All Chapters of Her Stepbrother’s Desire, Her husband’s Obsession: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Aria paced around in her room, her hands in her hair as she cussed. “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!”. She had insulted the man that had been powerful enough to find Rishers. The man that could call her grandfather by his name. The man that had the audacity to take over the Griffin legacy as revenge, and with the way he was going, if Aria did not foil him, he would succeed. That was the man she had threatened to ruin. That was the man she had disrespected to his face. Aria cared about her son, she cared about her company, she cared about her pride. But the only way she could ensure she stayed alive to protect them was to not mouth off against the man bold enough to sink her grandfather. The last few days had been among the worst days of Aria’s life, only rivaled by the long period in which she was facing scandal after scandal five years ago, with the scandal capping off her at her night with Liam. “What can I even do?”, she said to no one in particular, flopping on the bed. Her impuls

The Uber slowed to a crawl as the driver turned down the narrow road that sliced through downtown Los Altos. The further they went, the more the street seemed to shift, it was less neon, less noise, and more quiet wealth seeping from the bones of the buildings.Aria leaned against the window, her mask warm against her face, her thoughts louder than the hum of the car.Kumari.Kumari was this extremely expensive, and extremely exclusive bar that only the elite got to be in. Even the children of powerful people weren’t allowed in, only with a certain level of connections could you get in.There was another bar right beside it, Lumari. It was practically a giant fuck you to the owner of Kumari, because Lumari was also for the elite, but at least just normal classy people could get in. Only connections got you into Kumari, and Aria's only connection was probably upstairs.The driver pulled over. “This the spot?”Aria’s pulse thrummed. She glanced at the towering black façade of Kumari, t

Aria’s lips pressed into a thin line. The sharp sting of her mother’s words could have been paralyzing, if she let it. But she refused. She had spent years clawing herself out of ruin, out of the reputations others tried to suffocate her with. She would not let Camille’s venom touch her tonight.Hartie, as always, was the calmer one, the more calculating one. Their mother hated Aria too much to be properly cold when she was involved. She stepped slightly forward, her hand brushing against Camille’s arm to keep her back. They lowered themselves into the empty seats in the booth. Hartie’s gaze, deceptively warm but sharp, a gaze Aria had been tricked by many times in the past, landed on Aria with an almost imperceptible patience. “Aria,” Hartie said softly, “don’t let mom’s words make you sad. We just need information. About your… marriage.”Aria’s eyebrows shot up. “You mean, to who in the Beaumont clan I married? Isn’t the great Rothschild clan good enough to figure it out?”Hartie

Aria startled at the sudden white flash and immediately swiveled her head to look in the direction it came from. That was a bad idea. There were four men with cameras and flashing lights, running over from the other side of the street. Hartie must have called them in, possibly to have them ask how she could enter Kumari, possibly to highlight how low she was on their hierarchical food chain. Or maybe just to embarrass her. The snake was unpredictable like that. Aston just stood still, barely even shifting at the rapid flashes of white that lit Aria and him up like they were at a disco. There was now commotion in the street. People turned to look at what celebrity the paparazzi were harassing. Even cars slowed down and phones came up in the hopes to record for clout. Aria raised her mask back on her face, far too late. She was no celebrity, but she had experienced so many ambushes that her natural fight or flight activated. Her heart pounded and her legs moved without any

Brolly had been having a good day, right until Aston called. Aston calling was never a good sign. Especially when he still hadn’t found the treaty Aston had charged him with since last week. It was safe to say Brolly was cooked.He spat out the mouthful of matcha coffee he had in his mouth, apologized to the truly stunning model he was on his first date with, and bolted. She looked at him in indignance. He was slightly regretful, if Aston called, you had to answer, even at the cost of being laid.“Heyyyy, what’s up?”, he said airily, trying to pretend like he wasn’t currently slacking off from work because Aston had temporarily gone to Los Altos.“Wo?”, he asked, the insurmountable pressure behind that one syllable sending a bead of sweat down Brolly’s back. “Where?”, Aston asked, relegating to German for God knows what reason. Maybe he knew it was one of his most threatening languages.“I’m working on it. I swear. The wires are just a bit twisted right now”. And he wasn’t even lying