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

Aria let out a dry, nervous chuckle.

She stood up from the narrow mattress. She stretched her stiff limbs, her joints popping softly.

”I promised him a reward,” Aria confessed, walking over to her bedside table.

Zoe’s eyes instantly lit up. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees.

”Ooh,” Zoe wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. ”What kind of reward? Something kinky? Did you buy out a La Perla catalogue?”

Aria plucked a thick, damp makeup-removing towelette from a plastic packet on the table. ”I hope so.”

Zoe furrowed her brows, the excited grin faltering slightly. ”What do you mean you hope so?”

Aria scrubbed the towelette aggressively across her cheek, wiping away the thick layer of white setting powder and the grey, hollow contour Zoe had painted on her.

”I mean,” Aria said, looking at her half-pale, half-flushed face in the small mirror on the wall, ”that I am currently flying blind. I’m still working on it. A good idea hasn’t exactly come to me yet.”

”Excuse me?” Zoe stared at her. ”Aria. You promised your husband a blank-check reward... and you don’t have a plan?”

”I panicked!” Aria defended, scrubbing the other cheek. She tossed the dirty wipe into the trash and grabbed another. ”Do you have any idea how hard it is to manipulate that man? I needed him to give an Oscar-worthy performance! I told him I’d give him the reward after, and that it was a surprise. But Zoe... I have absolutely no ideas.”

The gravity of the situation finally crashed down on both of them.

Damien had dropped his entire terrifying, lethal persona and bared a hollowed-out, shattered soul for a room full of people he actively despised. For a performance like that, standard, vanilla intimacy was not going to cut it. He needed an elite, mind-melting experience.

Zoe started biting her thumbnail, her own panic rising to match Aria’s. ”Okay. Okay, think. What do billionaires like? Do they like sensory deprivation? Do we need to order a velvet blindfold? Or... ice? Do we use ice?”

Aria abandoned her makeup wipes entirely. She dropped right to her knees on the cold linoleum floor in front of Zoe, grabbing her best friend’s hands like a woman begging for her life.

”Help me,” Aria pleaded, her emerald eyes wide and desperate. ”You know the tropes! Give me something, Zoe.”

Zoe stared blankly at the ceiling, her brain churning through every romance novel she had ever read, but her mind was completely empty. ”I... I got nothing. The pressure is too high. My creative writing skills are paralyzed.”

Aria groaned, dropping her forehead onto Zoe’s knees. ”I am doomed.”

”Wait,” Zoe gasped, suddenly sitting up straight. ”We don’t need our brains. We have the internet.”

”What are you doing?” Aria asked, looking up from the floor. ”Googling ’how to please a mafia boss’?”

”Better,” Zoe grinned, rapidly tapping her screen to open an incognito browser window. ”SmutGpt.”

Aria blinked. ”What?”

”It’s an uncensored, highly feral sex advice AI,” Zoe explained, her thumbs flying across the digital keyboard. ”There are absolutely no safety filters. There’s no limit to what you can ask it. Fantasies, taboo stuff, roleplay scenarios—it generates everything.”

Aria scrambled up from the floor onto the bed right next to Zoe, leaning over her shoulder to look at the glowing screen. ”Are you sure about this?”

”Yes,” Zoe said confidently. ”It’s perfect, trust me.”

Zoe typed into the chat box: Write five highly detailed, extremely explicit reward scenarios. The husband is a terrifying, hyper-dominant billionaire who just faked a tragedy for his wife. The wife is a brilliant actress. Needs to be a God-tier reward. Extreme power dynamics. No limits.

Zoe hit the little paper airplane icon to send.

Three seconds later, the AI began spitting out paragraphs of text at warp speed.

Aria and Zoe huddled together like witches over a cauldron, reading the generated options.

”Okay, Option One,” Zoe read aloud. ”’A sensual, full-body massage using warm lavender oil, followed by slow, romantic—’ Nope. Boring.”

”Alright, Option Two,” Zoe scrolled down. She read the next paragraph silently, her eyes growing wider and wider. She tilted her head, trying to visually calculate the physics of what the AI was suggesting.

”What does it say?” Aria asked.

”I’m skipping it,” Zoe stated, swiping past it quickly. ”Unless you have a hidden trapeze in the penthouse and the ability to detach your pelvis from your spine, that is completely, biologically impossible.”

”Skip,” Aria agreed immediately.

”Option Three,” Zoe mumbled, her eyes scanning the text.

Suddenly, Zoe stopped reading. A violent, catastrophic flush of crimson exploded across her cheeks, spreading rapidly down her neck. She let out a strangled, high-pitched squeak, her hand flying up to cover her mouth.

”What?” Aria leaned closer, trying to read the tiny font. ”What is it?”

”I can’t,” Zoe wheezed, her face burning like a furnace. ”I literally cannot even read this paragraph out loud without needing to go to confession. This is insane. This is violently unhinged.”

”Let me see!”

Before Aria could grab the phone, Zoe quickly pressed the side buttons, snapping a screenshot.

Aria narrowed her eyes. ”Did you just screenshot the violently unhinged prompt?”

”For the vault!” Zoe defended loudly, shoving Aria’s shoulder. ”It’s really good! It’s just... not good for this specific occasion! Personal research!”

Aria rolled her eyes, pointing back at the screen. ”Just read Option Four.”

Zoe scrolled down.

They both began to read the fourth scenario in total silence.

As Aria’s eyes tracked the AI-generated words, her breath hitched. Her heart executed a slow, heavy thud against her ribs. The filthy brilliance of the scenario painted on the screen sent a hot shiver straight down her spine.

Aria reached out and gently took the phone from Zoe’s hands.

A deep flush spread down her neck, but a wicked, determined smirk slowly curved the corners of her mouth.

”This is it,” Aria whispered, her eyes locked on the glowing text. ”This is The One.”

Zoe looked at Aria.

”Aria,” Zoe asked, her voice dropping into a quiet, serious tone. ”Are you sure you can handle this? There are other options. This is... a lot. There is no going back once you initiate that kind of dynamic with a man like him.”

Aria didn’t look away from the screen. She read the final sentence of the prompt one last time before locking the phone and handing it back to Zoe.

”I’m sure,” Aria stated, her voice radiating absolute, unshakeable confidence. ”I want to do it.”

Zoe stared at her for a long moment, searching for any sign of hesitation. Finding none, a thrilled grin finally broke across Zoe’s face, all her previous doubts completely vanishing.

”Okay then, Madam,” Zoe beamed, patting Aria’s knee. ”Just make sure you establish a safe word.”