Hexed (Never After #6)

35. Enzo

THIRTY-FIVE

ENZO

There’s a crick in my neck from sleeping on the worst bed known to man, but I’m ignoring it. Actually, I’m using the pain to ground me because my mind has been a whirlwind since the engagement party last night, and today, I’m not sure what the fuck I’m going to do.

I didn’t go find Aria like Trent asked me to because I couldn’t in good conscience go to her when Venesa’s cum was still coating my hand and her moans were reverberating in my memory.

I’m a dick, and I’ve done some fucked-up things in my life, but that’s a little too much even for me. So, instead, I stayed at the bed-and-breakfast with Scotty, and I slept on an old, creaky pullout couch. “Slept” being a generous term. Betty refused to let me rent a room, the old hag.

Really, I stayed up all night trying to figure out how the hell to come to terms with the man I want to be and the man I’m forced to be. And the one person I really need to speak with, the only person I’d trust to help me, is Gio, who’s obviously in New York. It was always in the plans to head back there today, but I’ve moved up my itinerary, my plane ready to leave as soon as I’m done talking with Aria, who’s the only reason I’m back at the Kingston Estate.

I expected there to be hustle and bustle, recovery and cleanup from last night’s party, but it’s as silent as ever in the mansion. Nobody except quiet housekeepers and empty rooms.

Aria’s not in her bedroom, and she isn’t out back by the pool or the private beach, so I’m making my way through the house, room by room, trying to find her. I don’t know what I’m going to say or what I’ll do, but I know I’m leaving, and I’m not taking her with me.

I can’t marry her. I won’t.

Voices filter through a crack in Trent’s office door when I hit the hallway, and I head that way. I’m about to knock, even though it isn’t fully closed, but I pause when I hear Aria’s voice, pushing it open just a smidge more instead.

“I don’t want to hear it, Aria.” Trent’s voice is stern. “He doesn’t deserve you, and that’s the end of it.”

“I think I know what I deserve.”

“He’s fucking around on you. That’s the life you want for yourself? The life you expect to have?”

She knows. I can’t believe he told her.

“We needed you to control him,” he continues. “Not be a pretty accessory on his arm.”

My stomach twists, Trent’s words weaving a neural lamp that’s lighting up new pathways.

Aria stomps her foot and slams her hands on his desk, her face growing ruddy. “I don’t care! I don’t care, Daddy. He’s what I want, and he’s mine . I won’t let that bitch take him from me. I deserve to have him.

“I did exactly what you asked me to,” she continues. “ Everything I’ve done since coming back here was at your beck and call. Because you promised me if I did, you’d make sure I got what I wanted…”

My blood turns to ice.

“Sweetheart,” Trent starts.

“Don’t you ‘sweetheart’ me!” she yells, swiping her hand across his desk and sending his belongings to the floor with a crash.

My heart picks up speed, banging against my chest.

“You want to talk about control? You’re the one who didn’t hold up their end of the deal. You were supposed to get him to put a hotel down here, make it easier for us to keep him under our thumb, but instead, you handed him to Venesa on a silver platter, and just like I warned you, she had to be a dumb bitch about it.”

What the fuck?

“I even put that stupid tracker on his phone, which was a reckless idea, by the way.”

“Aria—”

“I did all of it without question!” she screeches. “I’ve been your puppet for years without any recognition for it, Daddy. Years . And now you’re here telling me E and I can’t be together? That you’re ‘calling it off’? What about what I want?”

“You don’t know what you want!” he yells back.

My hand is frozen on the door, and my stomach is a lead weight on the floor.

“I do know. I’ve always known. I want him .”

Trent sighs. “He won’t treat you right, baby girl. You deserve better.”

“But, Daddy…” She sniffles.

“It’s not up for discussion.”

“I love him.”

“Oh, sweetheart.” He sighs. “Stop using words you don’t understand.”

“Don’t you tell me what I understand,” she hisses. “He owes me. He can’t just…walk away.”

“Spare me the dramatics, Aria, please. Like you’ve always said, you weren’t even the one who saved him.”

His words hit me in the solar plexus like a sucker punch, and I take several large steps back.

What the fuck do they mean she didn’t save me? If she didn’t…then who did?

My mind flits through every situation—every moment—of my relationship with Aria. Waking up to her on the Hudson, then again in the hospital. Every time she’s reminded me of how fate brought us together and how scared she was when she thought I was dead.

It was all a fucking ruse. She was lying .

I feel betrayal for sure, but more than that, I feel…relieved. I can finally let go of the tether tying me to her. The debt I owed her is fake. It doesn’t exist.

I exhale my obligation, and I turn around and walk away.

Let them wonder where I am and what I’m doing.

I’m going home. It’s time to make some changes.