Chapter 6 The Call

"This is the worst dinner I've ever been to" were the words Ayden said as soon as he left his father's house.

Arya feels that this has been because of her, and even as she gets into the car, she feels her heart getting smaller and smaller.

"Everything all right," Ayden asks as he enters her apartment.

The young woman looks at him distressed, but says no more. She just stares at his perfect face, carved by the gods of Olympus. He's so fucking handsome, it makes her scorn hurt all the more.

"Yes, goodnight," she finally says goodnight and advances to her room.

"Wait, I know there's something wrong with you, you've been dodgy and looking like a dying animal." the Adonis throws in her face.

Arya takes a breath as her mind and mood are not connected to her strength.

"Nothing, I'm just tired," she replies and tries to leave again.

"I told you to wait," Ayden growls with a distinctly annoyed tone in his voice.

"For what!!! I don't understand what you have against me. I will be the mother of your baby, you should at least try to be nice, and not behave like an idiot with me all the time," exclaims the young woman finally.

Ayden is surprised by the answer, but even more surprised by Arya's character, she is not as docile as she appears to be.

"I've been delightful, and I'm not at all an idiot," she contradicts with marked annoyance. "You, on the other hand, what was that about us already expecting a child? You're not considering the risks, you take for granted that if we can get pregnant..."

"No! Don't talk like there's we, it's you, only you," she says, realizing his mistake. "It's your child, I'm just the vessel, one you're apparently disgusted by."

"It's not disgusted, it's just... it's..." Ayden doesn't know what to say, he's never had to have to give any explanation to anyone before.

"If you're looking for the right word you won't find it, what it is, is. Let's leave this neutral, I'll be the mom, you'll be the dad, you'll have your son or daughter, and then I'll leave, and hopefully never see you again, ever!"

Arya walks straight to her room where she takes refuge from her demons that tell her she is no one important, where they haunt her telling her she will never be enough for anyone.

Ayden, however, is relieved not to be forced to say more, he would rather not confront her like that. He takes a hot shower before bed, believing that it will take his mind off how beautiful she looked tonight.

Before leaving for the office, Ayden goes searching for Arya, she needs to get a shot.

He knocks on her door, but it doesn't open, he tries again, but it doesn't open, so he decides to go in.

"Arya?" he asks, but she doesn't answer.

The bed lies untended, her lack of response makes him start to get nervous.

"What if she's had second thoughts?" he thinks anxiously. He begins to call out to her, but she still doesn't respond.

He approaches the bathroom door and knocks, but there is no answer. Furthermore, he hears the water fall on the other side and that calms him down.

"She's just taking a bath" that calms him.

"Arya, I have to go, I have to inject your hormones!" he calls over the noise of the shower.

But once again, she doesn't answer.

"Arya!"

Worried, he decides to enter, feels a knot in his stomach and his hands shake. What he sees terrifies him to some extent. He finds Arya passed out next to the shower, still in her bathrobe.

Having to carry her was something he has to do, but it terrifies him.

"Arya, Arya, react!" he calls out in desperation. Seeing her unresponsive, he bends down and takes her in his arms, carrying her to the bed.

As he holds her, he realizes that she is very light, her weight is very low for someone of her height. Setting her down on the mattress, he runs to the medicine cabinet and fetches an alcohol swab. He returns, passing over her nose the swab for her to sniff.

"Hey, easy...you're okay, easy," he says soothingly as she begins to react.

"What happened," Arya asks in a raspy voice.

"You were passed out in the bathroom, does anything hurt," he inquires very concerned.

"My head... a little, but my phone, where is it?"

That he would ask about the phone seemed a little strange, but he looked for it nonetheless. He found it on the sink counter in the bathroom.

"Here," he says, handing it to her and again taking his distance. "I must inject you with hormones, please eat something when I leave. You are very thin and weak."

Ayden leaves going to get everything he needs to inject her, once he does, he bids her a terse goodbye and leaves. Ala young man walks through the house and gets to know her, she realizes that he has provided her with everything she needs, even when he gets to the kitchen, he finds a black box and red ribbon meant for her.

As she checks the little card on it, she pulls it out and reads.

"I hope your stay with me is bearable. I know you miss your loved ones, I hope this makes it light" A.E.

Arya feels a pang of anticipation in her chest, it thrills her to know that he cares about her. Somehow, even if it's like this.

After breakfast, she finishes touring Ayden's house. She goes up to the second floor and comes across a gym, as well as her host's spacious gray and blue colored room.

"Where is your future child's room going to be," she asks no one in particular as she is alone.

She leaves that place down the same hallway and comes to a room full of mirrors. For a moment, she wonders what the hell so many mirrors are doing in one place. As she enters, she observes her reflection wherever she looks, voluntarily and involuntarily. The carpeted floor invites her to sit down, for some strange reason she does and then lies down, discovering that the ceiling is also covered with mirrors.

Lying on the floor, she keeps wondering why he has so many.

"It's as strange as it is sinister" she thinks, getting to her feet to get out of there immediately.

When she tries to go back downstairs she notices another door, she opens it, and it's an office, but a blackboard with her picture pinned on it catches her attention. He reads everything carefully, thus learning that Ayden Emory investigated her as well as he told her.

"He's fucking obsessed," he mutters, taking the clippings with her information on them. Thus removing everything to do with her.

She took them to the sink and set them on fire until they were ashes. Getting rid of the evidence, he returned to his bedroom.

She waited all day for Ayden to return, she didn't know how she was going to tell him that she didn't like his research on her, as well as that the gifts seemed excessive. He already had a phone, he didn't need another one.

He was thinking about it when a call interrupts him, the number is unknown and thinking maybe it's Ayden, he answers.

"Hello sis." The sound of his brother's voice comes to him through the speaker, and he feels anger.

"Damn you, Jeff! How could you steal my scholarship money?" angrily remarks, Arya stabbing her hands, digging her nails into her palms.

"As if you actually required it," he laughs at her. "Besides... I hear you're finally gone." He snaps, making his sister disown him more, it's a sound she has always disliked.

"You don't know anything," she says angrily, she wishes she had him in front of her to plant a slap in his face. "Have you had the decency to go visit Mom, or is it that you don't care about anything anymore?"

Jeff's mocking laughter only angers her more.

"Stop laughing, you fucking prick," she begs loudly.

"I'm laughing at what an idiot you are, who do you think told me you went off leaving her alone?"

Hearing that is like being stabbed through the heart with a dagger.

"You didn't expect that, you idiot...as usual, you're a fool who thinks mom will see for her. It was never like that, but you always saw only what you wanted to see. Anyway, I'm talking to you because I need money."

"What, you didn't get enough of what you stole from me," she asks indignantly.

"I had debts to pay, but I require more if you don't want mom to find out you left her for a man in a suit with a helicopter," he snorts, blackmailing her.

"You're lying! You don't know anything, Jeff!" she refers, trying to convince him otherwise. "Leave me alone! You've done enough damage to us already."

"I'll make you pay for what you just said, you fucking whore," she threatens, hissing with hatred. "I'll find you, and you'll see what I'm capable of doing to you."

Arya frightened hangs up the phone, at that a door slamming is heard. Ayden had already arrived and heard the threat.

"Arya," he calls her coldly. "Who says he'll find you to make you pay?"

She watches him in fear, not for him, but Jeff.

"My brother."

Ayden nods and walks straight to her. He crashes the old jalopy to the ground, shattering it, Arya startles at that action, but knows better.

"She won't find you," he warns with a primitive protective instinct.

"And if he does," she asks fearfully, her hands shaking.

"He won't, that, I'll take care of."

He takes off upstairs, leaving her alone again and a bundle of nerves.