inside of me. Even her shelves looked more like hers than my entire room had ever looked like it was mine. My room was decorated according to someone else’s taste. My school had been chosen for me. My job had needed approval. I had accepted so damn much thinking that maybe because accepting it had always been easier than admitting I had never really been given a choice.

Eventually, Margot broke the silence.

“You know there’s more than one son in that family,” she said, almost absently, as she poured herself more coffee without looking at me. “Dorian’s got an older brother. I remember reading he’s a bit of a mess. And that he was cut off totally from the company years ago, and nobody talks about him.”

I barely registered what she said.l as none of it mattered. Not Dorian’s brother. Not the Moretti company. Not how much money they had or what kind of people they were. I literally had six days left. Six days before I was expected to marry a man whom I had never met.

After spending one more hour with my best friend, I left with no clearer path to escape than when I had arrived. If anything, everything felt extremely worse now. The fear hadn’t gone away a bit, but it had changed. There was no comfort left inside it. No excuse I could use to make myself feel better. Just clarity. And I wasn’t sure which one if it hurt more.

The newsstand on the corner was drafty, with magazines flapping against their wire racks. A gust of wind swept through, and then one tabloid caught my eye for just a moment before it was tossed aside by the same stubborn wind. It had a headline about the Moretti family, along with a blurry photo of a man I couldn’t quite focus on, who had dark hair and a strong jawline, but it was gone before I could really take it all in.

I don’t know why but I felt a sudden drop in my stomach, even though I hadn’t even seen his face clearly at all.