I was lying on my bed, staring at the ceiling, when I heard it. A faint, distant sound, carried on the still afternoon air. A voice. My name. I sat up, my heart lurching into my throat. It couldn’t be.Then it came again, louder this time, closer. A desperate, raw yell that was unmistakably his. “ARIA! PLEASE! I NEED TO EXPLAIN!”My blood ran cold. He was here. He was at my house.I shot off the bed, my hand flying to my mouth to stifle a gasp. I could hear Roxy yelling back, her voice a furious, protective shield. “Get out of here, you bastard!”But his voice just got louder, more frantic, echoing up the stairwell. “ARIA! I DON’T REMEMBER A VIDEO! ARIA!”I hurried up and locked my bedroom door.I stumbled back, my legs feeling like they were made of jelly, and pressed myself against the far wall, as if I could sink right through it. The sound of his voice, so full of pain and desperation, was a physical assault. It was everything I had been trying to escape, everything I had been try
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