Chapter 89 Aria
Sienna showed up at my house after sunset with mud on her shoes and something strange in her eyes. That was the first thing I noticed. Not the mud or how she hovered on the porch like she wasn’t sure she should knock.
I opened the door before she could change her mind. “Sienna?”
She blinked, like she hadn’t expected me to answer that fast. “Hey.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I needed to talk to you.”
“Okay,” I started. “You’re kind of scaring me already.”
“Can we go somewhere private?”
I stepped aside to let her in. The living room was quiet except for the low hum of the refrigerator in the kitchen while Nora sat curled up on the couch with her laptop, her hair tied up in a messy bun.
She looked up the second we walked in.
“Oh,” she said lightly. “Hey, Sienna.”
Sienna nodded. “Hi.”
Nora’s eyes flicked between us, curious, but she didn’t mention anything else. She just went back to pretending she was focused on her screen.
I gestured toward the back door. “Let’s go outside.”
Sienna followed me onto the back deck. The evening air was cool and the sky already dark. For a moment neither of us spoke. Sienna leaned against the railing, staring out at the yard like the grass might start talking if she waited long enough.
“You said you needed to talk,” I reminded her.
She breathed out. “Yeah, I did.”
Silence ensued again. I crossed my arms, “You’re killing me here.”
She glanced at me, then looked away quickly. “I haven’t been honest with you.”
My stomach dropped a little. “About what?”
“About where I’ve been and some things about my family.”
I waited. She rubbed the back of her neck, clearly uncomfortable.
“My parents raised me a certain way,” she said slowly. “Different from most people.”
“That’s vague.”
She hesitated again, like the next words were stuck somewhere between her brain and her mouth. “They believed in protecting people.”
“Okay?”
“From things they didn’t understand.”
“Sienna,” I said carefully, “what kind of things are we talking about?”
Her eyes flicked back to mine. “Dangerous ones.”
That didn’t answer anything. I sighed, “You’re being really cryptic right now.”
“I’m trying not to make it worse.”
“Worse than what?”
Her jaw tightened. “My Dad trained me to handle threats.”
The words hung between us. “Trained how?” I asked.
She shrugged slightly, but the movement looked forced. “Self defense, tracking, and reading people.”
That made my eyebrows lift. “Your Dad trained you to track people?”
“When you grow up moving around a lot,” she said, “you learn things.”
Something about the way she said it felt incomplete. I’m sure there was another sentence she’d swallowed.
“So all those times you disappeared for weeks,” I began, “you were with your parents?”
“Sometimes.”
“Sometimes?”
Sienna sighed. “They had jobs and things they needed help with.”
“What kind of jobs?”
She hesitated. “Security work.”
I studied her face gently. She held my gaze but there was something guarded behind it.
“Security work,” I repeated.
“Yeah.”
“That sounds like a half answer.”
“It’s the best one I can give you.”
I controlled my anger. “Sienna, why are you telling me this now?”
Her shoulders stiffened. “Because I know things are weird lately.”
“You’ve been avoiding everyone,” I pointed out.
“I know.”
“And sneaking into the woods a lot.”
Her eyes widened slightly. “You noticed that?”
“Hard not to notice when someone disappears every other afternoon.”
She looked down at the deck boards. “I didn’t mean to worry you.”
“Well you did.”
The night air rustled the leaves in the trees behind the yard. Sienna finally looked back up.
“There are things about my past I can’t explain yet,” she said quietly. “But you deserve to know that I’m not here to hurt you.”
“Why would I think that?”
Her gaze flickered. “Just trust me, okay?”
But that was the problem. Trust wasn’t something you could just ask for. It was something to be earned.
“You’re asking me to believe you without giving me the full story?” I asked in incredulity.
“I know that’s not easy.”
She looked really tired emotionally as if she’d been carrying something heavy for a long time.
“I’m trying, Aria,” she said quietly. “I really am.”
I really looked at her and for the first time since she’d come back to town, she actually looked scared of something she wasn’t saying.
“I believe that you’re trying,” I said carefully.
Relief flickered across her expression.
“But I still think you’re hiding something.”
“Yeah, I am” she admitted.
That honesty surprised me more than the confession. “Why?”
“Because if I told you everything right now, you might look at me differently.”
I leaned against the railing beside her. “You’d be surprised what I can handle.”
She didn’t sound convinced. “Just give me a little time to figure out how much of the truth I can actually say.”
I frowned slightly. “That’s a weird way to phrase it.”
Sienna gave a small, tired smile. “Yeah. My life’s a little weird.”
Behind us, the back door creaked open and Nora stepped onto the deck, holding a mug like she’d just come out for fresh air.
“Sorry,” she said casually. “Didn’t mean to interrupt.”
But the way her eyes moved between us told me she’d been listening longer than she let on.
“It’s fine,” I said.
Sienna straightened slightly while Nora leaned against the opposite railing, watching us. Her expression looked thoughtful and I knew she was fitting puzzle pieces together in her head.
“Everything good out here?” she asked lightly.
Sienna nodded. “Yeah.”
But Nora’s gaze lingered on her a moment longer and something unreadable flickered behind her eyes.
“I’ll leave you two to it,” she said and slipped back inside the house.
The door closed softly behind her.
I turned back to Sienna. “You sure that’s everything you wanted to tell me?”
She hesitated.
“No,” she said honestly. “But it’s all I can tell you tonight.”
She pushed away from the railing. “Thanks for hearing me out.”
“Thanks for trying to explain.” A small smile crossed her face then she headed toward the gate. I watched her walk down the path until the shadows swallowed her.
Inside the house, Nora stood by the window watching the yard. “You heard that whole thing, didn’t you?” I asked.
She didn’t deny it. “Most of it.”
“What do you think?”
Nora didn’t answer right away. Her eyes still stayed fixed on the darkness outside.
“I think,” she said slowly, “Sienna just told you the truth.”
I frowned. “That’s good, right?”
Nora’s gaze shifted to me. “Part of the truth to be precise.”
“And the rest of it?”
She looked back toward the woods. “I have a feeling we’re going to find out soon.”
AUTHOR’S NOTE:
Sienna finally said something. Not everything, but enough to make things interesting. The question now is what she didn’t say? What do you think Sienna is hiding, and how much does Nora already suspect? I’m very curious about your thoughts before the next chapter👀.