"What do you mean by having me back, Your Highness?" Aria asked, trying to remove his hand from her shoulder.
"You heard exactly what I said, madam." Darius's tone softened as he said the last word.
Aria closed her eyes briefly, taking a steady breath before answering. "I think once again, you're getting ahead of yourself, Your Highness."
He arched a brow. "I'm getting ahead of myself?"
"Yes, Your Highness, you are. Because I've told you before — I'm not your madam. I'm your subject. One of this empire's people, whom you rule. I hold no such place in your life."
She gently pried his hand off her shoulder, catching him off guard.
Darius chuckled lowly. "Alright, I'll agree with that. But I have a question."
"What is it, Your Highness?" she asked.
He leaned in slightly, a smirk tugging at his lips. "If you're my subject… then why did you tell Belleah Westwood that you're my wife?"
"So what did you expect me to say, Your Highness?" Aria asked, averting her gaze. "I couldn't possibly let people think their king is a liar… could I?"
Darius's smirk curved deeper. "Since when have you started caring about my reputation, madam? Did you forget the day I found you running away from me? In front of all my subjects, you denied being my wife. Wasn't that what made me look like a liar… my wife?"
Her eyes flickered, but she steadied her voice. "I don't wish to argue with you, Your Highness. If you insist, I'll go to Lady Westwood myself, kneel before her, and admit that I lied—that she's still your fiancée. Would that satisfy you?"
"No!" His voice thundered through the garden.
Aria flinched. "Then leave me, Your Highness! You're acting inappropriately again. You forget—I'm a married woman. Only my husband is allowed to touch me." Her glare burned into him.
Darius stepped closer, his grip tightening on her arms. "First of all, you will never kneel before anyone. And second—there was never an official ceremony. So you were never truly married to your so-called husband. Which means…" his voice dropped, "…I have every right to touch what's mine."
Aria's POV
What is he saying?
Is this a test for me? Doesn't seem like one.
But I can't even recall the memory of Aria as I wish, which is why I'm not sure if they ever had a marriage ceremony or not. But he doesn't seem like he's faking.
That means Darius knocked Aria out without marrying her.
This feels wrong on so many levels. It means he was never hoping to marry Aria at all—that's why he never gave her a marriage ceremony.
"Ha ha ha ha!!" A laugh escaped my lips. It's more like seeing Aria holding on to so many things hurt me on so many levels that I could only ignore it by laughing it off.
"What? Why are you laughing? I don't understand," he said, trying to come closer to me, even though his hands were already holding my arms.
"Don't touch me!!!" I said, calm yet angry, clenching my fists.
He instantly removed his hands.
"Mad—"
As he was about to finish that word, I glared at him, and he stopped.
"Now I'm really starting to wonder why on earth I'm here," I said, circling in front of him while I kept laughing—to cope with the ache in my chest that Aria had been feeling.
"Please… let me know at least what's going on inside your mind. I know I did something wrong. I'll punish myself for it if I must. So please—open your lips, scold me, shout at me, glare at me like you did a moment ago—but don't laugh like that. It's… it's scary. I'm so worried," he said, following me as I circled.
"I don't need to do anything to you, Your Highness. Because even if you are the father of my child, you still are not my husband," I said, sounding calm—almost as if I were agreeing with him for the first time in all our arguments.
"So you're saying you agree I'm your Darius?" he asked, puzzled.
"So from this whole conversation, that's what you understood?" I laughed again.
"I really can't understand your way of speaking, my love. Please don't behave this way toward me," he said, his voice softer now.
"No, no, Your Highness. I'm not behaving in any way toward you—I'm just stating the truth. Because now I realize how much the Darius I knew was a jerk. Such a fraud. Such a man lacking class. Such a useless, lustful man who couldn't keep his thing inside his pants," I said, my eyes fixed on his face.
"What made you think that way about him?" he asked, his tone turning serious.
"What else do you expect me to think about that man, Your Highness? What else? Didn't you just say that I—Aria Lumiere—never got married to the man I claimed to be my husband and the father of my child?
If, in the last six years, I met him, lived under the same roof as him, carried his child in my belly for twelve months, and raised his kid for five years—but he still couldn't give me a marriage ceremony—doesn't that mean he never intended to marry me in the first place?
As he left once Ellian was born—it means he never intended to take responsibility. He only wanted to sleep with me.
What else should I call such a man if not this?" I said, looking straight into his eyes.
"I'm saying I'm your Darius—and I had my obligations. I never intended to do such a thing at all, Aria," he said, trying to come closer to me.
"Stay back, Your Highness. I'm not blaming you at all. I'm blaming that lustful man who did all this—why are you behaving this way?
And now, as it's confirmed that I was never married, I think I have no obligation to stay here. Even if you were the Darius I knew, I was never married—so I'm no one's wife. Right?" I said, making him take a step back.