Chapter 3

Aria was a cornered animal, the scent of her fear thick in the air, exciting the predators that circled her.

"Kade, no! Don' t leave me here!" she screamed, her voice raw with terror. "Kade!"

She curled into herself, a pathetic attempt to shield her body from their leering gazes. Even one of the guards, the younger one, seemed to flinch, a flicker of unease in his eyes before he hardened his expression again. He couldn' t bear to look at the scene unfolding.

But Kade was unmoved. He stood by the door, a silhouette of absolute power against the dim light of the hallway.

"You brought this on yourself, Aria," he said, his voice a cold echo from the doorway. "Perhaps you should have thought about the consequences before you decided to play spy."

With that, he turned and walked away.

The heavy steel door slammed shut behind him, the sound of the lock clicking into place a final, deafening sentence. It was the sound of her last hope extinguishing, leaving her in absolute darkness.

With Kade gone, the guards' pretense of restraint evaporated. Their grins were predatory, their eyes filled with a brutish hunger.

"Well, well," the older one grunted, his voice a gravelly rumble. "Looks like it' s just us, pretty thing. The boss wants us to teach you a lesson. We' re gonna be very good teachers."

Aria scrambled backward on the filthy floor, her bare feet slipping. She pushed herself away from them, her mind screaming. She crawled towards the door, her fingernails scraping against the cold, unyielding steel. She would rather die than let these men touch her again.

"I' d rather die!" she sobbed, her body wracked with a pain that was deeper than physical. It was a soul-deep agony, a confirmation of her complete and utter worthlessness in the eyes of the man she loved.

One of the guards laughed, a harsh, ugly sound. He grabbed her by the ankle, his grip merciless, and dragged her back to the center of the room.

The pain from her ankle was a sharp, biting fire, but it was nothing compared to the fire of humiliation and despair that consumed her. She was a broken doll, tossed about by cruel hands.

In that moment of absolute degradation, something inside her snapped. The fear gave way to a hollow, chilling calm. If this was her end, she would not give them the satisfaction of her tears. She would not beg.

Suddenly, just as the guard' s hand reached for the waistband of her pants, the lock on the door rattled again.

The door swung open with a loud creak, and Kade stood there once more. He was a looming, terrifying monolith, his presence filling the small space, sucking all the air from her lungs.

Aria' s breath hitched. She looked at him, her eyes wide with a desperate, pathetic flicker of hope. He had come back. Maybe he had a heart after all.

"I confess," she whispered, the words tumbling out of her in a frantic rush. The fight had drained from her. "I did it. It was all me. Just... please, make them stop. Please, Kade."

She reached for him, her hand trembling, trying to grab the hem of his perfectly tailored pants as if he were a god who could grant her salvation.

The sight of her, so utterly broken and defeated, seemed to affect him. A flicker of something unreadable passed through his eyes. But before he could react, the overwhelming stress, the pain, and the terror finally took their toll. Her vision swam, the room tilted, and the world went black. Aria collapsed onto the cold concrete floor, unconscious.

When she awoke, the sterile smell of antiseptic had replaced the stench of the detention center. She was in a private hospital room, the sheets clean and white. Through the haze of her returning consciousness, she heard voices from outside the partially open door.

"Kade, have you lost your mind?!" It was Harden Koch, his voice a low, furious roar. "She is a Cordova! Your wife! How dare you subject her to such... degradation! The daughter of the man who built our fortune!"

"She' s a traitor who sold company secrets," Kade' s voice was clipped and cold, utterly defiant.

"And you have absolute proof? Or did you just take the word of that social-climbing tramp, Kendall?" Harden' s voice was laced with contempt. "I warned you about her. I warned you this marriage was a bond of honor. If you bring shame upon the Cordova name by mistreating Aria, I will strip you of everything. You will be left with nothing, do you understand me?"

The sound of a heavy cane striking the floor punctuated his threat. Then, footsteps receded down the hall, followed by the angry slam of a door.

A moment later, Kade entered her room. He saw that her eyes were open.

His face was a mask of cold fury. "Don' t think for a second that this changes anything," he snarled, his voice low and dangerous. "My grandfather can protect you for now, but he won' t be around forever. The next time you step out of line, I will make what happened today look like a mercy."

Aria' s heart, which had just started to piece itself back together, shattered again. The pain was a physical thing, a tight band around her chest that made it hard to breathe.

"Why?" she whispered, the single word filled with the weight of her suffering. "Why won' t you believe me, Kade? I have loved you for ten years. For ten years, my world has revolved around you. How could I possibly betray you?"

The mention of their shared history, of the decade she had spent pining for him, only seemed to irritate him more. His jaw tightened.

"Don' t talk about the past," he snapped. "It' s meaningless."

She was tired of this. So incredibly tired. The constant accusations, the endless cycle of his hatred. She was innocent, and she would not let him forget it.

"It' s not meaningless to me," she said, her voice gaining a sliver of strength. "And I didn' t do it. I am innocent."

Kade' s lips twisted into a cruel smile. "You know, Aria, I' ve often wondered why I could never bring myself to be near you. Even before all this, the very idea of you touching me was... repulsive."

He leaned closer, his voice a venomous whisper. "It's because you reek of lies. You are the most calculating, disingenuous woman I have ever met. And I am sick of the sight of you."