ARIA'S POV
The coffee cup shattered against the wall of my office.
I watched the dark liquid drip down the glass, staining the white paint like old blood. My hand was still extended, trembling. Not from anger—I'd burned through anger three years ago. This was something colder. Something that tasted like revenge.
"Ms. Stone?" My assistant's voice crackled through the intercom. "Are you alright? I heard—"
"I'm fine, Jessica." I smoothed down my red suit jacket, the color of wine and war. "Just… redecorating."
Through my office window, Silverpine City sprawled below like a kingdom I'd conquered one contract at a time. Somewhere out there, in a building I used to call home, a man was preparing for a meeting. He thought he was meeting with Ria Stone, tech billionaire. Venture capitalist. Stranger.
He had no idea he was about to sit across from his dead wife.
"Mom?"
I turned. Ash stood in the doorway, his laptop tucked under one arm. At eight years old, my son was too smart for his own good. Too observant. Right now, those amber eyes—*his father's eyes*—were studying me with concern that made my chest ache.
"Are we visiting Dad today?"
The question punched the air from my lungs.
*Dad.* Such a simple word. Such an impossible concept.
"We're visiting a business associate, sweetheart." I knelt down, tucking a strand of dark hair behind his ear. Hair the same shade as the man who'd never wanted us. "Not the same thing."
"Then why do you look sad?"
*Because I'm about to walk back into hell wearing expensive shoes and a fake smile.*
"I'm not sad." I kissed his forehead. "I'm ready."
Ash frowned, unconvinced. "Marcus says when you wear red, someone's about to lose money."
I couldn't help but smile. Marcus knew me too well. "Marcus is very wise."
"Is the business associate going to lose money?"
"Everything he ever took from me."
Ash didn't understand. How could he? He didn't know that seven years ago, I was a different person. A softer person. A woman who'd stood at an altar in a white dress, heart full of stupid hope, watching the most beautiful man in the world fail to smile.
*Love takes time,* I'd told myself on our wedding night when Dante Blackwood, my fated mate, my *husband*, slept in his office instead of our bed.
*He's just stressed,* I'd whispered six months later, eating dinner alone for the hundredth time.
*He'll change when we have a baby,* I'd prayed, pregnant and terrified, my body breaking under the weight of carrying an Alpha's child.
He never changed.
Not when I nearly died bringing our son into the world, blood soaking the hospital sheets while he stood by the window, silent as stone.
Not when I took a silver bullet meant for his heart, the metal burning through my ribs while he said "thank you" like I'd passed him coffee.
Not even when I caught him with *her.* Sienna Frost. His childhood friend. His pack advisor. His true love.
But the worst part? The part that killed me?
Watching my baby boy—my *Kai*, the child I'd almost died to give him—run into Sienna's arms calling her "Mommy."
That's when Aria Winters died.
And Ria Stone was born.
"Ms. Stone." Jessica's voice jolted me back to the present. "The car's ready. Blackwood Enterprises is expecting you in thirty minutes."
Thirty minutes until I walked back into that building.
Thirty minutes until I faced the man who'd destroyed me.
Thirty minutes until Dante Blackwood discovered his biggest mistake.
I stood, checking my reflection in the window. Gone was the woman who'd hidden behind thick glasses and baggy sweaters. Gone was the Luna who'd made herself small, hoping he'd notice her sacrifice.
The woman staring back at me wore power like armor. Red lips. Sharp eyes. A body I'd learned to love after years of hating it for not being enough.
"Come on, Ash." I held out my hand. "Time to meet Mommy's competition."
"I thought you said he was an associate?"
"Same thing in business, baby."
We rode the elevator down in silence. Marcus waited by the black SUV, his tall frame relaxed but alert. He saw my face and knew.
"You sure about this?" he asked quietly, opening my door.
"No."
"Want to turn around?"
"Never."
He smiled. Marcus understood. He'd found me three years ago, broken and pregnant, hiding in a cheap motel with nothing but a laptop and rage. He'd helped me build NovaTech from nothing. Helped me become someone even I didn't recognize.
"Then let's go remind an Alpha why you don't underestimate Omegas."
The drive took fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes of Ash playing on his tablet, unaware. Fifteen minutes of my heart hammering against my ribs, against the scar that still burned sometimes in the cold.
*He shot me,* I reminded myself. Well, not directly. But he'd stood there. Stood there while that rival Alpha aimed. Stood there frozen while I'd thrown myself between them.
I'd been so stupid. So desperately, pathetically in love.
Never again.
The SUV pulled up to Blackwood Enterprises. The building looked the same—all glass and steel and money. I'd walked through these doors a thousand times as Luna. As wife. As ghost.
Now I was walking through as conqueror.
"Stay in the car with Marcus," I told Ash. "I'll be back soon."
"Okay, Mom." He didn't look up from his game.
I stepped out. The autumn air bit cold, but not as cold as my resolve.
Jessica met me at the entrance with my briefcase. "Mr. Blackwood is in Conference Room A. He insisted on meeting you personally."
Of course he did. Dante Blackwood didn't let anyone else handle important deals. Control freak to the core.
My heels clicked against marble floors I used to walk barefoot. Past offices where people used to bow their heads to their Luna. Now they didn't recognize me. Didn't know.
Perfect.
The conference room doors loomed ahead. Behind them, my past waited. My pain. My biggest regret.
But also my biggest victory.
Because Dante Blackwood was about to learn what happened when you threw away a diamond thinking it was glass.
I reached for the door handle.
"Ms. Stone?" Jessica's whisper stopped me. "I should mention—Mr. Blackwood brought his son to the office today. Five-year-old. Apparently the nanny called in sick."
My blood turned to ice.
*Kai.*
My Kai was in this building.
The son I'd left behind. The baby I'd kissed goodbye while he slept, knowing if I stayed another day I'd die. The child who didn't remember me. Didn't know me.
Didn't want me.
"Which office?" My voice sounded distant, not my own.
"The playroom on the third floor. Why—"
I shoved open the conference room doors.
And there he sat.
Dante Blackwood. My husband. My mate. My destroyer.
Four years hadn't changed him. Still beautiful. Still cold. Still the man who'd broken me without even trying.
His ice-blue eyes met mine.
And I watched his entire world shatter.
"Hello, *husband,*" I said, my voice steady as a blade. "Miss me?"
The pen fell from his hand.
Somewhere in this building, my son was playing.
The son who thought another woman was his mother.
Let the war begin.