Sweet Hatred
Chapter 93: Beautiful Chaos

Chapter 93: Beautiful Chaos

Kaleb clung to her like she was his whole goddamn world, and the worst part was—She held him just as tightly back.

"Missed you, missed you so much!" he whined into her shoulder, fists curling in the fabric of her top.

"I missed you too, my baby," Aria murmured, her voice thick with emotion as she pressed a kiss to the crown of his head. "I got you something. Two somethings, actually."

His head snapped up, his face lighting like the sun had cracked open just for him.

"You got me presents?!"

"Of course," she said, ruffling his hair.

I stood there, an outsider in a scene that somehow hit me harder than anything had in years.

Maybe ever.

Because when Aria smiled like that, so wide, so real, so full of unfiltered love...

It wasn’t the same woman who snapped at me at work or tried to push me away. It was someone even more dangerous. Someone who could rip me apart from the inside out without even trying.

I didn’t fucking know what to do with the way it made my chest ache.

And then. A wheelchair creaked from somewhere behind Olivia.

A man, tall, built like he used to be strong before life kicked the shit out of him, Michael I’m sure—pushed an elderly woman into the room.

Even through the thinning hair and frail body, I recognized her too immediately. Aria’s mother. The woman whose surgery I’d signed off on without a second thought.

They clustered together like pieces of the same soul.

Family. A real fucking family.

Not the cold, sharp-edged nightmare I’d grown up in.

Something deep and ugly twisted low in my gut, memories clawing up my spine without mercy—My mother smiling through trembling lips, whispering that everything was fine as my father’s shadow darkened the house.

Her fingers trembling as she stroked my hair, hiding the heartbreak behind a sweet smile. My father barking orders from behind a whiskey glass, never looking at her, never looking at me unless it was to correct a mistake.

This... this messy, noisy, beautiful chaos, I had never had it. I had never even been close.

And standing here, watching Aria shine so fucking brightly, I realized I wanted it. I wanted something I could never deserve.

The room was thick with that intimate noise of family, the kids shrieking, Olivia laughing softly as she tried to manage it all.

But suddenly, everything felt distant. The sound, the heat of the room, even the way Aria stood with Kaleb, they were all pushed to the edges of my awareness, until there was nothing left but the soft, careful grip of an old woman’s hand.

"Mister."

Her voice was like silk, smooth with age and kindness.

And in that moment, she’d peeled me back to a place I didn’t know I still had the capacity to visit.

Her gaze locked with mine, clouded by years but somehow sharp enough to see past all the walls I’d built.

"I remember you... You came to check on me when they moved me to the ward," she said, the words slow but sure. She reached out, a slight tremble in her fingers as they brushed across my palm.

I hadn’t expected that. I hadn’t expected her to remember me at all. I had just been the man who’d signed off on the surgery, a nameless benefactor to this family who didn’t owe me a thing. Yet here she was, looking at me with gratitude in her eyes and they were so pure, so real, so uncomplicated.

Her hand cupped mine, the touch warm, and I felt this thing I hadn’t let myself feel in... hell, maybe ever. A pang in my chest that made me feel uncomfortably human. Uncomfortably seen.

"I’m so grateful... for your help," she whispered, her voice carrying the weight of everything she didn’t say. "You’ve done so much for my family... and I know Aria’s had her hands full."

I could feel Aria’s eyes on me, the weight of them too sharp, too aware of every part of this. Almost like she knew. But I didn’t want her to. I didn’t want her to know that I was a fucking mess underneath this polished suit and these cold eyes.

But she knew I wasn’t anything like the man her mother saw, the one who signed checks and made things happen.

I tried to smile, though it didn’t feel like a smile at all. I forced it, because that’s what I’d learned to do. Be charming, be polite. Nothing else.

"Of course," I said, even though the words tasted wrong in my mouth. "I’m glad everything went well with the surgery."

And then Olivia—goddamn Olivia, as clueless as she was—had to open her mouth.

"That’s Aria’s boss Mom," she added with a smile, looking up at me with that familiar, uncertain gaze. "Mr. Kael."

The old woman smiled too, weak but still holding that kindness, and she squeezed my hand a little harder, as if to say thank you in a way no one else had.

Her eyes, though—her eyes—saw more than I was ready for.

"My goodness... Thank you for taking care of my daughter, dear," she said again, her voice thick with emotion.

Aria’s face contorted at the words, and I saw it, the way she clenched her jaw, the way her eyes flashed like she’d just been stung.

I didn’t know why, but I felt it too, the weight of everything she was carrying.

I knew I was the one who paid for the surgery, the one who made it all happen—but I knew she was the one actually there, the one living it.

I saw it in the way her shoulders tensed, the way she didn’t quite look me in the eye.

But a small, twisted part of me wanted to push her further. I wanted to see how far I could take her, how much I could make her snap, just to feel something other than this... pressure building in my chest.

So, I smirked at her, just for a second. Just long enough to see her squirm under the weight of it. But I didn’t get to savor the moment for long.

"Times up," she muttered suddenly with a clap, like a damn alarm clock going off. "You should go now." She left Kaleb and padded towards me. "You have places to be, don’t you?

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