"Don't tell me you've actually fallen for that backwoods nobody."
Her voice dripped with mockery, laced with a towering arrogance.
"If it weren't for the fact that I can't have children, do you really think I would've allowed Thelma to carry yours?"
"After all, everyone knows those children are set to inherit the Farley-Fox alliance."
I stopped walking. I pressed my back against the wall and waited for Hudson's response.
A long silence passed before the man's voice finally came, heavy with exhaustion.
"Aria, ten years ago, you were the one who chose Thelma. You engineered the whole thing—made her fall in love with me."
"I just—"
"Just what? Just felt sorry for her, so you fell in love with her?"
"Hudson, did you ever tell Thelma that the babies she carried for ten months were ours? Yours and mine?"
What did Aria mean?
I stood frozen in place. My mind went blank.
"She probably still doesn't know, does she? She was nothing more than a vessel for the pregnancy."
"Keeping it from her this long—that doesn't seem like your style."
So that was it. That was the truth all along.
My fists clenched so hard my nails broke the skin of my palms, and blood seeped between my fingers.
Hudson. Ten years of love—a lie. The children—a lie.
What between us had ever been real?
"Once Thelma is released, I'll send her abroad. Don't worry. She won't come back."
Hudson's calm voice reached my ears, and the irony of it was searing.
"You'd really let her go? She's been by your side for ten years."
But I never heard his answer. Not that time.
A guard appeared and escorted me to the visiting room.
Aria sat there in a custom-tailored dress, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. A diamond ring glittered on her finger.
She noticed where my eyes had landed and smiled. "Colton has such a gift for drawing. This morning he insisted on painting a ring for me. He said I'm his mom, and no one can ever take me away from him."
I said nothing. My gaze drifted to some empty point in the distance, thoughts dissolving into static.
The children weren't mine.
They had always been Aria's and Hudson's.
The truth hit me like a sledgehammer to the chest.
Without thinking, my hand moved to my stomach—the place where two small lives had once grown.
But they had nothing to do with me.
How absurd.
I laughed until tears streamed down my face.
"Miss Fox, did you come here just to flaunt all of this?"