Aria
Five Years Ago
The TV was background noise as I zoned out, twisting the ring Callum had given me. Sometimes I wondered why I’d moved to Leeds eight months ago.
Mum had wanted me to go with her to New York and stay with Auntie Faye when the divorce came through from Stephen, but I thought I knew best.
Those last few months in the house were hard. Stephen was never there, and Sebastian had disappeared, as if he never existed.
I blinked, releasing those memories from my thoughts. There was no point in thinking about it. Nothing was going to change. Not now, anyway.
“Aria?”
I jumped off the sofa, wiping my eyes, but my body relaxed as I turned around and found Callum in the doorway. Those green eyes were always so bright, unlike Jason’s, which were full of darkness.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, stepping in, placing a few bags with two coffees on the table. “I didn’t mean to make you jump.”
I smiled at him. “It’s fine. It’s not your fault. I was in my own little world. Where have you been? I haven’t seen you in weeks.”
“I had to go deal with some business out of Leeds.” He furrowed his brow. “Why are you in a jumper? It’s summer.”
My eyes darted around the room, anywhere but his, as I twisted the ring. He placed his fingers on my chin, tilting my head to the side. My breathing became shaky, and his eyes widened. He’d just seen it.
“Shit, Aria.”
He moved the neck of the jumper down and ran his finger softly over the bruises. His touch was a furnace, melting my icy skin.
He rested his hand on my cheek and gazed into my eyes. “Let me help you,” he whispered.
I took hold of his hand on my cheek and lowered it. “You can’t.”
We stood there for a beat, locked in a moment neither of us wanted to break free from, because we knew reality was about to crash back down on us.
I cleared my throat, taking a step back from him.
“What’s in the bags?”
He smiled. “All your favourites.”
“How long are you staying?” I asked, rummaging through the bags until I found what I was looking for.
Pulling the bacon sandwich from the paper bag, I took a huge bite. Callum let out a little chuckle.
“What?”
“You’ve got some mayo on your face.”
“Oh.” I grinned, wiping it off, then took a sip of coffee. The taste of sugar hit me.
“That one’s yours,” I said, handing it to him.
“I’m here a week. He’s gone over to France to sort out some business.”
I let out a heavy breath of relief. The times he was away were the only times I could truly relax. He didn’t trust me in the house by myself, so Callum always came to stay, the only man who was allowed to be around me without permission from Jason.
We sat down on the sofa as I finished eating my bacon sandwich. They always tasted better when they came from a café.
He sipped his coffee. “I got that appointment you wanted for tomorrow.”
“Thank you.”
“We’ll go out early, but you’re going to have to let me buy you some things; otherwise, it would look a bit odd coming back without any bags, and I don’t want anyone to suspect a thing.”
“You just want an excuse to spend your money on me,” I teased.
“What’s the point of having it if I can’t spend it on the people I care about?”
“You’re a good man, Callum.”
“I try.” He grinned.
I swatted his arm. He was always soft with me.
Jason had dragged me to a few of their meetings.
It was a way of showing everyone that I was his, so they all knew not to touch me unless he told them to.
I’d seen a different side to Callum at those meetings.
They all feared him and wouldn’t dare say a word wrong to him.
Yet, I could tease him, and he’d laugh about it.
“How’s uni going?” he asked.
Did he not know?
“I … I don’t go anymore.”
“What do you mean, you don’t go anymore?”
I let out a sigh. “I’m not allowed. It’s fine. I don’t mind being at home.”
“Aria, you’re nineteen. You should be out at uni and enjoying parties, not stuck in this place.”
“I guess fate had other ideas.”
“Don’t say that.” He took my hand. “You’re a beautiful person; you shouldn’t be here with us. You should be out living your life.”
“He’d find me, and you know he would.”
“Then go to America with your mum. Have the life you should have. I’ll come with you. We could go together. I can do this anywhere.”
I tapped his arm playfully. “Don’t be silly.”
“I’d give up everything to help you.”
“I don’t want you to give up your life, Callum. I won’t ask that of you.”
I’d never ask him to risk his life for mine, and that’s what he’d be doing, going against Jason. He was already risking enough to take me to my appointment tomorrow.
“Let’s just eat snacks, watch films, play games, and be normal. That’s all I want with you.”
“I don’t know how board games are normal.”
“I used to play them with my parents when I was younger, and they were still together.”
“What happened with your parents?”
“They just stopped communicating. Think I was thirteen when my dad left. Then, when I was sixteen, my mum remarried and moved us to London, and I gained a stepbrother. One of the last times I saw my dad was just before I left on my birthday. I never heard from him again.”
“I didn’t realise you had a stepbrother,” he said, surprised.
“Yeah, he was older, never really there, and moved out before the divorce,” I replied, getting it out as quickly as possible.
I didn’t need any reminders of Sebastian. He’d left me and was never coming back. I was just a silly girl, thinking something was going to happen between us.
“How did your mum end up in New York?”
“Well, that relationship was a disaster, so when the divorce came through, she wanted to start again, and my auntie lived out there.”
“You didn’t want to go?”
“I was at university at the time, and I’d not long met your brother …”
I probably should have gone. Then, I wouldn’t have been stuck here in this terrible situation.
But then I wouldn’t have met Callum.
I sipped my coffee. “What about you? I don’t really know much about your family.”
“I was a little shit.” He chuckled.
“I can imagine.”
“My parents didn’t really have much growing up, and I used to get into so much trouble with Jamie on the streets. The number of times we got arrested … Then we started the ‘business’, and I helped to grow what it is now.”
We sat there for a moment in silence before I spoke. “Do you ever wish your life were different?”
“I’ve never really thought about it, to be honest. I guess if Jason hadn’t started it, I probably would have ended up in prison. I mean, now, I don’t have to worry about the police and all that, because as long as they get money, they don’t care what we do.”
“I don’t think you would have ended up in prison. I think you would have made something of yourself. You seem the type of person who would go out and get it.”
He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me into his chest.
“Yeah. Maybe you’re right.”