Page 76 of The Puck Stops Here

Bella

Things going well then?

She pondered another white lie, a bending of the truth, but she didn’t have it in her. She loved these women like sisters, and they had her back. Plus, a problem shared…

Astrid

The article’s coming along nicely, but I’m not gonna lie, I’m not sure I have what it takes to deliver tit-for-tat on Aiden…

Her phone started to ring with an incoming video call, Bella’s chic avatar coming up in a circle. She should have known her friend would ring. She eyed the bubbles floating on the surface of the water and happy she wasn’t about to flash her friend, she swiped the call to answer.

‘Woah, are you in the bath?’

‘Yeah, but you can’t see anything, look…’ She did a quick sweep with her phone, laughing when she brought it back to her face and found Bella squinting. ‘Sorry, babe.’

Bella gave her a flushed smile. ‘Don’t be. I’m almost used to you now.’

‘Only almost?’

She laughed. ‘So, what’s going on?’

Astrid chewed her cheek.

‘Honey?’

‘I think we might have called this wrong, called Aiden wrong…’

‘How do you mean?’

‘I’m just not sure he’s… he’s a bad guy.’

Bella frowned. ‘He left Sienna high and dry, what more do you need to know?’

‘But it was ten years ago, and the more I uncover about that time the more I question whether he deserves this now. He had good reasons for leaving, B.’

‘Like what?’

‘I can’t… I can’t say. It’s complicated. But it’s all linked in with his brother and?—’

‘Are you sure this hasn’t got more to do with said brother and how you feel about?—?’

‘No. Absolutely not. Not really. No.’

Bella brows twerked with Astrid’s response.

‘What I’m trying to say is that Aiden was only eighteen when he left, barely a man himself and he had some serious shit going on.’

‘Didn’t we all, but we weren’t taking it out on others and ghosting people who cared about us and deserved better.’

‘No, but…’ Astrid stopped; she couldn’t tell Bella about the fight, she couldn’t tell anyone. She’d promised Blake.

‘Did any of those reasons stop him from answering one of her calls? From being there for her when she needed him the most? When her father got sent to prison and she had no one?’

Bella made a very good point. There’d been nothing to stop Aiden being a friend on the other end of the line… unless…

‘No, but I wonder if it was a self-preservation thing. I’ve got a feeling Sienna isn’t the only one feeling the mark of their relationship ten years on.’

Bella jerked back. ‘Seriously?’

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