The CEO's Rejected Wife And Secret Heir novel Chapter 36

Chapter 36: Chapter 36: Damien Interferance

Aria pov

"Damien." I stood up so fast my chair scraped against the floor. "What are you doing here?"

My heart hammered in my chest. The candlelight that had seemed romantic moments ago now felt harsh and exposing. I could feel the eyes of other diners turning toward us, drawn by the tension crackling in the air.

"I could ask you the same thing," he said, his gaze flicking to Lucas with undisguised hostility. "You cancelled our meeting because ’something came up.’ Didn’t realize that something was a romantic dinner with Hayes."

The bitterness in his voice cut through me. I’d never heard Damien sound like this before—raw, unguarded, almost desperate. His jaw was tight, his hands clenched at his sides like he was physically restraining himself.

"Not that it’s any of your business," Lucas said, standing as well and moving to stand beside me, "but Aria can have dinner with whoever she wants. You don’t own her."

"Stay out of this, Hayes." Damien’s voice dropped to a dangerous level. "This is between me and my wife."

"Ex-wife," I corrected sharply. "And Lucas is right. Who I have dinner with is none of your concern."

"Everything about you is my concern," Damien shot back. "Especially when you’re putting yourself in danger by broadcasting your location to anyone who might be watching."

"Watching?" Lucas stepped forward, his posture protective. "What’s he talking about, Aria?"

"Nothing," I said at the same time Damien said, "Marcus."

The name hung in the air between us, heavy with implication.

"Your brother?" Lucas’s expression darkened. "Is he threatening Aria?"

"He’s threatening all of us," Damien said, his attention still locked on me. "Which is why broadcasting her location on social media and sitting in a restaurant with floor-to-ceiling windows is spectacularly stupid right now."

"I didn’t post anything on social media," I protested.

"But the restaurant did." Damien pulled out his phone and showed me their Instagram story—a photo of the rooftop garden with Lucas and me visible in the background, tagged with the restaurant’s location. "They post photos of their dining area every night. Anyone following their account would know exactly where you are."

My blood ran cold. I hadn’t thought about that, hadn’t considered that simply going to dinner could put me at risk. In the three years since I’d left, I’d built my life on being invisible, on keeping Noah safe by staying out of Damien’s world entirely. One dinner had shattered that carefully constructed anonymity.

"So you rushed over here to what, exactly?" Lucas asked, his voice sharp with challenge. "Play the hero? Remind Aria that you exist?"

"I came here to make sure she was safe," Damien said through gritted teeth. "Something you should have thought about before bringing her to the most photographed restaurant in the city."

"How was I supposed to know about Marcus?" Lucas shot back. "You’re the one with the homicidal brother, Blackwood. Maybe if you’d handled your family issues better, Aria wouldn’t be in danger in the first place."

"Don’t." Damien took a step forward, his hands clenched into fists. "Don’t pretend you know anything about my family or what I’ve been dealing with."

"I know enough," Lucas said, not backing down. "I know you threw Aria out when she was pregnant. I know you chose to believe lies over your own wife. I know you spent three years not giving a damn where she was or whether she was even alive."

"Lucas, stop," I said, putting a hand on his arm.

But it was too late. Damien’s expression had gone from angry to absolutely murderous.

"You don’t know anything about what happened between us," he said, his voice deadly quiet. "You don’t know what I’ve spent the last three years dealing with, the guilt that’s eaten me alive every single day, the investigators I hired to try to find her. You don’t know shit about me or my relationship with Aria, so maybe you should shut your mouth before I shut it for you."

"Is that a threat?" Lucas moved forward, putting himself between Damien and me.

"It’s a promise." Damien’s eyes were ice-cold now, completely devoid of the vulnerability I’d seen earlier. "Touch her again and I’ll destroy you. Buy out your company, ruin your reputation, make sure you never work in this city again. Stay away from what’s mine."

"She’s not yours anymore, Blackwood." Lucas’s voice was calm but firm, a direct challenge. "She hasn’t been yours for years. You gave up that right when you threw her out."

Damien’s eyes locked on mine, and the intensity in them made my breath catch. "She’s always been mine. I was just too blind to see it."

The silence that followed was deafening. Other diners were staring now, phones out and recording, and I realized with horror that this confrontation was about to become tomorrow’s headlines. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

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