Chapter 102

**AUSTIN**

I jogged after Aria, cursing under my breath. How could someone so small move so damn fast? Her legs were barely half as long as mine, and yet she was tearing down the hallway like a woman possessed.

Must have been the croissant, I thought grimly. Or maybe the information Sasha so tactlessly dumped on her head like a sack of bricks. Either way, she was energized now—fueled by anger, betrayal, and the endless damn secrets we hadn’t wanted to burden her with.

Adam had stayed behind to chew out Sasha, who deserved every bit of the verbal beating he was about to receive. He should've known better. Should have talked to us first before blurting out everything at once like an idiot.

Ahead of me, Aria barreled through the door of our shared apartment, slamming it in my face so hard that the walls rattled.

I growled low in frustration, yanked the door open, and stepped inside—
—just in time for a sneaker to fly straight at my head.

Reflexes kicking in, I caught it a split second before it smacked me square in the nose.

"You know," I said carefully, lowering the shoe, "we probably should've talked to you first, but—"\\n\\nBefore I could finish, she exploded.

"I'M SICK OF IT!" she screamed, voice cracking with emotion. "SICK OF THE SECRETS! We agreed! We agreed that there would be no more of this, and what happens? As usual, no one cares about what I think!" Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she was sobbing so hard now that I couldn't understand a damn word coming out of her mouth. Her arms flailed, her small fists pounding the air in helpless fury.

I stood there, feeling like the world's biggest asshole, unsure if I should move closer or duck in case she started throwing furniture next.

The door creaked open behind me and Adam stepped inside, freezing at the scene.

"What's going on?" he asked, voice low with concern.

I shrugged helplessly.

Without missing a beat, Aria grabbed her second sneaker and hurled it at him.

Adam caught it just before it nailed him in the chest, eyebrows lifting in surprise.

"Leave!" she screamed hoarsely. "Get out! Both of you! I don't want to see either of you!" Adam glanced at me, a silent question in his eyes.

I sighed. "We should probably..."

"DON'T SEND ANYONE ELSE EITHER!" she screamed before I could even suggest it. "I DON'T WANT CASSIUS! I DON'T WANT LEILA! I DON'T WANT ROSALIE! I WANT TO BE ALONE!"

Adam winced like she'd physically slapped him.

We exchanged another look, one that said we both knew there was no winning this battle today.

Wordlessly, we stepped back through the door and closed it behind us, leaving her inside with her anger and her heartbreak.

The hallway was eerily silent now, the echoes of her sobs still bouncing around in my head.

Adam leaned against the wall, running both hands through his hair in frustration.

"This is a mess," he muttered.

"Yeah," I agreed grimly. "But what did we expect?"

"We thought we were protecting her," Adam said quietly. "Instead, we made her feel like a pawn."

I scrubbed a hand over my face. "We were wrong. We should have trusted her with the truth from the beginning."

Adam nodded slowly. "She's stronger than any of us give her credit for."

We stood there for a long moment, neither of us speaking, just staring at the closed door.

Finally, Adam said, "We give her space.""

"Space?" I echoed.

He nodded. "Let her cool down. Let her come to us when she's ready.""

I hesitated. Everything in me screamed to go back in there, to wrap her in my arms, to fix it. But deep down, I knew Adam was right.

If we pushed now, we'd just drive her further away.

"Fine," I muttered. "But the second she calls for us, we're there.""

"Always," Adam agreed.

We turned away from the door and walked down the hall together, two helpless idiots who loved her more than life itself and had managed to hurt her anyway.

One way or another, we'd make it right.

Even if it took everything we had.

**ARIA**

The door clicked shut with a finality that made the entire apartment seem to exhale.

I stood there for a long time, frozen in the center of the room, breathing hard. My chest ached with the force of the emotions still rattling around inside me—anger, sadness, betrayal—all tangled together until I couldn’t tell where one ended and the next began.

The silence was suffocating.

I wiped at my cheeks with the sleeves of my sweatshirt, even though the tears kept coming, hot and relentless. I hated crying. I hated feeling weak, hated feeling like I was this fragile little thing everyone needed to tiptoe around.

I stumbled over to the couch and sat down heavily, clutching a throw pillow to my chest like it could somehow anchor me to the earth. My head was pounding.

My body felt hollowed out, drained by the weight of everything I'd just learned.

Hybrid twins.

Adam would have to bite me to save me.

Lord Ambrose was dead.

The magnitude of it spun in my mind, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t slow it down.

I wasn’t stupid. I knew they thought they were protecting me. Adam, Austin, even Cassius and the others. They thought they were doing the right thing, that if they just kept one more secret, shielded me from one more truth, they could spare me the pain.

But it didn’t spare me. It just isolated me.

How many times had I told them that I didn’t want secrets? How many times had I said I was strong enough to handle the truth?

And yet here we were again.

I thought about the babies growing inside me—tiny lives pulling every ounce of strength I had—and fear sliced through me.

Would I survive this? Would they?

A sob escaped before I could stop it.

I wasn’t afraid of being a hybrid. Not really. But the idea of Adam biting me terrified me because it wasn’t just about me anymore. It was about them.

I felt like I was standing at the edge of a cliff with no idea what was waiting below. And for the first time since this all started, I didn’t know if I could take that step.

At some point, the tears slowed. My breathing evened out. I sat there, staring blankly at the wall, feeling like a doll with all its stuffing pulled out.

Maybe... maybe it was okay to fall apart for a little while.

The thought was oddly comforting.

I shifted, curling up sideways on the couch, pulling a blanket around myself. My body still ached, every muscle sore with exhaustion. My eyes burned, but I didn’t fight the pull of sleep when it came.

For once, I let myself be small. Broken. Human.

Tomorrow, I’d have to face Adam and Austin. I’d have to make decisions about my body, my babies, my future.

But tonight, the only thing I had to do was breathe.