Ex Husband, You Will Beg Me

CHAPTER 3

Aria’s POV.

I read the line again. And again. And again. The words didn't change. One month before Damien proposed to me.

My legs gave out, and I sank onto the concrete steps outside the gallery. The stone bit cold through my dress, sharp and unforgiving, but I barely felt it. I barely felt anything except the roaring in my ears, like I was underwater and drowning all over again. The night air tasted metallic, or maybe that was just the blood I'd drawn from biting my lip too hard.

He knew. Before he slipped that ring on my finger, before he whispered those three hollow words, before he promised me forever in front of two hundred witnesses, he knew he wanted Vanessa. They had an agreement. A contract to hide their relationship while he was married to me.

While he was married to me!!

The nausea hit fast and hard, rolling through my stomach like a wave of ice water. I leaned forward, pressing my forehead to my knees, breathing through my mouth in short, desperate gasps until the world stopped spinning. The scent of my own perfume.

My marriage was a lie. From the very beginning, it was a calculated, documented, legally binding lie. But why? Why marry me at all?

My phone buzzed against my thigh, the vibration making me flinch. Another text from the unknown number:

“Want to know why? The rest of the file has all the answers.”

My fingers moved before my brain could catch up. The screen blurred through my unshed tears as I typed, 'Please tell me who you are.’

“Someone who knows exactly what Damien Cross is capable of.”

My thumbs hovered over the keyboard. One word. That was all it took. One word, and I'd step into something I couldn't come back from.

I typed, “Show me everything I need to know!”

The reply came in seconds: Smart girl. Check your email. Everything you need is there. Destroy them, Aria. They deserve it.

Then, one final message that made my blood run cold: “That baby she is carrying is not his first. Check page 47.”

I opened the new email with shaking fingers that didn't feel like my own. The attachment was massive: 237 pages of documents. Contracts. Bank statements. Text messages. Photos. A complete dossier of Damien Cross's secret life, laid bare like a dissection.

I started with page 47.

It was a birth certificate. Official. Stamped. Real. A little girl named Lily Cross, born four years ago. Mother: Vanessa Laurent. Father: Damien Cross.

He had a daughter. A whole child that he never mentioned. A four-year-old little girl who existed somewhere in this world, and he'd

looked me in the eyes; those same eyes I'd once thought held honesty, and he told me he wasn't ready for children yet. That we should wait. His father’s company needed his focus. He barely even touched me unless he was drunk, and when he did, he didn't hesitate to shove contraceptives down my throat the next morning. I'd endured that humiliation for years. Years of feeling unwanted, undesirable, and not enough.

All while his daughter learned to walk. To talk. To call him Daddy. The gallery door opened behind me, spilling warm light and brittle laughter onto the steps.

"Aria?" Maya's voice cut through the fog wrapping around my brain. "What are you doing out here? Everyone's asking about…oh my God, are you okay?"

I didn't realise I was crying until she said it. Tears were streaming down my face, hot and fast and angry, and I couldn't seem to stop them. They dripped off my chin, leaving dark spots on my silk dress.

Maya dropped to her knees beside me, her dress pooling on the concrete like spilled wine. "Honey, what happened? Is it Damien? Did he call?"

"He has a daughter." The words came out broken, jagged around the edges. "He has a four-year-old daughter with Vanessa, and he never told me. He looked at me every day for six years and never said a word."

Maya's face went white, all the colour draining like someone had pulled a plug. "What?"

I handed her my phone with trembling hands, let her read the birth certificate, and watched the horror dawn across her features like a slow-motion car crash.

"That f*****g bastard," she whispered, her voice raw with fury. "That absolute f*****g bastard."

"There's more." I pulled up the confidentiality agreement, my vision swimming. "They had a contract. Before he married me, they agreed to hide their relationship. This was planned, Maya. All of it. Every single day was choreographed. And they have another baby on the way.”

She scrolled through the documents, her expression darkening with every swipe, her jaw clenching tighter and tighter. "Jesus Christ. This is… Aria, this is fraud. Possibly even criminal. Why would he marry you if he wanted her?"

"I don't know!!" My voice sounded different. Harder. Like something inside me had crystallised into steel.

Something in my voice made her look up sharply. "What are you planning?"

"I'm planning to stop being quiet." I took my phone back and opened the email again, my hands steadier now. "Someone sent me this. All of it. Evidence of everything Damien's been hiding. And they want to help me take him down."

"Who?"

"I don't know. But they know things, Maya. Things no one should know unless they were close to him. Unless they'd been inside his life."

Maya stood, pulling me up with her, her grip fierce and protective. "Okay. Okay, we need to think about this. You can't just…you need a lawyer. A real one, not the divorce lawyer. Someone who handles this kind of thing."

"I know." I wiped my face, probably smearing my makeup into a disaster, but I didn't care anymore. Some masks were meant to be destroyed. "But first, I need to finish reading this file. I need to know everything."

"Not here." Maya glanced back at the gallery, where shadows moved behind the frosted glass. "Julian is still inside, and about fifty other people who don't need to see you falling apart. Come to my place. I'll tell everyone you weren't feeling well."

"I don’t…"

"No arguments. You're coming with me." She grabbed my hand, firm and warm and real. "Whatever you're planning, you're not doing it alone. Got it?"

I squeezed her hand back, grateful beyond words. "Got it."

Then my phone buzzed again. The anonymous number sent a text message this time, and something about the timing made my skin crawl. As if they were watching from somewhere in the shadows.

You look so pretty even when you cry. There's more news to wipe your tears away forever. Get home. Now!! There is a big reveal!!