All Chapters of Surrendered Desires: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Ariana’s POVThe envelope arrived with no stamp. No sender. No seal. Just my name. In Daniel’s handwriting. I almost didn’t open it.I should have thrown it out. But curiosity is a strange thing — it feeds on the wounds you swear you’ve closed. I sat alone at my kitchen counter, peeled the flap open, and pulled out a single handwritten page on Luxe-branded notepaper.Ariana, I never expected you to fight me like this. You were always stronger when you were quiet. When you smiled and let things slide. I’m not writing to ask for forgiveness. I know better. But I want to explain what you’ll never let me say aloud. You think I married you because I loved you. I did. But that’s not why I stayed.I stayed because I needed you.You were the only one who made me feel like I was more than just my title. Until you started growing. Until your voice got louder than mine. That’s when I began to lose you. And I did what I had to do to keep you. It was never about hurting you. It was about keeping us

Ariana’s POVI stared at the blinking red light on the mic. Recording. Just one word, glowing like an invitation. Or a dare. The studio was silent except for the low hum of my heartbeat. Luca had stepped out. Vanessa, too.I asked them to. This had to come from me. No edits. No filters. No echo chambers of legal counsel or PR strategy. Just my voice. And a truth that had waited far too long. I took a breath… and began.> “My name is Ariana Cole. And I survived a beautiful lie.”I paused. Let it hang.> “For years, I curated perfection — not just for brands, but for myself. I knew how to hide bruises that weren’t visible. I knew how to say ‘I’m fine’ with a smile that made even therapists believe me. But I wasn’t fine. I was vanishing.”My voice trembled — not from fear, but from the weight of finally being heard.> “I want to talk about what emotional abuse actually feels like.It isn’t shouting. It isn’t fists through walls. It’s the quiet gaslight. The slow erosion of self. It’s wak

Ariana’s POVThe card sat on the table long after Luca went upstairs. A small, square piece of cardstock — but it weighed like lead.Midnight.An address scribbled in black ink.I kept turning it over in my fingers, tracing the uneven strokes of Nathan’s handwriting. My body knew it before my mind would admit it — that familiar chill of danger dressed as a second chance.Nathan Rivera. The man who’d whispered warnings, then vanished when I needed him most.The man who once stood beside Daniel in surgical theaters, their bond sharper than the scalpels they held.The man who had looked me in the eye this morning and said, “He wasn’t the only one drawing the blueprints.”And I couldn’t shake the weight of that.The clock ticked toward midnight. The house was too quiet.Luca hadn’t slept. I could feel him, pacing upstairs, his footsteps heavy with worry. He’d asked me not to go, begged even. But something inside me — the same stubborn core that had pushed me through every courtroom delay,

Ariana’s POVThe Cole estate hadn’t changed.Grand iron gates. Stone walls washed in ivy. Windows tall enough to swallow light. It was the kind of house built to intimidate — and it worked. Every time I stood before it, I felt small, like a child at the feet of something ancient and merciless.Tonight, though, I wasn’t small.I was furious. Luca drove, silent beside me, his grip tight on the wheel. Vanessa followed in her car behind us, insisting she wouldn’t let me face this alone. We pulled into the long driveway, tires crunching over gravel. The mansion loomed above us, lights glowing in select windows, a performance of warmth that had never been real.I exhaled slowly. “Adrian’s here?”Vanessa adjusted her coat as she stepped out. “Terminal cancer. He’s bedridden. But he still has his wits. And his claws.”Her tone was grim. “Don’t expect remorse. Expect strategy.”The butler ushered us in, face stiff, eyes flicking nervously between us. He led us through hallways that smelled of

Ariana’s POVMorning crept into the apartment like a thief — slow, pale, uninvited.I hadn’t slept. My body ached from exhaustion, but my mind refused to rest. Adrian’s words kept looping in my head, tangling with Daniel’s gaslighting, with Elise’s betrayal, with the ache of every year I’d spent trying to rebuild myself from ashes.The tree lives in you now. The tree lives in you now. Each time I replayed it, the words grew heavier, like roots digging deeper. The knock came just before nine.I flinched, clutching my robe tighter, while Luca moved ahead of me, already tense. He pulled the door open sharply.Nathan stood there. Not with his usual guarded stillness — but urgent, almost frantic. His eyes were sharp, dark rings beneath them like he hadn’t slept either.“We need to talk,” he said, pushing past the doorway before either of us invited him.Luca bristled immediately. “You don’t just walk into her home—”“This isn’t about courtesy,” Nathan snapped. “It’s about time. Adrian does