Daddy's Secret Sin

Chapter 3 Two Days Later

Chapter 3

Two Days Later

The hangover was gone by the second morning, but the ache between Aria’s legs remained — a deep, lingering reminder of exactly how thoroughly Victor had taken her.

She woke up wet from a dream of his hands, his mouth, the low growl he made when he came inside her. For a few seconds she stayed in bed with her eyes closed, pretending she was still in that hotel suite, his heavy arm draped over her waist, his breath warm against her neck. Then reality slammed back in.

Ryan.

Maya.

The shattered life she had walked away from.

Her phone was still cracked. She had thirty-seven unread messages from Ryan and eleven from Maya. She deleted all of them without opening a single one. Then she blocked both numbers.

Packing took most of the day. She shoved every piece of clothing Ryan had ever bought her into trash bags. The photo frames went into the bin. The key to his apartment she left on the kitchen counter, ready to return.

She needed her things from his place — her laptop charger, the winter coat she had left there, a few books. She refused to ask him to bring them. She would go herself, get in, get out, and never look back.

Ryan’s building still smelled the same when she stepped into the elevator two days after the night with Victor. Same polished floors, same faint scent of expensive cleaner. Her stomach twisted. She had a spare key. She would use it, grab what was hers, and leave the key on the table.

The door to apartment 12B opened quietly.

The living room was empty. Soft afternoon light filtered through the half-drawn curtains. Aria stepped inside and closed the door behind her, heart beating too fast. She moved quickly toward the bedroom.

That was when she heard the low, familiar voice from the kitchen.

“Ryan, the paperwork is on the counter. Sign it before the end of the week.”

Aria froze.

She knew that voice.

The same deep, controlled tone that had ordered her onto her knees two nights ago. The same voice that had growled filthy things against her ear while he f****d her through three orgasms.

Her blood turned to ice.

She turned slowly.

Victor Kane stood in the open kitchen doorway, holding a folder of documents. He wore a dark charcoal suit, no tie, the top button of his white shirt undone. Silver threaded through his dark hair. Those sharp gray eyes locked onto hers the second she faced him.

For one endless second neither of them moved.

Recognition hit him at the exact same moment it hit her.

His expression didn’t change much — only the slight tightening of his jaw and the way his fingers flexed around the folder gave him away. But Aria saw it. The same heat that had burned between them in the hotel room flashed across his face before he locked it down.

“Aria.” Her name in his mouth sounded different in daylight. Rougher. Dangerous.

She couldn’t speak. Her pulse hammered so hard she felt dizzy.

Footsteps came from the hallway. Ryan appeared, still in sweatpants and a T-shirt, looking exhausted and hopeful until he saw her face.

“Aria— you came.” He started toward her. “I’ve been trying to reach you for two days. Please, just listen—”

“Don’t.” Her voice came out sharper than she intended. She kept her eyes on Victor. “I only came for my things.”

Ryan followed her gaze and frowned. “You two know each other?”

Victor’s voice was perfectly calm. “We met.”

Two words. Loaded.

Aria’s throat closed. She forced herself to move, walking past both of them into the bedroom. Her hands shook as she yanked open the closet and started pulling her clothes off hangers. The winter coat. Two dresses. A pair of heels. She shoved everything into the empty tote bag she had brought.

Behind her, Ryan’s voice rose. “Dad, what’s going on? How do you know Aria?”

Dad.

The word landed like a slap.

Victor Kane.

Ryan’s father.

The man who had been inside her two nights ago — the man whose come she had felt sliding down her thighs the next morning — was her ex-boyfriend’s father.

Aria’s vision blurred for a second. She gripped the edge of the dresser until her knuckles went white.

Victor stepped into the bedroom doorway. He didn’t come closer. He simply watched her with those unreadable gray eyes.

“I didn’t know,” he said quietly, so only she could hear. “I swear to you, I had no idea who you were.”

She couldn’t look at him. If she did, she would remember the way he had pinned her wrists above her head and f****d her like he owned her. She would remember begging him for more.

Ryan pushed past his father, confusion and anger mixing on his face. “Someone explain what the hell is happening.”

Aria zipped the tote bag with shaking hands. “Nothing is happening. I’m leaving.”

She tried to walk past them. Ryan caught her arm.

“Aria, please. Maya meant nothing. I made a mistake. I love you—”

She yanked her arm free. “Don’t you dare say that word to me.”

Victor’s voice cut through the tension, low and absolute. “Ryan. Let her go.”

Ryan turned on his father, stunned. “You don’t even know her—”

“I said let her go.”

Something in Victor’s tone made Ryan drop his hand immediately. Aria used the moment to slip past both of them. She dropped the spare key on the kitchen counter without looking back and walked straight to the front door.

Victor’s voice followed her, quiet enough that Ryan wouldn’t catch every word.

“Aria.”

She stopped with her hand on the doorknob, heart slamming against her ribs.

“This changes nothing about the other night,” he said. “But it changes everything else. We need to talk. Privately.”

She finally looked at him over her shoulder. The same man who had made her come so hard she saw stars now stood in her ex’s apartment wearing a thousand-dollar suit, the father of the boy who had broken her heart.

Twenty years older.

Single for a long time.

And now completely, devastatingly forbidden.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” she whispered.

Then she opened the door and walked out, the tote bag heavy on her shoulder and the memory of his body still burned into her skin.

Behind her, she heard Ryan start shouting questions.

Victor did not follow.

But Aria knew — with a certainty that made her stomach flip — that this was far from over.

Some sins refused to stay secret.

And Daddy’s secret sin had just walked back into the light.