11. Silent Vow

As Aria turned her back and began walking toward the grand staircase, Elliot’s smug expression twisted into fury. The sound of her heels striking the marble echoed in the hall like gunshots. His jaw clenched, and before she could reach the second step, he barked—

“I’m not done with you yet!”

In a swift, aggressive motion, he grabbed her wrist hard. Aria gasped as his grip tightened like a vice, the pressure biting into her skin. Pain flashed across her face as his fingers dug in deep enough to leave bruises.

“Don’t you dare walk away from me!” he snarled, his voice raw with rage and something far more venomous... resentment.

Her eyes flared, meeting his with shock and disbelief.

Then it happened. He snapped... Years of bitterness boiled to the surface in one explosive outburst.

"If you have evidence, then go ahead! Do your damn confession. Sue me! Prove it!” he spat. 

His face contorted with unfiltered emotion, no longer the polished, charismatic man she had once called husband. “But you won’t, because you have nothing!”

He released her wrist with a shove, as if her presence burned him. Aria stumbled back, cradling her arm, eyes wide.

“They say I’m a man who married into your precious family! That I used you and your name to climb to where I am! Bullshit!”

His voice echoed through the mansion, shaking the air like thunder.

“Why do they say that about me? Huh?” he shouted, pounding his fist on the banister. “I’m an Alpha! The Alpha of the Crimson Claw pack! And your family? Your family is nothing but an ordinary werewolf family.

Noble? Yes, but still just peasants in high places! More likely the accusations about them are true, that's why they rise to power!”

Aria stared at him in stunned silence. Every poisonous word felt like a dagger to the heart.

“For years, I’ve smiled. Played the doting husband. Let them look down on me like some charity case. I’m sick of it! Tired of hearing how weak I am just because I wasn’t born with a silver fucking spoon in my mouth!”

And just like that, the illusion shattered. The man Aria thought she knew, the partner he used to be, the leader, the ambitious dreamer back when they were still in college, was gone, if there was even still left after he humiliated her.

What stood before her now was a man twisted by pride and wounded ego. A man who had always worn a mask. It was never real, he was a fake from the start. He just used her.

Aria’s voice trembled, but it held strength. “So this was all about power. About proving yourself. Not love. Not loyalty.”

Elliot’s breathing was ragged, his chest heaving with the weight of his own confession.

“Love?” he scoffed bitterly. “Don’t be naive, Aria. This was always about survival. Dominance. Winning.”

Tears burned at the corners of her eyes—not from sorrow, but from rage. From betrayal.

“You were never strong,” she whispered. “Not truly. A strong man doesn’t need to tear others down to rise.”

She turned and continued up the stairs without another word, leaving Elliot standing below—alone, exposed, and simmering in the ruins of his own hatred.

Suddenly, a pair of sharp, lacquered nails dug into Aria’s scalp as Stella appeared out of nowhere, yanking her hair back with vicious force.

“Where the hell do you think you're going?” Stella hissed through gritted teeth, her eyes blazing with triumph and venom.

Aria stumbled backward, her balance nearly giving out as she screamed, “Let me go! I’m only here to get my passport and a few personal things. The rest, you can keep it! Consider it my donation to a trash like you!”

Stella snarled and dragged Aria down the staircase by her hair, ignoring her cries and kicks. The thundering sound of the commotion brought others running from the dining room. 

They are Elliot’s relatives and some close pack members, smug and well-fed from lunch, all dressed in celebratory clothes as if they'd just toasted to her downfall.

“There she is!” one aunt sneered. “The audacity! After everything she did to this pack, she still has the face to come back!”

“She’s a disgrace!” another chimed in. “She brought this on herself, and now her poor parents are suffering for raising someone like her.”

“She was a curse to begin with,” one of the older women snapped. “They should’ve left her in the orphanage where they found her. Nothing but bad luck!”

As Stella clung to Aria’s hair, refusing to let go, Aria finally snapped, screaming and twisting in her grip. “You’re all monsters! You call yourselves a family? You’re nothing but snakes pretending to be wolves!”

Cecil, still waiting in the car, heard the scream and rushed inside. She arrived just as Aria lunged at Stella and grabbed her hair in return. The two women struggled wildly, locked in fury.

But before Cecil could intervene, Elliot stepped in, his Alpha power crackling in the air like static. He roared and used his strength to forcefully separate them. But instead of stopping there, he shoved Aria violently. 

She crashed into a display shelf, the glass ornaments and decor toppling down on her, slicing her arms and legs. Shards tore through her clothes, blood staining the floor.

Before she could recover, Elliot stormed over, yanked her up by the collar, and slapped her across the face, not once, but twice!

The room went still. Aria’s lip split open, her mouth dripping red. Her eyes burned with humiliation and pain.

“Stop it!” Cecil screamed, running over and throwing herself between them. “Please! That’s enough! Let her go, we’ll leave!”

But the nightmare didn’t end there.

From the second floor, Elliot’s mother appeared, holding Aria’s suitcase. With an icy expression, she hurled it over the railing. It crashed onto the floor, scattering clothes everywhere. Aria’s laptop bounced once before shattering with a loud crack. Her passport landed nearby, bent and partially torn.

“There!” the woman spat. “Take your trash and get out! Don’t ever come near my son again! You are nothing but a curse to us!”

Aria stared at the wreckage of her belongings, at the blood on her hands, at the cold hatred in their eyes. She realized these people didn’t just want her gone.

They wanted her broken.

And they wouldn’t stop at her, they wanted her family destroyed too...

As Aria and Cecil silently bent to gather the scattered remnants of her life, Aria felt as if her soul had been ripped open and left bleeding on the polished marble floor. 

Each shattered part of her broken laptop, every crushed item of clothing, felt like a cruel symbol of the dignity and love that had been trampled beneath these people's feet.

She bit the inside of her cheek to stop the sob that threatened to escape. They had humiliated her, degraded her, and cast her out like filth, but… they had not broken her. 

Not completely...

As she clutched her half-torn passport and bleeding pride, Aria made a silent vow through clenched teeth. 'You will all regret ever underestimating me!'