In the searing agony between life and death, an image surfaced. A face. Hayes Decker.
It was a memory from a charity gala months ago. He had stood across the room, the infamous "Wolf of Wall Street," a man whose cold presence could freeze a boardroom. But the way he had looked at her was anything but cold. It was a look of raw, desperate longing, an intensity that had unnerved her at the time. She had dismissed it, loyal to Ethan.
Now, another fragment of memory pushed through the pain. A man's voice, screaming her name from outside the burning warehouse. A roar of pure anguish that didn't belong to the controlled, emotionless Hayes Decker she knew of. It was his voice. She was sure of it. Why had he been there?
The question dissolved as her consciousness finally gave way, sinking into a silent, black void.
Then, a light. Not fire, but a soft, insistent glow pressing against her eyelids. Aria's eyes flew open.
She was staring at the familiar, ornate plaster ceiling of her bedroom in the Foster estate. She shot up, her heart hammering against her ribs. She looked down at her hands, her arms. The skin was smooth, pale, unmarred by fire.
She scrambled out of bed, her legs trembling. The digital clock on her nightstand glowed with the date. It was a week before the disastrous "surprise." A week before her murder.
She had come back.
The memories of the fire, the betrayal, Julian's death-they crashed into this impossible reality, a psychic collision that sent a spike of pain through her skull. She stumbled into the adjoining bathroom and stared chimneys at her reflection in the mirror. Her face was pale, her eyes wide with shock, but it was her. Whole. Alive.
Tears, hot and unstoppable, streamed down her cheeks. It wasn't a dream. She was real. She was back. The relief was instantly followed by a wave of icy, all-consuming hatred.
Just then, her phone buzzed on the vanity counter. The screen lit up with a name that made the air leave her lungs.
Hayes Decker.
In her past life, on this very day, he had called. He had made a blunt, almost brutal proposal of marriage. Consumed by her love for Ethan and repulsed by what she saw as Hayes's suffocating possessiveness, she had laughed at him. She had told him he was insane and hung up.
Now, knowing what she knew, that possessiveness felt less like a cage and more like a shield. The memory of his anguished scream echoed in her mind. His feelings, however obsessive, had been real.
Her hand shook as she picked up the phone and answered.
His voice was exactly as she remembered-deep, controlled, yet with an undercurrent of tension. "Aria, be my wife."
It wasn't a question. It was a command. A plea disguised as a decree.
She took a deep, shuddering breath. The ghost of smoke still felt real in her lungs. She closed her eyes, and with a voice hoarse with tears and a thirst for vengeance, she gave him the one answer that would change everything.
"Yes."
The silence on the other end of the line was absolute, heavy and suffocating. It stretched for a full ten seconds. When he finally spoke, the engineered composure in his voice was fractured, replaced by a raw, breathless disbelief.
"Say it again," Hayes commanded, though it sounded dangerously close to a plea. "Aria, what did you just say?"
A tear slipped down her cheek, clean and bright. "I said yes, Hayes. I want to be with you. From now until the very end."
A ragged, sharp intake of breath echoed through the receiver. "Are you mocking me?" he asked, a dark, almost twisted laugh cutting through his words. "Is this a new game to protect your precious Ethan? Because let me warn you—even if this is a cruel lie, even if you are just using me, I am pathetic enough to take it. I am desperate enough to keep you anyway."
The sheer weight of his hidden devotion shattered what was left of her composure. "It's not a lie," she whispered, her voice trembling with the ghost of a thousand regrets. "I was blind, Hayes. But I'm awake now. Is it too late for me to fix this?"
"Never," he rasped, the word vibrating with a fierce, possessive finality. "You are mine now. You don't get to change your mind."
"But I have a condition," she added, her voice gaining strength. "I need you to come get me. Right now."
Less than thirty minutes later, a black Maybach purred to a stop at the end of the long, circular driveway of the Foster estate. Hayes Decker emerged from the back seat. He was taller than she remembered, dressed in a perfectly tailored dark suit that seemed to absorb the morning light. He stood there, the master of the universe, yet his dark eyes were filled with a raw uncertainty as he watched her approach.
She saw him, really saw him for the first time. She saw the man who had screamed her name outside a burning building. The man who had offered her a fortress when she was walking willingly into a slaughterhouse.
An intense wave of grief and fierce, protective gratitude crashed over her. Seeing him whole, breathing, and alive—unmarred by the horrific flames of her past life—sent a painful throb through her chest. The sheer magnitude of losing him and miraculously getting him back made her knees weak.
Before he could speak, before he could question or analyze, she closed the distance between them. She didn't care about decorum or the sharp, calculating look in his eyes. She reached out, her trembling hands cupping his cold, sharp jawline, forcing him to look down into her eyes.
"I'm here, Hayes," she sobbed softly, staring into the dark depths of his gaze. "I'm not going anywhere. This lifetime, I only want you."
Hayes froze, his entire body rigid under her touch. His fingers came up, gently gripping her chin, his dark eyes searching her face with an intensity that bordered on manic. "I love you so damn much, Aria," he muttered, his voice dropping to a harsh, broken whisper. "And you've always hated me for it. If this is a trap, if you break my heart again, I will tear the world apart. But right now... God help me, I don't care."
She stood on her toes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and pressed her lips to his.
It was a kiss that tasted of ashes and second chances. A promise. A declaration. This time, she was choosing him.
