Aria still remembered how it felt the day her father walked out, she remembered the repercussions her mother had to go through because of him.
They had always seemed happy in front of Aria, always so perfect but there were days where she could feel the tense energy in the home. Days where her father would disappear for days and reappear with a teddy bear just to distract Aria from what was really going on.
And that's the thing, Aria was never the one to miss what was really going on, ever.
She always paid attention to detail, always made sure to see things for what they truly were especially the last few months her dad and mom fought when they thought Aria was asleep. She remembered nights where screams were loud, where her mother cried at him to stop breaking her heart.
She remembered days where her mother would barely even eat and would go days laying in bed, staring at the door where her father had walked out with a small bag. She remembered how her mother saw herself useless because a man she loved, saw another woman worthy, over the woman who bore his child and always sheltered his heart in her fragile hands.
Aria remembered how she had called her grandmother when she could see that her mother was too weak. She remembered how she snuck into her mother's room, stole her mother's cell phone, and went outside, calling her grandmother hurriedly, knowing that no one would know what to do other than her grandmother.
She remembered she had missed school for the third time that week, trying to clean and take care of her mother. Trying to take care of a breathing corpse, trying to nurture it back to a living being but because she wasn't really taught all of this.
She struggled and when her grandmother finally came and found her ten-year-old granddaughter, trying to clean the kitchen, her heart broke.
Yet Aria finally felt relieved and slightly happy that maybe her mother would go back to being herself. She trusted her grandmother and within a few days, she remembered seeing her mother eat and take walks around the block.
She remembered watching her mother become someone better and she promised herself to never let her mother be broken again like that by a man.
Yet it seemed as though Aria had forgotten that there were different ways of hurting someone. Different ways to bring them down and break them. Different ways to plant doubts and manipulate their feelings and hopes.
All she ever did was try to protect her mother from men that would hurt her but now she knew she had done as much damage as her father. It broke her down to see the mess she had created, broke her heart and soul to pieces.
Especially when she saw the horrifying evidence.
Imagine this.
You hear gunshots, feel your heart fall into your stomach as you race to the scene, hoping that the most important person in your life isn't harmed. Everything moves in slow motion as soon as you draw closer and closer and closer.
And as soon as you reach the scene, you see a black SUV drive away hurridly without regard to what damage has been done. You realize that that must have been the vehicle that caused the damage but still, you don't fear it because you fear something else.
That was what Aria felt, so imagine how she felt when she saw her mother on the ground with the man she chose to leave with. Both bleeding and unconscious on the ground with no one around. Aria dropped to her knees, reaching forward she cradled her mother's head on her neck, panic set in.
"Help!" she yelled, "Help!"
"Someone! Anyone Please! Call 911! Please My Mothers Dying! I Beg You!" she yelled as she cried, her tears fell onto her mother's face, tainting her cheeks.
Aria rocked herself back and forth, as she wished she could take back what she had said and done. She loved her mother but she might as well have killed her.
"Mother I'm sorry! Please no!" she whispered to her mother, as she continued to rock herself, hoping that her mother could hear her. She shook her mother's head, hoping that she would wake-up and it would just be a lesson.
Yet as soon as she rested her hand by her mother's chest, she felt something wet and noticed that her mother was shot twice. Once in the chest, once by the stomach and fear settled in Aria's stomach making her fear the worst.
"Momma!" she cried hurriedly, trying to get her to wake up and at least try to hold on, she reached for her neck and pressed two fingers on her vein but she couldn't feel a pulse.
"No No No!" she cried out.
"Cops and ambulance are two minutes away!" She heard James say as he checked on Harry's pulse.
It wouldn't matter, it was way too late.