Chapter 286: We Were On a Break!

Aria had no idea when she had finally passed out.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

Aria groaned, a dry, raspy sound escaping her throat. She cracked one eye open. The sun was aggressively piercing through a gap in the blackout curtains, acting like a spotlight on her exhausted face.

"Aria Seraphina Vale-Sinclair!" a muffled, furious voice shrieked from the hallway. "Open this door right now or I am calling a SWAT team!"

Aria blinked, her brain buffering at dial-up speeds.

She dragged herself out from under the plush duvet. Wearing nothing but her oversized black t-shirt and cotton panties, she trudged across the thick carpet, her limbs feeling like they were filled with wet cement.

She turned the brass lock and pulled the door open.

Zoe burst into the room like a perfectly contoured hurricane. She was wearing a tailored blazer, holding an iced matcha latte, and vibrating with pure outrage.

"Are you alive?!" Zoe screamed, slamming the door shut behind her. "Because I was literally five minutes away from checking the local morgues! Why aren’t you answering any of my calls? Or my texts?! I thought you got kidnapped again!"

Aria rubbed her eyes, letting out a jaw-cracking yawn.

"Zoe," Aria mumbled, her voice thick with sleep as she leaned against the doorframe. "What time is it?"

"What time is it?!" Zoe shrieked, throwing her free hand into the air. "Aria, it is almost one o’clock in the afternoon!"

Aria’s eyes snapped wide open.

"One?!" Aria gasped.

The exhaustion vanished, instantly flash-boiling into panic. The auction for her mother’s company was tonight. Half the day was already gone!

Aria jolted forward to grab her phone from the nightstand, but her brain completely misjudged the coordination of her legs. Her bare foot caught the thick edge of the rug. She tripped over her own feet, letting out a startled yelp as she flailed wildly, stumbling forward until she caught herself against the edge of the bed.

"Whoa, okay, Olympic gymnast," Zoe deadpanned, watching her nearly face-plant.

"How did you even get up here?" Aria panted, recovering her balance and pushing her messy rose-gold hair out of her face.

"Diana’s nurse, Sarah," Zoe explained, rolling her eyes. "The poor woman looked like she was contemplating walking into incoming traffic. She badged me up just to escape Diana screaming at her."

Zoe took a sip of her matcha, her eyes sweeping over the bedroom. It was her first time in the master bedroom and it’s not what she expected at all. Much smaller too. She didn’t think Damien was a flashy guy, but the room looked so simple like a...

Zoe’s gaze snapped to Aria, her eyes widening in horror as the realization hit her.

"Wait a minute," Zoe gasped, pointing a shaking finger at the floor. "This is... why are you sleeping in a guest room?!"

Zoe grabbed Aria by the shoulders.

"Oh my god," she breathed, her voice cracking with sheer tragedy. "Are you guys getting a divorce?!"

Aria swatted Zoe’s hands away, rolling her eyes.

"Stop being so dramatic, Zoe," Aria sighed, trudging back to the bed and flopping face-down onto the mattress. "We are not getting a divorce. We’re just on a break."

Zoe froze. The iced matcha nearly slipped right out of her hand.

"A break?!" Zoe shrieked, dramatically clutching her chest. "Like Ross and Rachel on Friends?! Aria! What did he do?!"

Zoe began pacing the length of the guest room.

"Did he cheat?!" Zoe rapid-fired, her eyes wide and manic. "Was your relationship just some stupid billionaire bet?! Oh my god, does he have a secret second family hidden in Connecticut?! Is he actually a Russian spy?!"

"Zoe, you need to delete Wattpad off your phone," Aria groaned into the pillows.

Aria rolled over onto her back, staring up at the ceiling.

She couldn’t tell Zoe the truth. It was too dangerous. But she desperately needed to vent to her best friend.

"He didn’t cheat," Aria explained, carefully censoring the details. "He just... he lied to me, Zoe. He found out some very important, sensitive information regarding my family. And instead of telling me, he hid it. For weeks. He manipulated an entire situation behind my back, and when I caught him, he claimed he did it to ’protect’ me."

Aria sat up, crossing her arms tightly over her chest, the raw frustration from the highway returning with a vengeance.

"He basically played God with my life," Aria huffed, her emerald eyes flashing. "He decided what I could and couldn’t handle, treating me like some little girl that needed to be kept in the dark while he handled the adults’ business."

Zoe stopped pacing.

"Men are literally trash," Zoe growled, pacing again with renewed, aggressive energy.

"They think because they have unlimited black cards, massive bank accounts, and a fleet of private bodyguards, they can just bypass basic human respect!" Zoe ranted passionately, gesturing wildly with her iced matcha. "They think women just want their cash and their ’protection’!"

Zoe stopped at the foot of the bed, glaring at the wall as if it had personally offended her.

"We don’t want a gilded cage!" Zoe declared fiercely. "We want a fucking partnership! We want trust! We want loyalty! And they think they can just throw a Rolex or a designer bag at us and we’ll just smile and nod like good little pets!"

"Exactly," Aria agreed, nodding emphatically. "Which is why I am punishing him. We haven’t spoken a single word to each other since last night."

Zoe paused. She turned her head, looking at Aria.

"You’re giving him the silent treatment?" Zoe asked.

"Yes," Aria confirmed proudly, lifting her chin. "He is cut off."

A wicked gleam ignited in Zoe’s eyes.

"The silent treatment is cute, Aria," Zoe purred, walking slowly toward the edge of the mattress. "But he’s a billionaire. The man lives in massive, quiet rooms. He’s used to silence."

Zoe sat down on the edge of the bed, a devilish smirk curving her lips.

"If you really want to make him suffer for playing God with your life," Zoe whispered, her eyes dancing with mischief, "we need to level it up a bit."

Aria blinked, her brows pulling together in genuine confusion.

"Level it up?" Aria asked. "What do you mean?"