Chapter 4

I stared at Hunter. I couldn't believe those words came out of his mouth.

After he pulled me out, I was a ghost for a long time. Barely there.

He knew. He knew watching my parents burn was a wound I would never get past.

He didn't try to talk me through it. He just came with me to the cemetery. Every day.

The rumors about my parents got uglier.

They deserved it, some said. They brought it on themselves.

I nearly broke. If people like my parents could be called "reaping what they sowed," what was left to believe in?

Hunter stood beside me and said,

"I met your father. He was a good man. A good businessman. Your mother was a researcher worth admiring."

I believed him.

Now he stood across from me. Telling me to lie about my own father.

To say with my own mouth that his incompetence caused everything. All the suffering. So Quinn could have a way out.

I came back to myself. I didn't even have disappointment left.

"What do I get out of this?"

He wasn't surprised I'd agree. In his eyes, I always gave. He always took.

"As compensation." He laid out his terms. "I'll forget you ever said we were over. You're still my girlfriend."

He paused. Like he felt the offer wasn't enough. "Or my fiancée."

He was waiting for my reaction.

"Fiancée." The word I'd wanted for so long.

I wanted him to claim me publicly. To tell everyone I was his.

I let out a quiet laugh. Cold.

"And if I say no?"

His eyes flickered. His voice stayed even. No threat in it. Just a flat statement.

"Then I'll put a fake Aria in front of the cameras. If I say she's the real one, she's the real one."

I closed my eyes. In the dark, those years flipped past like a carousel.

Nineteen years old. Beaten in a nightclub. Refusing to bend. Him descending like a god to take me away.

The ten years after. His quiet back as he stood with me at the cemetery.

"Hunter." I opened my eyes. "I will find out the truth about that letter. If the Kensingtons did those things, I won't help cover it up. If they didn't, I won't frame anyone either."

"So your request." I looked at him. One word at a time.

"No."

I wasn't surprised to find Quinn at my apartment door. Smug. Head high.

Five years ago, I'd already learned how well she could act. Faking vulnerability for Hunter was second nature to her.

She'd just come back then. The whole Upper East Side was buzzing. Miss Quinn was back. Probably here to pick up where she left off with Hunter.

No one cared about me. The actual girlfriend.

But I wasn't worried. I was so sure. What Hunter and I had—it could withstand a woman who ran out on her own wedding five years ago.

Then came the dinner at the Kensington estate. She grabbed my hand. Said her earring was loose. Asked me to look. I leaned in. She tumbled down the spiral staircase.

Never danced ballet again.

When she woke up, she said, "Miss Aria, why did you push me?"

I couldn't defend myself. There were no words.

Everyone's accusing eyes buried me. I grabbed Hunter's jacket like a lifeline.

He said, "Apologize to Quinn."

Now she stood in front of me. "Aria. Let's make a deal. Record a statement clearing my family. I'll give you eighty million. How about it?"

The word "deal" rolled off her tongue like charity I should be grateful for.

I looked at her.

"Five years ago, they shoved me onto the freezing stone at the estate gates. Left me there like trash for three days. Let everyone who walked past laugh. Forced me to confess."

"I didn't."

"Five years later. You think eighty million buys my parents' names?"

I walked past her.

"Don't regret this," she said.