A Debt Repaid (1) by N. Isabelle Blanco, Nyddi Page B

floor liquefying was still messing with her balance. Stumbling, she made her way straight toward the wall.
    Her thoughts were jumping all over the pace. She’d been shaken in her life before. Finding out who Douglas truly was had obliterated a ten-year-old foundation. Without it, she’d been drifting day-by-day, trying to get by until she figured something out. Simple things, like who she was, and what she’d do with the rest of her life.
    Aria pressed her forehead into the cool elevator wall and flattened her sweating hands against it. Eyes closed, she stood there, trying to ignore the whirlwind of noise in her mind and what it was all telling her.
    Whoever was watching her on the security feed was probably having a field day with her.
    Stupid, stupid, stupid . She’d asked for a glimpse of who she was, and this was what she’d gotten.
    When Aria agreed to marry Douglas, she’d built her whole life around being his wife. Barely anything more. All she had, outside of her husband, was a few friends, and her volunteer work at the soup kitchen. She’d been with him ten years, married for eight. She was only twenty-six.
    She’d never had a chance to grow up on her own, to figure herself out. The collapse of Douglas’ façade had triggered a destruction within the walls of her own.
    It’d been the scariest thing to ever happen to her. Back then, the floor beneath her had weakened, though, not liquefied. And that was the damn point. Groaning under her breath, Aria slapped the wall with her hand, right before the elevator arrived at the lobby.
    The doors opened. Aria eased off the wall as fast as she could considering her reality remained in full-spin. The people waiting right outside the elevator stared. Everyone seemed to. She ignored them, her eyes focused forward.
    The realization of what her life now was torment ed her the whole way.
    She’d prayed to learn something about who she was. Well, she’d glimpsed it inside that office.
    Chase had made her wanton. Straight-up wanton. And , even worse, lust hadn’t been the only factor in her reaction to him. There’d been so many emotions.
    She’d cared. Way too much. Aria had lied to herself throughout the years she’d been married. She’d convinced herself that she’d loved a man, that in reality she only cared about. Douglas hadn’t been her grand-passion, or anything close to that.
    Up in that office, her body had responded as if…as if…
    She couldn’t even finish the damned thought without shame washing over her.              
    She was lusting after, and developing some type of attachment to a man she’d just met. A man that had it in him to blackmail and spy. Plus, it’d only been a few weeks since she’d found out what her husband had been up to and their marriage had collapsed.
    That’s what type of person she was. No better than her soon-to-be ex. Talk about smack in the freaking face.
    The sun was in full glare when she stepped out of the building. Squinting, she walked down the block. Aria had been lucky enough to find parking two blocks away from the building. For some reason, that gave her so much relief. She couldn’t imagine waiting in the building’s parking lot
,
while one of the attendants brought out her car.
    Once inside her car, Aria squeezed down on the steering wheel. Same as she’d done the day she’d confronted Douglas.
    And met Chase.
    She stared at the dark blue car parked in front of her, fighting back sudden nausea. Douglas had been a bastard. There was no denying that or justifying his actions. What he’d done to her was disgusting. What he’d done to Chase’s company even more so. Lord only knew what he’d done to others.
    “So why do I feel guilty?” Aria mumbled to herself. She was weak in the face of what she felt for Chase. She’d never wanted a man as much as she wanted him. Her entire psyche was unprepared to deal with that kind of temptation.
    And , yet, the idea of giving into that hunger made