Aria’s POV.
The suite felt suffocating, like the air itself was too thick to breathe. The events of the party kept swirling in my mind-Asher’s ridiculous stunt, the sharp crack of my slap across his face, and the way Zander had looked at me afterward. His expression had been unreadable, a mix of emotions I couldn’t quite place.
During the walk back to the suite, he hadn’t said much at all. But his silence spoke volumes, louder than any words he could have uttered. It was heavy, filled with tension and things unspoken.
I paced the room restlessly, my heels abandoned in a corner, my feet aching from the night’s chaos. The emerald dress I had once thought was beautiful now felt suffocating, clinging too tightly to my skin, a physical reminder of everything that had gone wrong. I wanted to rip it off, toss it aside, and pretend this entire night had never happened.
But I couldn’t-not yet. There were things that needed to be said, things I couldn’t keep bottled up any longer.
Zander was sitting by the window, his tall, broad frame outlined against the faint glow of the moonlight. He looked like a storm barely contained, his shoulders rigid and his jaw clenched tight. His hands were curled into fists, resting on his thighs. I could feel the tension radiating from him, a palpable energy that filled the room.
“We need to go back to the castle,” I said, my voice cutting through the heavy silence that had settled between us. The words felt like they carried the weight of everything I’d been holding back.
He turned his head slightly, just enough for his dark, intense eyes to meet mine. “What?” he asked, his tone sharp, as if he hadn’t heard me correctly.
“To the castle,” I repeated, forcing my voice to stay steady even though my chest felt tight. “This trip… it’s not helping anything. It’s not fixing what’s broken. If anything, it’s making everything worse.”
My words hung in the air, vulnerable and raw, but I meant every one of them.
Zander didn’t respond right away. His gaze lingered on me, his expression unreadable, as though he was trying to piece together my thoughts without me saying anything more. After a long moment, he sighed heavily, stood up, and pulled his phone from his pocket.
“I have to take this,” he said abruptly, his tone brusque as his eyes flicked to the screen. “It’s important. I’ll be back later.”
Before I could say a single word, he was already moving toward the door. The sound of it closing behind him echoed in the suite, leaving me alone with the silence once again.
I sank onto the couch, trying to make sense of everything, but the storm of emotions inside me wouldn’t settle. My heart was racing, my thoughts spiraling in a dozen directions at once.
I barely had a moment to collect myself when my phone buzzed, pulling me out of my thoughts. Frowning, I picked it up, surprised to see a message from an unknown number. My stomach twisted as I read the words on the screen:
**”Zander is with Lyra in bed in suite 202. If you want to see for yourself, you’d better hurry.”**
My heart dropped, a cold dread washing over me as my hands began to shake. I read and reread the message, desperately hoping I’d misunderstood or that it was some kind of cruel prank. No. It couldn’t be true. Zander wouldn’t do something like that. He couldn’t.
Could he?
The memory of Lyra from earlier in the evening came rushing back. The way she had spoken to him, her voice dripping with confidence and manipulation. She knew exactly how to play her cards.
And maybe tonight, she’d decided to make her move. Had she been waiting for this moment all along? Had she finally succeeded in pulling him away?
I told myself not to believe it. I told myself to delete the message, to sit here and wait for Zander to come back and explain everything. But no matter how hard I tried, the doubt wouldn’t go away. It was like a dark, insidious whisper in the back of my mind, growing louder with every passing second.
Before I even realized what I was doing, I was on my feet and out the door. My bare feet made soft, quick sounds against the cold marble floors as I hurried down the hallway toward suite 202. My heart pounded in my chest, each beat louder than the last, as I moved closer and closer to what I feared might be the truth.