Chapter 3

"Aria, you—"

She hung up before I could finish, in a rush.

Looked like my call had interrupted her fun.

The man smirked, and just like that his face turned vicious.

"Come on. Ezra said we've got to make sure this guy can't walk."

I was cornered in an instant. My leg and ribs were both hurt. There was no way I could get away.

What chilled me most was how she'd used the dialect to trick me, ordering this group to hold me back and keep me from coming to find her.

But what she didn't know was that I'd already seen her and Ezra together, and that I could understand the dialect.

The men in front of me were full of swagger, and just as they moved to lay their hands on me a second time, my friend showed up.

The moment they saw someone coming, they scrambled onto their motorcycle and took off.

Lowell Fox saw I was badly hurt and helped me up, worry all over his face. "Nat, are you okay?"

"Weren't you off to find Aria?"

"Good thing I came looking for you, or you'd have been done for."

He got me into the car and called the police right there.

Then he took me to the hospital to have the injuries checked. They were serious enough that I had to be admitted.

When Aria came to see me, she had a group of friends trailing behind her, Ezra among them.

"Nat, how are you doing?"

I lifted my head and looked at her, perfectly calm.

None of my old warmth. None of my old longing.

Maybe my heart had finally died on her. "I'm fine."

My sudden coldness threw her, and left Aria with something knotted up inside that she couldn't name.

"I'm sorry. I had no idea those men last night would go so far, that they'd dare hurt you that badly."

The second she finished, she whipped her head toward Ezra, seething.

"Call the police!"

"I want those men to pay."

Ezra curled his lips into a faint smile. "We don't even know who they were, and there aren't any cameras at that spot. How exactly do you expect the officers to catch them?"

The whole thing had been arranged by Ezra himself, so of course he knew how to set up an attack.

Aria had actually taken a lowlife like this for her affair. She really was blind.

To make it up to me, she decided she'd stay with me all day and go nowhere.

"Nat, I'm not going anywhere today. I'm staying right here with you."

"I'm sorry. I should have come to find you first thing last night."

"Then where were you last night? What were you doing that kept you from coming to find me?"

I cut her off, and asked her straight why she hadn't come to me the night before.

See, my question left her stunned.

What she didn't realize was that the kiss marks under her neck, even hidden under foundation, could still be seen.

My eyes went dark in an instant.

Seeing that I was truly angry, Aria hurried to speak in an injured tone.

"The reason I didn't come to you last night is that my grandmother was sick."

"I had to stay home and take care of her, so I couldn't come to you right away."

The words had barely left her when Ezra stepped up to blame me too.

"Come on, Nat. We're not the ones who hurt you. What gives you the right to talk to her like you're interrogating a criminal?"

"Exactly! You think you're so important? What, her grandmother doesn't matter?"

I watched this crowd coldly, but I didn't get tangled up with them.

I just looked at Aria, so disappointed. She'd done nothing but spin lies to deceive me.

Seeing me fall silent, Aria finally spoke up to stop her friends.

"That's enough. My Nat didn't know my grandmother was sick."

"Ease off, all of you."

"Tch. You're not even married to her yet and you're already playing favorites."

Aria lifted her chin with a smug little smile. "Only I get to pick on my Nat. Nobody else can even think about it."

There was a time these words would have gone straight to my heart and moved me.

Hearing them now, all I felt was sick.

I didn't want to look at any of them anymore, so I lay down to rest, saying I was tired.

To my surprise they not only refused to leave, they started teasing Aria in the dialect.

"Heh heh, come on, tell us what the two of you got up to last night."