MADDEST OBSESSION - Chapter 44: Chapter 44

The envelope stayed on the nightstand.
Untouched.
Unopened.
But its presence was louder than anything either of them said.
Dominic sat at the edge of the bed, shirtless, back tense, staring out into the city like it could give him answers.
Aria stood by the window, arms crossed over her chest. Not cold. Just closed.
Finally, she asked the question she had buried for too long.
“Why did you agree to the arrangement?”
He didn’t turn around.
“Because your father offered you.”
“That’s not an answer, Dominic.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “It was strategic. Clean. You were young, quiet, untouched. He said you’d obey.”
She swallowed.
“And did you want that? A wife who obeys?”
“I wanted control,” he admitted.
The words made her flinch.
Not because they surprised her—but because they didn’t.
She stepped closer. “Did you ever see me? Or just the deal I represented?”
Dominic finally looked up. His eyes were dark, but not cruel.
“Aria… I saw you. But I didn’t care who you were in the beginning. Only what you solved.”
Silence.
And then, softly: “When did that change?”
He stood, walked toward her slowly, cautiously—as if this time, she might be the one to break him.
“When you started fighting back,” he said. “When you stopped being what he sent me and started being the woman who makes me forget who I am.”
She looked up at him, pain flickering in her eyes.
“But you still kept me caged.”
“Because I didn’t know how to love you without owning you.”
That broke her.
She turned away, breath sharp, hands trembling. “You said you loved me.”
“I do.”
“Then why do I feel like I’m constantly being traded between men like a f**king chess piece?”
He stepped forward to touch her—she moved back.
“I need space,” she whispered. “Not from your hands. From your hold.”
That night, they didn’t touch.
They slept in the same bed, but miles apart.
And in the dark, Dominic whispered something she didn’t respond t
o.
“I don’t know how to let you go… even if it’s the only way to keep you.”