Chapter 33

Aria

I had been having that same nightmare for almost my entire life.

It was always the same: Sarah standing over me, preparing to strike. That feeling of fear, of knowing that she was going to hurt me and that no one would come to my rescue, because no one ever cared.

And then that black dog leaping over me, protecting me.

Followed by the flash of a knife embedding itself in his side before the blade turned to me next.

That wasn’t how it had really happened, of course. The fluffy black puppy I had rescued when I was a kid had just bitten Sarah a little and scared her more than anything. But in my dreams, the outcome was far, far worse.

And sometimes, like tonight, my brain couldn’t distinguish dreams from reality and I would wake up screaming and fumbling at my body as if the knife was still buried in my stomach.

I didn’t realize it had happened until I suddenly slammed into a sturdy frame. Warm arms wrapped around me, and a gruff but familiar voice shouted my name.

“Aria! Aria, what’s wrong?!”

My shrieks faded, and I blinked slowly, realizing where I was and what I had just done. I wasn’t in that barn, but rather in the dusty archives. Darren was holding me and looking down at me as if an intruder had gotten into the building.

“I-I’m so sorry,” I stammered, my knees half-buckling against him as I shook my head. “I-I was having a nightmare—”

“A nightmare?” Darren looked down at me with surprise but supported my weight with ease. “You were sleeping down here?”

My cheeks flushed and I shoved a mussed lock of hair out of my eyes. “I was cleaning the archives and sat down for a few minutes. I guess I nodded off for a bit.”

Darren frowned. I thought he was going to scold me for sleeping on the job, but instead he glanced at his watch and said, “It must have been more than ‘a bit’. It’s past eight o’clock.”

“Oh.” I took a step back, suddenly feeling the loss of his warmth against my body. “There are no windows down here, so I didn’t realize…”

Darren glanced around at the clean room. His eyebrows shot up as he realized what I’d done. “You cleaned this whole place up? All by yourself?” He touched a nearby filing cabinet that had previously been covered in grime but was now sparkling with cleaning solution. “It was a dump in here before.”

I nodded and gave him a little smile. “You like it?”

“It was… very kind of you,” he replied. “But why did you do it?”

I shrugged one shoulder. “I wanted to make up for the printer fire.”

To my surprise, Darren looked a little… amused. “I wasn’t actually planning on docking your pay, you know.”

“I figured, but I still wanted to do something nice,” I said. I really wanted to tell him that I knew he took my side against Sarah, but I decided not to—mainly just because I had a feeling he’d deny that he had.

“Well… Thank you,” he said, taking another step into the room. “It looks great in here.”

As Darren looked around, I suddenly remembered the letter. I picked it up and handed it to him with a tiny smirk on my face. “Also, I found this.”

Darren quirked an eyebrow as he took the frame and studied it. “Looks like an old letter from some kid,” he said.

I grinned. “Not just any kid. I wrote that letter when I was younger. I guess it didn’t get thrown in the garbage after all.”

The CEO’s eyes widened slightly as he looked up at me. “You wrote this?” he asked.

“Yeah. My childhood dog was sick, and Lunar Labs medicine helped him pull through, so I wrote this thank-you letter. I thought it got lost or ignored, but… I guess not.” I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “I don’t know, I thought you might get a laugh out of it.”

“I’m not laughing.” Darren’s mismatched gaze was surprisingly tender as he tucked the frame into the inner pocket of his jacket. “Thank you for this.”

Despite myself, I felt my chest warm in response. I’d thought that he would chuckle over it, maybe make some comment or another about a small world, but… He just looked happy. Moved, even.

He glanced at his watch again. “It’s late. Let me drive you home.”

I couldn’t argue with that, so I followed him out of the building and into the parking lot. He unlocked his sleek black car with a click of the fob, but as we climbed in, he turned the key in the ignition and nothing happened.

“Dammit,” he growled, smacking one hand lightly on the steering wheel. “Again?”

“What’s wrong?”

He shook his head. “Engine keeps quitting on me. This is the third time it’s happened in the past week.” With a huff, he got out of the car and checked under the hood. As soon as he opened it, a plume of smoke rushed out, smelling of oil.

“Just as I thought,” he said, slamming the hood shut and turning toward where I was shivering in my winter coat. “I’ll have to call the mechanic. You should come inside.”

“I can just take the subway, really,” I said.

“No.” His face hardened. “I’ve heard about how… violent humans can be toward one another, particularly against women. It wouldn’t feel right letting you go alone.”

I felt my throat clench, but said nothing. The gesture was… sweet. And besides, he wasn’t necessarily wrong.

We headed back inside after that, taking the elevator up to Darren’s apartment. Liam was already fast asleep by the time we got there, curled up on the sofa in his pup form. While Darren called the emergency mechanic, I couldn’t help but grin and ruffle Lucas’s little ears as I took a seat next to him.

It was still weird, seeing Lucas like this and knowing that there was a little boy beneath it all. But I think I was starting to get used to it, even if only a little. And he really was cute in both forms.

“It’ll be a while before the mechanic comes,” Darren said, scratching his head as he came out of the kitchen. “I made some tea, if you want some.”

“Sure. That would be nice.”

A few minutes later, Darren was emerging with two steaming cups of tea, one of which he gave to me. It was a soothing peppermint flavor, which only made my eyelids even heavier, especially sitting on the plush couch with Lucas’s pup form nuzzled up against me.

For a few minutes, neither of us spoke, just sipping our tea. Finally, unable to keep it in any longer, I said, “Thank you. For taking my side in the printer issue.”

Darren looked surprised. “I didn’t—”

“I know that you demoted Sarah,” I interrupted. “Because you realized that she might have been responsible after all. Liam told me.”

The usually stern-faced CEO stared incredulously down into the steam rising from his cup. His mouth opened, then closed again as if he didn’t really know what to say. Maybe he never expected me to find out that he’d sided with me against my sister, who was supposed to be a saint in his eyes.

“I just couldn’t find a reason to blame you for it,” he finally said after a few long moments of silence. “If I’m being honest, Sarah has told me some…” He paused, glancing at me. “...Awful things about you. But the more I get to know you, the harder it is to believe them.”

My jaw clenched of its own accord. Because she’s a fucking liar, I wanted to say. But I decided to keep it to myself.

Somehow, I had a feeling he’d realize that on his own without having to hear it from me.

“Well, um… thank you,” I said with a small smile. My eyelids grew a little heavier, and I nestled down into the cushions as I tangled my fingers in Lucas’s soft fur. “I appreciate you giving me the benefit of the doubt.”

Darren just nodded and sipped his tea, staring out the window with those mismatched eyes.

…

I must have nodded off again. One moment I was sipping tea on Darren’s couch, and the next thing I knew, I was waking up on it. Warm sunshine spilled across my cheek, and I felt the sensation of something small moving beside me.

“Mommy! You’re awake!” Lucas exclaimed, bolting up excitedly. “Daddy, she’s awake!”