After Rebirth, I Became My Ex's Aunt-in-Law-Chapter 219: What’s the Point of Having a Phone?
The blacked-out SUV tore through the neon-lit streets of Manhattan.
In the backseat, Aria was aggressively tapping the screen of her phone, dialing Dr. Elias Thorne’s number for the tenth time in ten minutes. She pressed the phone to her ear, chewing ruthlessly on her thumbnail.
Ring... ring... ring...
"Pick up your phone, Elias!" Aria hissed into the quiet cabin.
"You have reached the voicemail of—"
Aria hung up with a furious growl, tossing the phone onto the plush leather seat beside her.
She needed him. Only Elias and a very select few, highly paid, NDA-bound nurses knew that the body currently occupying ICU Room 1 was a hyper-realistic silicone doll. Aria needed Elias to help her sneak back up to her room, swap places with the doll, and launch her dramatic, tearful livestream from her "deathbed."
But Elias was entirely MIA.
Aria sighed, running a hand through her hair. She picked her phone back up, intending to try Elias one last time, but the screen suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree.
A notification dropped down from the top banner. Then another. And another.
Within three seconds, her screen was a cascading, glitching waterfall of push notifications. Her Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok apps were simultaneously exploding, updating so fast the phone began to heat up in her palm.
@PopCultureJunkie mentioned you in a tweet! @TMZ just posted: EXCLUSIVE VIDEO. #AriaAwake is currently trending at #1 worldwide.
Aria’s blood ran ice-cold.
Her emerald eyes widened in absolute horror. "What?"
Her thumbs flew across the screen, tapping the Twitter icon. Her timeline loaded instantly, dominated by a single, rapidly circulating video clip.
It was footage of Damien standing outside the hotel, surrounded by the paparazzi. The camera was zoomed in tight on his perfect face.
"That’s the other thing that held me up, actually," Damien’s voice played through her speakers, smooth and calm. "I got a call from the hospital. My wife just woke up."
Aria stopped breathing.
She stared at her husband’s incredibly handsome face on the screen.
"What?! No! No! Nooo!!" Aria shrieked. "I haven’t even texted him yet! How did he know I was ready?! He doesn’t!"
She scrubbed a hand over her face, feeling a hot wave of pure nausea hit her stomach. She frantically scrolled through the quote-tweets and replies, her heart hammering against her ribs.
@EntertainmentDaily: SHOCKING UPDATE: Damien Sinclair announces Aria is awake! But what condition is she in?!
@DemonKingWife: Omg wait, is she talking?! Did she just open her eyes?! Can she move?! THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING ME.
@GossipGoblin: A nurse insider said she has severe brain damage! Waking up doesn’t mean she’s fully conscious!
Aria let out a massive, shuddering exhale, slumping back into the leather seat.
He had kept it perfectly, brilliantly ambiguous. He dropped the nuke and walked away without clarifying a single detail. The internet was entirely split down the middle—half of them believing she was making a miraculous recovery, and the other half convinced she was awake but effectively a vegetable.
It was exactly the kind of widespread chaos she wanted.
But there was a massive, glaring problem.
"The paparazzi," Aria realized, her voice dropping to a horrified whisper as she tapped on a live feed from a local news chopper.
The screen showed the front entrance of St. Jude’s Hospital. It was a zoo. There were hundreds of reporters, news vans, and civilians swarming the barricades, desperate for a glimpse of the resurrected actress.
But her livestream plan was completely dead in the water.
The SUV glided smoothly down a concrete ramp, the shadows swallowing the vehicle as they entered the subterranean parking garage of the hospital. Richard expertly backed the car into a spot near the elevators and shifted into park.
"We have arrived, Mrs. Sinclair," Richard announced, the engine cutting out.
Aria didn’t move. She sat frozen in the back seat, panic rapidly spiraling into a full-blown meltdown.
She opened her phone and quickly dialed Zoe’s number. She needed a second brain.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Busy tone.
"Of course," Aria groaned, dropping the phone into her lap. Zoe was probably currently fending off ten thousand media inquiries and having a nervous breakdown of her own.
She tried Elias one more time. Straight to voicemail.
She was entirely on her own, trapped in the back of an SUV, watching her meticulously crafted master plan slip completely out of her fingers. She couldn’t livestream from a hotel room. People would instantly recognize the background. They would know she wasn’t in the ICU. The entire "coma" ruse would be exposed as a fraud.
Aria wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. She wanted to throw her phone out the window.
"Ugh!" Aria groaned, grabbing fistfuls of her hair in pure frustration.
She let her body tip forward, gently but dramatically thunking her forehead against the back of Richard’s leather headrest.
"I am going to throw up," Aria complained. "My master plan is ruined. I am a failure."
She turned her head slightly, resting her cheek against the cool leather, and stared blankly out the heavily tinted window into the dimly lit, cavernous parking garage.
Her eyes glazed over as she watched a set of elevator doors open.
A figure stepped out into the garage, pushing a wheelchair.
Aria blinked, her vision slowly focusing on the occupants. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
Sitting in the wheelchair was an elderly woman. She looked frail and tired, but what caught Aria’s attention wasn’t the woman. It was what the woman was wearing.
It was a standard light-blue hospital gown.
Aria’s breath hitched.
She slowly lifted her head from the back of the seat. Her eyes narrowed, tracking the wheelchair as it rolled across the concrete.
’I don’t need to get in the hospital,’ Aria realized, a wicked smirk spreading across her face. ’I just need the hospital gown.’
Her eyes tracked up from the hospital gown to the person pushing the wheelchair.
The escort was wearing a knitted, ankle-length turtleneck dress. She had a neat, shoulder-length bob haircut, and her head was currently bowed as she pushed the chair toward a waiting sedan.
Aria froze, her eyes widening in recognition.
She knew her.
It was Jade.
