CHAPTER 401: WEAK MAN

Before Kael could wake up, I cleaned up.

I’d learned from my mistakes.

Cain’s death also taught me to never leave evidence.

Never give them a thread to pull. So I wiped everything clean. His apartment looked untouched, pristine, like I’d never been there at all. No fingerprints. No trace of Sarah Brown except the chemical fog in his bloodstream and the gaps in his memory.

The goal was simple, really.

I didn’t assault Kael to show Aria. That would be crude. Inefficient. No, I did it to control him.

Because I’d been watching Kael Roman for months now, studying him like a lab specimen, and I’d witnessed something remarkable: Aria had stripped him bare. The sabertoothed tiger that stormed through XE Corp almost a year ago, all violence and cold precision, was gone. In his place?

A weak man in a strong suit. A lovesick fool who’d rather die than lose her.

I had to give Aria credit for that. For turning someone like Kael, untouchable, terrifying Kael, into something soft. Something breakable.

And breakable things are easy to manipulate.

I saw it in his eyes the moment he realized what had happened.

Not anger. Not disgust.

Fear.

Pure, unfiltered terror carved into the depths of those perfectly green, sharp eyes. Fear of losing her. Fear of Aria finding out. Fear that this—this—would be the thing that finally made her walk away forever.

It was written across every expression, bold and unmistakable.

Something Aria couldn’t see because she was too caught up in her own world, her own spiraling thoughts, her own pain.

She didn’t notice the way Kael looked at her now, like she was made of glass. Like one wrong move would shatter everything.

He’d rather keep secrets than tell the truth.

He’d rather pretend than risk their fragile peace.

Which was perfect.

Because a man operating from fear makes mistakes. And I was counting on it.

They drifted further apart during this time.

I watched it happen in real-time. Aria slipping into a major depressive episode, barely eating, barely sleeping, moving through life like a ghost. Kael hovering at the edges, desperate to help but terrified to get too close, like proximity might trigger the explosion he was trying to prevent.

For a moment, I thought I wouldn’t even need to push. They might just... end on their own.

But then Aria collapsed.

I got the news later on, Aria had been rushed to the hospital. My heart stopped. Again. That horrible, crystalline moment of what if she’s dead?

I rushed there immediately.

Ash was already there, of course. She’d been with Aria when it happened, some coffee shop, I heard. But the details were sparse. The nurses were tight-lipped. And Ash had given orders that I wasn’t allowed in the inner rooms where they were treating her.

Ash.

God, I hated that woman. Another obstacle. Another person standing between me and Aria.

But she wasn’t my target. Not yet.

The nurses I managed to corner told me it was exhaustion. Complications. They wouldn’t elaborate, and I knew Ash had something to do with their silence. But I didn’t press. Not then. I needed to see Aria first.

When they finally let me in, I stood frozen in the doorway.

Aria looked lifeless.

Pale skin. Dark circles. IV lines snaking from her arms. Bags of blood being administered, her body so depleted it needed external resources just to function.

For a moment, I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think past the image of her lying there, so small and fragile in that hospital bed.

But then... something else crept in.

A thought. Dark and intrusive and thrilling.

What if I were the doctor? What if Aria were my patient, and only I could take care of her? I’d tend to her every need. Watch her every breath. Feed her. Bathe her. Keep everyone else away until her cheeks bloomed with roses again. Until she was mine and mine alone.

But, I stopped myself. I couldn’t do that... Yet.

And later on, Kael himself showed up.

He looked like he needed a year of rest himself, haggard, hollow-eyed, barely holding together.

But the moment he saw Aria, something shifted in him. He barely spent a few hours and just... took her.

Claimed her.

And I was dismissed. Again.

For weeks, I had nothing.

No Aria. No updates. No access.

Kael had stolen her away, and I couldn’t even find out where.

I tried calling. Texting. Nothing. Aria’s phone went straight to voicemail. Kael ignored every message I sent, even the ones with carefully covered threats, reminders of what I knew, what I could prove.

I dug deeper. Made inquiries. And finally discovered: Spain.

He’d taken her to Spain.

For a second, I genuinely considered booking a flight. Showing up. Surprising them. Reminding them both that I existed, that I mattered, that Aria couldn’t just vanish on me like this.

But I didn’t.

Because something told me to wait. To watch. To see what happened when they came back.

And when they finally returned? Everything had changed.

Aria looked alive again.

Not just breathing, not just functioning, alive. Her eyes had light in them. Her shoulders weren’t hunched under invisible weight. She smiled. She laughed.

And Kael?

Kael looked at her like she was the sun.

They’d reached some kind of clarity in Spain. Some understanding. I could see it in the way they moved around each other, synchronized, intimate, solid.

I was livid.

Weeks of silence. Weeks of my carefully crafted threats being ignored. And they came back stronger?

Was Kael underestimating me? Did he think I was bluffing? That I wouldn’t follow through?

Then I’d have to show him. Prove that I wasn’t playing around.

I showed up at Aria’s house the next midday.

Kael’s car was still parked in the street. He’d spent the night. Of course he had.

I knocked. Aria answered, surprised but smiling. And when he finally stepped out.

I watched Kael’s face when he saw me.

Watched the mask slip for half a second, guilt, anger, calculation. Then it was gone, replaced by cool indifference.

But it worked. He made an excuse and left within ten minutes.

I’d made him uncomfortable. Reminded him that I was still here. Still watching.

Still dangerous.

But still I needed to threaten him. Later that day, I found my way to Kael and told him my terms. It was a simple gesture request really.

The same I’d told every other boyfriend she had. Break up with Aria. But the bastard refused. He didn’t even consider. Just straight out shut me down.

And then he got in his car and drove away, leaving me standing there in the parking garage, furious and confused and wondering if Aria had made him that foolish, or if he had something up his sleeve I hadn’t anticipated.

Either way, I was stuck.