All Chapters of MARRIED UNTIL MONDAY: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

ARIA'S POVTHREE YEARS LATERI stood behind the shadows, observing the devils suited in gold, the highest of men and women clad in jewels. They chatted, displaying their fake smiles, their pretentious attitudes, too good to be true.Tsk. It takes one to know another."Sweetheart." My supposed husband called out, his hand slid down my back and held my waist in a gentle grip.I smiled back, ignoring the lust that swirled through his eyes. "You look delicious."I wasn't food, still I smiled harder.Unlike the rest, I wore a simple black sleek gown, which hugged my waist with a little slit from my lap to my ankle, exposing a little more than it should. A diamond necklace sat on my neck with matching earrings. My hair was packed into a bun and clipped still with a diamond-coated hair clip.His wish, not mine."Let's go." I glided in, my black heel clicking against the floor, eliciting a faint sound."Mr. Salvatore." Someone called out as the hall fell into a deafening silence. Their gazes

ARIA'S POV The city lights bled into each other like watercolors behind the tinted glass, too soft for a city that never really softened. Manhattan pulsed outside, loud and dirty and alive but in here? In the backseat of this luxury hearse Kane Callahan had arranged, I was insulated. Cushioned in leather, silence, and my own thoughts. Convenient, really. That we didn’t ride together. Probably thought it’d be too much to share a car with his rented wife. Or maybe he just didn’t want to ruin the leather with my perfume. Either way, I wasn’t complain, I liked the quiet. I liked knowing I had a few more minutes to pretend I still had control.The car pulled up to a building that looked like it had been designed by someone allergic to warmth. All sharp angles, steel, and tall glass. Kane Callahan’s penthouse loomed above it all, a gleaming tower of cold power. Nothing like Zane’s home, which had always felt like a trap pretending to be a castle. This place didn’t pretend. It told you

ARIA'S POV His hand rested just behind my back, not quite touching just hovering there with practiced poise. Everything with Kane was always calculated. We descended the grand staircase like two perfectly sculpted mannequins on display.At the entrance, the limousine waited.And then the chaos began. Flashes burst like tiny explosions. The moment the doors opened, we were swallowed by the frenzy. Reporters' voices clashed like a choir of vultures, mics jutted toward us like weapons, and bodyguards swarmed around us in tight formation. I kept my face steady. Kane did too. But then inside the car, everything softened. Not emotionally—just acoustically. He sat beside me in that damned white suit, like sin wrapped in virtue, and stared out the opposite window.I leaned against my own window, forehead resting on the cool glass. I still hadn’t forgiven myself for almost breaking down earlier. Over a color, a flipping suit, a damned memory.Oh how pathetic. If white could disa

KANE'S POV The room buzzed with low laughter and conversations, but none of it reached me fully. I stood there, half-listening to some minor shareholder ramble about growth charts and quarterly figures, but my eyes followed her.Aria.I hadn’t meant to say that much about how we "met." I planned to keep the fake story short, crisp, strategic—like everything else I do. But the moment the ladies turned to me with that amused sparkle in their eyes, expecting charm, warmth, love... something slipped. She looked at me with that grin, practically daring me to talk. So I did. And I overspoke. Rambling, even. I don’t ramble.She knew exactly what she was doing, tossing the story back to me like that. And I took the bait, like an idiot. My brain still relished the memory of her eyes widening just slightly when the old women started "aww"-ing over my fake sentimental ramblings.Then she stood. "I need a drink.." she’d said lightly, brushing my hand off her back as she slipped away. I didn’t

ARIA'S POVThe door shut, sealing us into a bubble of velvet seats and quiet, and I finally let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding since the moment Sibil spilled that drink. Since Zane called me a whore in front of cameras. Since I stood there frozen, humiliated, like some fragile thing again.Kane didn’t say a word, he just sat there, perfect posture, his eyes trained on the window like he wasn’t part of the disaster that had just unfolded.Meanwhile, I was vibrating.I tapped my foot, fingers drumming against my thigh because I didn’t know what else to do.Every part of me was buzzing with unspent rage, embarrassment, pain. And him? He sat there like a statue sculpted from indifference.How can someone be that composed after watching me publicly unravel?I couldn’t take it anymore."…Thanks" I muttered, voice low. "For… you know...standing up to him."He turned slowly, nodded once. Just a nod like I was a business transaction he was confirming receipt of.God, was I tha