Aria's POV
Pain is a strange thing.
Sometimes it whispers.
Other times, it screams.
Mine?
It didn't whisper. It roared.
It ripped through my abdomen like a betrayal I hadn't seen coming. Like my body was reliving the moment Damien told me to leave…but this time, it was my baby threatening to walk away.
I was halfway through the Portsmere bus terminal, suitcase dragging behind me on one wheel, when the first cramp struck.
Sharp.
Low.
Wrong.
I froze.
People moved around me, blurry and fast, their laughter and luggage wheels echoing like white noise. I clutched the metal railing beside me, breath caught in my throat.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Inhale again.
But the second wave came before I could ground myself…meaner, deeper, like something was clawing from the inside out.
I winced, curling slightly. My fingers tightened around the handle of the railing, knuckles going white.
No. Not now.
Not here.
Not alone.
"Ma'am? You okay?" a voice broke through the blur.
I turned slowly. A station clerk, probably in his twenties, in a cheap navy vest with a worried face. He stepped closer, reaching for me.
"I just… I need a minute." My voice came out hoarse.
But my body had other plans.
Suddenly my knees gave out.
My legs folded under me like wet paper. The suitcase toppled, hitting the floor with a loud thud that echoed through the terminal. My elbow slammed against the cold tile as I fell, my entire weight crashing downward.
The world tilted.
Ceiling lights blurred.
Sound faded.
And then I felt it.
Warmth.
Between my thighs.
I blinked in horror as a slow wetness soaked through the front of my jeans. I gasped, eyes wide. My hands trembled as I reached down…
Blood.
Bright. Red. Blooming like ink across a white page.
Not spotting. Not faint.
Blood like grief.
"No," I choked out, trying to sit up as panic clawed its way into my throat. "No, no…please. Not the baby."
I doubled over, pain slicing clean through me.
"Somebody call an ambulance!" the clerk shouted. "She's bleeding!"
Everything moved in flashes after that.
Boots.
Knees on the ground.
Hands.
A woman's voice asking me how far along I was.
A siren, faint but growing louder.
My body shaking like it wanted to quit on me altogether.
But I wouldn't let it.
I held my stomach as tears streaked my cheeks.
"Hold on, baby," I whispered through clenched teeth. "Please. Hold on."
HOSPITAL – LATER
The antiseptic smell punched through the fog first.
Then beeping.
Machines. Monitors. Tubes.
My lashes fluttered as a nurse removed the oxygen mask from my face.
White ceiling tiles.
A sterile light above me.
I blinked.
"Where…?" My voice cracked.
"You're in the hospital," the nurse said gently. "You passed out at the station. You're safe now."
"Aria?"
That voice.
My head turned slowly.
Elias.
He looked pale. Strained. He was seated beside the hospital bed, elbows resting on his knees, his eyes red-rimmed like he hadn't slept.
"How did you…?"
"You listed me as your emergency contact months ago," he said quietly. "They called me. Said you were losing a lot of blood."
I tried to sit up, but pain bloomed in my abdomen again. I winced, collapsing back against the pillow.
My eyes filled.
"The baby?" I croaked.
He hesitated, eyes dropping.
No.
No.
"Say it." I whispered, throat burning. "Don't you dare protect me."
He stood, walked to my side.
"The doctors stabilized you." he said softly. "You're still pregnant. But it was close."
Relief hit me so hard I started crying for real. Not silent. Not pretty.
Raw, body-shaking sobs.
Elias leaned in and squeezed my hand.
"They said it was a partial placental abruption," he added. "Stress. Exhaustion. Could've been the cold, too. All of it just..
"
"Everything Damien never cared about," I said bitterly interrupting him.
Elias didn't argue.
He knew I wasn't wrong.
A FEW HOURS LATER
They moved me to a quieter room, one with a window and thicker curtains.
Still white sheets.
Still machines.
Still me, curled like a comma, bleeding slower now but feeling no lighter.
Elias hadn't left.
He sat in the corner, his coat over the back of the chair, scrolling his phone quietly.
I turned my face toward him. "I can't stay here."
He looked up. "In the hospital?"
"No. In this life," I whispered. "This city. This orbit. I can't keep dancing on the edge of Damien's world. I've been burned enough."
"You left," he said gently. "you walked away."
"But I'm still bleeding for it."
His expression flickered.
"What do you want to do?" he asked.
I stared at the IV in my arm.
"I want peace," I said. "And I want to give this child a version of me that isn't surviving every minute."
Elias nodded slowly.
"I have a friend." he offered. "Owns a lakeside house two hours from here. Empty most of the year. Quiet. Private."
My breath caught.
"Will he rent it?"
Elias shrugged. "He'll give it to you. I'll make sure of it."
THE NEXT MORNING
Sunlight streamed through the blinds. It was soft and warm…mocking the ice still lodged in my chest.
A nurse came in with discharge papers and a bag of meds.
"You'll need bed rest," she said, flipping through my chart. "Low stress. No travel. No heavy lifting. And absolutely no overexertion."
I gave her a hollow smile.
"Does emotional betrayal count as overexertion?"
She blinked, unsure if I was joking.
I wasn't.
She handed me the chart, but my eyes froze on the name printed at the bottom.
Emergency Contact: Damien Sinclair.
I clenched the paper in my hand.
The ache in my chest bloomed into something sharp.
He still had access.
Still had rights.
Still had a tie to me he didn't deserve.
The nurse started walking out, but I called after her.
"Wait."
She turned. "Yes?"
"I want him off," I said firmly. "Take his name off my file. He's no longer my emergency anything."
She hesitated. "I'll… I'll make the update."
"Good," I said. "Because he lost the right to be near us the second he chose a lie over me."
IN THE CAR – LEAVING MANHATTAN
Elias helped me into his SUV like I was a glass sculpture about to crack.
I winced as I settled in. My muscles ached in places I didn't know existed.
"You sure you're ready?" he asked.
"No." I whispered. "But I'm not staying. That's enough."
The car started.
The skyline shrank behind us.
So did the memories.
The betrayal.
The boardroom whispers.
The silk sheets that felt like handcuffs.
"So what now?" he asked.
I opened my palm and looked at the sonogram photo resting inside.
A tiny blur. A heartbeat. A second chance.
"I build something new," I said quietly. "No more Sinclair. No DOMAAN. No lies. Just me."
He glanced at me.
"You know your enemies won't expect that." he said. "For you to disappear."
I smiled faintly. "Let them underestimate me."
Elias smirked. "They'll think you're weak."
I met his eyes.
"And they'll be wrong."
DAMIEN'S OFFICE, SINCLAIR TOWER
The clouds outside Damien's office window were the color of ash.
He stood with his back to the skyline, his jaw rigid.
His assistant knocked once, then entered carefully.
"She's gone."
He didn't turn. "What?"
"Aria," the assistant said. "She left Manhattan. No forwarding address. No trail. It's like she vanished."
Damien's hands tightened around the edge of his desk.
"And Miranda?" he asked.
The assistant shook her head. "Still missing."
A silence stretched. The kind that pulsed with danger.
"Find them both," Damien said, voice like ice.
"But sir, if Aria doesn't want…"
He turned slowly. His eyes were storms.
"I said…find her."
The assistant nodded and left quickly.
Rain began to patter against the glass, steady and unrelenting.
Damien didn't move.
Didn't breathe.
Didn't speak.
But he remembered.
The blood on white sheets.
And the silence that screamed louder than anything he'd ever said.