The Maid's Deception-Chapter 80 - 79: Three Days Later

ARIA’S POV - Day Three, Morning

Aria stared at the ceiling of her mother’s small apartment, watching the morning light creep across the plaster, and tried to remember what it felt like to want to be alive.

Three days since she’d left the estate.

Three days since Damien had walked away from her in that greenhouse.

Three days of existing in a fog so thick she could barely see through it.

Her phone buzzed on the nightstand....Marcus again, probably. He’d been calling twice a day, checking on her, bringing food she couldn’t eat, trying to coax her back into the world of the living.

She wasn’t ready yet ,so she ignored it.

What was the point? Her mother was alive and recovering beautifully....moved to a regular room yesterday, the doctors amazed at her progress. The Vitalis Radix treatment was working exactly as Damien had promised it would.

Damien. Even thinking his name hurt.

She forced herself to sit up, her body still sore from their brutal final encounter. Every movement reminded her of him. Of his hands on her hips. Of the way he’d taken her virginity against the door. Of the seven orgasms he’d wrung from her body while trying to exhaust her into staying.

It hadn’t worked. She’d left anyway. Had betrayed him anyway.

And now she was paying the price.

The apartment door opened.....her mother had given Marcus a key.....and she heard his familiar footsteps.

"Aria?" His voice was gentle but firm. "I know you’re awake. I can hear you moving around."

She didn’t respond.

Marcus appeared in the bedroom doorway, holding a bag from her favorite breakfast place. He took one look at her and his expression shifted from concerned to alarmed.

"Jesus Christ, Aria. When’s the last time you ate?"

"I don’t know. Yesterday? The day before?"

"The day before yesterday. I brought you dinner and you took two bites." He set the bag down on the dresser. "You’ve lost weight. You look...Aria, you look like you’re dying."

"I’m fine."

"You’re not fine. You’re destroying yourself." He sat on the edge of the bed. "Your mother is worried sick about you. She’s supposed to be recovering, getting stronger, but instead she’s lying in that hospital bed terrified that her daughter is going to waste away to nothing."

Guilt twisted in Aria’s stomach. "I’ll eat. I promise. I just....I’m not hungry."

"It’s not about being hungry. It’s about surviving." Marcus’s voice was sharp now. "You saved your mother’s life. Don’t throw away your own in the process."

"I’m not...." 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"You are. You haven’t showered in two days. You’re not eating. You’re not sleeping.....I can see the circles under your eyes. You’re just.....existing. Barely. And it needs to stop."

"I don’t know how to stop." The words came out broken, honest. "I don’t know how to be okay when everything inside me is screaming that I destroyed the best thing that ever happened to me. I don’t know how to move forward when all I want to do is go back."

Marcus pulled her into a hug, and Aria finally let herself cry again. She’d thought she’d run out of tears. She’d been wrong.

"I know it hurts," Marcus said quietly. "I know you’re devastated. But Aria....you have to keep living. You have to keep breathing. Because that’s what people who love you need you to do."

"He doesn’t love me anymore. He can’t. Not after what I did."

"You don’t know that."

"I do. You didn’t see his face, Marcus. You didn’t hear his voice. He looked at me like I was nothing. Like everything we’d shared meant nothing. Like I’d killed something inside him that could never come back."

"Then maybe that’s what you deserve to feel right now. The full weight of what you did." Marcus’s voice was kind but honest. "But you don’t get to destroy yourself over it. You don’t get to give up. You face it. You carry it. You figure out how to live with it. That’s what being an adult means."

Aria pulled back, wiping her eyes. "How? How do I live with this?"

"One day at a time. One hour at a time if that’s all you can manage." He gestured to the breakfast bag. "Start with eating something. Then showering. Then visiting your mother. Small steps. That’s all you can do."

He was right. She knew he was right.

But god, it was so hard to care about small steps when her entire world had collapsed.

DAMIEN’S POV - Day Three, Afternoon

Damien sat in his office.....the formal one on the ground floor, not his private study upstairs.....and tried to focus on the contract in front of him.

He’d been staring at the same paragraph for twenty minutes.

The words wouldn’t make sense. Couldn’t penetrate the fog of pain and rage and devastating loss that had taken up permanent residence in his head.

Three days since she’d left.

Three days of barely functioning.

Three days of everyone around him walking on eggshells, terrified of saying the wrong thing and triggering another explosion.

He’d fired two people yesterday. Both for minor infractions that normally wouldn’t have even registered. He’d felt nothing as he’d done it. No satisfaction. No regret. Just emptiness.

His phone buzzed. A text from the hospital:

Patient Mei Chen has been moved to regular room. Recovery exceeds expectations. Treatment success rate: 97%. Continued monitoring for three more weeks recommended.

Good. Her mother would live. Would be completely healthy. Would get to watch her daughter move on, find happiness, build a life.

Everything Aria had sacrificed him for.

He should feel satisfied. Vindicated. He’d done the right thing, saved a dying woman despite her daughter’s betrayal.

Instead, he just felt hollow.

Another buzz. This one from Julian:

I’m coming over. Don’t try to stop me. We’re talking whether you want to or not.

Damien almost smiled. Almost. Julian had always been stubborn.

He didn’t bother responding. Just waited.

Twenty minutes later, Julian walked into his office without knocking, took one look at him, and shook his head.

"You look like shit."

"Thank you for that astute observation."

"When’s the last time you slept? And I mean actually slept, not passed out from exhaustion in your study at 3 AM."

"I don’t know. What day is it?"

"Thursday. It’s been three days, Damien. Three days of this.....whatever this is. And it needs to stop."

"I’m working. I’m functioning. What more do you want?"

"I want my friend back." Julian sat in the chair across from his desk. "The one who doesn’t fire people for bringing him the wrong coffee. The one who doesn’t cancel meetings with major investors. The one who doesn’t look like a ghost."

"Maybe that friend is gone."

"Bullshit. He’s in there somewhere. Buried under all this pain and rage. But he’s there."

Damien finally looked up from the contract he’d been pretending to read. "Why are you here, Julian? What do you want from me?"

"I want you to admit that you’re destroying yourself. That this....." He gestured at Damien, at the office, at everything. "This isn’t sustainable. You can’t keep going like this."

"Watch me."

"For how long? A week? A month? A year? How long are you going to punish yourself for loving someone who couldn’t trust you?"

The words hit like a physical blow.

"I’m not punishing myself. I’m protecting myself. There’s a difference."

"Is there? Because from where I’m sitting, it looks like you’re doing to yourself what she did to you. You’re destroying something good....your life, your health, your happiness....because you’re too hurt to see another way forward."

"Don’t compare us. Don’t you dare." Damien’s voice was cold. "I’m not the one who lied. I’m not the one who betrayed trust. I’m not the one who destroyed everything we built."

"No. You’re just the one who won’t forgive her for being human. For being scared. For making a terrible choice under impossible circumstances."

"She had a choice!" The words exploded out of him. "She always had a choice! She could have asked me for help at any point! Any moment of any day! And she chose to lie instead. Every. Single. Time."

"You’re right. She did." Julian’s voice was maddeningly calm. "And she’s paying for it. Do you know how I know? Because Lucy talked to her yesterday. And she said Aria sounds like someone who’s given up. Like someone who’s just going through the motions of being alive because her mother needs her to, but who’s already dead inside."

Something in Damien’s chest clenched painfully.

"That’s not my problem."

"Isn’t it? You love her. You told me yourself....you love her so much you can’t breathe without it hurting. So her pain IS your problem, whether you want it to be or not."

"Stop."

"Why? Because the truth hurts? Because it’s easier to stay angry than to admit that you miss her? That you’d take her back in a heartbeat if she just...."

"STOP!" Damien stood abruptly, his chair slamming back against the wall. "Just stop, Julian. Stop trying to fix this. Stop trying to make me forgive her. Stop acting like love is enough to overcome betrayal!"

"Love is the only thing that can overcome betrayal!" Julian stood too, facing him across the desk. "Yes, she fucked up. Massively. Unforgivably, maybe. But Damien....you fucked up too. You played games instead of being honest. You tested her instead of just helping her. You let her spiral into desperation because you wanted her to come to you on your terms."

"Get out."

"No."

"I said get out of my office!"

"Make me." Julian’s jaw was set. "I’m your best friend. I’ve been your best friend for fifteen years. And I’m not going to stand by and watch you destroy yourself because you’re too stubborn to admit that you’re just as scared as she was."

"Scared? I’m not scared. I’m furious. I’m devastated. I’m...."

"Terrified," Julian finished. "Terrified that if you forgive her, she’ll hurt you again. Terrified that love isn’t enough. Terrified that you gave her everything and she still chose to betray you, which means you weren’t enough. That’s what this is really about, isn’t it? Not her betrayal. But what her betrayal says about you."

The words landed like bombs, detonating something deep inside Damien’s chest.

"You don’t know what you’re talking about."

"Don’t I? I’ve known you since we were fifteen years old. I know how your mind works. I know that when your mother died, you blamed yourself for not being there. For not being enough to save her. And now Aria has confirmed your worst fear.....that no matter how much you give, how much you love, how much you try....it’s never enough."

"Get. Out." Damien’s voice was shaking now. "Get out before I do something we’ll both regret."

Julian held his gaze for a long moment, then sighed. "Fine. I’ll go. But Damien? You need to decide what you’re angrier about.....what she did, or what it made you feel. Because until you figure that out, you’re going to stay stuck in this hell you’ve created for yourself."

He left, closing the door quietly behind him.

And Damien stood alone in his office, his hands clenched into fists, Julian’s words echoing in his head.

It’s never enough. You’re never enough.

Was that what this was really about? Not her betrayal, but his own inadequacy?

No. No, he refused to accept that. This was about her choices. Her lies. Her inability to trust him even when he’d given her every reason to.

He returned to his desk, determined to focus on work, on anything except the gaping wound where his heart used to be.

But the contract still wouldn’t make sense. The words still wouldn’t penetrate.

All he could see was her face. Her tears. Her devastation when she’d realized he’d known all along.

"I’m sorry I wasn’t enough," her note had said.

But maybe the real question was: Had he been enough? Had he done enough to make her feel safe? To make her believe he’d help her?

Or had he been so focused on making her trust him on his terms that he’d failed to see how desperately she needed him to just offer without being asked?

The thought was unbearable. Unacceptable.

But it wouldn’t go away.