After Rebirth, I Became My Ex's Aunt-in-Law-Chapter 154: Sidestepping Delusion

"Relax, Jules," Kai said, waving a hand dismissively. He leaned back against the wall, thoroughly unbothered. "It’s just some fun, casual sex. We were bored. It’s entirely mutual."

"Women are emotional creatures, Kai," Julian stated, adjusting his glasses. "She doesn’t look like the type of woman who usually has ’casual fun’. As a matter of fact, she looks like she is already falling for you."

Kai scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest. "If she starts catching feelings, I’ll just end it. Clean break. I’m a professional."

"I don’t care about your love life," Julian clarified dryly. "I care about my own survival. Aria is fiercely protective of that girl. And she’s terrifying when she’s out for revenge. I’d end it now if I were you."

"I can handle Zoe," Kai grinned arrogantly. "And I can handle Sister-in-law."

A few feet away, standing before the glass partition of ICU Room 1, Damien tuned them out entirely.

Their petty, trivial drama sounded like static. Damien’s entire universe was currently condensed to the rhythmic beep of the heart monitor next to Aria’s bed.

He wanted to go inside. He wanted to sit in the uncomfortable plastic chair and hold her hand until she woke up. But he couldn’t. He was covered in the filth of the place that had almost stolen her from him.

"Sir," Ken’s voice interrupted softly.

Damien turned his head. Ken stood a respectful distance away, holding a black garment bag and a fresh pair of Oxford shoes.

"I secured the Head Surgeon’s private suite for you," Ken murmured. "Down the hall. You can shower and change."

Damien took the bag without a word.

He walked down the corridor. He keyed into the surgeon’s suite and locked the door behind him.

The bathroom was pristine, lined with white subway tiles and smelling of clinical bleach. Damien stripped off the ruined clothes, leaving them in a dark, muddy pile on the floor.

He stepped into the shower and turned the dial all the way up.

Scalding water rained down on him. It hit his skin like liquid fire, instantly turning the enclosure into a thick sauna of steam. He stood directly under the heavy spray, watching the brown, murky river water wash off his body and swirl down the stainless steel drain.

But the heat didn’t wash away the cold, leaden block of guilt sitting in his chest.

He closed his eyes, and the nightmare played on a loop behind his eyelids.

Aria falling backward into the dark void. Her lifeless, pale face on the riverbank. Her blue lips. He braced his hands against the wet tiles, his broad shoulders heaving. He had promised to protect her. He had sworn she was safe. And yet...

Damien’s jaw locked. A low, guttural snarl built in his throat.

SMACK.

His fist connected with the tiled wall with explosive, violent force.

The crack echoed over the roar of the water. Pain flared up his forearm, but it wasn’t enough to drown out the self-loathing.

He hated himself. But more than that, he hated the vulnerability that had allowed this to happen.

"Never again," Damien whispered to the steam, his golden eyes snapping open, blazing with a feral, terrifying darkness.

’Fuck her freedom,’ Damien thought, the protective instinct overriding every rational boundary he possessed.

When she woke up, she would never be out of his sight again. He would shadow her. He would barricade her. If he had to lock her in a golden tower at the center of his empire to keep her breathing, he would do it without a second of hesitation. He would rather have her alive and hating him than dead and free.

Damien turned the water off.

He dried off quickly, the cold air of the bathroom a welcome shock. He dressed in the fresh charcoal suit Ken had provided. He didn’t bother with a tie. He unbuttoned the top two buttons of his crisp white shirt and ran his fingers through his damp silver hair, pushing the strands back from his forehead.

He stepped out of the suite and walked back down the corridor toward the ICU.

As he turned the corner, he saw two burly, heavily armed private military contractors taking their posts directly outside Aria’s door.

Damien kept his stride long and purposeful, his eyes locked on his wife’s room.

Suddenly, a figure darted out from the intersecting hallway, moving far too fast.

It was a classic, clumsy collision course—the kind of romantic-comedy "meet-cute" where the girl trips, the handsome billionaire catches her by the waist, and their eyes lock.

But Damien didn’t play by romantic-comedy rules.

He saw her coming in his periphery. Without breaking his stride, without even changing his expression, Damien simply shifted his weight and sidestepped to the left.

The woman, expecting to hit a solid wall of billionaire muscle, instead hit empty air.

"Ah!" she yelped, her arms flailing.

She faceplanted directly onto the hard floor with a loud, ungraceful smack. Her sensible navy blazer bunched up around her ears, and her purse spilled its contents across the hallway.

Damien stopped. He looked down at the crumpled heap on the floor with the cold, detached curiosity of a man inspecting a squashed bug.

It was Leo’s sister.

She scrambled to her hands and knees, her face flushing a violent, humiliated crimson.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry!" Jade stuttered, grabbing blindly for her lipstick and keys on the floor. She looked up at him through her lashes, trying to look flustered and adorable. "I am so clumsy! I didn’t even see you there, Mr. Sinclair!"

Damien stared down at her, his golden eyes narrowing into dangerous slits.

"Why are you everywhere?" Damien asked, his voice flat.

Jade froze on her hands and knees. "E-Excuse me?"

"You were in my parking garage at 2:00 AM," Damien listed coldly. "You were in my office at 3:00 PM. And now you are practically throwing yourself onto the floor of a highly restricted, private hospital wing at 10:00 PM."

He tilted his head, his gaze piercing through her.

"Are you stalking me?"

Jade’s eyes widened in genuine panic. The air around him was so suffocatingly intimidating she suddenly forgot how to breathe.

"No! No, of course not!" she stammered, scrambling to her feet and brushing off her blazer. Her cheeks were burning. "I... I’m just visiting a relative here! My... my aunt is on the third floor!"

Damien stared at her for two agonizing seconds.

"Visit her further away from me," Damien said simply.

He turned his back on her and resumed his walk toward the ICU.

"S-See you around?" Jade called out after him, a desperate, hopeful lilt in her voice.

Damien ignored her completely. He walked right past his armed guards, pushed open the door to Aria’s room, and let it shut silently behind him.