Chapter 123

Aria’s POV

“I can’t believe how quickly everything is moving,” Piper said. “They just signed the peace treaty yesterday, and now they are repairing the railways. I saw on the news the flight paths have shifted too. Now that they are able to fly over DuskHowl territory again, we could be home in less than four hours by plane.”

We were sitting in the break room, sipping coffee at one of the table and chairs there. The tabletop had a marble pattern that was aged slightly yellow. Sometimes I’d lose myself tracing my eyes over the twists and turns of the faux marble.

Today, my attention was entirely on Piper.

“Home?” I asked her, lifting a brow.

Her bright smile dimmed for a second. “Well, Nightfall pack, I mean.”

I didn’t mean to take the wind out of her sails. I kept forgetting she had such strong ties to the Nightfall pack. Her friends and family were all still there. She courageously joined me on this new adventure to help people, but her heart was always with Nightfall pack.

The only people I had left back there were Cathy and Jasper.

“What if we went back?” Piper asked. Quickly, she added, “Just for a visit, I mean.”

There was hope in her eyes.

Though she had always been bright and bubbly during our many days here in Moonglow, sometimes I would catch her looking longingly at something or another. Once it was a mug that had been a gift from her mother. Another time it had been a hair clip that she had borrowed from one of her friends.

She wanted to go home, to Nightfall. How could I possibly hold her back?

“You should,” I said. “I’m sure your parents would be thrilled to see you. And your friends too.” Five years was too long to go without seeing her aging parents, especially with how close they seemed to be. “In fact, I insist. Buy your tickets. You should go as soon as you are able.”

“But what about you?” Piper asked. “I’d really like if you came with me. My family and friends would love to meet you, after everything I’ve told them about you. And the kids could see –”

“No,” I said quickly. Then to soften the blow, added, “I’m sorry, but no. There is nothing for me there anymore, and certainly nothing for the kids.”

“What about Cathy and Jasper?” Piper asked.

I did miss them, and I knew Jasper was already hoping I’d visit. I hadn’t heard from Cathy yet, but I could imagine she was also excited by the news of the travel routes being reopened. I was willing to bet that if I said I wasn’t going to visit her, that she might just come here instead.

“It would just be to visit,” Piper insisted.

“I just don’t think it’s a good idea,” I told her, and blissfully, she let the matter drop.

The idea didn’t leave my own mind though, staying with me all throughout the day. I was able to push it away while I was with patients, not letting it distract me, but the minute I had any free moment to myself, the idea would return at full speed.

Would it really be so bad to return to Nightfall? Just for a week or so?

Cathy and Jasper could meet the kids and vice versa.

Always, the musing ended when I thought of Lucian. If he heard I was in town, he might try to see me. That would be the worst kind of idea, especially how his children, Luke especially, looked just like him.

There would be no question of parentage.

Yet, as bad as an idea as that was, I couldn’t understand why the thought of seeing Lucian again also made my heart race.

“You know why,” Luna whispered in my mind. “To deny it, you are lying to yourself.”

“All the more reason we shouldn’t go,” I told her.

I couldn’t fall back into Lucian’s trap, not after working so hard to free myself from it.

Besides, in five years, he likely moved on. He probably didn’t think about me at all anymore. I was alone in this desire, this hollow feeling.

Lucian wasn’t thinking about me at all.

At home, after picking up the kids from preschool, the kids run around, playing and blowing off steam, while I head into the kitchen to think about dinner. There was a phone there, hanging on the wall. As long-distance calls were so very expensive, so it very rarely rang. If someone lived close and wanted to talk to me, they usually just stopped by.

Even so, the kids must have been learning about phones at school, because when the one in the kitchen rang tonight, Jean rushed into the room, shouting, “I’ll get it!”

The only person who called me with any kind of consistency was Cathy.

Thinking it would be cute for Jean to answer the phone with Cathy, I allowed her to. I even lifted the handset off the wall and lowered it down to her.

“Hello?” Jean asked. “Who is calling, please?” Listening, she weaved her finger through the curly cord of the telephone. “Are you looking for my mommy?”

With some alarm, I realized this was probably not Cathy on the other end of the line. Jean knew Cathy’s voice and would call her ‘Aunt Cathy if it was her.” Unless Jean was playing some kind of game. But Jean was typically honest. Luke was the one who would play a trick like that on me.

I hold out my hand for the phone and Jean gave it to me.

“Hello? This is Aria,” I said into the phone. For a long moment, there was silence on the other end. “Hello?”

Then, abruptly, the call ended and I heard the dial tone.

Confused, I hung up the phone and looked at Jean. She was still tangling her fingers in the phone cord.

“Was someone there when you answered?” I asked her.

She nodded. “A man.”

My alarm rose higher. “Did he say who he was?”

“No.”

“What did he say?” I prompted patiently.

“He asked if you were there. Uh, Aria. He asked if Aria was there.”

Lucian’s POV

I’d tried the phone book’s number for Aria several times throughout the day, but this was the first time I had finally reached someone.

I never would have expected to reach a little girl.

Sitting back in my desk chair, I let the cold numb feeling wash over me, taking away my pain. I wanted to feel nothing, when the alternative was to have what was left of my hope stripped from my body.

Had I thought she would be pining for me, as I was for her? Had I thought the new distance would make her miss me as I missed her? Did I think, now that she had the capacity to more freely do so, that she would rush back into my life and into my arms as if our breakup had never truly occurred?

I’d been a fool for daring to hope such, even if it was only in my darkest, loneliest moments.

There could be no mistake, not after I heard Aria’s voice on the line.

She had a family now. A life. Probably a husband.

Aria had totally moved on.