Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Night My Best-Friend Ruined Me: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

ARIA'S POV The door closed behind us, and i knew there was no going back.I stood with my back against the door, still trapped in my black graduation gown, my heart hammering against my ribs.I want all of you tonight," he said.Adrian didn’t waste a second. He was already out of his jacket, his tie hanging loose, sleeves rolled up to reveal the powerful forearms I’d spent three years staring at in secret.He crossed the space between us in three quick steps."You sure?" he asked, his voice a low, gravelly vibration that made my thighs ache and my pussy clench with need.I didn't speak; I just nodded. My hands were trembling so badly I couldn't even find the zipper of my dress. Though he didn't let me struggle for long.He caught my wrists, his touch felt like it was burning me, and gently moved my hands away."Let me," he whispered.The sound of the zipper sliding down was deafening in the silence of the room. The heavy fabric pooled at my feet, leaving me in nothing but the plain

ARIA'S POVSix weeks. Forty-two days of staring at a phone that refused to buzz, of waking up in a room that felt more like a prison cell than a home, and of mourning a best friend who had essentially ghosted my entire existence.According to the rumors Lydia made sure I overheard, Adrian had been on some high-society tour of Europe, a month-long trip meant to prepare him for his "real" life—a life that apparently didn't include me.I’d actually gone to his house a few days after that morning at the hotel. I was desperate, my pride in tatters, just needing to hear from a maid or a guard that he was okay.But I was just met with a cold wall.They told me he traveled and wouldn't be back for a while, and the way they looked at me made it clear I wasn't welcome on the Blackwood property anymore.But this morning, the world shifted again. I’d created a burner Instagram account…..call me desperate, but I needed the false sense of closeness.And there he was. A tagged photo at his private p

ARIA’S POVFIVE YEARS LATERIt’s funny how time can feel like a slow crawl when you’re starving with a crying newborn, and then suddenly feel like a blur once you finally have your feet under you.I wasn't the scared girl with a backpack and a few hundred dollars anymore. I was Dr. Aria Vale, lead researcher at Thorne-Bio.I had spent every waking hour of the last half-decade making sure I was indispensable."Dr. Vale? The board is ready for you," my assistant, Sarah, said, poking her head into my office.I stood up, smoothing out my tailored charcoal blazer. I caught my reflection in the glass window.I looked expensive. I looked powerful. I looked like someone who could never be locked in a room again."Tell them I’ll be there in two minutes," I said, my voice steady. "And did the daycare call back about Leo’s field trip?""All set. He’s excited about the aquarium," she smiled.Leo. My five-year-old son with dark, curly hair and eyes that looked exactly like a man I had spent five y

Aria's povThe morning was a complete disaster.Everything felt heavy, like I was walking through chest-deep water while someone threw rocks at my head.I was trying to get Leo’s socks on, but he was in one of those moods where he just wouldn't sit still.My hands were shaking, and it wasn't even from the third cup of coffee I’d pounded since five in the morning.It was him. Adrian.The way he looked at me in that lab yesterday was still burned into the back of my eyelids. Such an annoying bastard.He looked at me like I was a criminal. Like I was something disgusting he’d found on the bottom of his shoe after a long walk.Seriously, the audacity of that man.I pulled a stubborn sock over Leo’s foot and finally managed to get him to look at me."Mama? Why are you sad?"I froze, my breath catching in my throat.He was looking up at me with those eyes. Those deep, piercing blue eyes that were an exact replica of the man currently making my life a living hell.The dark, curly hair fallin

Aria's povI stared at the black-and-gold invitation on my desk like it was a live grenade.A welcome gala. Mandatory attendance.Adrian was really leaning into the whole tyrannical billionaire thing, wasn’t he?I rubbed my temples, feeling the dull throb of a headache that had been my constant companion since I landed in this city."I'm not going, Marcus. I have three sets of cultures that need to be monitored every four hours."Marcus Thorne didn’t even look up from his tablet as he leaned against the doorframe of my new office."You’re going, Aria. The board is already nervous about the relocation to Blackwood Biotech. They need to see that you and Blackwood are on the same page.""We aren't even in the same book, Marcus. He thinks I’m a corporate spy and I think he’s a narcissist with a god complex."Marcus finally looked at me, and his expression was surprisingly soft."I know it’s hard. But the investors want a show. They want to see the brilliant Dr. Vale in a dress, not a lab