Chapter 4

Aria shot a glance at my back, but Ezra just laughed and waved off her worry.

"What are you scared of? He's not from Camelback Village. He can't understand a word of the dialect we speak here."

Only then did Aria relax, turning to meet one curious pair of eyes after another.

"Don't play dumb!"

"No, come on, we want to hear it from your own mouth. Wouldn't that make the story of your little affair so much juicier?"

Ezra was the first to speak. "So do you all know who hired those guys?"

"Wait, was it... you?"

"Smart."

"He kept getting in the way. We were right in the middle of the best part, and I didn't want anyone interrupting us."

The whole room burst into laughter.

Some laughed at how pathetic I was, others said Ezra had come down too hard on me.

And Aria, who'd sworn up and down that she'd never let outsiders bully me, forgot every one of those promises now, laughing right along with them, thoroughly pleased with herself.

I clenched my fists as tight as I could, but I didn't have the courage to get up and face them.

Because I knew I couldn't win against all of them. Even if I made a scene, there'd be no way to make them pay.

"That must've felt amazing for the two of you, teaming up to hurt poor Nat."

"His head's green as grass and he's lying there sleeping, not knowing a thing."

The worst part was Aria sitting right beside me, her hand stroking my back to lull me to sleep while she went on trading jokes with them in that airy, unbothered voice.

"What I'm most worried about right now is the baby in my belly."

The room went quiet for a few seconds, and I froze.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm pregnant. But it's not Nat's."

Ezra laughed, full of pride. "It's mine. We started two months ago, right in Nat's own place... heh heh!"

"You dog, look at you go!"

"That thing's got real stamina."

"Aria, don't worry about it."

"If you can't bear to get rid of it, just say it's Nat's, easy as that!"

"Guess that's the only way. Make Nat a proud daddy!"

When I heard that, the last shred of what Aria had once been to me was gone.

From the pure, lovely girl she used to be to the ruin of her now, it took only a few sentences from her mouth.

I thought my chest would ache again, but it stayed as quiet as ever.

I didn't choose to tear off the mask. Instead I accepted a friend's offer of a job abroad.

The flight I booked was for the day of the wedding. That wedding would have a bride but no groom.

Seven days later, the wedding day came.

In the dressing room, Aria let Ezra's hands roam over her.

"Aria, won't you really reconsider me?"

"I love you no less than he does. Not by a bit!"

Aria liked Ezra's touch, and her body responded.

She couldn't hold back, and the two of them slept together again.

After all that, she fixed her makeup and her gown.

"From now on, this thing between us is over. You're not to come near me again, or interfere with our life."

Ezra breathed in the scent of her hair, calm and unbothered, not taking a single word of it to heart.

Once she'd finished, the bridesmaids came in to lead her out.

Inside the hotel, the hall was full of seated guests, but the groom still hadn't appeared.

Aria picked up her phone and called me, but the line wouldn't connect.

"What is he doing? Turning his phone off at a time like this."

The words had barely left her mouth when my friend came in carrying a box.

"Aria, Nat has a gift for you."

"He told me he wanted you to open it the moment you got it."

The Harding family smiled, well satisfied, sure their son-in-law knew how to keep their girl happy.

But when Aria tore open the wrapping and saw what was in her hands, she was so terrified she flung it away, half out of her wits.

"Hey! What's wrong with you? Didn't Nat ever tell you he used to be from Camelback Village too?"