Chapter 161: Chapter 163: The Aftermath
ARIA’S POV - Three Hours Later
Aria sat in her childhood bedroom in her mother’s Chinatown apartment, staring at her hands.
They’d been scrubbed clean. No trace of Victoria’s blood remained on her skin. But she could still feel it. Could still see the way it had pooled on the concrete floor. Could still hear Victoria’s screams echoing in her ears.
Her phone buzzed. Again.
Damien had been calling and texting for the past two hours. She’d ignored all of it.
Please talk to me.
Aria, I know you’re upset. Let me explain.
I love you. Please don’t shut me out.
At least tell me you’re safe.
That last one made her pick up the phone. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard before she finally typed: I’m at my mother’s. I’m safe. I just need time.
His response was immediate: How much time?
I don’t know.
I can’t lose you Aria.
The desperation in his text made her chest ache. But every time she thought about going back, she saw the warehouse. Saw the spikes. Saw his cold smile.
I’m not leaving you. I just need to process everything.
I did what I had to do. She wouldn’t stop. She kept coming after you and I....I couldn’t let that continue.
By torturing her? By driving spikes through her hands?
By making sure she understands there are consequences for attacking what’s mine. Yes.
Aria stared at the text, her stomach churning.
That’s not justice, Damien. That’s cruelty.
Call it whatever you want. The result is the same. She’ll never bother you again. She’ll never speak your name. She’ll spend the rest of her life remembering what happens when you cross me.
And that doesn’t bother you? Doesn’t make you question what you’ve become?
There was a long pause before his next text came through.
I became this a long time ago, Aria. My grandfather taught me that mercy is weakness. That protecting what’s yours requires ruthlessness. I am exactly who I was trained to be. The only difference is that now you’ve seen it.
She didn’t know how to respond to that.
Her bedroom door opened, and Mei entered with a cup of tea.
"You look like you’ve seen a ghost," her mother said softly, settling onto the bed beside her.
"Worse. I saw...." Aria’s voice broke. "I saw what Damien is really capable of. What he did to Victoria. Mom, there was so much blood. She was.....she was screaming and he just watched like it meant nothing. Like her pain was just....just noise."
Mei was quiet for a long moment. "Tell me everything."
So Aria did. The warehouse. The spikes. Victoria’s hands pinned to the chair. Damien’s cold smile. Marcus following orders like this was routine. The casual cruelty of it all.
When she finished, Mei was silent for so long that Aria thought she wouldn’t respond.
"Your father was like that too," Mei finally said.
Aria’s head snapped up. "What?"
"Your real father. The one who abandoned us." Mei’s voice was distant, remembering. "He was powerful. Wealthy. And when someone crossed him...." She shook her head. "I only saw it once. What he was capable of. And it terrified me so much that I ran. Took you and disappeared before he could turn that darkness on us."
"Why didn’t you ever tell me?"
"Because you were a child. Because you didn’t need to know that your father was capable of terrible things. Because I wanted you to have a normal life and your step father provided you with that." Mei turned to look at her daughter. "But now you’re a woman in love with a man who has that same darkness. And you need to decide....can you live with it? Can you accept that the man who loves you so tenderly is also capable of such cruelty?"
"I don’t know," Aria whispered. "When I’m with him, when he’s holding me or making love to me or just....just being present....I feel so safe. So loved. So cherished. But today...."
"Today you saw the other side. The side that protects you by destroying your enemies."
"Is that what you call it? Protection? It looked like sadism. Like he enjoyed it."
"Did he?" Mei asked shrewdly. "Did he look like he was enjoying Victoria’s pain? Or did he look like he was doing something necessary? Something cold and calculated rather than passionate?"
Aria thought back, replaying the scene in her mind. Damien’s expression hadn’t been gleeful or sadistic. It had been....empty. Cold. Like he’d shut off his emotions entirely.
"He looked empty," she admitted. "Like he’d turned off his humanity."
"Because he probably had. Men like Damien....men with that kind of power....they can’t afford to feel when they’re being ruthless. Can’t afford to let mercy or compassion interfere with what they believe needs to be done." Mei took her daughter’s hand. "The question isn’t whether he’s capable of darkness. Clearly he is. The question is....does he use that darkness to control you? Or does he use it to protect you?"
"Protect, I think. He’s never....he’s intense and possessive but he’s never hurt me. Never threatened me. Never made me feel unsafe."
"Then he hasn’t crossed the line yet. He’s shown you his darkness, yes. But he’s directed it at your enemy, not at you."
"But what if that changes? What if someday I do something he doesn’t like and suddenly I’m the one in that warehouse?"
"Then you were wrong about him. And you leave immediately." Mei’s voice was firm. "But Aria....do you really think that’s who he is? Do you think the man who creates medical research foundations in his mother’s name, who supports your career even when it takes you away from him, who looks at you like you’re his entire world....do you think that man would hurt you?"
"No," Aria admitted. "I don’t think he would. But I also didn’t think he was capable of what I saw today."
"Because you didn’t want to see it. You fell in love with his tenderness and ignored the ruthlessness that makes that tenderness possible." Mei stood. "Take tonight. Think about what you saw. Decide if you can accept all of him.....the tender lover and the ruthless destroyer. But Aria? Be honest with yourself. Because part of you...." She paused at the door. "Part of you is attracted to that darkness. Aroused by it. And that’s what really scares you."
After her mother left, Aria lay back on her childhood bed and forced herself to examine that truth.
When she’d seen Damien in that warehouse, cold and cruel and absolutely in control....part of her had been horrified.
But another part....a part she didn’t want to acknowledge....had been intensely aroused.
The power. The dominance. The absolute authority he wielded. It had called to something dark inside her. Something that wanted to be possessed by that kind of man. That wanted to be the exception to his cruelty. The one person who got his tenderness while everyone else got his wrath.
And that realization terrified her more than anything he’d done to Victoria.
Because it meant some part of her loved the monster.
Her phone buzzed again.
I’m not going to apologize for protecting you. But I am sorry you had to see it. Sorry I didn’t prepare you better for what I’m capable of.
She stared at the text for a long time before typing: I need tomorrow to think. Then I’ll come home. We need to talk. Really talk.
I’ll wait for you. However long it takes. I love you, Aria.
I love you too. That’s what makes this so hard.
She turned off her phone and closed her eyes, but sleep wouldn’t come.
All she could see was the warehouse. The blood. The spikes.
And Damien’s cold smile.
The monster she loved.
