Page 23 of Battling Aries

Unfortunately, Aries doesn’t keep kissing me. Nor does he allow me to escape into the moment. He simply peppers a kiss to my nose as he used to do and draws away.

“Why did you allow Roger to draw you into his games rather than come to me? And don’t tell me it’s because of what he was threatening you with. It’s bullshit, and you know it.”

I blink, uncertain I heard him correctly. “Pardon?”

“Rory, you heard me, and I’m not repeating myself. Now, answer my question.”

Shifting, I jerk away from him and jump off the other side of the bed, getting to my feet. I huff out a breath, plant my hands on my hips, and level the best glare I can muster.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. What I did wasn’t bullshit, nor were his threats.”

“Scamp, you were grieving the loss of our kid, and Roger took advantage and threatened my life.”

“That’s not how it happened,” I grind out, shaking my head. “You don’t know what it was like. What happened . . .” I release a shuddered breath and squeeze my eyes closed, my casted arm pressing into my chest. “Roger made sure I miscarried, Aries. He was taking everything in my life that meant anything to me. He stole that baby. Just as he was going to have you killed. He wasn’t going to stop there. Roger intended to kill Cordy, Tempest, Fox, even Kevlar to force me to heed him. It wasn’t just you he threatened, but everyone.”

“And your mother didn’t say anything about any of this?”

I flinch at the mention of my mother. “She didn’t know any of this happened, but she’s thrilled that Roger has me with him everywhere he goes. She likes the idea of him being happy with me. My feelings don’t count.”

“Because she’s blinded by him. Always has been. Always will be. Roger could do no wrong.”

Aries is right about that. To my mom, he couldn’t. His father was the same way. I guess I was lucky that I’d been able to have the freedom I did before Roger got his hooks in me.

“So, he threatened all of us and you think it’s okay to just let it be and not reach out to me and tell me? You thought I couldn’t handle him?” He scoffs.

“But I did tell you,” I whisper, taking a step back. “I told you in the letter.”

“Bullshit,” he growls, closing the distance between us. “I know exactly what that letter said, and you didn’t tell me jack shit.”

“I told you what we had was a child’s love, and I’d found a man who I was meant to be with. That you need to leave the past in the past. That I never truly loved you,” I utter, feeling my stomach tighten, my nerves threatening to clog my throat. “Do you remember what I told you before you left for basic?”

“No,” he grinds out.

“I told you that I’d never love someone as I loved you. That you needed to make sure to come back to me because you were the man for me. Why would I say that and not mean it?”

I did my best when I wrote that letter to him. Telling him what I told him. I hoped that when he got it, he’d know it was a warning rather than what it was written to be. Just goes to show my luck that he didn’t read between the lines. He saw it as it was written and not as I’d wanted him too.

Slowly, I lift my gaze to meet Aries’s gaze and see the battle he’s fighting to keep control of the anger raging in those dark orbs.

“All I wanted to do was protect you,” I utter. I slowly stretch my arm just enough to press a hand to his chest, clenching his T-shirt in my hand. Tears spill freely down my cheeks. “Everything I did was to keep him from doing what he threatened.”

Unable to stand it any longer, I collapse into him. If Aries didn’t move quick to catch me, I’d have fallen at his feet. Instead, he scoops me up and pulls me into his arms. Tears streamed steady down my cheeks, soaking his shirt. I didn’t want to cry anymore. I was tired of crying. I just couldn’t stop the tears from flowing.

But this time, instead of crying alone, I was in the arms of the man I never wanted to let go of. However, I can’t keep either. The past will always be between us.

CHAPTER 14

ARIES

She’s going to be my undoing. There’s no other way to put it. She’s going to be the one who kills me. Her tears alone are enough to cut me at the knees.

What she said about the letter, about what she’d said before I left for basic training, it makes sense. Granted, it’s fucked up in how I should’ve been able to read between the lines. But at the same damn time, I read the letter and only saw it for what it was.

A damn Dear John letter.

I didn’t think it could possibly be anything else.

I realize now more than ever that I should’ve. The signs had been there. I’d been blinded by my anger to see them, and that’s on me.

---