Chapter 7 — The Girl From Room 1508
Aria clutched her coat tighter around her as the cool morning breeze brushed against her skin. Her shift started at seven, and she'd barely slept a wink the night before. Her heart was a mess, her mind even worse.
She was still pregnant. And she hadn't gone through with the abortion.
The thought made her stomach knot all over again.
No matter how much she tried to convince herself it was just a clump of cells—that it was Kade's, and that was reason enough—she couldn't bring herself to do it. The moment she sat in that clinic, something in her refused to go through with it.
She wasn't weak. She was confused.
And now, she was keeping the baby.
She sighed, stepping through the back entrance of the restaurant where she worked as a waitress. It wasn't glamorous. Not at all. The uniforms were cheap polyester, the customers were picky, and the pay barely covered her rent. But it was honest work—and the only steady thing she had.
Her heels clicked softly on the kitchen tiles as she passed the cooks prepping for the day. No one greeted her. They were already too busy.
Just as she reached for her apron hanging on the hook, two of her coworkers, Dana and Belle, came rushing in from the lounge, whispering loudly with giddy energy.
"Did you see it?" Dana gasped.
"Of course I did. It's all over Twitter and Insta," Belle replied, clutching her phone like it was a treasure chest.
Aria barely paid attention, but the tone in their voices was too loud to ignore.
"I mean, how does she look like that and end up in his bed?" Dana laughed, scrolling.
"Right? The photo's grainy but you can tell she was wearing... like, barely anything. She looks like a broke college girl."
"Wait until you see the comments. Everyone's trying to guess her name. They're calling her The Mystery Girl from Room 803."
Aria's spine stiffened.
Her fingers faltered as she tied her apron. Her head slowly turned toward the pair.
Room 803.
That was the room she had entered that night.
The room Kade Val had been staying in.
And just like that, her body turned ice cold.
Belle waved her phone in the air. "The security cam caught her leaving early in the morning. Alone. Hair a mess. Wearing heels and a black dress. People are going nuts trying to figure out who she is. Kade Val hasn't said a word yet."
Aria stepped back, her breath suddenly shaky.
She hadn't thought anyone would know.
It was supposed to be a night she forgot. A one-time mistake—buried.
But now it was news?
Her stomach twisted. Her hand flew to her belly on instinct, as if shielding it from the cruel world beyond.
"What kind of girl sleeps with Kade Val and doesn't even get a shopping bag or car out of it?" Dana snorted. "She's probably crying in her cheap apartment right now."
Aria blinked rapidly and pushed past them, heading straight for the restroom. She locked the door behind her and leaned over the sink.
The mirror didn't lie.
Her skin looked pale. Her eyes, tired and puffy. And for the first time since that night, she realized she hadn't really escaped.
Kade was a billionaire. A name that turned heads in every business magazine, on every red carpet. He was clean-cut perfection in suits that cost more than her rent, with a face that made headlines and a smirk that could undo logic.
And she had left his room in last night's clothes and now the whole world wanted to know her name.
She breathed in sharply.
What if someone figured it out? What if people from work or the apartment building put two and two together? What if Kade spoke?
No. Kade wouldn't. He couldn't.
She closed her eyes and tried to focus, but her phone buzzed from her apron pocket.
With trembling fingers, she pulled it out.
Unknown Number.
She didn't move. Didn't answer.
A second later, a message followed.
Kade: "I need to see you, Aria."
Her heart stopped.
She hadn't heard from him since that day he called to check on her. She hadn't replied. She didn't want him in her life—not after the way things ended years ago.
But now?
Now she was pregnant. And the media was sniffing around the trail of a girl leaving his room.
She stared at the message until it faded into her lock screen.
She was trapped between two versions of herself—the girl trying to survive on tips, and the girl whose one mistake with a billionaire was now the subject of public gossip.
And somehow, Kade was back in her life.
Uninvited.
Unavoidable.
Aria tucked the phone away, her eyes lingering on her reflection once more.
The girl in the mirror didn't look like someone who belonged in Kade Val's world.
But the life growing inside her—that did.
As Aria returned to the lounge, trying to compose herself, Belle suddenly turned her phone toward her again, eyes wide.
"Oh my god, look!"
Dana leaned in, gasping.
"Kade Val just posted something for the first time in weeks!"
Aria's heart stuttered.
"What did he post?" she heard herself whisper.
Belle grinned, lips curling into a smirk. "Just three words and a picture."
She turned the screen toward Aria.
"Found her. Finally."
A blurry snapshot of the back of a girl in a black dress, heels clicking down a hotel hallway.
Aria's blood ran cold.
It was her.
He had posted her.