After Rebirth, I Became My Ex's Aunt-in-Law

The black SUV glided to a smooth halt in front of the towering glass facade of Sinclair Headquarters.

Twenty minutes ago, Aria had dropped the glittering rose-gold iPhone at the Sinclair Tower concierge desk under the name ”Lip Gloss,” leaving her ex-fiancé to his career-securing errand. Now, she was on a different kind of mission.

But as Richard hopped out to open her door, Aria stopped dead, staring through the tinted windows.

The revolving doors of the corporate fortress were spinning like a chaotic carousel.

It looked like a nightclub had caught fire.

A parade of women was streaming out onto the sidewalk. There were women in skin-tight bandage dresses, women in clear platform heels, and women furiously reapplying lip gloss while wiping away angry tears. They were marching away from the building en masse, looking like they had just been eliminated from a particularly brutal reality TV dating show.

Aria blinked, crossing her arms over her silk camisole.

’Is my husband expanding into the sex work industry?’ she mused, watching a girl in a neon pink tube top aggressively hail an Uber. ’Are these hooker auditions? Because if they are, the talent pool is severely lacking.’

She shook her head, stepped out of the SUV, and started walking toward the entrance.

She was so distracted by the sheer volume of visible cleavage leaving the building that she didn’t look where she was going as she pushed through the heavy glass doors into the lobby.

Smack.ℴ

Aria collided hard with someone, her Louboutins sliding slightly on the polished floor.

”Oh my god, I am so sorry!” a frantic voice squeaked, a stack of printed papers fluttering to the ground like snow.

Aria caught her balance. She looked down at the girl scrambling to pick up the papers. She was wearing a sensible, slightly oversized navy blazer.

Aria squinted. The edges of last night were a blurry, tequila-soaked static, but the face was instantly recognizable.

”I know you, right?” Aria asked.

The girl froze, kneeling on the marble. She looked up, her eyes going wide as she took in Aria’s sleek appearance.

”Mrs. Sinclair!” she gasped, clutching a resume to her chest.

”Please, just Aria,” she said, crouching down to help pick up the scattered papers. She glanced at the name at the top of the resume. ”Jade?”

”Yes! Jade. Leo’s sister.” Jade stood up, accepting the papers Aria handed back to her.

”Right,” Aria winced, rubbing the back of her neck. ”Listen, about last night in the parking garage... I owe you a massive apology. My memory is completely fried, but I know I was an absolute menace. Whatever unhinged, tequila-induced psychosis I subjected you to, I am so sorry.”

Jade let out a breath of air, a genuine, bubbling chuckle escaping her lips.

”It’s totally fine,” Jade smiled, reaching into her blazer pocket. ”Leo actually almost got murdered by me when he got home, so it balanced out. The only casualty was this.”

She pulled out her iPhone. The screen was completely, violently shattered into a spiderweb of cracked glass.

Aria gasped, covering her mouth. ”Oh my god. Did I do that? Did I throw it?”

”No, no,” Jade laughed, shaking her head. ”I dropped it. You... kind of told me Leo died. With a deadpan expression. I went into shock.”

Aria stared at her. Slowly, the dark, twisted humor of her drunk self clicked into place.

She let out a loud snort, clapping a hand over her face. ”Oh my god. I am a sociopath. I am so sorry, Jade. I’m buying you a new phone. And probably therapy.”

”It’s fine, honestly. I needed an upgrade anyway,” Jade smiled, slipping the ruined phone back into her pocket.

Aria looked from Jade’s sensible blazer to the glass doors, where the last of the club-attired women was stomping down the sidewalk.

”What are you doing here, anyway?” Aria asked, gesturing to the resumes. ”Are you part of the... whatever that parade was outside?”

”I was here for an interview,” Jade sighed, her shoulders slumping. ”For the night-shift executive secretary position. But Mr. Sinclair was... well, he was in a really bad mood.”

Aria’s brows shot up. ”Damien was doing the interviews? Himself?”

”Yes,” Jade nodded, looking traumatized all over again just thinking about it. ”It was terrifying. He didn’t even really look at me. He was just glaring at his phone, typing away like he was mad at the keyboard. And then he just stood up, said interviews were over, and stormed out. His assistant had to apologize to the rest of us.”

Aria’s brain raced. Damien had fired that snobby receptionist for disrespecting her. And now, instead of letting HR handle it, the Demon King was personally vetting his gatekeepers?

The parade of ”hookers” now made sense. He had put out an open call, and the city’s gold-diggers had descended.

’Was he going to text me?’ Aria wondered.

”Seriously,” Jade asked, shivering slightly as she adjusted her blazer. ”How do you handle a man that scary? I felt like I was going to combust just standing in the same room as him.”

Aria snapped out of her thoughts. She looked at Jade, a soft, involuntary smile breaking through her poised exterior.

”He’s really not that scary,” Aria chuckled, leaning in slightly. ”He’s actually a massive softie once you get past the terrifying aura and the resting murder face.”

Jade stared at Aria like she had just claimed the sky was neon green.

”A softie?” Jade repeated, utterly baffled. She shook her head, looking at Aria with a mix of awe and deep respect. ”Wow. He must really love you, Aria. Because he looked ready to literally murder the rest of us just for breathing his air.”

Love.

Aria’s heart executed a violent, unpredictable stutter in her chest. The word hit her like a physical blow.

He must really love you.

Aria felt a sudden, intense warmth flood her veins. She swallowed hard, forcing her face to remain perfectly casual, refusing to dwell on the terrifyingly hopeful spike in her pulse.

”Well,” Aria cleared her throat, adjusting her posture. ”I definitely owe you a proper apology for the phone and the trauma. Let me take you out for tea this week.”

Jade’s eyes lit up. ”I’m going to hold you to that, Aria.”

”Count on it,” Aria winked.

They said their goodbyes, Jade heading for the revolving doors while Aria continued her march toward the executive elevators.

She pressed the call button, pulling her own phone from her pocket as she waited. She opened her text thread with Damien. It was completely empty on his side, despite Jade claiming he had been typing away quite furiously.

Aria narrowed her eyes as the steel doors slid open.

”You can run, Damien Sinclair,” she murmured to herself, stepping into the elevator and hitting the button for the top floor. ”But you can’t hide.”