Aria POV

Sleep crept up on me in fragments, the kind where your body gives in long before your mind does. My lashes grew heavy, my breathing steadied, but my chest still carried the sharp ache of Kael’s words. Because of the baby. I tried to push them away, to let myself drift, but they looped through my thoughts like a chain that refused to loosen.

I must have dozed, because the next thing I registered wasn’t silence but muffled voices threading through the stillness. At first, I thought I’d dreamed of them. Then the sound sharpened—two women, close, just outside my door.

“…you look cheap, Vanessa. Parading around like...