Page 39 of Coerced

“Exactly.”

It dawned on me that Aria had said this occurred five years ago and that it was rough for a little over a year. “So, your mom made it through okay, and it seems your family is very close. How did you end up getting to a place where you wound up leaving your hometown while being on bad terms with your family?”

She winced. “Part of that is something I’d rather not share. Let’s just say that after my mom got better, things were pretty good for a few years. They only went downhill about a year ago.”

Aria paused and looked away, her eyes fixed on something outside the window. I didn’t look in that direction. Instead, I kept my gaze trained on her, and what I saw surprised me. This woman, this gorgeous woman, was filled with so much pain, it was crushing her.

Was she that good at hiding it before that I hadn’t noticed? Or had I been so caught up in other things I liked about her that I missed what was staring me right in the face?

All I could manage to do was continue to run the padof my thumb along the skin on her arm, hoping it offered her some comfort.

Eventually, she looked back at me and shared, “There had been some lies and betrayals that I was made aware of about a year ago. What was done couldn’t be undone, but things could be rectified moving forward. So, I demanded that. I demanded that things be fixed in a year.”

“I can only assume they weren’t.”

She shook her head. “No, they weren’t. And I couldn’t stick around knowing that I was compromising myself in more ways than I care to admit by doing so.” She shrugged, a look of indifference in her expression. “So, I left.”

“And now you’re here.”

Aria nodded. “And now I’m here.”

I took a moment to allow all that she’d shared with me to sink in. There were certainly some questions still lingering for me about what precisely happened, but I could understand her reasoning for not wanting to share. We didn’t know each other that well yet. If she was truly embarrassed by whatever it was, I didn’t expect she’d want to share something like that right now anyway.

But based on what she had shared, I felt for her. She’d clearly been through something horrible, and that pain that was etched into her features was consuming her from the inside out.

I thought she deserved to have someone wanting to cheer her up.

“You know what?” I asked.

“What?”

“I had a couple of ideas for things we could do today, but I think I’ve just had a change of plans,” I shared.

She shot me a questioning look. “Okay?”

Following a beat of silence, I asked, “When was the last time you went roller skating?”

Confusion turned to shock. “Roller skating?”

“Yeah.”

“My tenth birthday party.”

My lips twitched. “It sounds like you might be overdue for a visit to the roller rink.”

She swallowed hard. “You want to take me roller skating?”

Grinning, I nodded. “I do.”

Aria glanced down at her lap briefly, returned her focus to my face, and said, “I don’t have any socks.”

Laughter spilled out of me. “I’ll buy you a pair.”

“Well, I mean, I can buy a pair. I just meant that I wasn’t wearing any.”

“I know. But I want to buy them for you.”

She licked her lips, her eyes pinned on mine. “Okay,” she whispered.