Chapter 57: CHAPTER 57

Chapter 57

Wrong House

Aria Hartwell.

My eyesight seemed blurry when I woke up on top of soft sheets. The first thing I noticed, always noticed, was the fact that this was not my house. Not my ceilings nor the light fixtures. The pillows smelled different than mine, even the blankets were heavier and more cozier.

I sat up to find myself in a bedroom I didn't recognize. My shoes were on the floor beside me, placed neatly, which meant someone had taken them off. My jacket was folded over the chair in the corner. My phone was not in my pocket. I looked around the room and I knew. Of course I knew.

I had been to this house exactly twice... After Viktor's men surrounded me, and after my apartment's fire. This was Cassian's house.

"You're awake." I heard a sharp voice beside me which made me jolt in shock. That wasn't Cassian.

I turned to find Laila standing in the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest and an expression I could not immediately place. She didn't look furious to see me like I'd expected, neither did she look hurt about my presence... And she didn't even look like she worried about me either. She had a neutral expression on her face.

"How did I get here?" I asked as I stretched myself across the bed and shifted my weight until I was at the edge of the bed. I needed to leave before things got more awkward.

"How do you think you got here, Aria?" Her voice still sounded calm, but I could hear the hint of pain in them.

I closed my eyes briefly as memories of the past few hours flooded my brain, and I almost cringed remembering how vulnerable I had been in front of him. "Where is he?"

"He's out." She pursed her lips. "He got a work call an hour ago, and I thought you'd know something about it since you guys work in the same company."

I swung my legs off the bed and shook my head. "We do, but we have different investors we target. I need my phone."

"It's on the nightstand."

I looked and there it was. Of course it was... he would have taken it out of my pocket so it didn't fall while he carried me, because that was exactly the kind of thing he did, the small deliberate details that I had spent years telling myself didn't mean anything.

"Aria." Laila's voice was flat. "What exactly is your deal with my husband?"

I stood up, picked up my phone, while trying to act unaffected with the way she was badgering me with questions, because in reality... I didn't know what I was doing with Cassian. "I work with him."

"Everyone works with him. Not everyone ends up asleep in his guest room."

"That wasn't..." I stopped myself from trying to argue. She was right. She was completely right and she was looking at me with the expression of a woman who deserved a better answer than the one I was capable of giving. "I'm going to go," I said. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be here."

"No," she nodded. "You shouldn't."

She called a cab from her own phone and gave me the confirmation number without looking at me again, and I picked up my shoes and my jacket and I walked out of Cassian's house and into the elevator and stood there looking at my reflection in the steel doors.

I was in the cab for four minutes before I realised my phone had no charge. I'd grabbed it in the confusion and hadn't checked to carry my charger.

"I need to go back," I said to the driver. "I forgot something."

I was glad that he didn't look annoyed, instead he grunted and turned the car around. The elevator opened on Cassian's floor and I could hear them before the doors fully parted. Cassian was already back...

"—not what I agreed to—"

"—you knew what this was, Laila—"

"I knew what you told me it was. That's different." Her voice was shaking slightly. "Do you even see me? Do I exist in this apartment at all or am I just..."

"You exist—"

"Then act like it!" A long silence followed. "She is in love with you, the same way you are. Whether you want to see that or not, she is, and you carried her through your front door and took off her shoes and you didn't even notice I was standing right there."

I stood rooted in the hallway and didn't move.

"Don't." Her voice had gone quiet. "Don't say my name like that. Like I'm being unreasonable. I cooked dinner, Cassian. I made dinner and I waited and you came home carrying her." I heard her voice crack, and it was the first time I ever heard Laila speak in an emotional tone.

I stepped into the doorway of the living room, and the both turned to look at me. The culprit behind their fight as a married couple. The three of us stood in a triangle and nobody spoke.

"I'm sorry," I said. It came out very small. "I'm so sorry. I just... my phone died. I needed the charger."

The cable was on the nightstand of the bedroom where my phone was. Neither of them moved when I walked across the room towards the elevator.

"I'm sorry," I said again, to both of them, to the room, to whatever this was. "This was my fault."

I left before either of them could respond.

In the elevator going down, I pressed my back against the wall and looked at the ceiling and thought about Laila's voice. I cooked dinner. I waited. I thought about the green dress she had been wearing, the expensive and flimsy kind, the kind you put on when you wanted someone to notice it. Preferably your husband.

I had a lot of feelings about Cassian Kent, but I had never once made him dinner...