Chapter 41 #2
“You will! Because for nearly two years, I was in a relationship with Jack Harrison. He was the guy I told you I was seeing. I was his mistress. I told him about the cartel. I’m the reason why there’s a politician coming after your family.
I’m the reason why Leo and Santos may have to disappear.
I’m the reason why you may need to have a new identity.
I am the reason you may lose this life you build.
I am the reason your son may lose his dad.
” Sob after sob racks through Aria. “It’s all my fault. ”
She falls to her knees, the tears showing no sign of stopping.
Hating seeing her like this, I go to her and wrap my arms around her as tightly as I possibly can.
“I got you.” I whisper into her hair.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” She says over and over again, her eyes aimed at Serena and Leo.
I look up with her and find both of them looking stunned, but Serena looks devastated.
For a few minutes, the only sounds filling the room are Aria’s cries and my comfort.
It’s not until the tears have dried up that Serena moves from where she was standing and walks over to where Aria and I are sitting on the floor.
She falls down to her knees, and I see she has her own tears in her eyes as she takes Aria’s hands in hers.
“You were in a relationship with Jack Harrison?”
Aria nods against my chest. “I should have told you.” Her voice is barley a whisper.
“Why didn’t you?” There’s a bite in Serena’s tone and from the look on her face, she regrets letting the words come out so harshly.
Aria pulls away from me and sits down on the floor to face her best friend head on.
“I wanted to, trust me, I did, every time we talked but he drilled it into my head that I couldn’t. And because he was there after the break in and made me feel safe for a small period of time, I did what he said.”
“But that feeling stopped?”
Aria nods, new tears springing into place. “He wasn’t, well isn’t, a good person.”
“What does that mean? Did he put his fucking hands on you?” It’s Leo who asks the questions.
Looking up, I see that he has come closer and not only does anger coat his face but so does concern. He’s concerned about aria in the same way I would be about Sam or Charlie if they were in this position.
She shakes her head at him before dropping it “He wasn’t physical, but he certainly had a way of using his words and actions to slice through.”
Serena scoots closer to Aria. “Is he the reason why you moved to Chicago?”
There’s no hesitation. “Yes. I ended things when I found out he and his wife were still together, but he still came into my apartment unannounced, would show up at work and cause a scene until I spoke to him. He just wouldn’t stop no matter how many times I asked, no matter how much I begged.
So I started looking for jobs and found the one in Chicago.
I figured it would be my only way out. It seemed to work. ”
Something strikes me as off and has for a while now and that is the fact that Harrison just dropped Aria. She has said that he made it clear that she was his and won’t be able to escape him. Why tell her that, why make her life a living hell but the second she leaves Texas the chase stops?
It makes no scenes.
Either he didn’t give two fucks about Aria and only treated her as his plaything to make his dick feel bigger, or the asshole has something else planned up his sleeve.
My guess? The fucker is working on something to get her back.
“Where does the Muertos come into all of this?” Leo asks, his voice hard.
Aria swallows before shifting her gaze to him and then Serena, speaking to her. “Please don’t hate me.”
One of Serena’s hands travel up and cups Aria’s cheek. “I can never hate you.”
“But you will. If not for talking to Jack but for the reason why I did it.” Aria closes her eyes for a second before saying anything. “It was when you told me about your pregnancy. You were so happy, I could hear it in your voice, and I wanted to be as happy about it as you were, but I couldn’t.”
“Aria.” Serena starts but Aria stops her.
“I was angry at you. Angry that you not only married someone with cartel ties but stayed married to him. I was angry that you stayed with him even after we were taken, I was angry that no matter how badly we were hurt that day, you were still excited about having a baby with him. I thought I had gotten over it, that enough time had passed for the anger to go away, but when you told me you were pregnant, it all bubbled to the surface.”
Sobs fill the room, both Aria and Serena are crying with the former nearly shacking where she sits.
I can’t help but to wrap Aria back in my arms when I see Serena drop her hands. My lips don’t veer far from her temple.
Every part of me is telling me to pick up Aria and leave.
To take her out whatever the fuck this is and make sure she never has to live through something like this every again.
The only reason I’m not listing to myself right now is because the woman in my arms would be devastated if I were to take her from the people she loves without resolution.
With letting them hear her out even if it’s breaking every inch of her.
“I promise I don’t feel that way now. You know I love Noah as if he were my own blood. It was just in that moment; everything got the best of me. I’m sorry. So, so damn sorry.” Aria pleads, looking at both Serena and Leo.
Serena wipes her own tears away but it’s Leo that speaks after a few minutes.
His voice calm, controlled. “What does he know, Aria?”
It takes a bit for Aria to find her voice again.
“That I was connect to the Muertos. What happened to me. Your names. Santos’ too. The fact that you and Serena were married. Whatever I knew at the time. I may have been drunk but I remember all of it clearly.”
As Aria speaks, I watch Leo. I watch him as he takes in everything, she says and though his jaw is ticking, probably at the fact that she told someone his business, there is something else that comes across his face.
Relief?
Reassurance?
Who the fuck knows. Whatever it may be though, has him changing his stance though because he goes from standing, looming over us as if he was our fucking maker to crouching next to his wife and holding Aria’s attention.
“Is that all you told him?” His voice is still that calm tone it was earlier. Aria nods. “You didn’t tell him where we live? How to get to this house?
Another head shake. “No. That’s the one thing I kept to myself.”
It’s as if Leo relaxes a bit. “Okay. Okay.”
“Okay?” Aria asks, confused by his response. Honestly, I am too. I expected him to be filled with rage and tear the world down. I was definitely not expecting the bastard to be calm and collected.
Leo gives her a nod. “Okay.”
“Would you stop saying okay and be the mean mafia boss I know you are? I talked to a politician for fuck sakes. That deserves more than an ‘okay.’ Take me to the basement and chop me up into tiny pieces and discard my body somewhere nobody will ever find me. Feed me to the damn sharks. Hell a Killer whale. Do something other than say okay.”
We all fall silent.
Serena is stunned. I’m trying to figure out if the last few seconds really happened and Leo is doing everything in his power to hold in a laugh.
This is one of the reasons I love Aria. No matter the darkest situation, she will do or say something that will change the tone.
“I’m not in the mafia.” Leo responds, a smile playing at his lips.
I turn to Aria just in time to catch her eye roll. “Mafia, Cartel, same difference. You all tie people to chairs and cut off their tongues.”
“There is a difference, and where the fuck do you expect me to find a killer whale? Sea world?”
A smile appears on Aria’s face even with tears coating her cheeks. She’s trying so hard to keep her composure, but I can tell she’s failing. I’m pretty sure we all are. We went from tears, confessions, anger and fear to whatever this is.
“That seems like a solid option,” Aria voices through a tear-filled laugh that quickly disappears. “Why are you joking with me? You’re supposed to hate me right now.”
Leo looks at his wife for a quick second before looking back at Aria.
“I’m angry at you yes, but I do not hate you.”
Its Serena that speaks next. “We understand why you did it.” Her hands take Aria’s again.
“What we went through was traumatic and I do not fault you for holding that anger toward me or Leo. Your feelings toward that night are valid. I’m sorry if you thought you couldn’t come to me with it.
I’m sorry if I wasn’t there for you when you needed me to be or if it seemed like I was too wrapped in my relationship with Leo to understand what you were feeling.
I knew there was distance between us after we were taken, but I just swept it under the run and acted like everything was okay.
I’m sorry I did that. I should have asked. ”
“I should have told. We’ve been attached at the hip for years. I shouldn’t have kept what I was feeling to myself. I should have voiced them, and maybe then we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
Serena gives her a sad smile. “Promise me that if you ever feel that way again, you will tell me?”
Aria gives her an eager nod. “I’m not hiding anything from you ever again.”
The two women wrap their arms around each other and they stay like that, both holding each other tight with silent tears streaming down their faces.
I know this was needed. Aria needed to have this moment with Serena, but it still digs deep into my heart. If I’m able to, I will make sure she never goes through something like again. She will not feel fear like this ever again.
When they pull apart, Aria looks over at her friend’s husband.
“If you aren’t going to through me to the sharks, what happens now?”
Good fucking question.
Leo mulls it over and talks out loud as if he is trying to work out a plan in his head.
“We bring Harrison down. He knows more about the cartel than what you told him. That had to be just the start of it. We need to destroy him before he can do something unrepairable.”
“And how do we do that?” Its Serena asking.
It’s with Serena’s question that a singular word pops into my head.
Marisela.
The only way to bring down Harrison would be through her.
She doesn’t give two shits about him and I’m going to take a wild guess that the only reason she’s working with him is because of the money he offered her and because it involved the Muertos.
I’d bet whatever is in my bank account that there is no real attachment and she would be the first to dispose of the bastard if she had the chance.
She’s out key.
And I may know of a way to get to her.
She may not have wanted anything to do with me when I was a teenager, but that may not apply now.
Only one way to find out.
“I know a way.”
The three people in front of me turn to face me.
I speak before anyone else can.
“We go to the person helping him. La Chuparosa.”