CHAPTER 403: ALONE

KAEL

She walked away.

Again.

And I just... stood there.

My chest felt like it was caving in on itself, ribs folding inward, lungs refusing to fill.

Every breath scraped against something sharp lodged somewhere between my throat and my heart.

I couldn’t move.

Couldn’t think.

The world was spinning around me, faces turning, whispers multiplying, the weight of whispers pressing into my skin like needles. But none of it registered. Not really.

All I saw was her.

Aria.

Walking away from me.

The emerald dress that had made my heart stop just hours ago now disappeared through the crowd, swallowed by bodies and distance and the widening chasm between us.

I wanted to follow her.

God, I wanted to run after her, grab her, force her to listen, to believe me, to see that this wasn’t what it looked like, that Sarah had orchestrated this, that I’d been set up, that I would never, never choose to hurt her like this.

But my legs wouldn’t move.

My voice had died somewhere in my throat.

Because what could I even say?

How could I make her believe me when I could barely piece together the truth myself?

The panic hit me then, sudden, violent, suffocating. My chest tightened until I thought my ribs might crack. My pulse hammered so hard I could feel it in my temples, my wrists, the base of my throat.

The air tasted wrong. Too thick. Too hot.

I couldn’t breathe.

I tried to pull in air but it wouldn’t come. My vision blurred at the edges, the outside lights fracturing into shards of white that burned my eyes.

Was this what dying felt like?

Because I couldn’t tell anymore.

My mind was everywhere and nowhere anger, guilt, confusion, disbelief all crashing into each other like a car pileup I couldn’t stop. I kept seeing Sarah’s face on that podium, calm and composed, dropping that bomb like it was nothing. I kept hearing Aria’s voice breaking as she asked me to tell her it wasn’t true.

And I couldn’t..

Because somewhere in the haze of that night, something had happened. I didn’t remember all of it, didn’t want to, but Sarah had been there. And now she was pregnant.

And she was standing in front of everyone claiming it was mine.

And Aria....

Aria looked at me like I was a stranger.

Like I’d become the monster she’d always feared I was.

My hands clenched into fists at my sides, nails digging into my palms hard enough to hurt. The pain was grounding. Real. But it didn’t stop the spiral.

Maybe she was right.

Maybe I didn’t deserve her.

Maybe the universe had been trying to tell me all along that someone like me, someone built from violence and control and cold calculation wasn’t made for something as pure as what we had.

Had.

Past tense.

Because it was gone now, wasn’t it?

I’d destroyed it.

Or Sarah had.

Or both of us together.

It didn’t matter anymore.

The result was the same.

"Aria!"

Ash’s voice cut through the noise, sharp and panicked. I saw her chasing after Aria’s retreating form.

And then I felt it, a presence beside me.

I turned my head slowly, every movement feeling like I was dragging myself through concrete.

Sylas.

He stood a few feet away, hands in his pockets, his expression unreadable at first. But then his jaw tightened. His eyes, usually warm, teasing, had gone cold.

He stared at me for a long moment..

And then he spoke.

"I’ve always been jealous of you."

His voice was quiet. Steady. But there was an edge to it I’d never heard before.

I didn’t respond. Couldn’t.

"I thought the worst of you," he continued, his gaze locked on mine. "Thought you were some cold, arrogant bastard who didn’t deserve her. Who’d hurt her eventually because that’s what men like you do."

My throat burned.

"But even this..." He shook his head slowly, something like disgust flickering across his face. "This is beyond what I thought you were capable of."

The words landed like punches.

Not because they were cruel.

But because they were true.

Or at least, they felt true.

I opened my mouth to say something, anything but nothing came out. My voice had abandoned me completely.

What could I even say to him?

That I didn’t remember?

That Sarah had drugged me?

That I was a victim too?

It sounded pathetic even in my own head.

And maybe... maybe I didn’t deserve to defend myself.

Maybe this was exactly what I’d earned.

Sylas held my gaze for another beat, then looked away, his jaw working like he was biting back more words. Words he probably wanted to scream at me but couldn’t because even he could see I was already falling apart.

He didn’t wait for a response.

Just turned and walked after Ash, leaving me standing there alone.

Alone.

The word echoed in my skull, hollow and final.

I looked around behind me, at the faces still staring, at the whispers still spreading, at the wreckage Sarah had left behind with a single sentence.

And I couldn’t do it anymore.

Couldn’t stand here.

Couldn’t breathe here.

Couldn’t exist here.

So I turned.

Away from Sylas.

Away from the crowd.

Away from the ruins of everything I’d tried to build with Aria.

And I walked.

Each step felt heavier than the last, like my body was trying to anchor itself to the ground, to keep me from moving forward.

But I forced myself to keep going.

Out of the building.

Through the lobby.

Into the cold night air that hit my face like a slap.

I didn’t know where I was going.

Didn’t care.

I just needed to be anywhere but here.

My car was parked somewhere in the lot, but I couldn’t remember where. My me

I didn’t feel my own hands when I reached for the car keys.

Didn’t even notice Niko until he was right there, standing beside the open door, his eyes filled with the kind of concern I didn’t want to see.

For a moment, neither of us spoke.

He held out the keys, his lips parting like he wanted to say something—maybe Are you okay?, maybe Don’t drive like this—but in the end, he just pressed the metal into my palm and let the silence swallow it.

I nodded once, a movement that felt detached, robotic. Then I slid into the driver’s seat, shut the door, and the world outside disappeared.

I didn’t remember starting the engine, or pulling out of the lot. The road unfurled in front of me in muted streaks of asphalt and light, but it felt like watching someone else drive—a scene I was only half present for.

The city passed in fragments: the red of a stoplight reflected on wet pavement, the blur of strangers crossing the street, the hollow echo of my own heartbeat in the confines of the car.

But all I could see was her face.

The way she looked at me.

The way she pulled away from my touch like it burned.

The way she walked away without looking back.

And I realized, with a sickening clarity that made my stomach twist,

I was losing her. Again.

No.

I’d already lost her.

This was just the aftermath.

The slow, agonizing realization that everything I’d fought for, everything I’d tried to protect, everything I’d loved...

Was gone.

Again.

And I had no one to blame but myself.

My knees buckled slightly, and I caught myself against the wall, my breath coming in sharp, uneven gasps.

I wanted to scream.

Wanted to punch something.

Wanted to go back in there and wrap my hands around Sarah’s throat and demand to know why—why—she’d done this.

But I couldn’t.

Because even through the rage and the grief and the suffocating weight of it all...

I knew the answer.

She’d done it because she could.

Because I’d given her the opportunity.

Because I’d been too drunk, too broken, too weak to stop her.

And now Aria was paying the price.

The road started to blur. And I stared into nothing.

Thinking about everything.

Maybe I’m not meant for happiness.

Maybe I don’t know how to keep it alive.

The memories kept circling back, soft and cruel:

About Aria’s laugh.

About the way she used to look at me like I was worth something.

About the future I’d started to imagine with her, stupid, impossible dreams I’d never let myself have before.

All of it gone now.

Destroyed in a single moment.

And the worst part?

The absolute worst fucking part?

I still loved her.

So much it hurt to breathe.

So much I didn’t know how to keep living without her.

But she deserved better than this.

Better than me. Better than the wreckage I’d become.

Even if it killed me.

Even if every part of me screamed to fight for her, to prove my innocence, to make her see the truth.

Aria deserved better.