A Joke, A Lifelong Regret Chapter 06
Aria softened her voice and reached for my hand.
“Elena, we can go back to the way things were. Can’t we?”
She actually had the nerve to say that.
“Get away from me.’
I looked her dead in the eye. “Aria Bellamy. I never want to see you again.”
The ice in my voice stopped her cold. She stumbled back a few steps.
Damian caught her without thinking. The reflex was so smooth it was almost insulting.
Then he looked up at me, and for the first time, there was no warmth left in his voice to fake.
“So we lied to you. So what?”
“Elena, ask yourself honestly. Have we ever actually been bad to you?”
“Aria’s barely slept or eaten since all of this started. And I’ve been trying everything I can think of to make your life a little easier. We’ve both been working to minimize the damage.”
“Why is this the one thing you refuse to let go?”
I stood there and listened. The audacity almost made me laugh.
They were the ones who’d done this. And now they were standing here, one by one, blaming me for not being gracious enough about it.
I turned to the two detectives and the journalist.
“The rest of the evidence will be submitted shortly. Are we ready to go to the precinct for my statement?”
The journalist glanced at Damian with open disgust. She pulled a business card from her bag and held it out to me.
“Elena. Anything you need, reach out directly. Everything we filmed today goes to the newsroom.’
I nodded and took the card.
Damian seemed to snap back to himself.
“You’re serious about this?”
He moved fast, putting himself between the journalist and the door.
“You’re not leaving. Whatever you filmed gets destroyed right here.”
But before he finished talking, both detectives were already moving.
One of them produced a pair of handcuffs.
“Mr. Vale, you’re being detained on suspicion of forgery of government documents, marriage fraud, and fraudulent registration while concealing an existing legal marriage. Please come with us.”
Damian’s face went white.
Then, a beat later, the Vale heir composure clicked back into place.
He shot me a cold look and dialed the family’s legal team.
I didn’t wait around. I walked out.
Behind me, his hired cast was falling apart. The fake clerk tried to hide the paperwork. A detective caught him in the act and pinned him. The certificate with its official seal was sealed into an evidence bag.
Aria watched Damian for a second, then bolted after me.
“Elena, where are you going? Let me come with you.”
The sun outside was brutal.
I squinted against it. After all these years, it felt like the first time I was really seeing her clearly.
“Aria. The second you got tangled up with Damian, there was nothing left between us.”
“Don’t follow me.”
“Think about your reputation. Think about the Bellamy family. Think about what’s inside you.”
“It won’t be long before every old family on the East Coast knows the story. How you claimed you were testing my fiancé for me, and ended up in his bed yourself.”
Aria grabbed my arm, her voice breaking.
“Elena, if I had to choose between you and Damian, I’d choose you every single time. The baby, if,
you don’t want it, I won’t have it. If you want it, I’ll carry it to term. You can’t get pregnant. Having a child doesn’t have to be a bad thing…”
I cut her off.
“Aria Bellamy, I can barely look at Damian Vale without feeling sick. What on earth makes you think I’d want anything that came from the two of you?”
Her face lost every drop of color.
I shook her hand off.
“Stop using my infertility to dress up what you did.”
“The reason I can’t have children is because I took a knife for you.”
“Not so you could turn around someday, pregnant with my fiancé’s baby, and offer it to me as
payment.”
Behind me, Aria called out through her tears. “Elena! Are you really going to throw away everything
we’ve been to each other?”
I stopped walking. I didn’t turn around.
“You threw it away first.”
Then I kept going. I didn’t look back.