?Chapter 26: The Echo Chamber

                                        

                                              
Aria's POV

The moment Dominic carried her out of that place, smoke burning the sky behind them. Aria thought she could finally breathe again.
She was wrong.
Freedom came with a new kind of weight. One she wasn't sure she could carry.
⸻
They didn't speak on the ride home.
Dominic's jaw was locked tight, his hands white-knuckled on the steering wheel. His eyes glassy, distant. Not rage-filled, not even haunted. Just... Empty.
Aria sat in the passenger seat, wrapped in a blanket from the medical team Dominic had sent ahead. The bruises on her wrists throbbed, the dull ache in her ribs a constant reminder of what she'd just endured. But none of it compared to the deeper ache, the one that started the moment she saw Juliette Voss.
Alive.
A mother.
A traitor.
And somehow... a mirror.
⸻
Back inside the penthouse, Dominic didn't go to her.
He disappeared into his office, closing the door behind him without a word.
She stared after him, something in her chest breaking open.
He had always been fire, dangerous, untouchable, but this was something else. He was withdrawing. Slipping into silence. And silence from Dominic was more terrifying than all the shouting, all the fury, all the blood.
She sat on the edge of the bed and cried, quietly, so he wouldn't hear. So the baby wouldn't feel it.
But the baby did. A flutter beneath her ribs soft, almost apologetic.
They were both in limbo now. Waiting for him to come back... if he ever would.
⸻
Few days later, Juliette returned.
She didn't knock.
She walked into the penthouse like she belonged there, with a cup of tea in one hand and a leather journal in the other.
Aria was in the nursery, half-finished, half-forgotten. standing over the empty crib Dominic had ordered just before everything fell apart.
"Aria," Juliette said gently from the doorway.
Aria turned, cold and alert. "What do you want?"
"I thought we might talk." Juliette said with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. 
"Dominic doesn't want to see you." Aria told her immediately, she wasn't going to entertain her if Dominic wasn't. 
"I'm not here for him." Juliette said 
That answer stopped her.
Juliette stepped inside, her eyes sweeping over the nursery. "This is lovely, You've softened him." Moving further into the nursery. 
Aria clenched her fists. "You broke him." Aria wasn't comfortable with her presence but she tolerated it. 
Juliette exhaled, long and slow. "I did what I had to For survival."
"You gave your own son to a monster." Aria shouted angrily. 
"I gave him to someone who could make him strong." 
Aria's voice cracked. "You abandoned him."
Juliette finally met her eyes. "And yet, you stayed."
That hit too close. Too raw.
Aria turned away, hiding the tears threatening her again.
⸻
Juliette set the journal down on the rocking chair.
"I kept this for years, Letters I wrote to Dominic. Truths I never sent."
Aria didn't touch it.
Juliette stepped closer. "I don't hate you, Aria. In fact... I pity you."
That made Aria's spine straighten. "Pity?"
"Because you love him. And love is a weakness in this world. Especially for a man like Dominic. You think you're saving him, but he's not meant to be saved. He's meant to rule."
Aria's pulse thudded.
"And that child," Juliette added, eyes flicking to Aria's belly, "will either anchor him to humanity... or destroy what's left of it."
Aria whispered, "What are you trying to say?"
Juliette's smile was slight. "That every empire begins with betrayal."
She turned to leave, but paused at the door.
"You remind me of myself when I was young, Brave,  Reckless, Willing to love a man who lived in shadows. It almost destroyed me. And it will destroy you, too."
Then she left.
And Aria's knees buckled.
⸻
That night, she found him sitting in the dark in the study, staring at the old photo of his mother that had survived years of dust and rage.
He didn't look up when she entered.
"Juliette was here," she said.
"I know." He said 
"You let her in?" She was curious 
"She doesn't need permission." He told her dryly 
Aria walked closer, slowly. "You can't shut me out."
His voice was tired. "I already have."
"No," she whispered, kneeling in front of him. "Don't let her win. Don't let what she did define who you are."
He finally looked at her. And for the first time, there were tears in his eyes.
"I was just a boy," he whispered. "And she gave me away like I was nothing."
Aria placed his hand on her stomach. "You're not nothing. You're everything to me. To this baby. To yourself."
He leaned forward, pressing his forehead to hers. "I don't know who I am anymore."
"You're the man who came for me. Who burned the city down for me."
She cupped his face. "And I love you. Even when you scare me. Even when I want to run." For the first time she told him she loved him out loud, And she might it. 
Dominic kissed her, Desperate, Fragile, Real. "I love you always baby". 
⸻
The Journal
That night, while Dominic slept beside her for the first time in days, Aria went back into the nursery.
She opened Juliette's journal.
Inside were pages and pages of half-truths, of twisted logic. Letters to Dominic that started with "My son," and ended in guilt and silence.
But the last page...
It was a different ink. Fresher. Sloppier.
It read:
"Ivan has one more play. A name he hasn't spoken yet.
You must not trust Juliette.
If you're reading this, it may already be too late.
— L."
Aria's blood ran cold.
Luca? Was it a warning... or a trap?
⸻
She stood by the window, journal clutched to her chest.
Dominic stirred behind her, murmuring her name in his sleep.
And outside, across the street, under the glow of the flickering streetlight—
Juliette stood. Watching the penthouse. Her face unreadable.
She wasn't done.
Not by a long shot.