CHAPTER 155: STARTING AFRESH

Aiden’s POV:

Over the past few days, I’d watched Alexia start to come out of her shell again, slowly shedding the layers of quiet vulnerability she’d wrapped herself in since everything happened. The sharp edges of her personality were coming back, and I didn’t know whether to be relieved or exasperated. Maybe it was the pregnancy. Maybe it was the fact that I stopped being the vengeful jerk I used to be. I wasn’t sure what had triggered it, but seeing her start to act like herself again felt like a breath of fresh air. She was sassy, she was stubborn, and, yeah, she could be downright unbearable at times. But she was my unbearable woman.

And maybe I was less of a jerk than I’d been. Maybe I’d softened a little, but damn, who could blame me? She was carrying my kid. This wasn’t just some fling or a casual relationship anymore—it was our life, now. A whole new Chapter.

One thing was for sure: her pregnancy had sped things up between us. The cravings, especially. I was beginning to wonder if I’d ever sleep again without being woken up at some ungodly hour to fetch her food. The cravings got more and more ridiculous, the foods more bizarre. She once asked for pickles and ice cream. Together. At 3 a.m. And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t jump out of bed and drive to the store to get it. She was eating for two, after all. What could I do?

I made sure there was always something in the fridge that she could microwave when the hunger hit, especially when I was in the middle of something. Late-night meals or early-morning snacks—whatever the time was, I’d make sure she had what she needed. That’s just how it was now. And as much as she drove me nuts sometimes, I’d never complain. I wasn’t about to be that guy. I made my choice, and it was the right one. The right woman.

Tobias had been a little different, too. I’d noticed how his role had shifted from a stiff, no-nonsense butler to something... softer. He had somehow morphed into the role of a grandfather. It was odd at first, watching him dote on Alexia. And honestly? I didn’t mind. In fact, it was kind of comforting. My father wasn’t going anywhere near us—hell, he didn’t even have a business to run anymore. Without my mother’s wealth, his empire had crumbled. His other kids—those bastards he had with whoever—had already blown whatever he had left. Served him right. For everything he’d done to my mother. For everything he’d done to me.

That inheritance had been a fight I’d won. It felt good to be in control again, to know I had secured something that should have been mine all along. But that wasn’t the only fight I’d won. The biggest battle was Alexia—her, our child, this new life we were building. Everything had shifted.

But then there was Alexia’s mother. That was a thorn I couldn’t quite pull out.

I tried talking to Alexia about it, trying to make her understand that her mother wasn’t worth defending. That she didn’t have to be so damn filial to someone who had caused her so much pain. But when I pushed her, when I tried to get her to see that her loyalty to her mother wasn’t worth it, Alexia didn’t listen. She refused to even entertain the idea.

It left me frustrated, but I kept pushing. And that’s when she finally told me the truth. The story that changed everything.

Alexia told me that even though her mother wasn’t perfect—and God, she was far from it—her mother had killed a man for her. I froze. I didn’t know how to react. I didn’t understand at first, but the more she spoke, the more I got it. She explained that her mother had been drunk, stumbling home one night with a man who tried to hurt her. That man... he tried to rape her.

Alexia shifted in her seat, her fingers picking at the fabric of her shirt. "When I was a little girl," she started, "my mother came home one night, drunk out of her mind. She had a man with her. This guy... he tried to hurt me, tried to rape me."

I felt my stomach tighten. I didn’t know where this was going, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear it.

"She killed him," Alexia continued. "With a bottle of beer. She hit him so hard in the head he dropped like a sack of potatoes. My mom was a mess. A bad mother. But I guess that night... she cared. She cared enough to kill a man to protect me."

The words hung in the air, and for a second, I didn’t know if I should feel relieved or disgusted. But I could see the conflict in Alexia’s eyes. She wasn’t defending her mother’s actions. She was acknowledging the complexity of it. Yes, her mother had been awful, but that night? She had protected Alexia. She had killed for her.

Alexia admitted, "She was a bad mother. She didn’t do much right, but she did that." And I didn’t know what to say. What do you say to that? How do you process that kind of information?

But there was more. As if the story wasn’t twisted enough, Alexia went on, her voice quieter now. "It was karma. I was paying for my sins from my past life."

I raised an eyebrow. Karma? I didn’t know how to react to that, either. It was like hearing a bizarre piece of philosophy that made no sense but somehow felt like it was a part of her.

Alexia continued, "I was a bitch in my past life. A princess, living in luxury and never having to struggle, I used my influence to hurt others. And now, I was paying for it—paying for what I did in another life, and that’s why my life had been so miserable in this one."

Her voice trailed off, and I couldn’t help but shake my head. I didn’t know if I believed in karma , but Alexia clearly did. And in some strange way, that explanation gave her a sense of purpose for her mother. Even if it didn’t make sense to me, I saw how it gave Alexia some closure, some peace.

And now, here we were. Past all that. We had moved on from those dark times, from the mess of the past. The broken relationships, the secrets, the pain. All of it. We were looking ahead now, toward a future. A family. I was going to be a father. I didn’t know what that meant yet, or how I was going to do it, but I knew that nothing else mattered. Alexia and our child were my world.

We had our own path now, one that wasn’t tied to our past mistakes or the people who had failed us. This was our fresh start. A clean slate.

I wasn’t sure what the future held, but one thing was for certain: it would be ours. And I would protect it with everything I had. I wasn’t the same man I used to be, and neither was she. Together, we were going to build something new. Something better. For the sake of our child, for the sake of our family.

And maybe—just maybe—I could finally stop worrying about the ghosts of our past.

Because we were finally free.

THE END