Alle Kapitel von The Night My Best-Friend Ruined Me: Kapitel 71 – Kapitel 76

Aria's POV"Time to go, little bird." That was the last thing I heard right next to my ear and before I could even scream, I was being pulled…hard.The darkness was absolute. I stumbled, my heels scraping roughly against the concrete.Next thing we were off the stage, off the carpet. What the hell? Who? I tried to twist and pull away, but his grip was too strong and he was too fast.My heart raced as I felt panic clawing at my throat. I couldn't see anything, I just felt the pressure of his hand.My breath came in ragged gasps."Let go of me!" I choked out, barely able to contain my fear.He didn't answer, just kept pulling. I could hear his heavy breathing, the scuff of his boots. We were moving fast, through what felt like a maze of narrow corridors.My arm felt like it was being ripped from its socket. I tried to kick, but my legs were tangled, useless. My head was spinning. This isn't happening. This can't be happening.The summit, my presentation, Edmund, my father… Adrian and J

Aria's POVThe ride was a silent one.The armored SUV felt like a coffin on wheels, rumbling through the city streets. I was in the back, squashed between Adrian and Julian like a human sandwich, a package maybe, but definitely not a person.My shoulders were stiff and my jaw tight. Every bump in the road made me flinch, made me aware of Adrian's body next to me, the faint scent of his expensive cologne, the tension radiating off him.Julian on my other side was just as rigid.Two men who, for the first time, agreed on something: I was a problem that needed to be contained.My mind kept replaying Mark's face and the coldness in his eyes. The way he'd said "little bird." That sure wasn't a security protocol…it was a threat…a personal one. And then Adrian's explanation about the stock, the merger. It was all so tangled making my head throb.We pulled up to a building that looked like it had been carved out of a giant block of ice and steel. Glass everywhere, it was a freaking fortress

Aria's POVThe summit I dreaded came and gone just like that.I rescheduled it for the following afternoon. A reprieve, perhaps, but one that felt less like a gift and more like an extension of this suffocating limbo.I should have been grateful for the extra time, for the chance to refine my strategy, to steel myself for the inevitable confrontation but instead, I found myself staring at the organized notes spread across the glass table in the penthouse's study, the words blurring into a mess.My mind refused to engage as it kept drifting, pulled by an invisible tether to the next room. Adrian.His presence was a constant, unsettling hum beneath the surface of my concentration.After his abrupt departure from the kitchen last night, a silence had fallen between us, heavier and more profound than before.I hadn't seen him since, not really. But I could feel him.I heard a faint laughter, child-like so it's definitely Leo, unable to keep away. I pushed away from the table, peeking arou