CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN

CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN
Aria's POV

“You must be delusional to say that to my brother!” Linda yells at me out of nowhere. I wasn't even facing her when I was speaking to Ethan. “Because your filthy behaviour has been exposed, you now think that you can shift some blame to my brother? Who the fuck do you even think you are!”

“It's best if you mind the way you speak to me!” I turned to Linda, who was almost up in my face and warned.

“Ethan! You haven't answered me.” I snapped at him.

“I don't understand what you are saying.” He said, looking directly into my eyes like I was saying something he couldn't understand. “Aria, you need to just get enough rest. You've probably had a long day mentally. You should just go to rest.” Ethan tried to dismiss my words. 

The fact that he even thought to tell me that I must have had a mentally exhausting day. 

I scoffed as I watched him get up from the couch he tried to relax in. 

I walked over to him and said, “I need you to answer my question. Were you or were you not stealing money from my company, Ethan?” I held his shirt as I spoke to him.

He forced my hands off his shirt and pushed me away from his body. “Get off me! What's wrong with you?”

“She's just mad! You need to see a psycho! You think you can take some of your lies and place them on my brother? You must be a joke!” Linda kept yelling to make matters worse.

I couldn't think straight about how Ethan behaved toward me in the presence of his sister. I also did not want to act irrationally in my decisions. 

I knew that Kael would take Ethan in for questioning the following day, but I really wanted Ethan to confess to me if he truly did that.

I feared how much pain I would feel if I found out that he did that and it doesn't come directly from him to me, so he could tell me why he did that, so I can make excuses for him in my mind. 

“Ethan! Ethan!” I yelled after him, running up the stairs so I could catch up with him.

Linda went into her own room, but before I could even get to my room, where Ethan and I sleep, he slammed the door and locked me outside. 

“I don't have time for all these questions.” I heard him say in a low voice. 

Somehow, I felt so betrayed that he wouldn't even look at me while I was trying to figure out the truth. Him directly. 

I begin to think of the moments when I would complain excessively that the company wasn't moving forward, despite how much effort I was putting into it and how Ethan would just encourage me to keep working hard. 

There was no way I would believe that Ethan would do all of that to me. It just doesn't make sense to me why he will go out of his way to inflict pain continuously on me. 

“I must be thinking too much of these things. It's best I just calm myself down and speak with him when he's in the right state of mind.” I said to myself.

I walked over to the couch and arranged it very well before folding myself into it to sleep. 

I slept without a duvet covering my body or anything because I didn't have access to anything. 

I tried my best not to be so mad at Ethan, but I was so sure that I wouldn't allow Linda to stay in my house anymore.

A soft peck pressed down on my cheeks, forcing me to wake up. 

Ethan was prepared for work. He was fully dressed, and he held a duvet in his hands. He was still unfolding it when my eyes opened wide. 

“I'm sorry I didn't let you sleep inside the room yesterday. I was just too tired and I didn't want us to fight over anything. I was having serious headaches from the hangover and it didn't seem like you were going to listen to me without fighting.”

I sat upright as he was speaking and positioned myself well. 

“Do you even see me, Ethan? Are you sure you've been seeing how hard these days have been on me? Do you even care about me?” I ask him genuinely out of love and frustration. 

Ethan wasn't seeming like the man who I knew loved me so much and wouldn't want anything to happen to me. 

He sat hastily closer to me and said, “I do. I love you. Why would you ever doubt that, Aria? It's just because Linda is around that my attention has been a bit divided. It doesn't mean that I'm not here for you or that I don't care for you anymore. You know how demanding Linda can be, and it's been a while since I saw her, I don't think it's too much attention if I give her my time.”

I scoffed. “So, because your sister is around, you'd rather act so rudely to me, and you called me names in front of her. Labelling me as a criminal as if it's not in this same house we've been in when I told you the back story. I don't really get it. Why do you act like you know nothing about that case?”

Ethan paused for a long, odd pause before he responded. “It wasn't my intention to act in that manner. You know how Linda can be if she finds out that I knew about all that your brother, Allen, had done. She will be so mad.”

“You're unbelievable, Ethan. I would never believe you would rather save your face in front of your sister than support me in such a time. Do you really understand how serious this is? Where's your love for me?”

“I don't like how you keep questioning me.” Ethan stands up, acting all defensive.

Someone knocked on our front door as we were speaking.