Chapter 139 Doubt
Aria stood under the shower longer than she needed to.
The water ran warm over her skin, steady and constant, but it did nothing to quiet her thoughts.
“…make sure Aria doesn’t suspect a thing.”
The words replayed in her head, sharp and deliberate.
Kane’s voice.
She pressed her palm against the tiled wall and closed her eyes.
It could be nothing.
Pack business. Strategy. Something he did not want to burden her with.
But that was not how they worked.
Not anymore.
They had agreed on that.
No secrets.
Not after everything.
Aria exhaled slowly and reached for the handle, turning the water off.
She dried herself off with her towel and dressed quickly, keeping her hands busy and her mind somewhere else. She grabbed her bag from the chair by the window and checked the time.
She had told Maya she would meet her at ten. It was ten past.
She stepped into the hallway just as Kane turned the corner.
He looked… good.
Relaxed.
Too relaxed.
His gaze found her immediately, and that familiar warmth lit his expression. He crossed the space between them without hesitation, leaning in to kiss her.
Aria moved.
Just enough to dodge it.
“I’m late,” she said quickly. “I told Maya I’d meet her.”
Kane stilled. Something moved across his face, small and brief. Then it was gone. He dropped his hand.
“Right,” he said.
She pressed the elevator button.
“I’ll see you later,” she added, already stepping past him.
“Don’t forget about dinner…”
The doors slid shut before he finished.
Maya was already there when the elevator opened, her coat half-buttoned, bag over one shoulder, and phone in hand. She looked up and crossed toward her with a grin but the smile faltered the moment she got close enough to see her face.
“What’s wrong?” Maya asked.
Aria did not hesitate.
“I think Kane is cheating on me.”
Maya stopped walking.
A beat of silence.
“Okay,” she said after a second. “We are not doing this without coffee.”
They found a place two blocks from the building. Small and warm, the kind that smelled like dark roast and didn’t play music too loud. They ordered at the counter and took a corner table, and Maya did not ask a single question until both cups were in front of them.
Then she folded her hands on the table and looked at Aria.
“Start from the beginning.”
Aria told her. The phone call. Kane leaving the room. His voice carrying down the hall, low and careful. The exact words she had heard before he realized she was there.
Maya listened without interrupting.
When Aria finished, Maya was quiet for a moment.
Maya blinked once.
Then twice.
“Aria,” she said carefully, “how did you get from that to cheating?”
Aria frowned.
“You didn’t hear how he said it.”
“I heard how you said it,” Maya replied. “ Aria, that could mean anything. Pack politics. A council situation. Something with the territory. Kane deals with fifty things he doesn’t tell you about, and most of them have nothing to do with you at all.”
“No,” Aria said immediately. “It wasn’t like that.”
Maya lifted a brow.
“It could be,” she insisted. “You’re jumping to conclusions.”
Aria shook her head.
“Then what is he hiding?”
Maya did not answer right away.
“That’s different from cheating,” she said finally.
Aria’s expression tightened.
“Maybe he’s talking to Victoria again.”
Maya sat up straighter and set her cup down. “Kane is not talking to Victoria.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know he wouldn’t do that to you.” Maya kept her voice steady. “And you know that too. And right now you are filling in gaps with the worst possible version of events.”
Aria looked at her hands around her cup. “We agreed,” she said. “No secrets. That included communication with her. He promised me.”
“Aria…”
Maya sighed. She stayed quiet for a moment.
“Now that you mentioned it, what would you do,” she asked carefully, “if the child turns out to be his?”
The words landed between them.
Aria did not answer right away.
They sat with it for a while longer, the coffee going warm in their cups, the noise of the shop moving around them.
Then Maya reached across the table and covered Aria’s hand with hers.
“We are not solving this today,” she said. “And you are going to drive yourself into the ground sitting here thinking about it.”
She stood and pulled Aria up by the hand. “Get your bag. We’re going out.”
Aria blinked. “What?”
“Shopping. Whatever you need to distract yourself. We’re going.”
She did not wait for an answer.
What followed was several hours that Aria had not planned for and did not realize she needed. Maya pulled her through three stores before noon, holding things up against her and returning half of them and buying the other half without asking.
She sat Aria down in a salon chair and told the stylist to do something that would make her feel like herself again. She picked lunch from a place that had no menu, just whatever the kitchen felt like making, and it turned out to be exactly right.
Somewhere in between, Aria stopped thinking about Kane.
Stopped replaying the morning.
Stopped trying to make sense of something she did not have all the pieces for.
She ended the afternoon at a spa near the east end of the complex, quiet and warm and smelling of eucalyptus.
Aria lay on the table while a woman with steady hands worked through the tension in her shoulders, and for the first time since the morning, the voice in her head went quiet.
When it was over, she sat up slowly and looked at Maya across the low table between their chairs.
“I forgot what it felt like to just exist for a few hours,” she said.
Maya smiled. “You needed it.”
Later, as they stepped out, Aria checked the time.
Her expression changed immediately.
“I have dinner with Kane.”
Maya’s brows lifted.
“And?”
“I’m going to be late if I don’t leave now.”
She was already standing.
They made it back to the penthouse with forty minutes to spare. Maya followed her into the bedroom and started pulling things from the wardrobe before Aria had even taken her coat off. She held up two options and Aria chose without thinking, and then Maya sat her at the vanity and started on her hair.
By the time they finished, Aria stood in front of the mirror and barely recognized herself.
The dress was deep and simple. Her hair was swept back at the sides, soft at the ends. The woman in the mirror looked put together in a way that had nothing to do with how the day had started.
Maya stood behind her, arms crossed, satisfied.
“You look spectacular,” she said.
Aria looked at her own reflection.
“Thank you for today,” she said quietly.
Maya waved her off. “Don’t get sentimental.”
A knock at the door.
Aria opened it.
Marcus stood in the hall, dressed for the evening, hands folded in front of him.
“Luna,” he said. “Kane asked me to take you to the location.”
She looked at him for a moment. The same Marcus who had called that morning. The same voice Kane had been speaking to when she stopped in the hallway.
Whatever he knew, it was not on his face.
“All right,” she said.
The drive was short. When the car slowed, Aria glanced through the window and felt her chest tighten before her mind caught up to why.
Pierce Industries.
The building rose glass and steel against the dark sky, every light burning, the entrance lit like something that was meant to be impressive and knew it.
Her heart skipped once, sharp and involuntary.
She remembered this building.
She had stood in its lobby years ago in a borrowed dress, hopeful in a way she never let herself be anymore. She had waited for Kane to cross the room. She had watched him look at her and look away.
She remembered the exact sound of his voice when he told her she was not what he wanted.
She blinked once. Slowly.
Then she straightened in her seat, and when Marcus opened the door and offered his hand, she took it.
Whatever tonight was, she was not that girl anymore.
She let him lead her inside.