Unexpected Confession

“Miss Maya, I want to ask you something, but please don’t laugh,” Alya whispered as she wheeled her chair closer to her senior colleague’s cubicle.

Maya stopped typing her report and turned toward her, her brows knitting together. “What is it, Al? Why do you look so tense? You look like you’re about to take an exam.”

Alya clasped her own fingers, glancing left and right to make sure the other R&D laboratory staff were busy with their computers.

Her meeting with Arga in the CEO’s office yesterday had completely scrambled her thoughts, especially the mystery surrounding that night in the hotel room, which still felt frustratingly unclear.

“You only got married two months ago, right, Sis?” Alya cleared her throat, her face suddenly feeling warm. “I’m just curious... what does your body feel like after... the first night? I mean, are there any strange physical effects afterward?”

Maya’s eyes immediately widened before she broke into a giggle and nudged Alya’s shoulder.

“Whoa, what’s this? The innocent girl from the lab suddenly asking about the wedding night! Do you have a fiancé now, Al?”

“Maya, keep your voice down!” Alya panicked, quickly covering her senior’s mouth with her palm. “I’m genuinely just curious. Please answer seriously.”

Maya straightened in her chair and put on a knowing expression.

“Okay, okay. So, Al, during the first night, it feels like your whole body has been beaten up. Everything aches, from your waist down to your legs. And most noticeably, you’ll feel a lot of pain down there. The next morning, I could barely walk normally. My husband is tall and broad, so yeah, the effects were pretty intense. Basically, if you don’t feel any pain or anything unusual after your first time, that would be pretty strange!”

Alya froze.

Maya’s words echoed loudly in her mind.

She thought back to how she had felt when she woke up in Arga’s VIP room three days ago. That morning, she had indeed suffered from a pounding headache because of the alcohol, but the rest of her body had not felt sore or battered at all. Down there, she had only experienced a mild, ordinary soreness, almost like a small abrasion from walking for too long.

If Mr. Arga is really as strong and well-built as he looks, then surely the physical effects on me should have been far more intense than what Maya experienced, Alya thought, biting her lower lip uncertainly.

A fleeting memory of Arga’s broad, bare chest, his hot breath against her neck, and the mischievous touch of his strong hand on her waist suddenly flashed through Alya’s mind.

The hazy memory felt real.

But why weren’t the physical effects anywhere near as extreme as Maya’s story?

The suspicion that Arga had either lied to protect her or was deliberately hiding something immediately crept into Alya’s mind.

I won’t be able to rest until I know the truth. I have to see a gynecologist this afternoon and find out whether my hymen is still intact, Alya decided firmly.

Alya immediately returned to her desk, grabbed her phone, and sent a short message to Sinta to pass along to the R&D Director, saying that she needed permission to leave early that afternoon because she had become exhausted from accompanying her grandmother at the hospital.

She had no choice but to make up the excuse to avoid Arga’s strange order that she stay late and work alone with him in the CEO’s office after five.

“Ms. Alya Paramita, you may enter the examination room,” a nurse called from behind the door of a private gynecology clinic in a quiet corner of the city.

Alya rose from the waiting chair with her heart pounding, gripping her canvas bag tightly in an attempt to suppress her fear.

As soon as she entered, she was greeted by a friendly-looking middle-aged female doctor.

“What brings you here, Ms. Alya? Are you here for a premarital consultation, or is there something else bothering you?” the doctor asked, motioning for Alya to sit.

“I... I’d like to have a physical examination, Doctor. I want to check whether my hymen is still intact after I had an accident a few days ago,” Alya replied with the excuse she had prepared in the taxi to hide her embarrassment.

The doctor nodded understandingly.

“All right. Please lie down on the examination bed.”

Alya walked toward the examination bed on trembling legs.

But just as she was about to place her feet on the supports, the privacy curtain was suddenly yanked open from outside with tremendous force.

Swish!

“Cancel the examination, Doctor. She’s coming home with me now.”

A deep baritone voice suddenly thundered through the quiet examination room.

Alya jumped in shock and turned around.

Her eyes widened when she saw Arga Mahendra standing there in a gray suit, the middle button of his jacket undone. His hawk-like eyes were fixed on her, sharp and icy.

“M-Mr. Arga?! What are you doing here?!” Alya cried in panic, hurriedly stepping down from the examination bed and straightening her work skirt, which had ridden up slightly.

Arga did not answer her question. He simply looked at the doctor with an intimidating gaze.

“I apologize for the interruption, Doctor. My wife is being a little emotional.”

“I am not his wife!” Alya immediately protested, her face burning bright red with a mixture of embarrassment and anger.

Ignoring her objection, Arga firmly grabbed Alya’s wrist—not hard enough to hurt her—and pulled her out of the examination room toward the quiet parking area behind the clinic.

“Let go of me, Mr. Arga! This is outrageous! Why did you follow me all the way to the clinic?!” Alya demanded as she struggled against Arga’s steady stride beside the CEO’s luxury sedan.

Arga finally released her wrist.

He turned around and cornered Alya against the car until her back pressed against the door.

Their distance disappeared once again, and the scent of Arga’s expensive tobacco-infused cologne immediately overwhelmed Alya’s senses.

“You dared to lie to the board and claim you were sick just to come to a place like this?” Arga scolded in a low voice, staring straight into Alya’s trembling eyes. “What exactly were you trying to find out from the doctor?”

Alya lifted her chin defiantly, trying to hide her nervousness behind a challenging stare.

“I just want to know the truth that you can’t give me, Mr. Arga! I want to know whether you were lying that day when you said nothing happened between us!”

The corner of Arga’s lips lifted slightly.

He leaned closer until only a few centimeters remained between their noses, triggering another fleeting memory of that heated night in Alya’s mind.

“If the doctor had told you that we really did it, what would you demand from me, Little Employee? Would you ask me for more money, or would you demand that I marry you?”

“I don’t need your money, and I have no intention of marrying a blackmailer like you!” Alya shot back, her breathing growing heavier from both their physical proximity and her anger. “But if something really did happen that night, I have the right to know—for the sake of my dignity!”

Arga fell silent for a moment.

The sharpness in his hawk-like eyes suddenly softened, becoming more complicated and far less cold.

“I’m prepared to take responsibility and marry you at any time if it really happened, Alya.”

Alya froze.

Her heart seemed to leap out of her chest at the CEO’s firm declaration.

She narrowed her eyes, sensing something strange in the man standing before her.

“Why are you suddenly saying that, Mr. Arga?” Alya asked, her brows furrowing suspiciously. “At the hotel, you were so confident that you never touched an unconscious woman. But now you look almost afraid, as if you’re hiding something. Tell me the truth. What really happened that night?!”

Arga let out a short breath and turned his face slightly away before looking back at Alya with an enigmatic gaze.

“That night... I was drunk too, Alya. My memory of how the night ended isn’t completely clear.”

Arga’s voice grew rougher and heavier.

And with that unexpected confession, Alya’s entire world came crashing down, shattering everything she had believed until now.