CHAPTER FOUR: Shadows in the Press
1300 Words
Aria POV
I should have hated him.
That was the thought circling endlessly inside my head after Damian’s car disappeared into the rainy London streets, leaving me standing outside my apartment building with my pulse completely out of control.
Marry me instead.
Who even says something like that?
A man like Damian De Luca.
Only Damian.
I barely remembered walking upstairs. My mind felt trapped somewhere between heartbreak and shock, replaying every second from tonight over and over again until my chest physically ached.
Luca cheating.
Isabella pregnant.
Damian offering me marriage.
The worst part?
The terrifying part?
A small, dangerous piece of me had not immediately rejected the idea.
That realization alone made me feel sick.
I pushed open the door to my apartment and immediately kicked off my heels, wincing at the pain shooting through my feet. The silence inside the apartment felt unbearable after the chaos of the hotel.
Three years ago, Luca and I had chosen this place together.
Back then, I had believed we were building a future.
Now it just looked like evidence of my stupidity.
I wrapped my arms tighter around myself before moving toward the kitchen for water, but my phone began vibrating violently against the marble counter before I reached it.
One notification.
Then another.
And another.
By the time I picked it up, my screen was flooded with headlines.
DE LUCA MARRIAGE EXPLODES AT CHARITY GALA
BUSINESS HEIR’S SECRET AFFAIR EXPOSED
WHO IS THE MYSTERY WOMAN SEEN LEAVING WITH DAMIAN DE LUCA?
My stomach dropped.
There were already photos.
Photos of Damian leading me through the hotel lobby while cameras flashed around us.
Photos of me crying.
Photos of Luca shouting behind us.
Humiliation burned through me instantly.
I clicked one article with shaking fingers.
“She looked devastated.”
“Damian De Luca appeared unusually protective.”
“Could there be tension between the brothers over the same woman?”
My throat tightened painfully.
I threw the phone onto the couch immediately like it had burned me.
This was exactly what Damian warned me about.
The De Luca family wasn’t just wealthy.
They were public property.
And now my pain belonged to the entire internet.
Tears blurred my vision suddenly.
God.
I had lost everything in a single night.
My marriage.
My dignity.
My family.
A harsh knock echoed through the apartment before I could stop myself from crying completely.
I froze.
Another knock came seconds later.
Stronger this time.
Fear crawled up my spine instantly.
Reporters?
I walked carefully toward the door and checked the security screen.
My breath caught.
Damian.
Of course it was him.
Even standing outside my apartment building at nearly midnight, he looked unreal. Rain clung to his dark hair while droplets slid slowly down the sharp line of his jaw. His black coat fit his broad shoulders perfectly, making him look less like a businessman and more like a man people should fear instinctively.
I opened the door slowly.
“What are you doing here?”
His grey eyes moved across my face carefully.
“You’ve been crying.”
Not hello.
Not may I come in.
Just immediate observation.
I crossed my arms defensively. “That tends to happen after public humiliation.”
Something dark flickered in his expression.
“May I come inside?”
The polite question surprised me enough that I stepped aside automatically.
Damian entered silently, his presence immediately swallowing the apartment whole. Everything about him felt too large for the space the height, the confidence, the dangerous calmness surrounding him.
I suddenly became hyperaware that I was alone with him.
That realization sent nervous heat creeping beneath my skin.
He removed his coat slowly before placing it over the back of a chair. Even something as simple as that looked controlled when Damian did it.
Then his gaze landed on my phone lying abandoned on the couch.
“You looked at the articles.”
It wasn’t a question.
I laughed bitterly. “Kind of hard not to when my entire life is trending online.”
His jaw tightened slightly.
“You shouldn’t read comments.”
“Too late.”
Silence stretched between us.
I hated how emotionally exposed I felt standing in front of him.
Worse—
I hated that Damian saw me at my weakest and still somehow looked at me like I was worth something.
“You warned me,” I admitted quietly.
“Yes.”
“And now what?”
He stepped closer slowly.
“Now you decide how this ends.”
I frowned. “What does that mean?”
“It means Luca will destroy your reputation before he allows himself to look guilty.”
Pain twisted through me instantly because I knew Damian was right.
Luca cared too much about image.
Too much about winning.
“And your solution is marriage?”
“It solves multiple problems.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “You sound like this is a business deal.”
Damian’s eyes darkened slightly.
“It is a business deal.”
The answer irritated me more than it should have.
“Wow. You really are emotionally detached.”
Something shifted in his face then.
Subtle.
But noticeable.
He took another step toward me.
Close enough now that I could smell whiskey and expensive cologne again.
Close enough that my heartbeat became dangerous.
“You think I’m detached?” he asked quietly.
“Aren’t you?”
For a moment, Damian simply stared at me.
And suddenly the atmosphere inside the apartment changed completely.
The tension became thicker.
Sharper.
Like something dangerous was building silently between us.
“You have no idea what I feel when it comes to you, Aria.”
My breath caught instantly.
The words hit too hard.
Too personally.
I stared at him, suddenly unable to think clearly.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Damian looked at me for a long moment before speaking again.
“It means watching my brother hurt you has tested my self-control for years.”
The room went silent.
Years?
My pulse stumbled violently.
Before I could respond, my phone buzzed again.
Damian picked it up before I could stop him.
His expression darkened instantly while reading the screen.
“What?”
He turned the phone toward me.
A new article had just been posted.
LUCA DE LUCA CLAIMS WIFE HAS “EMOTIONAL INSTABILITY”
My vision blurred.
“He’s lying,” I whispered.
Damian’s entire body went still.
Not calm stillness.
Dangerous stillness.
The kind that came before destruction.
“He’s trying to make you look irrational,” Damian said quietly.
I swallowed painfully.
“I loved him.”
The confession slipped out before I could stop it.
For the first time tonight, Damian’s expression softened completely.
Not cold anymore.
Not intimidating.
Just… human.
And somehow that version of him scared me more.
Because I suddenly realized Damian feeling nothing would have been safer than Damian feeling too much.
He stepped closer again until barely any space remained between us.
“Listen to me carefully,” he said softly.
His voice wrapped around me like dark velvet.
“You are not weak.”
“You are not unstable.”
“And you are not going to let Luca De Luca destroy you.”
The intensity in his eyes made my stomach twist unexpectedly.
I should have stepped away.
Instead, I stayed exactly where I was.
Damian’s gaze dropped briefly to my lips before returning to my eyes.
The movement was small.
But devastating.
Every nerve ending inside me suddenly felt awake.
“You keep looking at me like that,” I whispered shakily.
His jaw flexed slightly.
“Like what?”
“Like you’re thinking something dangerous.”
A long silence followed.
Then Damian answered quietly
“I am.”
- Writer
