Chapter 2

Aria’s POV

My fingers held my phone firmly and for one second, I could not move, then I heard heels, and it was coming from the living room.

I then turned and I saw her. Lila.

My heart stopped so fast it almost hurt, she was standing inside my house.

Not even my house anymore, his house, the house I lived in for three years.

And she was standing there like she belonged here. 

She was wearing cream silk and her hair fell over her shoulder.

And the worst part? She was comfortable.

My eyes then moved around the room without meaning to, her handbag was on the table.

A glass of juice sat near her and her shoes were already off.

Then my hand slowly moved around the divorce papers, and the edges bit into my skin.

Lila saw me and smiled, it was a sweet and polished smile, the kind that would fool anybody who did not know better.

But I knew better, I knew poison could wear lipstick too, her eyes moved to the papers in my hand and then back to my face and she said, very gently,

“You’re still here?”

The words were painful for one second and I could only stand there and feel my heart tear open because she was right.

I was still here.

I was still standing in the place I should already be gone from, I had not even had time to stop being his wife and I was already being replaced and my throat burned but I forced a smile.

“A little too eager, aren’t you?”

She then laughed and walked closer. “Oh no,” she said. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

Liar, her eyes moved to the papers again and she said, “I just thought… once people sign divorce papers, they usually leave.”

My fingers trembled and I hated that she could see it, I hated that she knew she was winning, I then held the papers tighter and lifted my chin.

“You seem very informed for someone who should not even be here.”

Her smile did not move.

“Damien asked me to come.”

That one landed deep, it was so deep I almost swayed.

I blinked once, then twice I heard wrong but before I could answer, I heard footsteps behind me

And the moment I heard them, my stupid heart still reacted and I hated myself for that too.

I then turned.

Damien was walking toward us, his sleeves were rolled to his forearm and his tie was gone now and his hair looked roughed. 

For one foolish second, I thought he would stop beside me, that he would at least act like this situation was wrong.

That he would have enough shame to look uncomfortable, but then Damien did not even hesitate.

He walked past me, and still went straight to her and I felt it hard and then Lila then turned to him with that same sweet face.

“Am I too early?” she asked and Damien’s eyes moved over her shoulder.

There was a tiny crease in her dress and he reached out and smoothed it down with his fingers and then I stopped breathing.

Because in three years of marriage, Damien had never touched me like that in front of anyone.

He had only touched me in the dark, against walls and inside locked bedrooms.

With hunger, with heat and with hands that knew exactly how to make my knees weak.

But never like this, never gently, never openly and never in a way that said, this woman mattered to me.

And somehow, this hurt more than all the nights he did not come home, more than all the lonely dinners and more than the divorce papers.

It was what finally broke something in me.

He then lowered his voice for her.

“No. You’re fine.”

Fine? Two simple words.

Yet he said them in a tone I had spent three years starving for, I then looked away before I disgraced myself because I could feel tears trying to rise.

And I would rather die than cry in front of her or him.

My nails pressed into my palm and I said 

“So this is how it is?”

Damien turned to me then and his face hardened, as if I was the one making things difficult.

“Aria,” he said.

That’s all, just my name, like he wanted me to leave without making this uglier than it already was and I then laughed.

“Interesting.”

Lila then glanced between us and then gave me that fake, careful expression. 

“You’re misunderstanding.”

I then looked at her.

“No. I think I finally understand very well.”

Her lips parted like she wanted to say more, but Damien spoke first.

“That’s enough.”

Enough?

I then turned to him fully now and my chest rose and fell too fast.

“Enough?” I repeated. “You divorce me and bring her into this house on the same day, and you think I’m the one doing too much?”

“It’s not what you think.”

That almost made me laugh again, then what was it?

A joke? A performance?

A cruel little gift to help me move on faster?

But I did not ask, because the truth was standing right in front of me.

I could see it in the way he stood closer to her than to me, in the way she did not look nervous, in the way this does not shock him at all.

This did not happen by mistake, this had been happening, maybe not in my face before now but it had been happening.

And suddenly, every late night, every unanswered call, every strange silence starts making sense.

I swallowed hard and the thought that entered my mind was ugly, ugly enough to make my stomach turn.

So this was what tenderness looked like… when it was not mine.

I couldn't stay here, if I stay one more minute, I would either beg or break and I have already done enough of both in this marriage.

So I turned and started walking away fast and I then heard Damien called my name once.

“Aria.”

But I did not stop, if he wanted me to stay, he should have thought of that before signing me out of his life.

I then reached the front door and pulled it open, but it was raining outside.

I then stepped out anyway, because my mind was no longer here.

It was dragging me backward, backward to another night with rain, another night with shattered glass, another night with blood.

I gripped the doorframe for one second as the memory rose harder this time, a broken car, a man slumped behind the wheel and my hands shook.

My dress was soaked, his blood on my fingers and then his hand, his hand grabbed mine.

Tight, desperate and his face was pale, his lips barely moved, his voice, that voice was low, weak and dangerous even then.

It came back to me so clearly that I stopped breathing.

“If you save me tonight… I’ll owe you my life.”