Chapter 17
Turning back, she found Michael-Lucas's beta-staring at her with shock etched across his face, his
dropped briefcase scattered across the hospital floor.
“L... Luna?” he stammered, face draining of color. "Is that really you?"
Escape, it seemed, wouldn't be so simple. Michael recovered quickly, positioning himself between
Aria and the exit with newfound determination.
"Please," he implored, lowering his voice. "You can't just disappear again. You have no idea what Alpha has been through since the fire. He hasn't slept through a single night in a year. Even if you want nothing to do with him now, at least stay until he's out of surgery. He literally just took a car impact for you."
Aria regarded him coolly, her expression betraying nothing of the calculations happening behind it.
"First," she stated with clinical precision, "I am not your Luna. That person died in a fire last year-a fact your Alpha publicly confirmed."
"Second, I'll stay until he's stable, but I'm leaving immediately. My company has a performance
tomorrow."
"Third, I have zero interest in rekindling any connection with your Alpha. Our relationship ended the moment he orchestrated my death."
With each statement, Michael's professional facade cracked further, revealing genuine distress, but he eventually nodded in reluctant agreement to her terms.
They settled into the antiseptic waiting room chairs, silence stretching between them as surgery continued behind closed doors.
the twenty-first time-nearly three
conscious. His unfocused gaze swept the waiting area until it found her,
"Aria!"
16:40
99
Chapter 17
and internal bleeding, Lucas reached for her the moment the medical staff departed,
intensity.
them to make sure you were here when I
as if expecting her to evaporate at
perfectly still within his grasp, her voice devoid of emotion: "Your
clouded his
methodically extracted her hands from his grip, stepping back
to me, Lucas, was when everyone believed I died." Her tone was conversational, as if discussing the weather. "It gave me the freedom to build a life without looking over
the person they trusted most and still remain standing in the same room with them without screaming. I consider it a personal
Lucas's face drained of color as the full implications registered-she
she
upright, nearly tearing
her. "It wasn't-it started
it," she interrupted, glancing at her watch. "I have a performance tomorrow that requires my complete focus. This melodrama wasn't
can't lose you again.
of me." Her
He shook his head frantically, his
16:40
Billionairo ALIN.
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