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

”I’ll show you, Damien Sinclair.”

Aria didn’t gently press the gas pedal. Operating on pure, spite-fueled adrenaline, she slammed her bare foot down on the accelerator.

The Maserati’s twin-turbo V8 engine shrieked. The sudden G-force threw them both violently backward, pinning them flat against the bucket seats as the car lunged out of the parking spot like a missile.

Aria’s eyes blew wide in panic. The concrete wall of the garage was suddenly approaching at warp speed.

She slammed her foot down on the brakes.

SCREEECH.

The car jolted to a violent, neck-snapping halt. The seatbelts instantly locked, aggressively choking them both against the leather seats before whipping them backward.

The silence inside the cabin was absolute, broken only by the low, angry hum of the idling engine.

Aria sat frozen behind the steering wheel. Her chest was heaving. Her face was currently burning with the heat of a thousand suns, flushing a vibrant shade of tomato red from her collarbones to her hairline.

She refused to look at him.

”Shut up,” Aria ordered into the dead silence, glaring fiercely out the windshield.

Damien was gripping the passenger-side door handle so tightly his knuckles were white. He slowly turned his head to look at her, his golden eyes wide.

”I didn’t say anything,” Damien pointed out, his voice perfectly calm.

”You don’t have to!” Aria snapped, pointing an accusing finger at him without breaking her gaze from the dashboard. ”Your eyebrows are doing all the talking! You’re judging me! I can feel the condescension radiating off your pores!”

Damien slowly released his death grip on the door handle. He let out a long, careful exhale. ”Proceed whenever you are ready.”

”I am ready,” Aria huffed, defensively adjusting her grip on the steering wheel. ”I just needed to test the brake sensitivity. It’s called being a responsible driver.”

”Right,” Damien nodded.

She eased her foot onto the gas, navigating the car up the ramp and out onto the bustling streets of morning Manhattan. Aria aggressively merged onto the avenue, cutting off a yellow taxi by a fraction of an inch.

Damien sat perfectly still, staring straight ahead. He made up his mind that he was not going to say anything the entire ride, but then...

”Brake,” Damien said, his voice tightening. ”Aria, brake.”

”I have plenty of room,” Aria argued, speeding up to tailgate a delivery truck.

”You do not have room,” Damien hissed, his hand flying up to grab the ’oh shit’ handle mounted above the window. ”You have three inches of clearance. The pedestrian, Aria. Watch the pedestrian.”

”He’s jaywalking! If he dies, it’s natural selection!” Aria shouted, swerving around the man without using her indicator.

”Use your blinker!” Damien barked, instinctively stomping his right foot into the floorboard, desperately trying to press an imaginary passenger-side brake pedal. ”That is a red light! Aria, it is red!”

”It was a dark yellow!” Aria shrieked, flying through the intersection just as the cross-traffic started to honk.

”My heart rate is higher than it was when you kicked me in the groin,” Damien groaned, pressing two fingers to his temple as the migraine threatened to return. ”You are driving like you’re in a video game. Slow down.”

”I cannot slow down!” Aria yelled, gripping the wheel with white knuckles. ”I am doing this for the girls, Damien! I refuse to be a statistic! I will not let my gender down by being a bad female driver in a sports car!”

”There’s a pharmacy,” Damien pointed quickly. ”Pull over.”

”Copy that,” Aria said.

She aggressively whipped the steering wheel to the right, aiming for a tight parallel parking spot in front of a corner bodega.

SCCCRRRRRRNNNCH.

The horrific sound of premium, custom-forged Italian alloy scraping against the jagged concrete curb echoed through the cabin.

Damien physically recoiled, letting out a sharp, pained hiss as if the curb had just scraped directly across his own spine.

Aria winced, sucking air through her teeth. She threw the car into park and quickly killed the engine.

”Well,” Aria clapped her hands together, forcing a bright smile. ”We’re here! Safe and sound!”

Damien didn’t say a word. He just stared blankly at the dashboard, a single bead of sweat rolling down his temple.

”I’m going to go get your ice pack,” Aria announced, popping her door open. ”You just stay here. Keep the AC running. Ice your swimmers.”

She didn’t wait for him to respond. She slipped out of the driver’s seat barefoot, regretting that she forgot to take her shoes from the SUV.

She reached into the center console, grabbed the pair of dark sunglasses there and slid them over her face. Aria marched confidently across the sidewalk trying to ignore that it was dirty.

The bell above the pharmacy door chimed softly as she pushed it open.

The store smelled like cheap artificial pine and was illuminated by fluorescent lighting. Standing behind the counter was a teenage cashier. She was popping a piece of pink bubblegum, completely entranced by whatever was playing on her phone screen.

Aria walked straight to the first-aid aisle, grabbed a reusable blue gel ice pack, and brought it to the register.

She slapped a twenty-dollar bill onto the counter.

The teenager didn’t even look up. She blindly reached out with one hand, grabbed the barcode scanner, and swiped the ice pack over the red laser while keeping her eyes glued entirely to her phone screen.

”Keep the change,” Aria said, grabbing the ice pack.

She was just turning around to head back to the car when the teenager let out a loud scoff.

”Ugh,” the teen muttered, her nose wrinkling in disgust as she stared at her screen. ”Leo and Bella? Gross.”

Aria froze.

’Leo and Bella?!’

Aria slowly turned around.

She marched back up to the register and snatched the phone out of the teenager’s hands. ”Let me see that,” Aria demanded.

”Hey!” the cashier shrieked, her eyes flying wide open in shock. ”What the hell are you doing?! Give that back!”

Aria ignored her. She pulled the dark sunglasses down the bridge of her nose just enough to expose her emerald eyes as she looked at the screen.