CHAPTER TWO: His Brother
1092 Words
Aria POV
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
The luxurious hotel suite suddenly felt too small to contain the humiliation burning through my body. My pulse thundered violently inside my ears while Luca stood frozen near the bed and Isabella slowly adjusted the collar of his shirt around her shoulders like she had absolutely no shame left.
But none of that compared to the man standing in the doorway.
Damian De Luca.
Tall.
Broad.
Terrifyingly calm.
The city lights from the hallway spilled across the sharp angles of his face, highlighting the cold grey eyes locked entirely on me. He looked devastating in black—black suit, black tie loosened slightly at the collar, dark hair pushed carelessly back like he had run a hand through it moments earlier.
For years, Damian had always felt distant to me. Untouchable.
Like a storm standing at the edge of every family gathering.
And now he was here.
Watching me fall apart.
Luca recovered first. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Damian ignored him completely.
“You’re crying.”
I blinked, startled.
Only then did I realize tears were sliding silently down my face.
Embarrassment hit me instantly. I turned away sharply, wiping at them before Damian could see more.
Too late.
He noticed everything.
“I’m fine,” I whispered.
The lie sounded pathetic even to me.
Behind me, Isabella sighed dramatically before pouring herself champagne from the bottle sitting near the bed.
“Honestly, this is getting exhausting,” she muttered. “Can we stop acting like somebody died?”
I stared at her in disbelief.
“You slept with my husband.”
She shrugged lightly. “Clearly he wanted me more.”
The cruelty in her voice sliced through my chest.
Luca stepped forward immediately. “Enough, Isabella.”
“Oh please,” she snapped. “Don’t start pretending to care about her now.”
My stomach twisted violently.
The worst part was knowing she was right.
Luca hadn’t cared about me in a very long time.
The room thickened with silence again before Damian finally stepped farther inside.
Every movement he made felt deliberate.
Controlled.
Dangerous.
His attention shifted toward Luca slowly. “The press is downstairs.”
Luca cursed under his breath immediately.
Of course.
That was his concern.
Not me.
Not our marriage.
Not the child growing inside my cousin.
The scandal.
Damian’s expression darkened slightly, as though he was disgusted by the realization too.
“You couldn’t even wait until after the gala?” he asked coldly.
Luca clenched his jaw. “Stay out of my marriage.”
A humorless smile touched Damian’s mouth.
“I think your marriage ended the moment she opened this door.”
Silence crashed through the suite.
My breath caught painfully in my throat.
Because despite everything—
Hearing someone say it out loud still hurt.
Three years.
Three years of trying to be enough for Luca.
Three years of convincing myself distance was temporary.
That late nights meant stress.
That forgotten anniversaries meant pressure.
That lack of affection didn’t mean lack of love.
God.
I felt stupid.
Humiliated.
My vision blurred again.
Then Damian looked at me.
Really looked at me.
And for the first time all night, I saw something dangerous c***k beneath his cold exterior.
Anger.
Not at me.
At them.
“You’re shaking,” he said quietly.
My fingers curled tighter around my clutch bag. “I said I’m fine.”
“You’re not.”
The softness in his voice nearly destroyed me completely.
Luca scoffed loudly behind us. “Don’t act like you suddenly care about her.”
Something shifted in Damian’s face.
Subtle.
But terrifying.
The temperature inside the room seemed to drop instantly.
Slowly, Damian turned toward his brother.
“I’ve always cared how this family behaves in public,” he said evenly.
“Bullshit.”
The brothers stared at each other with years of tension trapped between them.
I had always known their relationship was complicated, but tonight it felt deeper than rivalry. There was resentment there. Competition. Something sharp and unresolved.
“You’re overreacting,” Luca continued impatiently. “This marriage was already dead.”
I looked at him sharply.
Dead?
The word shattered something inside me.
“So that justifies cheating?” I whispered.
Luca exhaled harshly like I was exhausting him. “Aria, stop acting innocent. You knew things between us weren’t working.”
I stared at him.
No apology.
No guilt.
Nothing.
Only irritation that he had been caught.
My chest tightened so painfully I could barely breathe.
Damian noticed immediately.
His jaw flexed once.
Then he stepped closer to me.
The movement was small, but Luca noticed.
So did I.
“You should leave,” Damian said quietly.
I swallowed hard. “I can’t even feel my legs.”
His eyes softened slightly.
“I’ll take you home.”
Luca laughed bitterly. “Absolutely not.”
Damian slowly looked at him.
And suddenly I understood why people feared this man.
Because Damian never raised his voice.
He didn’t need to.
“She is leaving with me,” he said calmly.
Luca stepped forward aggressively. “She’s my wife.”
A heavy silence followed.
Then Damian spoke words that stunned the entire room.
“Not for much longer.”
My breath caught.
Luca’s face darkened instantly. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
But Damian didn’t answer him.
Instead, he removed his suit jacket calmly and held it toward me.
The gesture shocked me more than anything else tonight.
I stared at the expensive black fabric in his outstretched hand.
“You’re cold,” he said simply.
I hadn’t even realized my shoulders were trembling.
Slowly, I took the jacket.
The warmth lingering inside the material wrapped around me instantly, carrying the scent of expensive cologne, whiskey, and something distinctly Damian.
Dangerous.
Masculine.
Addictive.
My pulse betrayed me immediately.
Luca noticed too.
His eyes narrowed sharply.
“You’ve lost your mind,” he muttered toward Damian.
Damian ignored him again.
“Come with me, Aria.”
The way he said my name
Low.
Possessive.
Certain
Sent heat unexpectedly crawling beneath my skin despite the disaster around us.
And that terrified me almost as much as the betrayal itself.
Because right now, standing inside the ruins of my marriage…
The safest person in the room somehow felt like the man I should fear the most.
Damian stepped aside for me silently.
Waiting.
Not forcing.
But somehow still expecting me to follow him.
And the worst part?
I did.
- Writer
