Rebirth: Embracing My Obsessive Uncle

A cold needle slid into the flesh of Aria's arm.

The sensation was like a fusion of ice and fire; a venomous chill spread through her veins, a burning, stinging pain on her skin. The nurse's voice was flat and indifferent, muttering something about a sedative.

Then, in a dizzying rush, memories of her past life flooded Aria's mind.

She was confined to a mental hospital, her hands and feet bound, unable to move.

Katelynn, her best friend, held a syringe as thick as a baby's arm, grabbed her arm, and mercilessly shoved in the black liquid.

Katelynn's laughter was the first thing that cut through the darkness.

"Look at her," she said, tilting her head, studying Aria's slack, drugged face like she was inspecting a broken doll. "Still twitching. Three years in this place and she still thinks someone's coming to save her."

"Nobody's coming for her." Ethan Reyes made no effort to keep his voice down. "She's off the family ledger, dead to them. Just a madwoman in a padded cage now, here for us to tear apart piece by piece."

"You should thank me," Katelynn said, crouching beside the bed, her voice dropping to a mock-tender croon. "I introduced you to her, didn't I? Darling. "

He let out a low, quiet laugh. "And I played my part beautifully, didn't I? She actually believed I loved her. God, you have no idea how much it cost me not to gag every time I had to touch her."

"Pathetic," Katelynn agreed, straightening up. "Her family's fortune, gone. Her name, ruined.Doesn't matter now, though." She picked up the syringe from the tray, turning it in the light so the black liquid inside caught a dull gleam. "In about ten minutes, it won't matter to her at all."

The memory struck like a devastating blow. The pain of the final poison, the fear before death-all of it overwhelmed her like a suffocating tidal wave.

Aria's eyes snapped open.

She gasped, a rough, piercing sound tearing at her throat. Her heart pounded against her ribs.

White walls. The pungent, sterile smell of disinfectant.

She was in a mental hospital. It was real.

A tall figure stood at the foot of her bed, a dark silhouette clearly visible under the glaring fluorescent light. She couldn't see his face, but his presence suffocated her.

"Demon!"

The word was a choked, guttural scream. Her body moved before her mind could catch up, her hand lashing out toward the bedside table.

Her fingers brushed against cold metal. A small, silver fruit knife, left with a basket of untouched get-well gifts. She didn't hesitate. Her hand closed around the handle, a desperate, clumsy grip.

That man seemed to anticipate her movement, leaning forward as if to soothe her, but he was a fraction of a second too late.

Aria lunged.

She threw every ounce of her remaining strength into the motion, driving the point of the knife toward his abdomen.

There was a soft thud as the blade met resistance, followed by the slick, warm wetness that soaked through the fabric of his shirt and onto her hand. She shuddered.

A low grunt escaped his lips. His massive frame swayed, but he didn't step back. Instead, his hand shot out, a vise of steel, and clamped down on her wrist.

"Aria."

His voice was a low, rough growl, laced with disbelief and a tightly controlled fury.

Pain, sharp and blinding, shot up her arm. Her fingers went numb, and the small knife clattered to the linoleum floor.

The blood drained from Aria's cheeks in an instant. Julian-the one she had just stabbed was Julian Sinclair IV? Her uncle, not Ethan?

The door burst open. Two guards in black suits rushed in, the blood drained from every face in an instant. The person she'd just attacked was none other than the head of the Sinclair dynasty-the same man whose name made Wall Street shudder, a ruthless predator who had carved his empire with blood and billions, known simply as the Shark.

"Out," Julian commanded without looking at them. His voice was ice.

The guards froze, hesitated, then bowed their heads and retreated, closing the door softly behind them.

He was hurt. She had actually stabbed him. The realization cut through the fog of her panic, but a primal terror still held her in its grip. Ignoring the spreading stain on his shirt, Julian ordered a nurse in. A fresh needle pierced her skin, and darkness swallowed her whole.

When she woke again, the scent of cedar and old money filled her nostrils. Silk sheets caressed her skin.

The Hamptons estate.

Julian was sitting in a chair beside the bed, his deep gray eyes fixed on her, burning with an intensity that felt like it could consume her.

"You're awake." His voice was a low, velvet murmur that vibrated in the quiet room. He shifted slightly in his chair, his long fingers trailing deliberately over the crisp white bandage visible beneath his unbuttoned shirt-a wound reminder of her.

"So you want me dead that badly?" His smile was easy. But those eyes-those beautiful, lethal eyes-were all ice. Deep, bottomless, and with a hint of savagery tucked into the uptilt at the edges.

Her mind reeled as she stared at the man sitting before her. Julian was alive. But how?He died, didn't he? He'd stepped in front of a car to save her. She'd seen it. So how was he standing here, breathing, looking at her like that? Her heart pounded as her gaze tore away from him, sweeping frantically across the room. The mahogany furniture, the heavy velvet drapes, the unmistakable scent of sea salt mingling with his cedar cologne-it was his master bedroom at the estate, a place she hadn't set foot in for years.

Her eyes darted to the ornate calendar on the nightstand. The date was circled. It was the day he had first taken her from college, the day her imprisonment in this gilded cage had begun.

She was reborn.

Back at the very beginning of the tragedy.

The weight of it all was crushing. She looked at the man before her, the image of his cold, impassive face now warring with the memory of his desperate, broken expression in her final moments.

Julian's jaw tightened. He misread her frozen devastation as pure defiance. He despised that look-that stubborn, silent refusal to yield. "Still trying to fight me, little bird?" he murmured, the deceptive softness in his voice carrying a dangerous edge.

Before she could shrink away, he leaned over the mattress. His large, warm hand clamped around her jaw, his thumb pressing almost bruisingly into her cheek to tilt her face up. And then his mouth came crashing down on hers.

It was a punishing kiss, he forced her lips apart, dominating her senses and demanding her submission. He breathed his dark control straight into her lungs, a brutal reminder that she belonged entirely to him.