Semua Bab The Night Before Christmas: Bab 1 - Bab 10

Aria’s POV“Mark, I asked you a question,” I said, my voice rising despite my effort to keep it level.Instead of answering, he frowned and glanced towards the door. “Lower your voice. Hailey is going to hear us.”The irritation that surged through me was immediate. Still, a part of me hesitated. Did I really want Hailey to hear this? Did I want my daughter to hear the ugly truth, whatever it was, unfold?“Look, it’s not what you think,” Mark continued, rubbing his hands together. “Clara is… she’s a… a working colleague. We… we went out after work. A company celebration. And we… we played a game.”He was stammering now.I stared at him, studying his face, his posture, the tension in his shoulders. I wondered how foolish he thought I was. Did he believe I’d only seen a message?“I see,” I said calmly, though my blood was roaring in my ears. I held my emotions down with sheer will, especially the anger threatening to explode. “So this game includes a woman sitting between your legs? Doe

Aria’s POV“Elliot, I’m not a child. I needed fresh air, and I took it,” I finally replied after a full minute of silence that felt louder than shouting.“Really?” Elliot said. He pulled out his phone and thrust it towards my face. “Explain this.”My breath caught.It was an image of me.I was lying on a bed, limbs slack, my body angled helplessly towards the camera. A man hovered over me, his hands at the hem of my dress, lifting it. My face was painfully clear, eyes closed, mouth parted, unmistakably drunk. The angle left nothing to interpretation. Everything except one thing.His face wasn’t visible.“You find out yesterday that your husband is a leech and a cheat,” Elliot said, his voice cutting through the room, while I was thinking about how he got the image, “and in less than twenty-four hours, you land yourself in another man’s bed? Aria, what is wrong with you? Do you realise you are still legally married to that bastard of a man?”“Elliot, this was an accident,” I said, forc

Aria's POV“Mrs Smith, honestly, I have no idea. And I want to assure you that the school did not request this. We only conduct routine medical tests for all students. How this was slipped into Hailey’s report, or who requested it and sent the results to us together with her medical report, I have no idea.”The principal’s voice was calm, professional, almost rehearsed, but it barely reached me. I stared down at the paper in my hands as though it might dissolve if I looked hard enough.It didn’t.If Mark’s name had not been printed so clearly at the top of the document, I would have dismissed the results as a clerical error, something accidentally attached to the school’s paperwork. Mark and I had signed consent forms for routine medical tests when the school requested them. Vaccinations. Blood group confirmation. General health screening.Not this.Never this.My fingers tightened around the edge of the paper, creasing it slightly. How? Who authorised this? DNA testing didn’t happen

I wiped away my tears, sensing someone call my name.Strong hands steadied me.I looked up.Desmond Howard.“Sir,” I whispered, startled.For a brief, dangerous moment, everything else fell away. His deep blue eyes held mine, calm and unreadable, and I felt myself drowning in their intensity.“Aria,” he said. “What are you doing here?”His voice pulled me back, but the spell lingered.“Aria,” he repeated, firmer this time.“I’m sorry,” I said quickly. “Routine check.”“Hm.” His gaze sharpened slightly. “Barely a week into your suspension and you’re already falling sick?”There it was. That assumption I loathed, that Howard Holdings was a lifeline, that employment under him was a privilege no one dared risk.I frowned.“It’s just a routine check,” I said, sharper than intended. “It has nothing to do with my suspension. Sorry for bumping into you.”I slipped from his grasp and walked away without looking back.I couldn’t go home.Instead, I found myself in a quiet cafe, tucked into a co

Aria’s POVFrom the apartment, I went straight back home and made a conscious decision to spend the rest of the day with Hailey. School would reopen soon, and that gave me a narrow window, time enough to steady my emotions, mend the cracks in my heart, and gather the strength I would need to tell my daughter that her father would no longer be part of our routine.The house was quiet in that late-afternoon way, sunlight slanting through the windows, dust motes floating lazily in the air. Life, infuriatingly, went on.“Mummy, why are you so quiet?” Hailey asked suddenly.Her voice pulled me out of my thoughts. I blinked, refocusing on her face. “I am?”“Yes, mummy. It’s your turn to play, but you’re just staring at me.” She tilted her head, studying me with the sharp perception children seemed to possess. “Mummy, what’s wrong?”I lowered my gaze to the board between us. It was my turn to roll the dice in the Snakes and Ladders game sprawled across the rug. The bright colours felt almost