Free Web NovelChapter 58: Chapter 58
Aria’s POV
Nathan’s words were rich, layered with authority, but they were cruel, almost like a blade pressed to my skin, waiting to draw blood.
His voice echoed in my mind, repeating those words over and over, like a drumbeat I couldn’t escape.
Apologize to Sophia? freewebnovёl.ƈom
A sharp laugh escaped me, cutting through the silence."Never."
I couldn’t stop the bitterness in my voice, the venom that seeped out with every word."I did nothing wrong. Why should I apologize? She’s the one who hit me. Just because you’re Nathan? Does that give you the right to demand I grovel to her, no questions asked?"
I was done. Done with all of them. I wasn’t going to beg a homewrecker. The fault wasn’t mine. It was hers. It was always hers.
I didn’t bother hiding the sarcasm in my voice. I let it drip with every word. I could see it in Nathan’s eyes, the way the storm was building, the way his gaze turned colder with every second at my words.
Sophia, still seething with rage, tugged delicately at Nathan’s sleeve, her voice sweet and pleading."Nathan, you’ve got to back me up here. She tried to hit me first, and now she won’t even apologize. A year in prison, and she’s still so cold and twisted. No wonder she betrayed you back then."
Her words hit their mark. I could feel them sink into Nathan, could see the way they landed with precision. The words were designed to hurt him, to cut through him. She knew exactly what she was doing.
And it worked. His gaze turned frigid, colder than it had been before, as if he had built a wall of ice between us. His eyes pierced through me like icy blades, cutting to the bone. The storm that had been brewing in him was no longer just a flicker, it was a blizzard, freezing everything in its path.
My glare was laser-focused on Sophia, and my fist clenched tighter at my side, my nails biting into my palm. My wolf rumbled, her hunger to attack growing by the second.
I held Sophia with my eyes, pinning her down until she finally looked away, guilt flickering across her face.
"Oh, right. Should I be thanking you two for putting me in prison?" I asked, my voice as cold and sharp as steel.
My question caught Nathan off guard, and for a brief moment, his grip on my wrist loosened. I could feel it, the hesitation in him, like maybe—just maybe—he was second-guessing something.
Seizing the moment, I yanked my arm free from his grasp and turned, storming upstairs with a speed that surprised even me. My heart pounded in my chest, but it wasn’t fear. It was rage. The door slammed behind me with a sharp crack, the sound reverberating through the manor like an explosion.
Moments later, I opened the door again with a soft click. Nathan was now seated on the sofa, his brow furrowed slightly. Sophia and Margaret hovered around him, their voices hushed as they all watched me emerge from my room, dragging my suitcase behind me, its wheels scraping across the floor like the sound of my heart.
I got down the stairs and passed Nathan without a glance. I paused by Margaret, just for a moment, my gaze cold and sharp.
"No one touches my grandmother’s inheritance without my permission," I said, my voice quiet but laced with an authority that cut through the thick air between us.
"I’ll be back." The words hung in the room, heavy and threatening, like a storm waiting to break.
I could see the scared look that registered on the faces of Margaret and Sophia. It gave me a twisted satisfaction to know that my words had the power to make them tremble. With a final glance at them, I reached out and shoved the front door open, the cool night air hitting my face as I stepped outside.
Nathan’s voice, cold and laden with menace reached me.
"Aria, I’ll make you learn to behave."
I tightened my grip on the doorknob, feeling the cold metal bite into my skin. The familiar sting of pain mixed with the rising tide of hatred for the man who had once meant everything to me and who had never once stood by me when I needed him.
I turned slightly to look back at him, my eyes hard.
Nathan, go to hell.
This time, I won’t listen to you. Not ever.
With that, I shut the door behind me.
Once I rounded the corner, out of sight, I couldn’t hold it in anymore. My steps became faster, more desperate, as if the distance between me and that house would somehow lessen the weight pressing on my chest.
Finally, I climbed into the back of a taxi, the door clicking shut behind me.
I pressed a hand to my chest, my heart still racing, but there’s no love left. Only dread. Only the bitter truth that I should’ve never trusted him.
If not for Nathan, my time in prison wouldn’t have carved itself into my bones the way it had. Even now, the scent of cold concrete and rusted bars sometimes flashed through my senses without warning, like phantom memories my wolf refused to let me forget.
The scenery outside the window blurred into streaks of color as the cab sped away. My throat tightened. My eyes burned. I blinked rapidly, refusing to let the tears fall. I should not cry over them, over a family that had cast me aside like a defective pup. They were not worth it.
Still... some part of me wanted to look back, just once.
I twisted slightly in my seat. The Darvin Manor which was once a place that smelled of roses, old wood, and my grandmother’s lavender tea, had shrunk to a distant speck. My chest clenched. Grandma would remain there forever, resting beneath that old cherry tree she loved. The loss hit me harder than any blow.
I had finally stood up to my mother after years of being sidelined, ignored and belittled... but instead of feeling triumphant, I felt hollow and untethered, ike a wolf exiled from her own pack.
The sting of tears returned. I forced them back with a slow inhale, letting my wolf catch the scents around me, the faint leather of the seats, the rain beginning to gather on the wind. Anything to ground myself.
This trip had cost me a day. A day, and the inheritance I should have secured... all thanks to Margaret’s interference. My jaw tightened, a low growl rumbling quietly in my chest before I swallowed it down.
I leaned into the cab seat as it headed straight to the staff dormitory where I had kept the only person that mattered to me in this world, my little pup, Lana.
