Chapter 2

"Do it."

Kade Cordova' s voice was devoid of any emotion, a flat, dead command that echoed off the cold concrete walls of the visitation room. It was a sound colder than the steel table separating him from Aria.

The pre-trial detention center was a place stripped of warmth and humanity. The air smelled of disinfectant and despair, a scent that clung to Aria' s clothes and skin since the moment she' d been shoved through its gates. The fluorescent lights hummed overhead, casting a sickly, greenish pallor on everything, making the world look like a developing bruise.

Two guards stood behind her, their presence a heavy, menacing weight. They were large men, with thick necks and hands that looked like they were made for crushing things. Their faces were impassive, but their eyes held a chilling eagerness. They were the executioners, and Kade had just given them their mandate.

Aria sat on a metal stool, her body trembling. The small, windowless room felt like a tomb. She was trapped, a mouse cornered by predators, and the man she had loved for a decade was the one who had led them to her. She was accused of corporate espionage, a crime so absurd, so contrary to her very being, that she could barely comprehend it.

"Kade, please," she whispered, her voice cracking. The words were a fragile plea in the oppressive silence. "It wasn't me. I would never betray you. I would never betray Cordova Tech."

He didn' t even look at her. His gaze was fixed on a point on the wall just above her head, as if she were too insignificant to merit his direct attention.

The guards moved in unison, their heavy boots scuffing against the dirty floor. One grabbed her left arm, the other her right, their grips like iron vices. The sudden, rough contact sent a jolt of pure terror through her.

"No!" she cried, a raw, desperate sound. She tried to wrench her arms free, her feet scrabbling for purchase on the smooth concrete. She kicked and twisted, her body a blur of panicked motion, fighting with the primal instinct of a cornered animal.

But it was useless.

With a single, brutal motion, one of the guards ripped her thin prison-issue shirt open. The sound of tearing fabric was loud and violent in the small room. A wave of cold air hit her exposed skin, followed by a tidal wave of shame and horror.

She screamed, a high, thin sound of pure terror, as she struggled against their hold, trying to cover herself. Her hands were pinned. She was utterly exposed, her dignity stripped away under the cold, indifferent lights and the colder, more hateful gaze of her husband.

She was nothing against their brute strength. They forced her arms back, arching her spine painfully. One guard held her down while the other' s rough hands began to roam her body, a vile, invasive exploration that made her soul recoil. His touch was a brand of filth, marking her, defiling her.

"Kade! I' m your wife!" she shrieked, the words torn from her throat, laced with desperation and disbelief. "How can you do this to me? How can you let them do this?"

For the first time, his eyes met hers. There was no pity, no conflict, only a deeper, more profound disgust. It was the look one might give to a piece of garbage they had just stepped in.

"Your wife?" he repeated, his voice a low, venomous sneer. "That title means nothing when it belongs to a treacherous whore."

His words hit her harder than any physical blow. The hope she had desperately clung to, the foolish belief that his love for Kendall was a temporary madness, that underneath it all he still saw her as human, shattered into a million pieces.

He turned to the guards, his voice dropping to a chilling whisper. "I want her to remember this day for the rest of her miserable life. Make sure she understands the price of betrayal."

"No... no, please, Kade, no!" Aria' s pleas became frantic sobs. She thrashed wildly, a desperate, final surge of resistance.

But they were too strong. She felt like a lamb on a sacrificial altar, her struggles only tightening the ropes that bound her. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

"Kade, look at me!" she begged, her voice raw with tears. She fixed her eyes on him, trying to find a flicker of the man she thought she knew, the boy she had fallen in love with all those years ago. "Please..."

He just stood there, a silent, handsome statue carved from ice. His expensive suit was immaculate, a stark contrast to the filth of the room and the ugliness of the act he was presiding over. He watched as the guards' hands continued their violation, his expression unreadable but his stillness a clear signal of his consent.

A single tear traced a path through the grime on her cheek, a hot line of despair. It was over. Everything was over. The ten years of silent devotion, the secret sketches of his face she kept hidden in her art studio, the foolish dreams of a shared future-all of it had been a lie she told herself.

He had never loved her. He had only ever hated her.

He watched for a moment longer, a cold satisfaction flickering in the depths of his dark eyes. He wanted to see her broken. He wanted to ensure the humiliation was complete.

Then, he spoke, his voice dripping with condescending judgment. "You see, Aria? This is what happens when you overreach. Did you really think you could steal from my company and get away with it?"

He looked down at her, his lips twisting into a cruel smirk. "You disgust me."

His gaze was a physical weight, pressing down on her, crushing what little spirit she had left. In his mind, she was the villain. He remembered the wedding night, the bitter taste of rejection he felt when Kendall told him Aria had thrown him out. He remembered the sting of being forced into this marriage by his grandfather, a constant reminder of his lack of control.

All that resentment, expertly stoked by Kendall' s whispers, had found its target. He saw Aria as the source of all his frustration, the architect of his humiliation.

"I didn' t do it," she sobbed, the words barely audible. "Kade, she' s lying to you. Kendall is lying."

Her heart broke with the realization that he would never believe her. He had already chosen his truth, a convenient fiction where she was the monster and Kendall was the victim. For ten years, she had loved him from afar, her affection a quiet, constant flame. And for all those years, he hadn't even seen her.

Now, he saw her only as a liability to be punished.

He leaned down, his face close to hers, his breath a cold whisper against her skin. He grabbed her chin, his fingers digging into her flesh, forcing her to look at him.

"Don' t you dare speak her name," he hissed. "You' re not worthy."

He questioned her character, her entire existence. "How much did they pay you? Was it worth it, selling out the family that took you in?"

"I' m innocent," she choked out, her body trembling with a mixture of fear and defiance.

Kade let out a short, humorless laugh that sent a shiver down her spine. It was a sound more terrifying than any shout.

"Innocent?" he mocked. "Then confess. Confess what you did, and maybe I' ll tell them to go easy on you."

He let go of her chin and straightened up, his shadow looming over her. He gestured to the guards as if presenting a gift.

"She' s all yours," he said, his voice casual, as if he were discarding a piece of trash. "Enjoy the present from the Cordova family."