ARIA
If jealousy were a wound, mine wouldn't stop bleeding.
I told myself not to look, but my eyes always found them.
Vanessa's laugh carried down the hallway light, perfect, practiced—and Nathan's voice followed, calm, too calm.
Every time I passed his office, I saw it.
Her hand brushing his sleeve.
His polite smile.
Vivian was watching from a distance, smug as if she'd already won.
And maybe she had.
"Stop torturing yourself," Sophie said, dropping into the chair across from me.
"I'm fine."
"You're lying."
"I'm busy."
"You're hurting," she snapped. "I see it, Aria. You're fighting for space in a world that keeps pretending you don't belong."
"Maybe I don't."
"Don't say that."
I forced a breath, my voice shaking. "He said we needed space. And now she's filling it."
Sophie's eyes softened. "You really Llike him, don't you?"
I didn't answer.
That night, I went back to the office to grab a file I'd forgotten. The building was quiet, lights dimmed.
But voices echoed down the hallway his and hers.
I froze.
Vanessa's voice floated through the half-open door. "You look tired, Nathan. This constant damage control it's not you."
He sighed. "It's part of the job."
"No. You used to love this. You used to love us."
My breath caught.
"Vanessa "
She laughed softly. "Relax. I'm not trying to steal you back. But your mother's right about one thing she doesn't fit here."
"Enough," he said quietly.
"She'll destroy you, Nathan. You think this is love? It's a scandal dressed up as rebellion."
"You don't know what this is."
"Then tell me," she challenged. "Tell me what makes her worth losing everything."
He went silent.
I waited—heart pounding, desperate for his answer.
When it came, it was barely a whisper.
"She just is."
Vanessa laughed under her breath. "That's not love, Nathan. That's weakness."
The sound of glass hitting wood his hand slamming the desk made me flinch.
"Get out," he said.
But I was already gone.
By the time I reached the elevator, my vision blurred.
He'd defended me, yes. But he hadn't denied a single thing she said.
And maybe that hurt worse than if he had.
The elevator doors closed. The last thing I saw was the reflection of my own face broken, tired, small.
I pressed my hand against the cold metal and whispered the truth I'd been avoiding all along.
"If this is love, I don't want it anymore."
Then my phone buzzed in my hand.
A message from an unknown number.
"He's not who you think he is. Meet me tomorrow. I can prove it."
Chapter 13 – The Breaking Point
Aria
I almost didn't go.
The message had felt like poison tempting, dangerous, and impossible to ignore.
He's not who you think he is. Meet me tomorrow. I can prove it.
By morning, I'd convinced myself it was nothing.
By afternoon, curiosity was louder than reason.
So here I was standing in the corner of a small café downtown, watching every stranger who walked through the door.
The woman who finally approached me didn't look like trouble.
Older. Elegant. Calm.
Which somehow made her more terrifying.
"Ms. Collins?" she asked smoothly.
"Yes."
She slid into the seat across from me. "I apologize for the secrecy. But given your relationship with Nathan Hale, I thought discretion mattered."
My pulse stumbled. "Who are you?"
"My name isn't important," she said. "But I work with people who've seen the real side of Hale Technologies. You think you know the man in charge?" She leaned in. "You don't."
I frowned. "What are you talking about?"
She opened a file and pushed a photo across the table. Nathan. Vivian. Vanessa. Together at a private dinner.
My stomach dropped.
"This was two nights ago," she said. "Your name came up more than once."
My throat tightened. "What did they say?"
"That you were a liability. That the only way to protect the family legacy was to cut you out."
I wanted to laugh, to call her a liar. But the photo was timestamped. Two nights ago the night he told me we needed space.
"I don't believe you," I whispered.
"You should." She slid another envelope toward me. "Vivian Hale destroys what she can't control. He's no different."
I stared at the envelope, hands shaking.
It would've been easier to walk away. But I didn't.
Because some part of me still needed to know even if it hurt.
By the time I got back to the office, the building buzzed with tension. Reporters in the lobby. Security is on alert. Something had happened.
Sophie rushed up to me. "Where have you been?"
"Nowhere. Why?"
"Vivian just leaked an internal memo Nathan's confidential statement. It says you violated the company's code of conduct."
"What?"
"She's framing you, Aria. She's saying your 'relationship' compromised the IPO deal."
My heart stopped. "No he'd never sign something like that."
"He didn't." Sophie's voice cracked. "But she made it look like he did."
I ran for his office before she could stop me.
Nathan was already there, phone pressed to his ear, fury written all over his face.
"Pull the article," he said to whoever was on the line. "Now. I don't care what it costs."
"Nathan "
He looked up, relief and panic colliding in his eyes. "Where were you? I've been trying to call you."
"Who leaked it?" I asked.
"My mother."
"She used your name."
"I know."
"She said you agreed to it."
"I didn't."
"Then why does it sound like you did?"
He flinched. "Aria "
"Were you with them?" My voice cracked. "Vivian. Vanessa. That dinner—two nights ago."
His eyes widened. "How do you "
"Don't deny it," I snapped. "I saw the photo."
"That's not what it looks like."
"That's what you always say."
He stepped closer, desperate. "Listen to me. She's manipulating everything she wants you gone. Don't let her win."
"I don't have to," I whispered. "You already did it for her."
The silence between us broke something I couldn't fix.
He reached for me, but I stepped back. "I can't do this anymore, Nathan. I can't keep defending something that keeps breaking me."
Her words from the café echoed in my head: He's no different.
Maybe she was right.
I left before he could stop me.
The elevator doors slid shut, sealing the world above me away.
As the car descended, my phone buzzed again same unknown number.
Told you. Now you see for yourself.
Next time, you'll believe me.
The message came with a photo.
Nathan.
Standing outside my apartment building.
Looking up at my window.
And behind him, a black car I'd seen before Vivian's.
My stomach twisted.
What if this wasn't over?
What if it was only beginning?