Chapter 4

Two days later, Aria stood at the nurses’ station, signing her discharge papers with a trembling hand. Her fingers felt weak, her body still sore from the bleeding and cramps that hadn’t fully stopped. The nurse offered to call someone to pick her up, but Aria shook her head.

“There’s no one,” she said quietly.

She walked out of the hospital slowly, her steps unsteady. The cold air stung her skin. She had nowhere to go. Nowhere to return to. Her mind drifted to the life she used to have, the one she had built around Gabriel without realizing she was building it on sand.

They met in college.

He chose her.

He married her right after graduation.

She became his wife his full-time wife with no career, no income, no savings of her own. Everything she touched belonged to him. Every bill was paid with his money. Every choice she made depended on whether it fit into his life.

Now the marriage was gone, and she had nothing of her own.

“I have no one,” she whispered as she stepped onto the road.

She stopped a taxi and sat in the back, hugging herself through the painful throbs in her lower belly. She told the driver to take her to the Blackstone estate. She wasn’t even sure why. Maybe she hoped her car was still there. Maybe she just needed something familiar.

When she arrived, the guards at the gate glanced at each other nervously. The head of security walked forward, looking uncomfortable.

“Ms. Aria… you shouldn’t be here.”

Aria braced herself. “Where is my car?”

He hesitated before answering. “Madam Margaret had it towed away this morning.”

Her heart dropped. “My things? The clothes? Everything?”

“Sent to waste disposal,” he said quietly. “Orders from the Madam.”

Aria’s breath shook. She looked away, trying to stop the tears before they could fall. Everything she owned… thrown away like garbage.

The guard stepped closer, lowering his voice. He slipped a folded hundred-dollar bill into her hand. “You’re a good person, Ms. Aria. You didn’t deserve what happened.”

Her eyes stung even more. She nodded, thank him and turned away before she completely broke down.

She took another taxi with the little money she had left. This time, she gave the driver her father’s address. Her hands twisted in her lap, her eyes glued to the view outside.

“Please let them accept me… just for one night,” she whispered to herself. “Please.”

Her breath trembled as the car pulled up to the gate. She stepped out slowly, still weak, still bleeding slightly, her legs unsteady. She rang the bell.

The door opened, and her stepmother’s face contorted immediately.

“Well, look who came crawling back.”

Aria swallowed. “I just… I need a place to stay. Can I use my old room?"

“I told you,” the woman hissed, “sooner or later he would throw you out. You are just like your mother. Shameful and useless.”

She shoved Aria hard in the chest. Aria stumbled backward and caught the gate with both hands, pain shooting through her abdomen.

Her father appeared behind the stepmother. Aria looked at him, desperate. “Dad, please. I have nowhere… nowhere to go.”

He refused to meet her eyes. “You brought disgrace to that house. You can’t stay here. Just leave.”

He walked away before she could say another word.

“Dad!” she cried, her voice breaking. “Please. I’m your daughter.”

He didn’t turn back.

Her stepsister walked out then, tossing her hair with a smug grin. “Even a billionaire doesn’t want you? Wow. Rejected like trash.”

She threw a splash of cold water straight at Aria’s face. Aria flinched as it soaked her hair and shirt.

Her stepmother threw a handful of salt next. “Bad luck should not enter my home.”

Aria stood there drenched, shivering, still bleeding, still weak from the miscarriage, humiliation cutting deeper than anything she had ever felt.

“Please,” she whispered. “I just need one night. One night to rest.”

They slammed the door in her face.

She stayed standing for a few seconds, gripping the gate because her legs felt unsteady. She tried to breathe through the pain, but everything hurt her body, her pride, her heart.

She turned away slowly, trying to walk, but the pain surged again. She gasped, grabbing her stomach with both hands. Her knees buckled.

She collapsed onto the ground.

Her vision blurred. Tears mixed with the water on her cheeks as she tried to pull herself up again, but her body refused.

A car engine approached slowly. A black car stopped beside her. The back door opened. Footsteps approached.

Aiden crouched in front of her, his expression dark with something dangerously close to fury.

“Aria,” he said sharply. “How dare you leave the hospital without completing your treatment?”

Her lips trembled. She tried to respond, but her voice was barely a breath. “I… I didn’t want ... to.. be a...”

Her body gave out completely.

Aiden caught her before she hit the ground. His arms were strong, steady, lifting her as though she weighed nothing. He cradled her against his chest, one hand behind her head, the other supporting her knees.

Her eyes fluttered half-open for a moment, enough to see the anger in his face, but it wasn’t anger at her.

It was anger at what had been done to her.

Aiden carried her to the car, holding her gently but firmly, as if daring the world to try and hurt her again.

The door closed behind them.