Chapter 204: CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED AND FOUR

ARIA'S POV

After my very well-deserved crash-out session, I went out of the house and drove myself against Jim’s protests.

But I am his boss and thankfully, the one with the power in my veins for the first time in my life and all he could do was pick up his phone and began calling whoever he was interested in reporting me to.

I knew Octavio wouldn't be able to come here or even send someone down here. Lucifer made the contract pretty tight, and it was crazy how quickly he got it all ready like he'd been prepared for this for a while or something.

I didn't care about that, however, because I was going to go out there and forget that any of this happened, although it was too early to get knocked out.

I missed alcohol and the way it always postponed responsibilities and regrets, at least until it couldn't, but right now, I was at the prime of my life where no one else controlled it but me.

So with Google Maps directing me away from my house through any other route but the one leading to my father's – deceased Father's house.

I still felt a pang of guilt Everytime I remember it was at my hands that it happened but the cold car and the ice under my tongue made it easy to numb it.

It wasn't my fault anyway, he should have been a better person and probably shouldn't have tried reclaiming his power over me. That brought out something in me that I'd thought was buried too deep inside that no one should have been able to pull it out.

It was one of the days he'd physically beat me up and left me out in the snow because I'd made him miss out on a business deal by not being the perfect twelve-year-old like my sister was.

The contract was lost because how was he expected to handle something of such magnitude when his own family was falling apart, i.e. Me.

In that moment of anguish, I'd wished I was capable of burying him in the frost that had my teeth crackling in near death.

That image was multiplied a hundred times over but still, it seemed odd that it was that particular image that was revisited and replicated.

I shook off the memory as I found myself in a familiar neighborhood and that coffee shop was right in front of me.

I'd not put this in my Google map, I'd asked to be directed to a pub but here I was

Maybe they'd started selling tequila in those big coffee shops but I parked properly and got out of the car and walked in, taking in the feeling of the environment.

Things were as they'd always been, cold yet crispy from everyone making the best of the weather.

Children were building a snowman somewhere down in the street and the joys that filled the neighborhood tugged at my frozen heart a tiny bit

I stifled it as I'd stifled everything else lately.

I walked into the coffee shop completely, and I could feel so many eyes on me, and the fact that it wasn't in irritation made me smile.

I was grown now, away from that phase where I was a disturbance to everyone, including myself, and that made me genuinely smile.

I walked to the counter, realizing how hungry I was as I looked at all the baked goods on display.

I waited for someone to show up and take my order, but there was nobody there for a minute, and the urge to go drink actual alcohol was beginning to win over this sudden urge to do something else.

Suddenly, the door behind the counter opened and someone eerily familiar walked in with boxes of chocolate in his arms.

It took him a few seconds to look up and see me and another five to recognize me.

“Aria?”

“Hi Lucas,” I replied with a smile, a feeling taking over me, something daring and sultry.

“Where have you been?” He exclaimed and rushed out of the counter and engulfed me in his arms.

It didn't feel weird surprisingly.

It felt like my body wasn't mine anymore but I couldn't focus on that at the moment.

“I needed to leave here for a moment, so many… things were happening,” I replied with a forlorn smile.

“I totally get it; after your father lost the election, things haven't been going well for your family, and I was hoping it wouldn't affect you wherever you ran off to,” he replied, taking me over to a booth and sitting next to me, not opposite.

“It didn't. I kind of have disconnected from them for a while now, but hey, that's not something I'm prepared to talk about now, so tell me what's been happening with you!” I replied with a nervous chuckle.

Something was happening inside me and although it wasn't painful or anything, it was strange.

But hey, who wouldn't be used to that word by now if they got to live my life?

So I indulged my former almost boyfriend as he took me through Brooklyn for the past two years and how he'd been faring.

“The owner of the coffee shop and the bakery next door decided to retire together,” he told me, “crazy, isn't it? But I decided to take over from them for a while, see if it's spent I'll be up to, and for the last eight months, I haven't thought about anything else but this quaint place.”

“It suits you in a nice way. I can see peace all over you,” I replied honestly.

“Well, you don't look anything like the Aria I used to know. You literally went through a glow-up. Did you finally lose the ghost on your shoulder?” He asked in a small whisper, referring to Alaric.

It sent a pang of hurt through my body.

I didn't want to be rid of him; he's a part of me, but then, he had hurt me too much, and worse, I knew he would do worse than that.

The books I studied for the time frame he was incommunicado stated clearly that this type of connection couldn't be severed and it gave the other person complete control over you. What's to say he's not going to hurt me more now that there are no consequences?

So yeah, I've had to lose the ghost/devil on my shoulder and, unfortunately,, replaced him with his father.

The difference was he didn't have control over my life; we had a good deal,, and that's all.

“Yes, I've gotten rid of him thank goodness!” I laughed out loud, getting Lucas in the same state. “And you? Finally found someone less problematic?”

“I haven't been looking,” he replied and then proceeded to take my hand in his.

The cold in my hands thawed a little bit with my hand in his.

“Lucas…” I whispered.

“Yes, baby. You know I've never stopped wanting you. You're the one that got away from me.”

“Well I'm here now,” I told him, leaning in closer.

He took a deep breath and kissed me, surprising but a welcome development.

Something definitely felt off, but I ignored it; this felt good, and we're focusing on the present.

“Do you want to go check out my new place?” I asked him, feeling hot and needy.

“Let me close up,” he replied quickly, getting up from the booth.

Meanwhile, I felt a switch in my mind, and I looked at the glass, my eyes had changed from the golden color it has always been to a startling icy blue.