Alpha Aidan's Rejection Chapter 87

TARA

　　We took a ride back home, and I could say that I'd never been as hurt, confused, and afraid all at the same time before as I was now. In the thousands of seconds that it took for us to make it back, I fought the urge to cry thousands of times, but I couldn't. Not in front of Nadia. I couldn't bear the thought of scaring her like that, but I also couldn't stop thinking about it.

　　‘Dad's not home. He's out with Mom. Kayla Graham.'

　　Aidan was a father. To someone other than Nadia.

　　And Aidan was a husband. To someone else who wasn't me.

　　Could there have been a misunderstanding somewhere?

　　None of it made any sense, but I still remembered the odd sense of familiarity I felt when the teenager showed up, telling me somewhere deep inside me that this held some real bitter truth. The betrayal hurt like a thousand cuts from a jagged saw to the same spot.

　　I almost hissed in pain, but I swallowed the feeling like a pill, waiting until we got back.

　　The thought of going back to the penthouse where Aidan kept us…kept us away from his secrets, felt like even more torture, but I couldn't imagine transferring this burden to my poor Mom. She had been the happiest she'd ever been during this time, and my bringing this devastating news to her would shatter her.

　　I couldn't do that.

　　Forcing a lid down on my feelings, my pain, and hurt, I led Nadia up to her room. She yawned, and a part of me was grateful that she was too young to understand certain things because of her age. That was until she spoke.

　　"Mommy, I don't want a stepmom."

　　If the other events surrounding today had not happened, I would have been shocked at Nadia's outburst, but knowing my kid, she was always so smart, picking up things that one didn't expect so easily.

　　I couldn't find the energy in me to cheer her up with more encouraging words, but that only piled up on the hurt, making the taste of bile even more bitter in the back of my throat.

　　So I shook my head, crouching by her bed to kiss her forehead. "I don't want that either. Don't worry baby, we'll be alright, okay?"

　　She nodded, watching me with a keen eye. I was sure that she could see past my cracked mask, but I didn't think I could even do more to hide it.

　　"I love you, Mom," she said, and I was thankful that she closed her eyes almost immediately because if not, she would have seen the mask completely shatter.

　　"Yeah. Me too." My voice was small, unrecognizable, and the tears had broken free, streaming down my face silently.

　　I got up immediately, slammed a hand across my mouth to muffle the sounds, and exited the room. Closing the door behind me softly, I ran to my room, tore my clothes off me in uncoordinated movements, and walked into the bathroom. Turning on the shower and blasting it up to full heat, I let myself truly break, hoping that the water would drown the sound of my cries, and maybe the loud thoughts in my head that just wouldn't leave.

　　"I trusted him," I said to myself, sobbing aggressively as the tears mixed with the water pouring down my face.

　　Aidan had been playing me the whole time?

　　All these years?

　　He knew.

　　He knew that it was Kayla. He sent her after me, and he showed up again to do what? Play some sick twisted game with my feelings and those of Nadia?

　　I didn't think it was possible for the heart to physically hurt, but it did. The organs surrounding my heart and the tissues connecting it strained against each other, resulting in a dull ache in my chest that just wouldn't go away.

　　All these while, I'd thought that we would be a family. I imagined that it would take some time, maybe even years, but Aidan already had one to begin with. What a joke.

　　Aidan had a teenage daughter with none other than Kayla.

　　I sobbed till I dropped to my knees on the floor, wondering just how much of this was a game to Aidan, and how much more danger we were in by being in their presence.

　　Fear snaked its ugly hand around my neck, choking me as even darker memories from my childhood came to my mind.

　　They were all the same.

　　The worst part? The worst realization of all was that I knew something else.

　　I was in love with Aidan.

　　Always had been, but all I had been to him was a toy to play games with.

　　Sniffing back the rest of my tears, I turned the shower off, feeling a numbness in my skin from the hotness of the water, but I didn't care.

　　I only cared about my child and keeping her safe.

　　With my heart so heavy that I could barely walk, I began packing our bags, ready to leave this pack and all the evil in it behind for good. I couldn't keep doing this to my daughter.

　　With each item that went in our bags- jewelry, a shirt, a book- memories attached to them replayed in my head, and somehow, it always included Aidan. He had succeeded in making himself a big part of our lives, so much so that me and my daughter were head over heels in love with him, only for me to find out that he's a master manipulator and a liar.

　　It hurts.

　　More than words could express.

　　When I was done packing, I lay on the bed through the rest of the night, lying still, without batting an eye. Before the first light broke, I was ready, and I went into Nadia's room to get her ready too.

　　"Come on honey, we have to get dressed."

　　Her eyes were still heavy with sleep as she asked. "Are we going to see grandma?"

　　"No." I shook my head. "Actually, we're going home. Work and school can't wait anymore."

　　Nadia grumbled, almost resulting in a cry, but there was no getting out of this.

　　I didn't think I could face Aidan after what he did, and knowing that Kayla, the woman who tried to kill me and my child, was still roaming free in this pack, it was the last place I wanted to be.

　　Events from the week appeared in my mind's eye for the umpteenth time in hours, but it still didn't make the thoughts any easier. The week had been perfect, and Aidan had gone out of his way to make us happy, or seemingly so. I couldn't stop wondering where it all went wrong.

　　We were ready within an hour, and I managed to push the heaviness in my heart to the side as we made our way outside to the cab.

　　I didn't even get to tell Mom that we were leaving, but I had her number now, and I'd just call her to figure out how things would be from there.

　　Nadia was clutching my arm, and our bags were being loaded in the car, but I'd been so in my head that I didn't notice a presence around me until my skin started to prickle with irritation.

　　Turning around sharply, the world tilted on its axis when I came face to face with…Kayla.

　　Friend turned foe.

　　She looked the same for a decade later, just dressed obnoxiously expensive as a billionaire's wife would, but that wasn't what got to me at all.

　　Her smile was flattering, almost deceptive, and anyone could have been fooled into thinking it was genuine. Anyone else but me.

　　My eyes instinctively went down to her hand to find it free of any weapons, but I didn't put it past her. I grabbed Nadia by her shoulders, shoving her behind me as my heart thrashed in my ribcage and blood pounded in my ears.

　　I relived it all in that moment, feeling it all at once. The betrayal, the hurt, the anger, but most importantly, the fear.

　　"Oh, come on! Don't look at me like I'm a monster after all these years. No hug for me?"

　　I shut my eyes briefly- for only a second- as her peculiar singsong voice settled over my skin like an itchy rash. As the dark memories came back to life, it was only by sheer resolve that I didn't snap loose, and aim for her throat.