Dominic's POV
"The baby might not have been mine."
The words hang in the air like poison. Aria's face goes completely white. She sways on her feet and I move to catch her, but she stumbles backward.
"What did you just say?" Her voice is barely a whisper.
I shouldn't have said it. I should have kept that secret buried forever. But it's too late now.
"That night we were together," I say, my throat tight. "You were drunk. Really drunk. And the next morning, you couldn't remember everything that happened."
"I remember enough," Aria says. "I remember being with you."
"But there was a gap. Three hours you couldn't account for." My hands are shaking. "When you told me you were pregnant, the timing... it was possible it wasn't mine. That maybe something happened during those missing hours."
Aria's knees give out. Celeste catches her before she hits the floor.
"You thought I cheated?" Aria's voice breaks. "For five years, you thought I got pregnant by someone else?"
"I didn't know what to think! You couldn't remember! And when you showed up pregnant six weeks later—"
"So you married me out of duty and treated me like garbage because you thought I was carrying another man's baby?" Aria's laugh is horrible. "Oh my God. Oh my God!"
"That's not the whole story," Celeste says quietly. She's still holding Aria up. "Tell her the rest, Dominic."
I don't want to. This is the part that makes me a monster. But Aria deserves the truth.
"When you were in the hospital after the complications, the doctors told me the baby was dying. They said they could try to save the baby or focus on saving you, but probably not both." I force myself to look at her. "I chose you."
"Because the baby wasn't yours," Aria says flatly.
"No! Because you were my wife! Because I couldn't stand the thought of losing you!" The words explode out of me. "I didn't care whose baby it was in that moment. I just knew I couldn't let you die."
"But after?" Aria's eyes are cold. "After I survived and the baby was gone? You were relieved. I saw it on your face."
She's right. I was relieved. Not because the baby died—God, never that—but because I didn't have to face the truth of whose child it was.
"The doctors offered to do a DNA test," I continue. "On the... on what was left. To know for sure. I said no."
"Why?" Aria demands.
"Because if the baby wasn't mine, it meant you'd cheated. And I'd have to divorce you and deal with the scandal. But if the baby was mine, then I'd killed my own child to save you, and I'd have to live with that guilt forever." I slump against the wall. "Either way, I lost. So I chose not to know. I chose to just... move forward."
"You chose to punish me instead," Aria says. "You chose to treat me like a mistake for five years because you were too much of a coward to find out the truth."
She's right. About all of it.
"I'm sorry," I whisper. "Aria, I'm so sorry."
"Sorry?" She pushes away from Celeste and stands on her own. Her whole body is shaking. "You're sorry? You destroyed our marriage over a lie you told yourself! You blamed me for something I didn't even do!"
"You don't know that you didn't—"
"YES, I DO!" Aria screams. "Because I remember now! I remember ALL of it! Those three hours weren't missing because I did something wrong. They were missing because YOU gave me something!"
The room goes silent.
"What?" My voice comes out strangled.
"That night. At the wedding. You gave me a drink. You said it would help me relax because I was nervous around you." Aria's crying now, angry tears streaming down her face. "I drank it and everything got fuzzy. I remember pieces—being in your hotel room, you asking if I was okay, me saying yes. But I wasn't okay. I was drugged!"
"I didn't drug you!" Horror floods through me. "Aria, I would never—"
"Not on purpose! But someone put something in that drink before you gave it to me! And you were too drunk yourself to notice!" She's pacing now, hands in her hair. "I figured it out two years ago. I've been going to therapy, recovering memories. That's where those three hours went. Not because I cheated. Because someone drugged me at that wedding!"
The floor drops out from under me.
"Why didn't you tell me?" I can barely speak.
"Why would I? You'd already decided I was guilty! You'd already made up your mind that I betrayed you! Why would you believe me?"
She's right. I wouldn't have believed her. I was so convinced of her guilt that I never even considered another explanation.
"The baby was yours, Dominic," Aria says, and her voice breaks completely. "Our daughter was yours. And you killed her because you were too paranoid and too proud to trust me."
Daughter. We had a daughter.
"How do you know it was a girl?" I whisper.
"Because I asked the doctors. After you left the hospital. After you couldn't even stay in my room for more than five minutes. I asked them to tell me everything you refused to know." Aria wipes her eyes. "Her heart was perfect. Her tiny fingers were perfect. Everything was perfect except she was too small and my body was giving up and you chose me."
"I chose you," I repeat numbly.
"The wrong choice." Aria's looking at me with such hatred. "You should have saved her. You should have let me die and saved our daughter. Because at least then, she would have had a chance. At least then, she would have had a father who wanted her."
"Aria, no—"
"Get away from me." She backs toward the door. "I can't look at you. I can't be near you. I can't—"
She runs. Again. And this time I don't follow. Because what can I say? What can I possibly say that would make any of this better?
Celeste is staring at me in horror. "Dom... you really thought she cheated? All this time?"
"I didn't know what to think," I say helplessly. "The timing was strange. She couldn't remember. I panicked and assumed the worst."
"You destroyed her over an assumption." Celeste shakes her head. "No wonder she hates you."
My phone buzzes. A text from that unknown number again:
"Still think you're the victim here? Still think Aria's the one who betrayed you? Guess what, Dominic. The person who drugged that drink? The person who caused all of this? They're closer than you think."
I stare at the message. "Who is sending these?"
Another text:
"Ask Celeste. She knows."
I look up at my ex-girlfriend. She's gone pale.
"Celeste?" My voice is dangerous. "What do they mean, you know?"
"I don't know what you're talking about—"
"Don't lie to me! Not now! Not after everything!" I grab her shoulders. "Who drugged Aria's drink five years ago?"
Celeste won't meet my eyes.
"Celeste, answer me!"
"I didn't know they were going to do it!" The words burst out of her. "I swear I didn't know! I just mentioned to Mother that you were getting close to Aria at that wedding, and she said she'd handle it—"
My blood runs cold. "Your mother? Elena drugged Aria?"
"She didn't mean for her to get pregnant! She just wanted Aria to embarrass herself so you'd lose interest!" Celeste is crying now. "But then you two ended up together anyway, and Aria got pregnant, and Mother said to just let it play out—"
"Let it PLAY OUT?" I'm shouting now. "Your mother drugged my wife, caused a pregnancy, and then what? Just watched while I destroyed my marriage over it?"
"She thought you'd divorce Aria eventually! She thought you'd come back to me!" Celeste reaches for me but I step back. "Dom, I didn't know about the drug until years later. I swear. And by then, the damage was done—"
"Get out."
"What?"
"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" My voice echoes off the walls. "Get out and never come back! You and your psycho mother destroyed my life! You destroyed Aria! You destroyed everything!"
Celeste runs for the door, sobbing.
I stand alone in my empty penthouse, the truth crashing over me like waves.
Elena drugged Aria five years ago. My mother-in-law orchestrated the night that led to the pregnancy. The pregnancy I doubted. The marriage I sabotaged. The wife I treated like a criminal.
And through it all, Aria was innocent.
My phone buzzes one more time:
"Now you know the truth about five years ago. Want to know what Aria's been hiding for the last four years? Meet me at Brooklyn Children's Hospital. Room 302. Come alone. Come now. Before Aria runs so far you'll never find her—or your daughter—again."
Daughter?
But our daughter died.
Unless...
Oh God.
I grab my keys and run.