The Hockey Roommate's Filthy Desire novel Chapter 117

Chapter 117

ARIA’S POV

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Walking out of Brandon’s house felt like a mistake but I was too angry to process it. He had kept the fact that his father had been trying to steal my father’s company from me.

Especially since I thought we were in this together. Worse, I had hurt his feelings when I said he wasn’t Amelia’s father. The hurt in his eyes was very clear and I felt my heart break for him.

But it was true. And from now on, I want to do things my way. When I arrived at the apartment, I inhaled a small breath. It had been a while since I was back here.

Before I was hospitalized, Amelia wasn’t even born yet and now, she would be stepping into this house with me.

The key felt heavy in my hand. When I turned it, the lock opened with a loud, metallic click that made me jump. I slowly pushed the door open. Instantly, the smell of lavender and clean floors rushed out to meet me.

I stepped inside the apartment and blinked in surprise. I expected to see dust all over the furniture. I thought the floors would be dirty and the sheets would be covered in plastic because I had been gone for so long.

But the entire place was completely clean. The kitchen counters were wiped down, the air felt fresh, and the small pillows on the couch were neatly lined up.

Brandon had been paying people to keep this place clean for me. Even while I was hurting in the hospital, and even while I was staying at his big house, he was quietly looking after my home.

It was a very sweet thing to do. It was gentle and thoughtful. But right now, as I stood there with a heavy chest, it did not soften my heart at all.

I set Amelia’s heavy diaper bag on the kitchen counter.

My hands were still shaking from the terrible fight Brandon and I had just walked away from. I felt so stupid. I felt incredibly foolish for letting my guard down around him these past few weeks.

For a moment, when we were living under his roof, I actually allowed myself to believe he was different from the others. L had started to think about a real future with him.

The long conversations we had late at night, the quiet smiles we shared, the warm way his lips felt against mine, it all felt so safe. But it was all over now.

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I was completely done giving pieces of my heart away to every man who showed me a little bit of kindness and offered me a place to hide. That was the exact same way Luca and Julian had ruined my life before,

They had started out being nice, too. They had wormed their way into my world by pretending they wanted to protect me, only to tear my heart apart in the end.

Brandon was a kind man, yes, but the loud fear inside my head was much stronger than his kindness. He would hurt me one day. They always did.

“It is just you and me now, Amelia,” I whispered softly. I looked down at the tiny, sleeping bundle wrapped tightly in my arms. “Just the two of us.”

From this moment on, Brandon was not my partner. He was not my friend. He was just a man I happened to cross paths with while I was going through a very rough time in my life.

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11:25 am P WW

Chapter 117-

He was just a temporary roof over my head during a bad storm, and now I had to face the rest of the world completely

alone

I carried Amelia into the bedroom and laid her down very gently inside a smalkerib. Brandon must have gotten it and put it there. The apartment felt much smaller than I remembered

The silence in the rooms felt heavy and hard to breathe in. I tried to settle down and unpack the few clothes I brought from Brandon’s house, but I could not shake off a bad feeling.

The skin on the back of my neck felt hot and prickly. One hour passed. Then two hours passed.

I was standing in the kitchen fixing a warm bottle for the baby when a sudden noise from the outside hallway made me completely freeze.

*Thud.*

The sound was quiet, but I heard it clearly over the low hum of the refrigerator. It was the sound of suspicious, heavy footsteps moving right outside my apartment door.

My pulse spiked instantly. My heart started hammering hard against my ribs, and a wave of pure fear wrapped tightly around my throat. I tried to tell myself that it was just a neighbor.

Maybe it was just a normal person walking home late to their own apartment. But the heavy footsteps did not keep moving past my wall. They stopped directly outside my door.

I dropped the bottle and crept into the dark living room. My breath was shallow and fast. I leaned toward the window and carefully peeked through the tiny edge of the blinds, looking down at the walkway.

A dark silhouette of a man was standing right there, completely hidden in the deep shadows of the dim hallway light.

I felt the blood drain out of my face so fast that my head spun. I almost passed out from the shock. Cold, sharp panic rushed through my entire body.

What if they are back? What if the dangerous people who caused my car accident, the ones who put me in the hospital and tried to kill me, had finally tracked me down here?

Without Brandon’s tall walls, without his security cameras, and without his strong bodyguards, I was completely unprotected. I was a sitting duck.

Suddenly, the heavy footsteps outside changed. They became much faster, louder, and very aggressive.

Someone was twisting the doorknob with violent force. I let out a choked gasp and ran back into the bedroom as fast as my legs could carry me. I snatched Amelia out of her crib and pulled her tiny body tightly against my

chest.

I placed my hand over her little head to protect her, acting as if my bare palms could shield her from the cruel world. I was frightened to the very core of my soul.

My knees were shaking so badly I could barely stand up on the floor. *CRACK.*

The loud sound of splintering wood exploded through the quiet apartment. The lock snapped, and the front door was kicked wide open.

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