Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
Ariana
Iwas just walking along the sidewalk when I saw a familiar figure leaning against his car, parked across from my apartment building.
Even from afar, I knew it was him.
I could recognize Grayson anywhere.
He was rubbing his face, his shoulders tense—that same restless gesture he always did when he was frustrated.
He looked tormented.
I crossed the street slowly. He didn’t even notice me approaching.
“Grayson? What are you doing here?”
He jolted, straightening abruptly as he turned toward me.
His eyes were bloodshot. He looked like he’d been crying.
And Grayson wasn’t the type to cry.
“Ari,” he said my name in a whisper, breaking on his breath.
“What is it?” I frowned. He really looked like he was about to break apart right in front of me.
He just shook his head, like the words were stuck in his throat.
“You want to talk to me.” It wasn’t a question. He wouldn’t be here otherwise.
He nodded slowly, letting out a shaky breath. “Yeah.”
I studied his face closely, trying to figure out what had happened, what could have made him this way, and what he needed to talk to me about.
“Come on,” I said, turning toward the building. “Come up. Let’s talk.”
I crossed the street to my building, and he followed without a word, staying close behind me.
We entered the front lobby and got into the elevator. The ride up was short and silent.
When we finally stepped into my apartment, and he closed the door behind him, I spoke.
“You’re here. Say what you want to say and make it quick.”
He let out a long, heavy sigh, his eyes meeting mine, filled with emotions I couldn’t understand.
He glanced at the couch beside him.
“Can I sit down?” he asked softly.
“Sure,” I said flatly.
He sat, and I went to the fridge, pulling out two bottles of water. I walked back and handed him one, just because he looked like he would die if he didn’t have it. But I wasn’t about to go out of my way to make him coffee.
I took a seat across from him, waiting.
He took a big gulp of the water, then set it down on the table. He leaned back and looked at me again.
“God, Grayson. Say what you want to say. I have no time to wait.”
“I saw Christian today,” he said quietly. “And we talked.”
Oh.
So that was what made him look the way he did.
I was honestly surprised. I didn’t think Christian would risk telling him, not with everything Taylor could do to him.
“And then I went to my parents’ house. And I asked them.”
I stayed silent, waiting for him to finish.
“Fuck, Ari.” His voice trembled.
“I’m so fucking sorry.” He shook his head, tears welling in his eyes. “I thought… Fuck.”
He buried his face in his hands.
“You thought I was a disgrace, remember?” I finished the sentence for him, forcing my voice to stay even. “Someone capable of doing something despicable on our engagement night. In our home. In our bed.”
My voice cracked, but I didn’t stop.
“Because that’s how you see me. Remember?”
He shook his head even harder, his shoulders shaking.
“Ari,” he said, pulling his hands away from his face. “I was angry. I was still convinced you betrayed me, that you set the whole thing up to destroy me.”
He leaned back, exhaling sharply as if breathing itself were a struggle.
“I didn’t know…” His voice broke. “I didn’t know, Ari.”
“You know,” I said slowly, “I could never forget that night. It was the worst night of my life.”
He didn’t say anything. Just sat there with tears sliding down his face, silent and broken.
“I was so happy that day,” I went on, my eyes locked on him even though it hurt to look.
“So incredibly happy. There wasn’t a single shadow in my mind.
Not a single warning that everything was about to fall apart.
I spent the whole day thinking about how lucky I was, how excited I was to finally start a life with you.
I couldn’t stop smiling. Everything felt perfect. Everything felt right.”
My throat tightened, but I pushed through it.
“And then that night came, and it shattered everything.”
I paused, trying to steady myself. There were things inside me that had been festering for too long. Now that the truth was out, he needed to hear them.
“I loved you, Grayson. I loved you so much that I would have done anything for you.
If you had asked me to give up everything I had, I would have done it without hesitation.
If you had asked me to live quietly, to keep enduring the cold looks and the cruel words from your family, to take it all in silence, I would have. I already did.
“I stayed because I believed in you. Because I loved you. Because I believed you were worth it. I thought you saw me. I thought you knew me. I thought you loved me the same way I loved you.”
I swallowed hard and kept going, even though every word scraped against my chest.
“You never knew the things they said to me behind your back. You never saw the way they treated me when you weren’t looking.
How small they tried to make me feel. How unwelcome I felt in a place that was supposed to be my home.
And I never told you because I didn’t want to make you choose.
Because I thought being with you was worth everything. ”
I looked at him again. He was hunched over, completely crumbling.
“I thought you were different from them, Grayson,” I said quietly. “But in the end, I was wrong. You saw me the same way they did. Maybe even worse.”
My voice wavered, but I kept going.
“And that’s what broke me the most. Not just what you believed, but how quickly you believed it. You didn’t even give me the benefit of the doubt.”
The anger, the disappointment, the heartbreak—all that I had held back—came rushing to the surface.
“You didn’t question it. You didn’t pause. You didn’t even look me in the eyes and ask if it was true. You just believed the worst of me without a second thought.”
I let the silence settle for a moment, heavy between us.
“And all this time, I should be furious with Christian. For destroying everything. But the truth is… I was always angrier with you.”
My voice dropped, but the weight behind it didn’t.
“Because you were the one who knew me. You were the one who was supposed to love me. And that’s what shattered me. Not what Taylor said. Not what your parents said. Not what they did. But how easily you believed them.”
I met his eyes, letting the pain show for the first time.
“And now that I know the truth, I see it differently. Christian didn’t do it out of malice. He did it out of love.”
Sheer, desperate, selfless love.
“He loved Tony so deeply that he gave up everything. He erased himself from the world and lived in silence, in isolation, to protect him. He waited for him. Years passed, and still he waited. Even when hope grew faint. Even when every sign told him Tony wouldn’t come back.
Even when the universe told him it was time to let go. ”
I paused, my voice softening.
“I envy that, you know. Because that’s what love looks like, Grayson. It’s not perfect. It doesn’t always make the right choices. But it fights. It endures. It holds on, even when it’s falling apart. Even when there’s nothing left to hold on to.”
I looked at him and knew that he finally understood just how much he had shattered me.
He finally understood the weight of what he’d done. Because this wasn’t just about how cold he’d been.
Not just the way he dragged me out, then stood there and let them humiliate me. It was beyond that. It was the betrayal of trust.
He turned his back on me when I expected him to protect, support, or, at the very least, trust me.
He chose not to believe me and threw me aside without a second thought.
And now he knew exactly what it felt like to look into the eyes of someone he destroyed, someone who had done nothing but love him.
“What can I do to make this right, Ari?” he asked weakly. “I’ll do anything. Just tell me how.”
I shook my head slowly.
“There’s nothing left to fix, Grayson. No words you say can undo what’s already been done. It won’t make me forget. It won’t put my heart back together. Some things, once broken, stay broken. And we’re one of them.”
“I want to make things right, Ari. I want you to understand just how sorry I am. For everything. For not believing in you. For not standing by you. For letting my own fear and anger speak louder than the love I should’ve shown you.”
He looked at me with eyes full of regret, and I could see the pain written all over him.
“I regretted everything I did to you, even when I still believed you betrayed me. I hated myself for the way I treated you, for the things I said. And I lived with it every single day. The guilt, the shame, the sound of your voice playing over and over in my head.
“And now, knowing the truth—knowing that you were innocent the entire time—I can’t even begin to describe what that feels like.
I can’t breathe under the weight of it. I can’t stand the thought of how deeply I hurt you.
Of how easily I let you down. Of how quickly I chose to believe the worst of you instead of fighting for you.
“I don’t expect you to forgive me, Ari, not now, maybe not ever, but I need you to know that I’m not walking away from this.
I’m not letting it go like it meant nothing.
Because it meant everything. You meant everything.
And if there’s even the smallest chance that I can prove that to you, that I can show you I still mean it, I’ll take it. I’ll do whatever it takes.”
I stared at him for a moment and let out a small chuckle. “What for, Grayson? So that I wouldn’t ruin you? Because you feel the threat coming from me?”
“No. No. No.” He shook his head. “It has nothing to do with that.”
“And you already have a fiancé, who you said you love and who loves you back just as much.”
He leaned back, and a look of desperation crossed his face.
“So what’s the point?” I said calmly, while inside, I was anything but. “I’m not going to stop, Grayson. And you won’t even see it coming. The truth is, you already didn’t.”
I paused, watching his face.
“You didn’t know, did you? That I’ve already spoken to the bank—the one that holds your loan. The one where you listed Rosemere as collateral.”
Rosemere. The second-highest-earning restaurant in his portfolio.
“I know you’ve been struggling to keep up with payments, Grayson. And I’ve already spoken to the bank formally. I made them an offer to acquire the debt, and from what I’ve heard, they’re seriously considering it. They’ll be contacting you soon.”
I let the words settle before adding, cold and sharp,
“And this, Grayson, is what it means to be tied to the Hales. The same people you accused me of sleeping with to climb my way into society.”
I leaned forward across the table, my eyes locked on his.
“Yes, their power and influence opened doors, but don’t get it twisted.
I don’t need to fuck anyone to get ahead.
If I choose to fuck someone, it’s because I want to, not because I need something from them.
I got here because I worked for it. I earned it.
And honestly? You gave me the fuel for it.
I built it out of every single thing you broke in me. ”
“Ari,” he said softly, letting out a breath like it hurt to speak. “I know how much you hate me. How disappointed you are in me. And I accept that. I do. I won’t even try to deny how wrong I was.”
He paused, searching my face, then slowly rose from his seat. The anguish was still there, but something new flickered in his eyes—resolve.
“And even though you’re ready to ruin me,” he continued, voice steadier now, “I’m still going to prove something to you. I don’t care how long it takes or how impossible it seems. I’ll find a way.”
He took a step closer.
“One day, I want you to look at me without that hatred in your eyes. Even if we never end up together again, even if we go our separate ways and never cross paths again… I need you to know that I’m not giving up on making this right.
” His voice cracked as he said, “Because I still fucking love you, Ari. I always will. And I can’t live the rest of my life knowing the only thing you’ll ever feel for me is hate. ”
His face softened. And, for a moment, so did my heart. I had to steel myself, force the walls back up, remind myself not to fall for his words that I used to believe in. He made promises before, and he shattered them. He would do it again.
Grayson turned toward the door, paused with his hand on the knob, and looked back at me.
He gave me the faintest smile, one that held too much and not enough. Then he walked out.
I stood there, staring at the door long after it had closed. The truth was finally out, and yet, somehow, I felt more broken.
I cried—deep, wrenching sobs that doubled me over, my arms folding around my stomach as though I could hold myself together by force. Because the pain wasn’t confined to my heart. It had spread into everything, settled into my bones, my hands, the air in my lungs.
Every part of me hurts.
For everything I had lost. For everything he had broken. And for the quiet, stubborn part of me that loved him still—that loved him anyway, in spite of all of it.
Because that’s the cruelest part of it all—hating someone with every shattered piece of yourself and still falling in love with him all over again every time you see his face.