"It's the red one," Alicia called out to Aria snapping her out of her thoughts.
"What?" Aria asked confused, she hadn't really been listening to what Alicia had been saying.
Alicia just shook her head, "Never mind, are you coming to visit the family in summer?" Alicia questioned her.
Aria internally groaned, "Um I don't think so, we just don't have the money for it," she said shrugging. Alicia gave her a look, one that Aria was very familiar with, "They'll pay your flights."
"No it doesn't feel right, I like making my own money," Aria countered smiling.
Alicia sighed, "Your loss, so what were you thinking about?"
Aria looked down, "I was just wondering what Hunter had planned for Love Day," she admitted.
Alicia smiled, "It'll probably be a picnic at the park, he's a romantic like that."
"And Norman's not?" she asked.
Alicia rolled her eyes, "If you count the flowers his assistant brought romantic then yeah. To be honest I think he's flying us over to Sunlit Tides."
"Well that's good, isn't it?" Aria asked confused.
"He has a business meeting there," Alicia informed her.
"Oh," is all Aria said in reply. Once again Aria found herself wondering if Alicia and Norman were really in love, she doubted it, the family needed some of his business, so they had married off their daughter like she was just a business asset. Thinking that made it easier to stay in the same room with her, but not by much. Aria remembered clearly the conversation she had with Hunter that led her to this moment.
"What am I going to do they killed my parent's, for what?" Aria screamed at Hunter upset, it had been a few days after her parents funeral. Hunter stood there calm as anything but Aria could tell that inside he was secretly fuming, "Aria you need to calm down," he told her.
"Calm down? I can't I don't know what they want, it doesn't make any sense. Nobody that evil cares that much about their family," she said continuing to scream.
"I don't know either Aria but," Hunter started pausing on the word as if unsure if now was the time to bring the subject up.
"What?" Aria hissed.
"You know this isn't the end," he finally said.
"Why like killing my parents isn't enough?" she snapped.
Hunter sighed before he said, "You got a text from Alicia today she said that she hoped you'd had enough time to come to your senses."
Aria exploded, "What right does she have? I hate her I hate them, this is my fault I never should have looked for my bio mother, I ruined everything."
Hunter hugged her, "No Aria, this isn't your fault. I don't know why they doing this but its not you," he assured her.
Aria sniffed feeling a fresh lot of tears coming on, "I have a brother and a sister Hunter, what if they're next." Hunter didn't say anything, this wasn't something he could fix. Aria let the tears fall, the crying exhausted her as she fell asleep in Hunter's arms. Hunter moved her to the couch and a few hours when she did come back down she had made her decision, "I'll join their family," she announced in a whisper.
The first time Aria met the family she wanted to be sick. They acted as if they were so excited to meet her, as if they hadn't blackmailed her to be one of them. Aria had learnt to hide her feelings well in the last two years, but she hated them all. She hated the fact her and Alicia lived in the same town and the fact she had to see her. It didn't take her long to understand the reason why they wanted Aria as part of the family so much, and just this once it wasn't her fault. As Aria learned in the criminal business it was all about respect, the Amador family were at the top because they were ruthless and unrivaled. Ariel after what happened to James, started working with the FBI to bring them to down from the inside. Somehow the family found out, unfortunately Ariel wouldn't back down and she had to be taken care of. However some of the family's employees the ones a step away from the inner sanctum starting questioning them, if they couldn’t handle their own family, how could they run the business? They couldn't even order the daughter who was going to ruin them to be killed. Enter Aria, she was the perfect example to prove Ariel was a one off a bad shot in the line, so to speak. It took Aria a while to realize but she was being used to advertise the family, prove they were as strong as ever. She was the only family member that hadn't had a part in the family, and by forcing her in they appeared unified and her hatred of Ariel proved the point even more. Aria hated herself for what she was doing, but two years had started to numb her to it.
Things her in life were going well despite this, she never accepted the family's money and her styling business was better than ever. Hunter had more books and best-seller's to the list.
"You're home," Hunter said cheerfully as Aria walked through the door after getting back from seeing Alicia.
"Yeah," Aria said tiredly.
"That bad?" Hunter asked.
Aria rolled her eyes, "When isn't it?"
"It'll get better," Hunter promised.
"I doubt it," Aria replied sadly.
"Wait, I have good news," Hunter declared thinking of something that would cheer her up.
"What?" Aria asked a tad excited at seeing Hunter's smiling face.
"Hunter C called and said him, Constance, and Buck have all decided on Egypt for a summer holiday, which means we're going to," he told her.
Aria grinned, she hadn't heard anything better. Constance and her husband Buck much to Aria's surprise were now her other two best friends and Hunter C got on with them as well to. Aria had indeed grown up, her selfishness although still part of her, had been put firmly in the past. She didn't have time to be selfish when someone else controlled her life, it was this thought that made Aria's smile disappear from her face.
"We can't," she told Hunter.
"Why?" he asked confused.
"Because we're meant to be going with the family and I told them we couldn’t afford to go anywhere," Aria informed him.
"I'll call the others," was all Hunter said there was no argument or discussion they didn't need to.
The Amador family was not one you messed with, for anything.
A coupe of days later Love Day arrived and Hunter took Aria to the spring festival the perfect distraction for her. She sometimes wondered why Hunter stood by her side life would have been easier with someone else. For the first time in ages, Aria remembered what it was like to be young and careless. Aria and Hunter skated like they use to as kids, but Aria couldn't remember how they got so out of practice as she fell on her face.
The did things they hadn't since they were teenagers and Aria wished she could just rewind to that time.
They both thought it was pretty funny when she sneaked behind the kissing booth and Hunter pretended he was a customer.
The night ended with them watching the stars, as Hunter pointed out some of his favorite constellations and they whispered about the people around them.
Although it would be inaccurate to say the night exactly ended there.
Aria had never been more happy in her life, but as they saying goes there's a calm before the storm. If Aria had thought life had dealt her, her dish and she could move on she had never been more wrong.
