Chapter 11 – "No Room for a Cheater"
Aria stood by the kitchen counter, her fingers tightly wrapped around the chipped ceramic mug she found tucked away in a cabinet of her new apartment. The warm tea had long gone cold, but she didn't care. For the past week, Kade Val had been showing up uninvited, calling non-stop, sending gifts she didn't want, begging for a conversation she refused to have.
She had never imagined that the same man who once humiliated her—who told her she was too young to understand love—would suddenly reappear in her life so relentlessly. And worse, now as the father of the child she never intended to have.
A sharp knock echoed through the apartment. Not again.
She let out a breath, setting the mug down with a clink before walking to the door. She didn't need a peephole to know who it was. The persistent rhythm was too familiar.
"I'm not opening the door, Kade," she said loudly, her voice firm.
"Aria, please. Just talk to me. One minute. That's all I'm asking," came his voice from the other side, low and smooth, but threaded with desperation.
Her spine straightened.
"We've already talked," she replied, stepping back from the door. "And I gave you my answer every single time. No."
"You're carrying my child!" he said, raising his voice for the first time that week. "You can't keep shutting me out like this."
"I can and I will," she said through gritted teeth. "Because I don't need you, and neither will this child."
Silence hung in the air.
"You don't mean that," Kade said softly.
But Aria's fingers curled into fists. "Don't tell me what I mean. You don't get to do that anymore."
She could hear his breath catch, and for a moment she thought he might argue again—but instead, his footsteps retreated. A moment later, silence.
Aria exhaled, pressing her forehead to the door briefly. Every day since the confrontation in her apartment, he'd tried. Tried to apologize, to reason, to rewrite the past.
But she remembered it all too well.
The night he told her she was too young to understand him.
The way he paraded his new girl around just days later, holding hands like she never existed.
The words he spat—"I need someone who can handle me, not a little girl who doesn't know what she wants."
And now, years later, she was supposed to forget all of that? Simply because fate threw a child into the mix?
No. Her pride had been shredded once. She wouldn't let it happen again.
She moved back into the small living room, settling down on the couch with a quiet sigh. Her new job at a local diner had been demanding, and her body ached. She was two months pregnant, and exhaustion clung to her like a second skin.
But every ache, every wave of nausea reminded her that she had something worth fighting for now.
Not Kade.
Her baby.
She placed a hand gently over her stomach, eyes softening for the first time that day.
"I don't know if I'll be good at this," she whispered, "but I'm going to try. For you. Not him."
Just then, her phone buzzed again on the coffee table.
Kade Val: Please, just dinner. One time. You don't have to decide anything. I just want to talk.
She stared at the message.
Then typed back.
Aria: There's nothing to talk about.
She hit send and turned off her phone.
---
By the weekend, Kade's efforts had shifted. He didn't show up at her apartment anymore, but the deliveries didn't stop.
Flowers. Prenatal vitamins. Baby clothes she wasn't even ready to think about. A sleek bassinet she didn't have space for.
Aria stared down at the newest package on her doorstep that Sunday afternoon—an envelope with her name on it in gold ink.
Curious, she opened it.
A check. Enough money to cover rent for a year. A note: You deserve peace. No strings attached.
Her jaw tightened.
She stormed back inside, grabbed her phone, and turned it back on. Five missed calls. Three voicemails.
She ignored them all and dialed his number.
He picked up on the first ring. "Aria—"
"Stop," she snapped. "Stop trying to fix this with money. Stop showing up. Stop pretending like you care. You lost that right when you humiliated me, when you tossed me aside like I was nothing."
"I didn't mean—"
"You did. You just didn't think it would come back to haunt you. Well, it has. But you don't get to step in and be the hero now. I'm not raising this child with a man who only shows up when it's convenient for him."
"Aria, please—"
"I said no. And I meant it."
She hung up, heart pounding, chest heaving.
She felt tears threaten but refused to let them fall.
She was tired of crying over Kade Val.
He could keep his money. Keep his apologies. Keep his regret.
She had survived alone for twenty years, without a family, without anyone but herself.
She'd survive this too.
For her child.
---
Later that night, as the city dimmed and her apartment grew quiet, Aria curled up on the couch again, her hand resting on her stomach.
Everything in her life was changing—and she was scared.
But fear was better than regret. And she refused to regret choosing herself.
Across town, Kade stood in his penthouse suite, staring out at the city lights with a drink in his hand. His jaw was tight, and his eyes were red from lack of sleep.
Behind him, his phone vibrated with a new message—from the private investigator.
Investigator: Sir, you might want to look into Aria's records from two years ago. There's something you need to know.