Page 53 of Aria

Riley and Brad had been the equivalent to me and Ian. Both men were victims of childhood abuse by their mother, and in turn, became abusers themselves. Both had done jail time. Both enjoyed tearing women down until there was nothing left; it was some sort of sick transferred aggression brought on by their own mother’s violent temperament. Ian’s tragic past was the driving force behind my decision to stay with him for so long. I always said that Ian wasmadeinto a monster… he wasn’t born one. So, I always thought I could rehabilitate him somehow and help him conquer his demons. I’d always had a soft spot for broken souls.

The problem was that Ian didn’t want any help. He enjoyed what he’d become.

Riley and I had both wanted to fix our damaged men—but the difference between us was that I had gotten out. I had chosen to make a better life for myself.

Riley had stayed. Riley had chosen Brad.

And when I’d gone to the police station covered in bruises with Riley as my witness to Ian’s crimes, she’d choked. She’d told the cops that I’d been in a fender-bender, and that Ian was innocent. She’d lied, saying he had never laid a hand on me.

I’d never felt more blindsided, and the lingering residue of betrayal still left a sour taste in my mouth.

“Yeah. It’s me.” My tone remained flat and indifferent. “Why are you contacting me?”

“It’s been a while,” Riley said. A silence settled in before she sighed. “Listen, I know you hate me. But there’s someone you hate more than me, and I have some information.”

My blood ran cold.

Were my fears from the night before completely justified?

I had fallen asleep to Noah’s comforting reassurance that I was overreacting. The headlights in my window were a coincidence. The shadows on my wall were my imagination. The terrifying theory that Ian was out of jail and hunting me down was only something that happened in television crime shows.

“Is it Ian?” I finally choked out.

A pause.

A long, painful pause.

And then…

“Yeah, Chels. He’s out.”

* * *

Noah

I didn’t expect to find Chelsie on my doorstep a few hours after speaking to her that day. And I certainly didn’t expect the petite blonde to be tear-stained, frantic, and hell-bent on making an immediate escape over the Canadian border.

My peanut butter-and-jelly making afternoon was cut short when I discovered Chelsie standing on my front porch, white as a ghost. I’d sent Sam up to his room to watch a movie while I tried to calm my terrified friend.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa… breathe,” I said, taking Chelsie by the shoulders and guiding her to the couch. Her eyes were wild. Her mascara left dark stains across her flushed cheeks. “What’s going on?”

Chelsie removed herself from my grip and began to pace the living room. “It’s Ian. I knew it. I justknewit,” she rushed out. She sat down on the couch, then stood back up again. “I have a target on my back, Noah. He’s coming for me.”

I ran my hands over my face as I tried to process everything. “Okay, slow down. How do you know he’s coming for you? How do you even know he’s out of jail?” I wondered. “In fact, why the hell is he out of jail in the first place?”

Chelsie shook her head. “Good behavior, I guess. Riley called me.”

“Riley?”

“An old acquaintance.”

“Did this acquaintance tell you he was going to hurt you? If that’s the case, we’re going to the police right now,” I told her firmly.

“Screw the police,” she shot back. “They didn’t listen to me the first time. My bruises didn’t mean anything. It took the rape of an innocent woman for them to take Ian seriously. And now… they let him out.”

Thinning my lips, I studied the girl in front of me. She was panic-stricken, and I could only imagine what she was going through. She’d overcome so much, only to have the skeletons in her closet reemerge. Her slender frame was trembling, her eyes glazed over. Chelsie had noticeably left her apartment in a hurry, as she was wearing mismatched socks and a t-shirt that was two sizes too big over pajama shorts.

I idly wondered why she had come to me. Why not run to Lisa? Why not confide in her boyfriend?

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