Aria’s POV.
I stormed back to my room, my vision blurred with tears I couldn’t hold back. My chest felt like it was caving in, the weight of betrayal pressing down on me so hard I could barely breathe. Zander. The man who was supposed to be my husband, my mate. The man I’d tried-despite everything-to trust. The man who had just destroyed me.
I slammed the door behind me and leaned against it, letting the sobs I’d been holding in finally escape. Hot tears streamed down my cheeks as I slid to the floor, clutching my knees to my chest. The image of them together was burned into my mind-Sarah, smug and satisfied, lying in *my* bed. Zander, silent and guilty, saying nothing as I stood there shattered in the doorway.
I cried for a minute, maybe two, but then something inside me shifted. This wasn’t me. I wasn’t the weak, broken woman they probably expected me to be. I wiped my face with the back of my hand, forcing myself to take deep, steady breaths. I could cry later. Right now, I needed to remind Sarah exactly who she was messing with.
Standing up, I walked to my dressing table and grabbed my purse, my hands trembling with both anger and adrenaline. I yanked it open, pulling out a wad of cash without even counting it. It didn’t matter how much it was. This wasn’t about money. This was about humiliation.
I stormed back down the hallway, my steps loud and purposeful. My rage burned away any hesitation or doubt I might have had. As I reached Zander’s door, I didn’t bother knocking. I shoved it open, the force of it causing the door to bang against the wall.
Sarah was still in bed, the sheet pulled lazily over her chest as she looked at me with wide eyes, startled but quickly recovering. Her lips curled into a smirk, as if she thought she’d won. Zander was sitting on the edge of the bed, his head in his hands, looking as though the weight of the world had just crushed him. He didn’t even look up when I entered.
I strode across the room, ignoring him entirely, my focus locked on Sarah. Her smirk faltered as I stopped in front of her, my hand tightening around the wad of cash. Without a word, I threw it at her face. The bills scattered across the bed and onto the floor, and her shocked expression was worth every second of my rage.
“This,” I said, my voice sharp and venomous, “is for entertaining my mate. You earned it, didn’t you? Isn’t this what you wanted? To play the whore in *my* marriage?”
Sarah’s face turned red, her mouth opening and closing as if she didn’t know what to say. For once, she was speechless.
I didn’t stop. I leaned closer, my voice dropping to a low, dangerous tone. “You’re pathetic, Sarah. You want to know why Zander married me? Because I’m his equal. Because no matter how much he might hate me, he knows no one else can stand beside him the way I can. And you? You’re nothing. A desperate little girl playing dress-up, hoping he’ll see you as more than a cheap fling.”
“Aria-” Sarah started, her voice trembling with outrage, but I cut her off.
“Get out,” I snapped, my tone like ice. “Get out of this room. Get out of this house. And don’t you *ever* come near me or my mate again.”
She looked at Zander then, as if expecting him to defend her, to say something, to do *anything*. But he didn’t move. He didn’t speak. He didn’t even look at her. He just sat there, his head still in his hands, his shoulders hunched like he was carrying a burden too heavy to bear.
That silence was all I needed.
Sarah’s face twisted in humiliation and fury, but she didn’t argue. She threw the sheet off and scrambled out of bed, grabbing her clothes from the floor and clutching them to her chest as she stalked toward the door. She paused just long enough to glare at me, her voice trembling with spite as she said, “You’re a fool if you think this is over.”
I crossed my arms, staring her down with a cold, unflinching glare. “The only fool here is you, Sarah. Now get. Out.”
She stormed past me, slamming the door so hard it rattled the walls.
The room was silent after that, the only sound the faint rustling of the bills scattered across the floor. I turned to Zander then, my heart still pounding with a mix of anger and pain. He finally looked up at me, and the moment our eyes met, I saw it-the regret, the shame, the guilt.
“Aria,” he started, his voice hoarse, but I held up a hand to stop him.
“Don’t,” I said, my voice breaking but still filled with steel. “You don’t get to explain this to me. You don’t get to apologize and make it all go away. You made your choice, Zander. You betrayed me.”
He flinched at my words, his eyes dropping to the floor.
“You cheated on me,” I continued, my voice trembling now, the hurt bleeding through despite my best efforts to hold it back. “You cheated on me the way Asher and Lyra cheated on you. Do you remember how that felt? Do you remember how much it broke you when they betrayed you? Well, now I know exactly how that feels. You’ve made me just like you.”
His head snapped up at that, his expression twisted with pain, but I didn’t care. He deserved to feel every ounce of the hurt he’d caused me.
“I will never forgive you,” I said, my voice cold and final. “Never.”
Without waiting for a response, I turned and walked out, slamming the door behind me. As I made my way back to my room, the tears started again, but this time, they didn’t feel like weakness. They felt like armor.
Let him feel the weight of what he’d done. Let him sit in that room, surrounded by the wreckage of his choices. I wasn’t going to be broken by him. Not now. Not ever.