Chapter 152
Aria’s POV
Everything was loud.
Too loud.
Blinding white lights overhead. Voices shouting over one another. Metal clanging. The wheels of a stretcher squeaking across tile. I tried to lift my hand, to move my fingers, but even that felt impossible.
The pain was everywhere–stinging through my ribs, my side, my ankle, like someone had lit fire beneath my skin and let it spread unchecked.
“She’s crashing down pressure’s dropping fast!”
I heard it. Registered it. But my eyes refused to open.
Someone was holding my wrist. Fingers pressed against my pulse.
“She’s lost too much blood. Start a second line get the trauma surgeon here now!”
I was dying.
I knew that.
I felt it in the way my breath dragged, in how cold my fingertips were. My chest rose, but each inhale took more effort than the last.
I didn’t want to die.
Not here. Not like this.
Not after everything.
Not when Dominic had come for me. Not when I finally knew I mattered.
I wanted to see him again. Just once more.
I wanted to look him in the eye and say it–say what I hadn’t let myself believe.
The stretcher jolted hard as they pushed me through another set of doors. A bright light flashed in my face, and someone tried talking to me. Asking me to stay awake.
But my body didn’t listen.
Everything slipped sideways.
And I let go.
I woke to silence.
Successfully unlocked!
A slow, heavy kind of silence that made me feel like I was underwater.
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The pain was different now. Duller, like it had been pushed back into the edges of my body by medication or numbness. My mouth was dry. My head was foggy.
I blinked, once. Twice.
White walls.
A thin blanket.
IV lines snaking from my arm to a beeping machine beside me.
I was in a hospital.
Alive. Oh thank you, sweet Jesus.
My heart stuttered as I remembered everything. The compound. Julian. The shooting. The man who helped me. Mikael.
Dominic.
I wanted to ask for him. Wanted to say his name. But my throat was raw, and the words refused to come out.
A nurse walked in a few minutes later. Young, with soft eyes and a quiet presence. She looked surprised when she saw my eyes open.
“You’re awake,” she said, her voice gentle. “Just lie still, okay? You’ve been through a
lot.”
I wanted to ask how long.
I wanted to ask if he was here.
But all I could do was nod faintly.
She checked my vitals, adjusted the IV, and told me I needed to rest. I must’ve drifted off again because when I opened my eyes next, the light outside the window had dimmed.
There was someone sitting at the edge of my bed now.
Head down.
Dark hair.
Hands locked together like he was praying.
Dominic.
The moment I moved, he looked up. And the relief in his face… it broke something in
- me.
“You’re here,” I whispered.
He stood slowly, like he didn’t believe it was real. “You scared the shit out of me.”
I tried to smile. Failed. “You found me.”
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“I always will.” His voice cracked. “I’ll always find you.”
He sat beside me, and his hand found mine. He didn’t say anything else for a long time, just sat there, eyes locked on mine, like the world had narrowed to this room and nothing else mattered.
I was alive.
And he hadn’t let go.
I tried to sit up, but a sharp ache tugged at my side, and before I could even hiss through the pain, his hand was on my shoulder, holding me still.
“Don’t,” Dominic said quietly. “Don’t push yourself.”
His touch was gentle, his voice even gentler. The kind of soft I never thought I’d hear from him. Not after everything.
He leaned down and pressed a kiss to my forehead, lingering just long enough to make my throat tighten.
I smiled, small but real. “Hey.”
His lips twitched, the ghost of a smile. “Hey.”
“How are you?” he asked after a beat, brushing a stray piece of hair off my face.
I exhaled. “Like I got thrown out of a moving car, then hit by another.”
“You don’t look it,” he said, but the worry in his eyes told me otherwise.
I blinked slowly. “What about Mikael?”
His jaw tightened at the name, the softness flickering for just a second. “He’s no longer our problem.”
There was a weight behind those words. A finality. I didn’t ask for details. I didn’t need them.
I turned my head slightly, studying his face. He looked exhausted–bruised, too–but there was something else there. Guilt, maybe. Or something heavier.
“I’m sorry,” I said suddenly, the words spilling out before I could stop them. “About Nico I should’ve told you sooner. I just… I didn’t know how.”
Before I could say more, he leaned in and kissed me.
Not rough. Not demanding. Just warm. Steady. Full of all the things he didn’t have words for.
“Don’t,” he said when he pulled back, his voice thick. “Don’t apologize.”
“I have to-”
“No, Aria.” His hand slid up to cradle my cheek. “I’m at fault here. Me. I gave you the cold shoulder when you needed me. I told you to leave like I wasn’t already drowning
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in the thought of losing you. Even before that… I was cruel. Controlling. I thought I could protect you by pushing you away, but all I did was hurt you.”
My heart twisted.
“I was a monster to you,” he continued, his voice low. “And you still stood in front of a gun for me. You still protected my men. You still bled because of what I built.”
“You were scared,” I whispered. “We both were.”
He looked down, breathing unevenly. “I don’t deserve to have you. Not after everything I did.”
I squeezed his hand. “Maybe. But I’m still here.”
****
Dominc’s Pov
She said it with that quiet strength of hers. The kind I’d seen in glimpses–when she stood up to me, when she protected Julian, when she looked death in the eye and refused to flinch.
She looked like hell–pale, bruised, tubes still running into her veins. But to me, she’d never looked stronger.
I looked up. Slowly. Her eyes met mine, and something settled between us.
The past was ugly. Twisted. Scarred.
But it was ours.
And it wasn’t finished.
I exhaled. “You know… I keep thinking about Mikael. About how many chances I had to kill him before all this and didn’t. I kept thinking there was something worse I could do to him. That dragging it out would make it worth more.”
Aria stayed quiet, her fingers still resting in mine.
“He was never supposed to make it that far. Never supposed to touch you. I should’ve ended him a long time ago.”
Her brows pulled together slightly. “You did what you had to. You came.”
nodded slowly. “Yeah. I did. But it wasn’t just about saving you, Aria.” I paused. “It was personal. Mikael was…” I trailed off for a second. “He was one of the first people. who showed me what it meant to be cruel for fun. Not business. Not for survival either.
Just… because he could.”
She didn’t interrupt.
I took a breath. “He taught Nico that too. Or maybe Nico already had it in him. I don’t know anymore.”
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Aria’s hand tightened on mine at the mention of his name. I saw the pain flicker in her eyes, and I hated that I’d let him get close to her.
“He was like a brother to me,” I admitted, my voice low. “Grew up with him. Trusted him He helped me bury my father. Swore loyalty to me when I took over the family. But I should’ve seen it–he always hated being second.”
“Jealous?” she asked.
I gave a humorless smile. “That’s putting it lightly. Nico always wanted more. The power, the girls, the fear that came with my name. He didn’t want to stand beside me. He wanted to replace me.”
Aria looked at me carefully. “Do you hate him?”
That was harder to answer than I expected.
“I hate what he did,” I said. “I hate that he touched you. That he used you to hurt me. I hate that he lied while calling me brother. But hate?” I swallowed. “I don’t know. I think it’s worse than that. I think I miss him. Or maybe just who I thought he was.”
She didn’t say anything right away.
And then I added, quieter, “But it’s all in the past now.”
A pause.
Then I looked her in the eye.
“But I wouldn’t be a De Luca if I didn’t take my revenge.”
Her breath hitched slightly. Not from fear–I knew she understood me now. Understood that this wasn’t just violence. It was closure.
“And Victoria?” she asked.
“She’s still out there.”
Aria’s gaze hardened. “She won’t stop.”
“No,” I said. “But neither will I.”
We sat in the quiet hum of machines for a while, the weight of everything we’d been through pressing down, but not crushing us.
She broke the silence next.
Her voice was quiet, uncertain–but steady.
“So what are we?”
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