Chapter 4

Aria’s POV

I then held the steering wheel tighter and drove.

No destination, no plan, just away from Damien, from that house, from the sight of another woman standing where I used to belong.

My throat was so tight again and I blinked fast and then I focused on the road.

I then drove until I reached a calm roadside and I stopped, the engine stayed on and rain kept falling but I sat there, and stared ahead like something in me was waiting to wake up.

Then I laughed. It slipped out before I could stop it. Dry. Painful.

“Three years,” I whispered. My voice sounded strange. Like it belonged to someone else.

"Three whole years... and I still wasn’t enough.”

The words sat in the car with me, ugly, true and humiliating.

I then looked down at the divorce papers on the passenger seat again.

My name was still there, signed, final and over.

A part of me wanted to tear them, another part wanted to burn them, but the biggest part of me just wanted to ask one stupid question.

Why?

Why marry me just to make me feel like a mistake?

Why look at me the way he used to… if he was always going to let me go?

My phone vibrated and then I closed my eyes for one second before reaching for it, I expected another painful surprise.

Maybe a message from the lawyer, maybe from Damien, maybe from someone who heard already.

But when I unlocked the screen, my expression changed.

“Miss Vale, the board is waiting. The Blackwood expansion cannot move forward without your approval.”

I stared at the message. Then I read it again.

My chest still hurt. But something else rose inside me too. A reminder. A brutal one.

I was not just the woman Damien Blackwood threw away. I was not just his ex-wife.

I was not just the wife who got replaced before she even left the house, I was still Aria Vale.

And whether Damien knew it or not…his company did not breathe without decisions made in rooms he had never seen.

My fingers then moved over the screen, I was supposed to reply, I supposed to tell them to delay, approve it or reject it.

But instead, I locked the phone and threw it back on the seat, not yet.

Tonight, I was too angry to make a clean decision. If I answered from pain, I would destroy more than I intended to.

I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes.

Then a knock landed on my window.

I jolted so hard my phone nearly slipped from my hand again.

My head snapped to the side. A man stood beside my car. Tall. Broad shoulders. A dark umbrella in one hand.

The rain slid down the glass between us, but I still recognized that face instantly and my brows pulled together.

“No way…”

I lowered the window halfway.

“What are you doing here?”

Ethan Cross smiled down at me like he had all the time in the world and somehow, that smile annoyed me instantly.

“Good evening to you too,” he said and I stared at him.

“Did you follow me?”

He then moved his head. “That depends, if I say yes, will you drive off?”

“Yes.”

“Then no.”

I almost laughed despite myself but then I caught it in time.

Ethan looked at me more carefully now, at my face, my eyes and then at the papers beside me.

Something changed in his expression, and he then tapped lightly on the top of my car.

“Open the door.”

“No.”

“Aria.”

“How do you know my name?”

That earned me a small smirk.

“Your husband is not the only powerful man in this city.”

I then narrowed my eyes.

“Again, what are you doing here?”

He then lowered himself a little so his face was closer to mine.

“I was on my way to meet someone, then I saw a beautiful woman sitting alone in her car, looking like she might either cry or commit murder.”

I then stared at him.

“That line usually works for you?”

"More than you'd think."

I was irritated. But somehow he was pulling me away from my pain. I didn't know whether to hate him for it or thank him.

He glanced at the papers again. Then back at me. This time the teasing was gone.

“What did he do?”

I held my wheel firmly.

“That’s none of your business.”

“Maybe,” he said. “But you look like hell.”

I then let out a bitter laugh.

“Charming.”

“I’m not trying to charm you.”

His eyes dropped to my lips for one dangerous second and then returned to my eyes.

"I’m trying to figure out if I need to ruin someone tonight." My heart skipped. Not because I believed him, but the way he said it. I looked away first. The second I did, tears pressed in again. I hated how Damien still held this much power over me. Ethan noticed my trembling hands. Without asking, he opened the passenger door, reached in, and grabbed the divorce papers.

"Hey!” I snapped. Too late. His eyes scanned the top page. Then he went still.

When he looked at me again, there was no teasing left in his face, only something dangerous.

“Blackwood,” he said calmly.

I said nothing, what was there to say? He already saw enough, he folded the papers once and placed them back on the seat.

Then he leaned down again until his face was near mine and my breath caught before I could stop it.

Rain drummed harder around us and his eyes did not leave my face and then his hand lifted slowly.

I should pull back, I knew I should but I didn’t, his thumb brushed just under my eye and my body was still.

He then wiped away the tear I did not even realize had fallen and that simple touch burned more than it should, like danger and temptation.

Something about Ethan Cross always felt like standing too close to fire and pretending you wouldn’t burn.

His voice turned low and intimate.

“Did he break you first…” he asked gently , “or did you hand him the knife yourself?”

The question hit me square in the chest. I stared at him. He stared right back. No pity. No fake sympathy. Just brutal understanding. And somehow, that cut deeper. For the first time tonight, I felt something besides pain. Not healing. Not peace. Something hotter. Reckless.

Something I should not be feeling less than an hour after signing divorce papers, my lips parted, but no words came out.

Ethan’s gaze dropped there again and this time, he did not even pretend he did not do it.

A slow smile touched his mouth and then he looked me dead in the eye and said,

“If Damien Blackwood was stupid enough to let you go…”

He paused and then smirked.

“…maybe I should thank him.”