𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐒

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟏𝟒 - 𝐒𝐎𝐏𝐇𝐈𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐒

Sophie

I open my phone to a notification from Valeria Xia, the fucking Valeria Xia. It's an invitation to go to dinner with her once I'm in New York. Dinner with her friends, also known as the divine Nine, consisted of Danika Li, Valentina Cao, Scarlett Wright, Leanora Petrova, Arianna Fiora, Avalina Moreno, Milana Hua, Catalina Romano, and last but not least, Valeria Davina Xia. Every guy in New York wanted to fuck them, and every girl wanted to be them. My girls and I were referred to as the 'divine 4' of San Fransisco.

All of the girls held somesort of title or wealth, but four of them were the purest and the definition of Old money. Avalina Moreno, daughter of a billionaire, Arianna Fiora, is also the daughter of a billionaire and one of the most successful models in the world. Valeria was Valeria, the Imperial crown princess of China, the daughter of a multi-billionaire luxury realtor, and owned her multi-billionaire fashion company. Milana Hua, the cousin of Valeria... also a princess.
(anywayss this is me girlsplaining ignore it)

Either way, it was good I got invited to the dinner; we needed more connections in New York. I knew Ares had them through Adrien Dupont and from himself, but after the fiasco with my family, I needed connections for myself. Not for my family. I did enough for them, for myself.

I dismissed Kenji as my assistant, but we were still staying at his place. I'd rather stay in a cozy, warm home than the large estates I'm used to. Growing up, it was all I knew, but I wanted something different, and this was that.

"The helicopters ready." Ares gestured to the roof of our house. For a while, I thought I hated him, but now I say this with certainty. I don't think I ever did. For a few weeks, we had become something, I don't know what. There really wasn't a definition. It was just something. I had a million reasons to hate him – being forced into a marriage, ignoring me for the first days, and being so cold to his own wife but a million reasons not to – him carrying me back in the rain, spending 400k on a bracelet, standing up for me when my family couldn't and just being there.  I am in limbo, and I don't like it. I don't like this feeling. Part of me also knows I didn't end things with Kenji just because of the press; perhaps I was too stupid and naive to realize it, but I was falling for him. I was falling for Ares Russo.

I meet Ares's gaze, and it's different than when I first met him, softer. Still cold and detached but somehow softer. 

"Where are my bags?"

"They're already in the helicopter."

Ares

My eyes fall onto her body. Her hair slipped into a messy bun. She looked so different from yesterday, not a bad different, never a bad different, but even in sweats, she radiated a glow, and in a world full of fleeting stars, she was my constant, my eternal sunrise. Looking at her made me feel something I've never felt, looking at her made my heart beat in a way it never has, and to be quite honest, I hated it. I hated that she had such control over me. I had made a pact, a pact not to fall in love and I'm on the verge of breaking it. That's the first time I admitted it. The first, and perhaps it's been bottling up since the moment I met her, or perhaps it's just a simple attraction, but I don't think it is. I think I'm falling for her. I'm falling for Sophie Wang.

When Kenji kissed her, I didn't do anything, and I regret that with every fiber of my being, I regret not stopping it. She can kiss whoever she wants, but at the end of the day, she's my wife, even if it's not by choice. Sophie is my wife. 

"You excited?" she asks with a light smile.

For New York? No. If I could, I would take the first plane back, but this was important to her and no way was I leaving her in that hell of a town alone.

I nod my head slightly, "Of course." she seems surprised by my answer, as if she can see through my lie. Perhaps she can, but I pray she doesn't because if she does, it means she'll have questions as to why. But right now, I'm not ready to give those answers, but if there were one person that I'd tell, it'd be her.

Around halfway into the flight, Sophie's head falls upon my shoulder, and as I glance over, I notice her eyes are closed. She's asleep. My body tenses from her touch, and I stay ever so still, careful not to wake her up.

The hum of the airplane engines gradually faded as we stepped onto the tarmac, greeted by the crisp air of a hell disguised as a city.

We collected our bags and headed towards the waiting car, the chauffeur standing with an unwavering posture. Sophie was laughing about how awesome this trip was going to be, but New York was anything but awesome. Sophie had two sides: her true self and the self she wears in business. Both are perfect. I nodded along, my mind, however, preoccupied with the looming presence of a past I hadn't revisited in years.

The drive started under the sprawling city lights, skyscrapers towering overhead, casting shadows that danced along the roads. Sophie's laughter filled the car, the warmth of her joy momentarily easing the tension that coiled within me. The cityscape gradually transformed into familiar suburban streets. What the fuck. Where were we going? As we neared the imposing structure, I felt a tightening in my chest as I realized where we were: my childhood home. Even after ten years, I recognized the place at first glance; how could I forget? My grip tightened, fingers tracing the faint patterns of scars underneath my sleeve. Luck was not on my side; out of all the places we could have gone, this was where we were staying. Here is my exact definition of hell.

"We're here," the chauffeur announced as the car pulled up in front of the house that held my darkest secrets. My chest tightened, and a familiar knot formed in my stomach. The façade, unchanged over the years, stared back at me with silent accusation. I took a deep breath, attempting to conceal the tremor in my hands.

"Everything okay, Ares?" Sophie's voice broke through the haze of my memories, concern etched across her face.

"Yeah, yeah, just remembered something I need to take care of," I replied, my attempt at casualness falling flat even to my own ears.

I could feel the weight of her gaze on me as I stepped out of the car, my movements betraying the unease I couldn't shake. The front door creaked open, each step harder than the previous. Nothing was changed. It all looked the same. The fireplace where my father hit me. The walls where my father threw me onto.

I reached the threshold of the living room... the place where my father drunkenly... thinking I was my mother's killer. The memories flooded back, vivid as if etched into the very fabric of the walls. Sophie's voice calling my name pulled me back from the brink, but the shadows lingered.

"I... I can't do this," I stammered, my gaze avoiding hers. "I need to leave, Soph."

Without waiting for her response, I turned and walked out as the front door closed behind me; the weight lifted, but the scars of that house remained etched into my soul, visible only to the ghosts of my history.

I walked and walked until the feeling of that place was shaken off, but it never came. Every single crevice of this city reminded me of him, reminded me of everything that was wrong in this world.

AUTHORS NOTE: Im having such a big writers block this chapter was literally physically squeezed out my fucking ass because it took so damn long to write such a short bad chapter but whatever. Idc (lie) im literally so pissed because my writing is shit today

GO READ SAY YOU LOVE ME ASWELLLLL