Page 42 of One Wild Ride

All I cared about was that Aria wanted to be with me. My mother could make fun of me or spread lies about me or Aria, and it wouldn’t matter. The only important thing was that we were going to be happy together.

“Don’t even start, Mom. I told you I’m not marrying Alexa Dorton,” I said feeling emboldened with Aria at my side.

My mother told me when I was a kid that I am destined to marry into a powerful, politically connected family. I met Alexa when I was a kid. She was sweet and as nervous as me. We planned to run away together, not so we could be together, but to get away from our controlling parents.

My mother rolled her eyes and waved her diamond-cluttered fingers at me. “You can’t run away from your destiny, Alexander.”

I stood there and stared at my mother. What sort of fantasy world did she live in?

“It’s done. None of that matters anymore because we’re leaving.” I tried to make my way past my mother, pulling Aria along with me.

“You can walk out and break my heart like that, Alexander? After all I protected you from. I’m the one that gave you everything. If it weren’t for me, you would be lost out there in the world with the worst life. Maybe no life at all.”

I stopped and looked over at my mother.

“What are you even talking about, Mom? You think sheltering me, making me scared to step outside in the daylight was protecting me? The most it ever protected me from was mosquitoes. Bravo,” I used the slow clap on her, “you saved me from malaria.”

“And West Nile virus. Oh, and also the Zika virus,” Aria said.

We both turned toward Aria. She shook her head. “But you aren’t a pregnant woman so you don’t really need to worry about Zika.” Aria’s eyes lowered to the floor and she frowned.

“You are right, Ms. Dixon. He doesn’t need to worry about that or you, for that matter. Since you are already married.”

Another one of my mother’s lies. She really thought I was that naïve, that stupid, that I would believe Aria was married just because my mother said it.

I shook my head. “How can you lie like that and then look at yourself in a mirror?”

There was a tug on my sleeve and I glanced down at Aria.

“Alex, she’s not lying.”

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