Page 79 of Unravelling: Aria & Crispin
A harried doctor interrupted their conversation by pushing open the curtain partitioning Aria's bed from the rest of the beds in the crowded emergency department. He glanced briefly at the monitor, then at the chart.
"Miss...Aria, is it? The baby is fine, but you're not. You're severely anaemic, dehydrated, and your blood pressure is through the roof. Whatever's going on in your life, you need to stop doing this to yourself. You're putting your pregnancy at risk," he admonished sharply, though not unkindly.
After he left, Lule sat quietly beside her for a while. "I know you're angry and hurt, but something about all of this feels...off. I think you need to talk to him."
Aria turned sharply, golden eyes blazing. "How long should I wait, Lule? He didn't even have the decency to send a single message for three days. Three days! I knew this would happen. There's nothing to talk about."
Lule opened her mouth, then shut it, seeing the storm in Aria's face. There was no reasoning with her now. Aria rarely showed her temper, but when she got like this, she usually shut down.
Aria reflected that this was no more than she had expected. He had done what he should have done from the start-cut her loose. So why had he strung her along? Her anger stirred again, sharp and hot.
"I applied for a job," she said quietly. "In a place called Harlech. It's a housekeeper position at a local inn. It'll keep me busy."
Lule's eyes widened. "Aria-"
"It's for the best," Aria interrupted stubbornly. "His family...they're not right. God knows what they'd do if they found out about the baby. Don't worry about me. The couple who run the place seem kind. I wasn't going to accept but now..."
Lule sighed. "You threw your phone away. Why would you...? You know what, never mind. I will request a new SIM card."
"I don't want it," Aria said flatly. "I don't want him to contact me. Not until I'm ready."
Lule nodded slowly. Finally, she said, "I'll download your stuff into a new phone, keep it ready."
She hesitated, then asked with a slight wobble in her voice, "And the baby? You were going to tell him this week. You are already well into your second trimester."
"I'll tell him after the baby comes," Aria said grimly. "He doesn't deserve anything else."
Lule gave a short nod, resigned to this new plan. "When will you leave?"
"As soon as I can."
It took Aria two days to pack. She only took the essentials, and Lule insisted the rest of her luggage would stay with her. Lule tried to talk her out of it, but Aria had made up her mind. She stopped trying when she saw the tear tracks and haggard look on Aria's face the morning after she collapsed.
"I'll talk to her once she's put on a little more weight. I am scared, Rahul," Lule told him, the worry clear on her face. Rahul could only hug her and mutter reassurances into her hair.
Aria's belly looked more prominent now against her increasingly thin frame. She kept taking her folic acid and iron, and now there was calcium, too. It was one of those enormous pills that felt the size of a small elephant and impossible to swallow.
Their goodbye at the train station was difficult. Lule refused to let go until Rahul gently pulled her back. "I'm coming by in a month," Lule warned, trying to sound light. "So, watch out."
Rahul gave Aria a short nod. As the train pulled away, Aria felt a deep sadness, but also a strange sense of beginning, of setting out on a new adventure.
She had a new number. The old SIM remained in a switched-off phone with Lule, untouched. She changed stations in Birmingham and took the final train to Harlech. A sweet young girl who worked at the Lion's Mane Inn met her at the platform.
The young couple who owned it had moved to the area during Covid and modernised the old manor house into a twenty-room inn. They had two children and another on the way. Aria had informed them she was pregnant, but they hadn't been put off. Her last supervisor at Du Valares had had finally come through with a glowing reference.
The plan was to work there until close to her due date, then return to Oxford. After that, she would see. She had some savings in the bank-enough, if she was careful, to buy a small flat and still have a modest nest egg.
Any guilt she might have felt for selling Crispin's gifts instead of returning them disappeared like smoke. Her rage flickered anew. Sometimes it felt like someone else was in control of her body.
As she looked out at the placid sea from her first-floor corner room, a sense of peace swept over her, the anger momentarily forgotten. The waves curled softly onto the beach, gentle and rhythmic, as though the world was offering her a lullaby.
She pressed a hand to her belly and let out a soft, melancholic sound. "We're going to be okay, little one," she whispered. "I promise you this. Wherever we go from here, you will have me and I will have you, and that will be enough."
Chapter 43
Aria
The following two weeks passed in a quiet, almost healing rhythm. Aria settled into her role at the Lion's Mane Inn. With schools still in session, the inn remained mostly peaceful during the weekdays, the crowd swelling only on weekends. Her days were filled with making beds, helping with simple meals in the large kitchen, and supervising younger staff, most of whom were locals on part-time contracts. The owners, Dana and Treveo Ridges, were warm and down-to-earth.
