Chapter 90: You’re ridiculous

"Sienna, I’m hungry," Aria announced, flopping down onto the small couch near the window, one arm draped dramatically over her eyes. "Go change. Let’s have a quick chat downstairs before I actually die of starvation."

Sienna laughed, already halfway to the closet. "Come on, come with me," she said, glancing back over her shoulder. "It’ll take two minutes."

Aria didn’t move. "Into the room you share with my uncle?" she asked, lifting her arm just enough to peek out from under it, an exaggerated look of horror crossing her face. "No. Absolutely not. I did not sign up to see whatever unholy things live in that closet."

"You’re ridiculous," Sienna said, shaking her head, though she was still smiling as she disappeared through the bedroom door, leaving Aria alone in the small sitting room just outside it.

Aria sank further into the couch cushions, pulling out her phone to scroll through something while she waited, humming quietly to herself.

She didn’t hear him approach until his shadow fell across her.

"Aria."

She startled hard, nearly dropping her phone, twisting around to find Viktor standing directly behind the couch, his expression unreadable in the way it always was whenever he wanted something from someone.

"Jesus, Uncle Viktor, you can’t just," she started, pressing a hand to her chest.

"What do you know about Sienna’s family?" he asked, cutting her off entirely, his voice quiet but carrying an unmistakable edge of command underneath it.

"Nothing," Aria said, far too quickly, the word tumbling out before she’d even fully thought it through.

Viktor’s eyes narrowed slightly. He had spent enough years reading liars across negotiating tables and interrogation rooms to know exactly what a rushed, unconvincing lie sounded like, and Aria’s answer had landed squarely in that category.

"I won’t ask again," he said, his voice dropping lower, more deliberate now.

Aria straightened on the couch, her jaw setting with a stubbornness Viktor recognized instantly, the same stubbornness that ran through most of the Cross family, the same trait that had made her stand between him and Sienna back in her parents’ living room without a second thought.

"Even if you kill me," Aria said, meeting his eyes directly, "I will not betray my friend."

For a long moment, Viktor simply looked at her, something shifting slowly behind his usually guarded expression. Then, instead of the sharp, threatening tone Aria had clearly braced herself for, his voice softened into something she had genuinely never heard from him before.

"I want to protect her," he said simply.

There was nothing calculated in the way he said it. No performance, no manipulation dressed up as sincerity. Just quiet, honest worry, plain and unguarded, and it caught Aria so completely off guard that whatever resolve she had been holding onto began to crack almost immediately.

She let out a long breath, some of the tension leaving her shoulders. "Truthfully," she said slowly, "I don’t have much. Her adoptive father was awful to her, from what little she’s ever told me. Really cruel. And then one day, they just disappeared. No trace, no forwarding address, nothing." She paused, chewing at her bottom lip.

"And then about two years ago,"

She stopped herself abruptly.

"What happened two years ago?" Viktor pressed, his voice gentle but insistent.

Aria hesitated, clearly warring with herself, some old promise clashing hard against the growing worry in her chest.

"I promised her I’d never talk about this," she said quietly. "But... some men came looking for her. Dangerous men. They showed up at the university, asking questions, and the very next day, Sienna dropped out of med school. Just like that. No explanation, nothing." She shook her head slowly.

"I swear, that’s all I know. She never told me more than that. Just that she was scared they’d hurt her, and that she needed somewhere to hide."

Viktor’s jaw tightened, a dozen new questions forming rapidly behind his eyes.

"I love her so much," Aria continued, her voice thick now, "but I know there’s more to it than she’s ever let on. I’ve always been sure someone doesn’t want her studying medicine. Every single time she’s gone in for a blood test, or any kind of bloodwork at all, the samples mysteriously go missing from the lab afterward. Every time. I tried looking into it myself, years ago, but I hit a dead end every single time."

Aria’s words were coming faster now, tumbling over each other the way they always did once she got started, unable to stop herself once the floodgates opened.

"I even asked one of my dad’s contacts to look into the hospital records, and they just came back empty, like someone had wiped,"

"That’s enough," Viktor said, cutting her off firmly.

Aria blinked, startled by the sudden sharpness in his voice.

"Don’t involve yourself further in things that aren’t your concern," he said, though his tone had gentled again, less an order now than something closer to a warning meant to protect her as much as anyone else.

"Not until I understand exactly what we’re dealing with."

Aria opened her mouth, ready to argue, or perhaps to ask why he suddenly seemed so unsettled by information he himself had just demanded from her, but before she could get a single word out, the sound of footsteps on the stairs interrupted them both.

Sienna appeared a moment later, freshly changed, glancing curiously between the two of them.

"Is everything okay?" she asked, her eyes moving from Aria’s slightly flushed face to Viktor’s carefully composed one, sensing immediately that she had walked in on the tail end of something.

Viktor smiled, easy and unreadable, already turning to walk away. "Everything’s fine," he said smoothly, disappearing down the hallway without another word.

Sienna watched him go, then turned back to Aria, who was suddenly very interested in scratching at her own hair, avoiding Sienna’s eyes with an intensity that immediately set off every alarm bell Sienna owned.

"Aria," Sienna said slowly. "What did you two just talk about?"

"Nothing," Aria said quickly, far too quickly, the exact same rushed, unconvincing lie she had given Viktor only moments before.

Sienna narrowed her eyes, crossing her arms, clearly not believing a single word of it.