Touched (The Untouched Trilogy #2)(103)

All my love…

Now and forever,

Aria



I read it again. And again. And again. I couldn’t send it but I couldn’t delete it. I printed the email and saved it in my drafts and turned off my computer. I read the printed copy once more and folded it. I went to the box that held my memories and placed it on the top of the others. My eyes fell upon the crumbled note that Aiden had given me. That seemed like a life time ago. I’d never read it. I placed the box on the floor and grabbed the note.



Aria,

Please accept these flowers as an apology for my behavior. You make me crazy and I don’t seem to know the right thing to do when it comes to you. I simply react. Let’s talk. I miss you.

-A.



I placed the letter over my heart and held it there. I closed my eyes; recalling the day in my office when Aiden had forced his mouth on mine.

I didn’t want to cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry. I repeated it over and over until I’d placed the note in the box and moved it out of sight.

I walked around the house looking for something to do but there was nothing. I was restless and decided to go for a walk along the beach. I tapped a short text asking Kellan to meet us there at the conclusion of his business meeting.

It was a beautiful day, perfect for a relaxing barefoot walk along the beach. The bright sun was warmer than it had been as of late; feeling like an invisible blanket of warmth. The feel of the warm sand between my toes was comforting. I pulled the blanket from my bag and spread it out near the edge of the water. I took a seat and removed the KTan from my shoulders, freeing Lyric from its constraints. He’d gotten so big. I gave him a kiss on his adorably chubby cheeks. He looked so much like his father, with the exception of the chubby part.

I was bouncing him on my knees, speaking to him as if he could actually understand me. He was giggling and staring at just the right parts. A shadow gradually blocked the beaming sun and I looked up from the baby prepared to ask Kellan how things went with his meeting but gasped when I saw that the person casting the shadow wasn’t Kellan. I was staring into the eyes of a man I didn’t recognize, a man whose eyes once intoxicated me, a man whose eyes were now touched with the same iciness of his mother.