Chapter 6

Aiden appeared at Kingsley’s mansion the next afternoon, uninvited and dangerously calm.

The estate was quieter than usual, the tension from the previous night still hanging heavily in the air. Guards stood at every corner, staff whispered behind closed doors, and somewhere upstairs, Ella was trying to convince herself she had made the right decision.

She froze the moment she saw him.

Aiden leaned casually against the doorway of the private lounge, dressed in black, his expression unreadable. But his eyes… his eyes searched her face like he was looking for something he had lost.

“What are you doing here?” Ella asked coldly, though her pulse betrayed her.

“I came to see you.” His voice was low.

Controlled. “You disappeared yesterday. And whatever happened to you… it wasn’t nothing.”

Ella folded her arms tightly. “You shouldn’t be here.”

Aiden stepped closer. “Then tell me to leave without shaking.”

Her breath caught for half a second.

That annoyed her more than his presence.

“You want the truth?” she said sharply. “I look at you now and feel nothing. Whatever this was between us is over.”

For the first time, something flickered across Aiden’s face,not anger,but hurt.

But it vanished quickly.

“Ella”.

“My husband and my family matter more to me than this reckless game,” she interrupted. “I was foolish enough to think I could control it.”

Aiden stared at her carefully. “Control what?”

She looked away.

That silence gave him his answer.

He moved suddenly, closing the distance between them before she could retreat. His hand brushed her waist as he pulled her toward him, kissing her with the kind of desperation that came from a man losing the one thing he never planned to care about.

For one dangerous second, Ella melted into him.

And she hated herself for it.

“Stop it,” she whispered, shoving him back with trembling hands.

Aiden smirked faintly, though pain lingered beneath it. “You keep saying you feel nothing, but your heart races every time I touch you.”

“That doesn’t change anything.”

“It changes everything.”

Ella’s expression hardened instantly. “No. What changes everything is reality.” Her voice cracked despite her effort to stay composed. “You were supposed to be temporary. A mistake I could bury before it ruined my life.”

Aiden’s jaw tightened.

“A mistake?” he repeated quietly.

“Yes.”

The word landed harder than a slap.

For a moment, silence swallowed the room.

Then Aiden laughed softly, but there was no humor in it.

“You know what hurts the most?” he asked. “I walked into your life pretending to play a role. But somewhere along the line, you became real to me.”

Ella felt her chest tighten painfully.

She turned away before he could see it.

“I’m ending the contract,” she said firmly. “Don’t call me. Don’t come looking for me again.”

She started walking toward the door.

“Ella.”

She stopped but didn’t turn around.

Aiden’s voice lost its confidence then, stripped down to something raw and dangerously honest.

“Just answer one thing.”

The room felt unbearably still.

“Tell me that none of this meant anything to you.”

Ella closed her eyes.

Images flashed through her mind too quickly,the late-night conversations, the way he noticed every small thing about her, the strange safety she felt in his arms, the terrifying realization that he understood her loneliness better than her own husband ever had.

Her silence said more than words ever could.

Aiden saw it.

And that was exactly why Ella walked away before she broke completely.