Aria froze.Her breath caught in her throat as she looked between the man standing inches from her... and Damien, whose expression had turned lethal.
"Leon?" she whispered.The name tasted like ash and old heartbreak.Leon Blackwood—Damien's half-brother. The man she had once loved. The man she thought had died in a car crash two years ago.
Leon stepped closer, but his voice was soft, rushed, urgent. "Aria, you have to listen to me—"
"Step away from her." Damien's voice cut through the humid air like a blade. "Now."
"Still pretending you're the savior of the family?" Leon sneered. "You haven't changed."
"You're the one who faked your death," Damien snapped. "You don't get to show up now and play the hero."
Aria's head spun. The scent of damp earth and roses clung to her senses. Her hands trembled. "Someone tell me what's going on."
Damien turned to her, jaw clenched. "He was dead, Aria. Dead and buried. Or so we thought."
"I had to disappear," Leon said, stepping forward. "I knew too much. About the company. About the family. About your marriage."
Damien's eyes darkened. "That's enough."
Leon ignored him. He looked at Aria, and his voice softened. "He didn't marry you out of love, Aria. He married you to protect himself. From me. From the board. From the secrets buried under Blackwood Enterprises."
Aria's voice was barely a whisper. "What secrets?"
Leon opened his mouth—but before he could speak, Damien was there. In front of him. Grabbing him by the collar.
"This is my wife," he said, low and dangerous. "And you are nothing but a ghost."
Leon shoved him back. "Funny. She didn't look like your wife when she kissed me—before your little contract."
A breath. A pause.And then—
Damien punched him.
Leon hit the greenhouse wall, glass cracking behind him.
"Enough!" Aria shouted, stepping between them. "What is this? Some twisted sibling rivalry? I'm not a pawn between you two!"
Silence fell like thunder.
Damien's voice was ragged, low. "You really kissed him?"
"I didn't know he was alive!" she fired back. "I didn't even know he existed until now!"
Damien's jaw flexed. "He left you. I married you."
Aria's chest ached. "You bought me."
And for a moment, Damien's mask cracked. Just enough for her to see it: pain. Regret. And something else.Something dangerously close to real emotion.
But the moment passed.
"You'll stay away from him," he said. "For your safety."
Leon's laugh was bitter. "Or for your pride?"
Damien didn't answer.
He just turned to Aria. "We're leaving."
She didn't move.
"Now."
And though every bone in her body told her to run from both of them—she followed Damien into the night, heart pounding, questions screaming, and a single thought twisting in her soul:
What if the devil she married is better than the angel she once loved?