Chapter 73: A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Chapter 73: A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Aria’s POV

Kael pulled his chair back, walked towards me, and held my hand.

“We never wanted to tell you this, Aria, but I think it is time you know why we are against your friendship or whatever it is you have with Jace.”

I was shocked beyond recognition. The supreme Alpha’s family was behind our parents’ deaths, yet they didn’t care to let me know until things got out of hand?

How could they do that to me? Why would they withhold that important information from me?

“That was why we never want to see Jace here.”

Rafe added.

I’d always tried to imagine why they were always so harsh to Jace, and I had always wondered why they got so upset when they saw the Mate mark on my neck and assumed it was Jace. I couldn’t fathom anything until that moment.

“Aria?”

I pulled my hand away from Kael, letting the tears I had been holding fall freely.

“Jace and I…you guys…”

I sniffled, enduring the excruciating pain in my heart.

“Why are you crying?”

Elias asked, looking so worried. He walked forward and held my hand too but I pulled it away harshly.

“You guys have always wanted to know who my mate is, right?”

I bit my lower lip, tasting my own tears.

“It is Jace!”

The living room went dead silent, their eyes wide as an owl’s.

“If you had told me this at the beginning, none of this would have happened. But you didn’t and now you decided to say it when my heart now belongs to him!”

“We are so sorry about that but you can’t be with him, you’ll have to let him go.”

Damien didn’t have to say that cruel thing because I already knew that was what would happen. And the fact that I had to reject Jace for good hurt me so much.

He was my first love, the first man that my heart connected to at first glance. He was my mate, and thinking about losing him was doing something to my body, something I couldn’t even describe but I knew was terrible.

“This is all your fault!”

I yelled at them, tears falling freely on my face. Then I turned towards the stairs and ran to my room, sobbing.

The last I heard of Liza that day was a whimper then she disappeared without uttering a single word.

That night, I couldn’t even blink as my mind was so occupied with the thought of leaving Jace forever. I didn’t think I could do that; thinking about it sent fears into my heart—the kind of fears I have never had before.

I didn’t know how my brothers reacted to Jace or whatever they might have said to him because I locked myself in my room without letting any of them in.

That morning, Jace’s call was the first thing that came into my phone when I reached the company.

I ignored it, staring at the screen with a heavy heart. My hands were yearning to answer it, my ears were crying to hear his voice, and my mouth was twitching to speak to him yet, I couldn’t force myself to answer it.

And because there was no way I could control it, I had to let myself cry until my tears ceased to fall.

Not being mated with Jace anymore hurt so much, but learning that my parents died in the hands of the Supreme Alpha hurt the most.

I could imagine their disappointment in me for allowing the Supreme Alpha’s family to mark me.

But how did that happen? What caused the misunderstanding that led to their death? And which of the Supreme Alphas took their life? Was it Jace’s parents? Or his uncle?

“Alpha Aria?”

I was jolted out of my reverie by my assistant, Kyra.

“What is wrong? You are shedding tears.”

She quickly placed the pamphlet in her hands on the desk worriedly.

“Did anything happen at home? Please tell me. Is any of the Alphas okay?”

“They are fine,”

I sniffled, wiping off my tears.

“It’s nothing to be worried about, just having an episode.”

Kyra sighed worriedly,

“Is it because you…”

“Goodness no.”

I got up and strolled inside the bathroom to wash my face.

Why would she even think that I was shedding tears because I caught Nina in the act and had her arrested? That was even out of the light.

When I stepped out, she was no longer in the office and so, I checked the day’s schedule on the pamphlet she had brought.

As soon as I saw who was on the first list of the guests I would be seeing that day, I called Kyra in and erased the name with ink.

“This person shouldn’t be let in.”

Her eyes flashed in terror.

“But he is the supreme Alpha.”

And that was the problem. If only he were the Jace that I knew before, then things wouldn’t have been like that.

“I just remember I have to go to the headquarters to witness the confessions myself.”

She nodded, still looking so worried.

“But Alpha Aria?”

Kyra stopped me while we were leaving the office.

“Are you sure I should inform him of the cancellation? He is the supreme Alpha and I am scared that he would get angry and punish us.”

“Forget him.”

I waved my fingers.

“That shouldn’t bother you. Jace isn’t that kind of a person.”

At the headquarters, not only Nina’s, but all of her minions’ faces were bruised beyond recognition. Seeing them that way sent a sudden coldness to my heart, the kind I felt when I had them arrested.

“Are you now ready to talk?”

I asked Nina in the separate jail she was locked in.

She scoffed, however, the moment she lifted her head and her eyes met mine, she burst into laughter.

“Jeez, Aria! Someone must have found out the truth already.”

As she kept on laughing, my anger was increasing. My fingers clenched into a fist and the next second, she was bleeding from her mouth. But that didn’t stop her from laughing at me and talking down to me, she went on.

“I thought they were going to keep it from you forever. So now what are you going to do? You and Jace are already mates!”

Nina knew about Jace and me? And she knew what my brothers were hiding from me? Why was I even surprised? She was into a business that involved almost half of the pack in the kingdom because among her clients that were arrested the previous day, five were from different packs.

“What do you know!”

I thundered, her jaw between my fingers.

“A lot, Aria. A lot that you don’t know.”

“Then spit it out!”