Page 26 of Tainted Rose

Xander

“Where the hell did you find this, Aria?” My puzzled eyes dart to hers and then back to the letter written on notebook paper.

S,

I’m pregnant. We need to talk.

Amelia

“Um, I was looking at my aunt’s old high school stuff and stumbled on it. It was folded up and tucked inside of her senior yearbook.” She shifts uncomfortably on the bed, her legs tucked under her.

“Which aunt? And why were you looking through her stuff?”

“Christina. My dad’s younger sister. The one who was the head cheerleader, like me.” She swallows. “I should have told you about this before.”

“Tell me. Now.”

She huffs. “Back when Scarlett first showed up, I mentioned to Christina while we were hanging out one day that you seemed interested in this new girl. We were kind of chitchatting about Scarlett, and I told her about how she’d recently moved to town to live with her aunt and uncle after losing her mom. Christina asked what she looked like, and I told her all about ScarJo’s super long, red hair. It didn’t take long before she asked what Scarlett’s last name was. I told her it was Miller, and Christina got this really odd look on her face. I thought it was fucking weird because Miller is a pretty common last name.” She shrugs. “Anyway, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. You know how I am when something starts bugging me.” She takes a deep breath and gestures at the letter. “So, I started snooping around in Christina’s old stuff and—”

I shake my head, blowing out an exasperated breath. “You’re really fucking nosy, Aria. But I don’t get it. Your aunt had this the whole time?” Gears in my brain shift and start spinning fast.

She nods, her jaw clenched. “Yep. I don’t know what I thought I was looking for, but it wasn’t this. I was confused at first, because one, why does my aunt have it when she’s obviously not Amelia? And then, two, who is S? She never names him.” She starts waving her hands wildly in the air. “And then when I realized Amelia was Amelia Miller? I about died.”

I chew on the inside of my cheek trying to calm myself, and not sure what to say to this revelation.

“Xander, I think S is Sebastian. Christina first started wigging out when I mentioned Scarlett’s red hair. And if you’re saying Sebastian’s hung on to some random baby photo, then it has to mean something to him.” She keeps rambling, as if this is new information to me. “So, I started doing some digging, looking more carefully at the yearbooks. Christina’s with him in a lot of photos. I mean, he was a big, bad football player and she was head cheerleader. It’s not too weird to think that they’d be in the same photos, but there are a few where the photographer caught her looking at him and O-M-G, the longing in her eyes is incredible. At least that’s how I interpreted it—Christina had a thing for Sebastian.”

“But then how and why did Christina have that note? And obviously, she kept it from him.”

Aria shrugs. “I have no idea. I could ask her if you think it would help, but I really don’t want to. Here’s the really interesting part—I went to the library because I wanted to see prom pics from that year.”

“Why’d you have to go to the library?”

She rolls her eyes. “Dudes never know this stuff. Yearbooks are finalized before prom. All the photos of the prom king and queen are in the following year’s book.” She starts bouncing on her knees a little, she’s so excited. “Guess who the king and queen were that year?”

“Sebastian and Christina.” I nod as the probable truth sinks in. “You think she purposely hid that note from Sebastian?”

Aria wears a smug little smile. “Trust me. Imagine this: Amelia and Sebastian are dating—secretly, for whatever reason. Amelia gets knocked up. Maybe she’s scared and reaches out to Sebastian. Christina, who has the hots for him, intercepts it. Amelia thinks he’s ignoring her. He doesn’t know why she’s acting weird. Christina somehow convinces him to go to prom with her instead.”

I think she’s dead on.“Seems plausible.”

“But we’ll never know Amelia’s side of it.” Aria winces. “Scarlett deserves to know all of this.”

“She does. I also need to figure out if I should approach Sebastian with what I know. This letter combined with the baby photo is pretty much proof positive that Scarlett is his child. I just—” I let out a disturbed sigh. Now I’m even more worried about what’s written on the back of that photo. He’s kept it hidden this long…

I give myself a mental shake, then focus on Aria’s pinched thinking face. “I’m confused about one thing, and I should have asked you about this directly before now.” I run my hand over my jaw, eyes roaming over her face for answers. “Have you been texting Scarlett? She showed me some weird stuff questioning her scholarship and her mom’s past and who her father is.”

“Nope. I’d own up to it if it were me, you know that. I pretended to be you that one time to invite her to the party, but that’s it.”

I’ve always been able to suss out when Aria is lying to me. She’s not.

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