Aria’s pov
I sat on the cold floor of the bathroom, my back against the locked door, staring at the shadows on the wall.
What was I?
There was something else—something so dark and so deep that Max was willing to fight the Council and risk his life to keep it hidden from me.
And Noah. Noah, who had looked at me with so much hate and longing at the wedding. He knew. He had always known.
I felt a sudden, sharp wave of nausea. Every memory I had of the two of them, the way they looked at me, the way they fought over me, it felt tainted. Was I ever loved? Or was I just a project? A target?
I didn't sleep. I couldn't. I stayed on that floor until the sky outside turned a bruised, ugly gray.
Morning came with a cruel perfection.
The door to the bedroom opened softly. I had moved back to t
