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“I’ll talk to her…wakes up. She’ll want to meet him.”
Him?
Dimitri’s voice fades into the background.
41
DION
Ican’t get the image out of my mind.
Two months later, and I can still see Aria lying on the church’s floor, blood pooling around her. It was supposed to be a day of celebration. Instead, my heart was ripped out of my chest. After a year without her, she almost lost her life right in front of me. Twice.
I’ve been staying at Evan’s penthouse since the incident, not wanting to be alone while Aria is in the hospital. There’s something about being in my house that’s driving me fucking crazy. I see her everywhere.
Her laughter echoes through the halls, her scent lingers in the air.
I can’t bear to stay there, not when every corner, every room, holds a piece of her. It’s as if the walls themselves whisper her name, a constant reminder of what I almost lost.
I tried to distract myself, busy my mind with mundane tasks, but nothing worked.
The only respite I found was in the greenhouse, and that only distracted me for a short while.
I had to get the fuck out of there, and Evander was gracious enough to let me stay at his penthouse. Not like I gave him much of a choice, anyway.
The sun is just beginning to rise, and I’m already restless. I’ve barely been able to sleep, just replaying the images in my head repeatedly, thinking what I could’ve done differently to keep Aria safe. I’m going crazy.
I step outside of Saintville and take a deep breath, letting the cool morning air fill my lungs. Then, I set off on my run, keeping a steady pace. I need this.
When we captured one of the attackers and forced him to tell us who orchestrated the attack, he told us it had been Philip—Aria’s own fucking father.
A flip had switched, cold fury washing over me, sharper and more deadly than anything I’d felt before.
The first time I saw her in the hospital, I could hardly breathe.
Every day, I visit her and bring flowers, trying to make her feel safe, like she’s back in her studio, surrounded by things that make her happy. I wanted to bring her a piece of home, to remind her she’s not alone.
I approach a gentle incline and push myself a little harder to distract myself, but it’s pointless.
My chest constricts as a flash of her bleeding on the floor hits me again. When we found out they were going to induce Aria into a coma…
“Dion, we have the best doctors,” Evander says, trying to calm me down, even though his own pain is clear. Angelica was hurt as well in the attack. “Aria’s strong. She will pull through this.”
I clench my fists, breathing heavily. “How can you be so sure, Ev? She almost died. She could still die. I can’t lose her.”
Evan places a hand on my shoulder, his grip firm. “I know, D. I know. But you have to hold it together. For her.”
As I crest the hill, each step feels like a release and a torment at the same time. My breathing is ragged, pulse thudding in my ears. The scenery blurs as I push harder, trying to outrun the worry, the what-ifs, the rage toward Philip and Andrew for ruining her life.
Philip had fled the city like a little bitch the instant he heard trouble was looming and then decided to attack us on Evander’s wedding day, almost killing his daughter in the crossfire. I was already planning on sending him to his grave; that solidified my decision.
We then found out that Peter’s will had also been changed: Angelica was no longer the beneficiary of the Kouvalakis estate. Philip was.
The motherfuckers were planning a full takeover.
At first, when Philip had bolted, we hadn’t really cared about his whereabouts as we didn’t fully know his implication in the entire situation.
We tracked him to an underground lair at the border of Antium where I bombed our way in.
