CHAPTER 47AureliaLeviAureliaOwenIsaac
Aurelia
Aurelia had been awake for a while, though she was unsure exactly how long.
She hadn’t dared move a muscle, feigning sleep and just listening.Her survival depended on it.
That voice—the one from her nightmares—was here. In the room.
She lay on her stomach in an unfamiliar bed, her head turned to the side, tangled hair spilling across her face. Completely naked under the covers. But it was the pain—the blinding, all-consuming pain—that held her attention.
It took every shred of willpower not to cry out. Even breathing was excruciating.
“Shouldn’t she have woken up by now? It’s been hours,” the voice muttered, presumably into a phone.
Kyle Morris.
His name sent her body into fight-or-flight mode, raw terror crawling up her spine. Flashbacks of bruised ribs, broken bones, and endless pain blasted into her.
She bit down on a whimper as cold understanding dawned. She knew exactly why she hurt. No one ever forgot what fractured ribs felt like. Her left ankle was aflame, her wrist throbbed painfully.
Kyle hadn’t even waited for her to be conscious before lashing out at her.
How did I get here?
A question she had been silently asking herself for the last hour.
The last thing she remembered was the Harvest Charity Ball…talking to Selene. She didn’t consume anything but water and diet soda. Yet, she felt hungover and groggy.
Before that…Martin Strasburg, chair of The National Dyslexia Foundation. Levi had been mingling while she checked on the event staff. Owen had been plowing through a platter of appetizers.
Everything after that was a black hole.
“We’re running out of time,” Kyle sneered. “And you promised me one last round with her. Teach her a lesson about leaving me.”
No, no…please no—not again…
Aurelia fought to stay calm against the rising terror, forcing herself to focus. She needed to escape. She used her other senses to gauge where Kyle was in the room—somewhere in front of her.
Cracking one eye open a sliver, she instantly regretted it. Her head pounded, the light too bright.
Kyle’s back was turned, phone pressed to his ear, wearing nothing but red boxer briefs. The sight of him made her stomach lurch. She bit back the urge to physically gag.
Gritting her teeth, she scanned the room. A hotel room. She was close to the edge of the bed, within reach of the nightstand that held a brass lamp…and an alarm clock.
2:37 AM
If that was correct, then she had been unconscious for hours…and awake for at least another one.
And if she stayed here, she was dead.
Her self-defense training wouldn’t save her now—not like this. Her eyes locked onto the lamp again, as a plan began to formulate.
One chance. One shot. Make it count.
Kyle ended his call with a sharp curse and turned around.
She opened her eyes fully, knowing he would see.
He didn’t disappoint.
“Well, now…ask and you shall receive,” he purred, his voice thick with menace. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this. Too long. You really shouldn’t have left me, Aurelia. You need to be reminded of what happens when you run.”
She didn’t move. She couldn’t—not yet.
He stalked toward her, the bed dipping as he knelt behind her.
This is it. Now or never.
She reached for the nightstand as he simultaneously grabbed her waist and flipped her onto her back.
Kyle didn’t even see the lamp until it connected with his temple.
With every ounce of strength she had left, she slammed it into his head.
Kyle dropped onto her like dead weight, knocking the air from her lungs. Pain shot through her chest as the pressure crushed her injured ribs.
Gritting her teeth against the agony, she shoved him off and slid free, gasping for air. He was out cold, face down on the bed.
Darkness crept at the edges of her vision, but she forced herself to stay conscious, to move. She was naked, bruised, and broken, but she was alive.
Adrenaline surged. She searched for her dress, her phone—anything.
A loud pounding on the door made her jump, her heart leaping into her throat.
“Open the door, Aurelia!”
Levi.
With a sob of relief, she grabbed a bedsheet crumpled on the floor, wrapping it tightly around herself, and stumbled to the door.
When she opened it, she barely registered Owen and Isaac standing behind Levi. All she could focus on was Levi…and his expression frozen in horror as his gaze shot past her to the bed.
To Kyle. Half-naked. And then back to her, barefoot, wrapped only in a sheet.
For the rest of her life, she would never forget the way his eyes turned to ice.
Rage. Disgust.
And then he turned his back on her. On them. On everything they’d worked for.
In a matter of seconds, her entire world imploded.
Levi
Levi was so tired.
Tired of the lies. Tired of being toyed with.
He hadn’t wanted to believe Selene when she told him Aurelia left with another man. He wanted to believe his friends and that something about this entire night didn’t add up. That Aurelia was different.
She was supposed to be different.
But what he saw in that hotel room couldn’t be denied.
The ache hit him like a physical blow, a crushing weight tightening around his chest. He could feel his heartbeat slowing, could feel something fracturing deep inside as he turned and stepped back into the hallway.
She had opened that door looking terrified—terrified that he was the one who found her. Draped in nothing but a goddamn bedsheet, like decency was too much to ask.
That was the moment Levi broke.
The anger hit him fast and hard, a wildfire that burned through every piece of him. He whipped back around towards the hotel room door.
“How could you do this?” His voice cracked under the weight of his grief. “You knew what everyone before you did to me—how they used me. And the first chance you got, you walked away with someone else?”
He barked out a humorless, bitter laugh. The memory of the inheritance news from earlier sliced through his mind again, bruising and sharp.
“You finally got what you wanted, didn’t you?” His voice rose to a shout. “The inheritance you were waiting for, but at what cost?”
“Levi—” Owen’s warning growl cut through the air, but Levi didn’t hear him.
Couldn’t hear him. Right now, there was nothing and no one but him and Aurelia.
“Was I not enough?” His voice dropped to a pleading whisper, broken and raw.
“Levi, please —please let me explain,” Aurelia choked out, shivering on unsteady legs, tears streaming down her face.
But it was too late.
“I can’t. ” His voice was barely a rasp, and yet it carried the weight of finality.
He took a stumbling step back, retreating like her very presence burned him. “ I can’t do this .”
Isaac’s hand landed on his shoulder, but Levi shrugged it off in agitation. He was vaguely aware of Isac speaking, but his words sounded distant, muffled, like they were coming from underwater.
None of it mattered anymore. His voice was hollow and devoid of emotion when he spoke again.
“I’ll just…let you get back to whatever you’ve been doing.” His devastated gaze flicked back to the room, his chest tightening painfully. “He can have you.”
He grabbed the car keys still dangling from Owen’s hand. Without another word, Levi disappeared down the corridor—his pace quick, desperate to outrun the destruction behind him.
He had to get out of there. He had to get away from her .
Isaac called after him, his voice growing fainter with every step.
Levi didn’t hear him. He didn’t hear anything anymore except for the deafening sound of his hope shattering into pieces.
Aurelia
Levi broke his promise…and with it, he broke her .
He didn’t even try to listen.
Didn’t give her the chance to explain, to fight for what little hope still existed between them.
The moment he turned his back and walked away, he wasn’t simply leaving a hotel room—he was leaving her , destroying the fragile trust she had so carefully begun to build.
Aurelia had wanted to believe she could trust Levi so badly. She couldn’t believe how blind and stupid she was to think things would be different this time. That Levi was different.
Isaac chased after him, but Owen stayed behind.
He stood in the doorway like a silent sentinel, his sharp eyes scanning the room, cataloging every horrifying detail.
Cold rage took hold of his features as he pieced together what Kyle unconscious on the bed, the twisted sheets, and the bruises already darkening her exposed skin signified.
When his gaze finally found hers, something inside her broke completely.
The tears she had fought so hard to hold back spilled free, mingling with the raw tremble of her lips. She sagged under the unbearable stress of it all, unable to hold herself together any longer as despair overwhelmed her.
“I…I hit Kyle with the lamp,” she choked out between sobs, her voice barely a whisper, brittle and frayed at the edges.
Owen’s eyes widened, comprehension smashing into him like a freight train.
“Please…” Her voice cracked on that one desperate word, her body trembling violently. “I think…I need an ambulance, I—”
But she couldn’t finish.
The darkness closed in, stealing her away just as the last word spoken left her lips. Her knees buckled, and Owen rushed forward.
She collapsed into his arms, like a broken, bloodied angel wrapped in nothing but a sheet and sorrow.
Owen
Owen caught Aurelia as she fell unconscious, cradling her limp body against his chest. He knew with gut-wrenching certainty that this night had irrevocably destroyed her. And if Levi didn’t come to his senses soon…It would destroy him, too.
Owen rarely got angry. It took a hell of a lot to rattle him, and even then, he was always the first to crack a joke, smooth things over, and let it roll off his back.
But not tonight. Not with Aurelia unconscious and broken in his arms.
As he gently lowered her to the floor, careful not to jostle her battered body, a slow, boiling rage unfurled inside him, cold and deadly in its precision.
First, it was the pathetic excuse for a man sprawled unconscious on the bed.