Semua Bab Brewed For You : Bab 71 - Bab 80

Aria didn't know it yet but she was going to learn her biggest lessons about what it meant to be caught in a collision.How it didn’t always come with sirens or shattered glass or a single, dramatic moment she could point to later and say that was it. How it came quietly. Methodically. Like pressure building beneath the surface of something already cracked.She felt it the moment she stepped outside that morning though.Something about the air was wrong.Not like it was cold, not was it warm. Just… weighted. Heavy. Like the city was holding its breath.Damian noticed it too. She saw it in the way his shoulders squared, the way his gaze swept the street before he let her take a step forward. Like he was on fight or flight mood.“You feel that?” she asked quietly.“Yes,” he replied. “We’re being paced.”She didn’t slow down. Didn’t speed up either.“By who?” she asked.“Most likely not Richard,” Damian said. “He doesn’t stalk. He rather positions.”Her mouth tightened. “Then Ethan.” It

Aria didn’t shed a single tear.Not when Damian told her what going public would actually mean.Not when she imagined Mila alone, frightened, being used like a bargaining chip.Not even when the weight of it settled fully into her chest...the understanding that this wasn’t a bluff.She cried later.After she finally made the decision.And she realised there was no turning back.They worked through the night.Their phones buzzed nonstop...journalists, lawyers, contacts Damian hadn’t used in years. Damian was pulling every shot he had. Aria sat at the dining table with her laptop open, notes scattered around her like pieces of a fractured map.“This can’t sound or feel like we're reacting to his actions,” Damian said, pacing. “It has to look deliberate. Like it was a decision”“It is deliberate,” Aria replied calmly. “That’s the point.”She drafted the statement herself.Not emotional.Not defensive.Clear. Precise. Unignorable.She didn’t name Ethan. Not yet.She didn’t accuse Richard.

Being watched felt different when you knew for certain it was happening.Like you are sure it wasn’t paranoia.That it wasn’t nerves.It was awareness, your subconsciousness speaking to you.Aria felt it the moment she stepped out of the car.The press had already gathered so early...too early. Cameras clustered behind the barricades, lenses already trained on the café entrance like soldiers with there loaded weapons waiting for the command to fire. Security fanned out around her in practiced formation, earpieces glinting, hands never straying far from concealed holsters.She kept her posture straight. Chin lifted. Pace steady.She talked inwardly to herself;Don’t rush.Don’t hesitate.Don’t look scared...like a prey hunted by a predator.Inside, her heart was slamming so violently against her ribs. She could almost swear that someone could hear it.“This is a bad idea,” Damian’s voice crackled softly through the earpiece she wore beneath her hair.She resisted the instinct to touch

"Are you sure about this?" Ethan asked, hands on the steering. " It's okay if you change your mind. I'll give you one last chance..."The Cost of SurrenderThe first thing Aria noticed was the quiet.Not the peaceful kind.The kind that pressed against her ears until her thoughts felt too loud.The car moved smoothly beneath her, engine barely audible, windows blacked out so completely she couldn’t tell whether it was night or day. Her phone was gone. Her watch too. No restraints...but that almost felt worse. Like a statement.You’re not a prisoner, the silence seemed to say.You’re a guest.She sat straight, hands folded in her lap, forcing her breathing into something steady.Don’t give him fear.Don’t give him panic.Don’t give him anything he didn’t earn.When the car finally stopped, the door opened without ceremony.“Careful,” Ethan’s voice said mildly. “The step’s higher than it looks.”She stepped out into cool air and lifted her chin.The house was secluded, modern, all glass

The aftermath was brutal.Silence had weight.It pressed against Aria’s ears long after the sirens faded, long after the house emptied of blood and noise and broken glass. Even inside the ambulance, even surrounded by people asking questions she answered like a robot, the silence stayed lodged somewhere behind her ribs.Alive.She said the word in her head like a prayer. Like a dare.Damian sat across from her, one knee bouncing despite the pain he was clearly in. His eyes never left her face. Not even when the medic asked him questions. Not even when his phone buzzed incessantly with updates he didn’t answer.“You’re shaking,” he said quietly.“I know,” she replied. She'd been doing that since she sat down even if she didn't want to.She tried to still her hands. They refused too.The medic glanced between them. “Shock’s normal. Adrenaline crash.”Aria nodded. She understood the words. Yet, they just didn’t feel big enough.Because what she felt wasn’t shock.It was absence.The abse