At the start of royal rumble, becky and seth are walking in the backstage with their kendo sticks. They burst open the door of Usos' room and beat them up so that they can't mess up seth's and roman's match later. Seth and becky wish each other good lucks for their matches as they are smirking and looking down at Usos in pain. Because roman isn't the one who has family that have his back.
My walk home was flooded by memories and flashbacks. Everything that I had still forgotten was coming back. Everything with Dean, from the kiss to my crush on him. He was the one who I always wanted to date, but I never thought he would give me the time of day. Back before we became friends, he was sort of a player. He had tons of girls on his arm. I was nothing like those girls. They were sexy and loved to show off their bodies. They had confidence in themselves. They also didn’t live in their father’s shadows all the time. They were the perfect girls for him. Now, I don’t even deserve him. His smooth freshly shaved skin had now grown into his beard. I couldn’t tell which I liked him more. I had to say there was something about him with a beard that I just could get enough of. Something about it just made him seem more masculine and manly. It felt even better down there.
I still couldn’t believe I had been fooled by him. He barely changed his look. It was how he knew my favorite flower and called me, kitten. The only other person to call me kitten was Dean. I rarely even heard that pet name outside of him and maybe a couple of books. It was why I felt special when Dean gave it to me. I was the only one that he called that. I was his kitten.
I sighed, feeling tears in my eyes again. I had gone home and changed clothes from last night into black leggings and an old baggy t-shirt. I didn’t bother to do my makeup. I knew I was going to be crying on and off all day. I called into work and took another day off. I knew I was going to need it after the morning I had. I wouldn’t be able to get an ounce of work done. I didn’t want to believe that what Dean had said in the letter had been true. Seth couldn’t have been a part of my father’s death, right? There was no way that he could. I hoped so badly that Dean was wrong about what had happened between them.
The walk to Seth’s gym felt longer than usual. I couldn’t stop crying the whole way there. Once I walked up to the building, I did my best to clean myself up, wiping my eyes before heading in. It had been in vain though, as soon as I walked into the class that Seth was teaching and saw him there, I felt like crying all over again. He had his long black hair pulled back into a low bun. He wore a shirt with the sleeves cut out of them and some blue basketball shorts. His attention was fixed on his students. I sat back in the back, trying my best to blend in. It had been a while since I saw him teach a class. Most likely right before my accident so over a year. It was one thing I could tell that he loved. It didn’t even matter what he was teaching or what age group, he loved to do it. Fitness was something he took seriously and he liked to help others take it seriously too. He always pushed me to eat better and join one of his crazy diets with him. He would say that there is nothing wrong with me, but it wouldn’t hurt to eat healthily. I always hated his diets, because he never believed in a cheat day. I craved all the foods that he never wanted me to eat. He would tell me how they have too many fats or it was too late to be eating that. I hated him sometimes for it, but I knew it was for my own good.
His eyes flickered to me. “Alright guys, I am going to let you off early today. You guys did some good work today.” He dismissed his class before he walked towards where I was standing.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb your class.”
He shook his head, “Nonsense, you are always welcome.” He said kissing my forehead. I did my best to not cringe at his touch. “Would you like to go to my office to talk about what is going on?” He said as he whipped a loose tear from his eyes. I nodded. He touched my waist as he led me to his office. On his way to the office, he stopped and grabbed a water bottle. He opened the door for me as I stepped inside. It was only a week ago, but it felt longer for some reason since I had been in his office. I didn’t want to think about what happened last time.
Seth crossed off to his desk, sitting on the edge. “So, what brings you here, Aria?” He asked before taking a big drink.
I opened my mouth, but it suddenly had become dry, “I found out some things today.” I took a deep breath. “How long have you known about Dean?”
He raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean Dean?” He asked his question carefully. His eyes stayed on mine. “I thought he was in Ohio or something.”
“Don’t play games with me, Seth. I know you know who Eli really is. That’s why you warned me to not go near him. I always wondered how you could possibly know him. You haven’t really been around the ring in a while. Unless that was a lie too. I wouldn’t put it past you.”
Watch your mouth.” Seth snapped. “I apologized for all the wrong that I have done to you. How many more times are you going to bring it up just to force me to apologize?”
“Until it sounds like you mean it,” I snapped back. “Why did you keep his secret for him if you are so against him? Unless,” I said as I reached into my bag. “Unless he had a secret about you that could ruin your chances with me ever again.” I slammed the note on the desk. “I cannot believe you would do such a thing.”
Seth took the note and read it. I could see the anger turn into something else. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it might be remorseful. “Aria, there is a lot you don’t understand about that.” He began, but I quickly shut him down.
“So, you killed him. You and Charles killed my father.” The tears were coming up again in my eyes. “How-how could you do that to me? Were you that hell-bent on getting control of me that you would kill the only family I had left?”
He shook his head, “No, of course not. Aria, this wasn’t about me trying to gain control of our relationship. This was about me protecting you.”
“Protecting me? Protecting me from what?”
“My father!” Seth said as he stood from the desk. He walked over to where I was sitting and got down on his knees. He was eye level with me. When I tried to look away, he forced me back to look at him. His finger hooked with the bottom of my chin pulling my back to his dark brown eyes. “He wanted to hurt you. Your father was thinking about leaving us and taking you with him. My father had a lot riding on this. He thought if he could hurt you, it would make him reconsider. I begged him not to do it. I couldn’t stand the idea of something happening to you. It wouldn’t be pretty. I wanted you to be safe. I would never be able to forgive myself if something happened to you.”
“What about the car accident?” I asked. I was trying to put all the pieces of this puzzle together. I felt like I was trying to put two different puzzles together with no boxes, but all the pieces were in the same pile.
“That hit was meant for Dean. It was never meant for you. I hated myself that you got hurt by that.” He rubbed his thumb against my chin. “I never knew that you would be going near him that night.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” I stood up from where I was sitting. “That doesn’t change the fact that you went after him. For what? What did he do to you? Was it because you found out about the kiss? His feelings?”
“It should have been,” Seth growled low. “It should have been all of that. I told you a million times to stay away from him. Did you listen? No. You said that he would never do anything that interferes with our relationship. Well, imagine my surprise when I am right that he would do something and you should have stayed away in the first place. This note proves it.” He said taking the note off the desk and throwing it at me. “Aria, all I have ever wanted to do is protect you from getting hurt.”
“Well, you should have protected me from you!” I snapped. “You hurt me in ways that I can’t begin to explain. You did it so easily that you would think that you enjoyed hurting me. First the cheating and now my father. Do you even see how this could hurt me in so many ways? Then hiding it all with your stupid lies. I wouldn’t have been even able to see all this if it wasn’t for..” I stopped. How could I be so blind to all of this?
“And, what if I told you that some of those stories about me cheating were made up by someone who was jealous that I got you first?” He crossed his arms leaning against the desk. “The only one that is real is Becky. That one I will say sorry for. The rest are lies.”
“How do I know that?” I said. I didn’t want to believe him.
“Well, did you have any proof? You had proof of Becky. It was right there on my phone. Which you would have never even thought of looking at, if Alexa didn’t fill your head with lies and tell you to leave me.”
“What are you getting at, Seth?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Think, Aria, Think. The same people who want you to think I am the bad guy are the same ones who lied to you and made up this whole charade with Dean being Jon. Dean basically tricked you into bed with him.”
I shook my head. “He said it was a mistake. He didn’t think it would happen.”
Seth tsked softly at me. “Of course he is going to tell you that. No man will admit they planned to trick someone into having sex with them. That would be horrible. Dean wants to be the good guy here. That’s why he makes me look like the bad guy.”
I froze thinking for a moment. Then I looked up at him, looking him dead in the eyes. “You tricked me. You have been trying to trick me into coming back in your office so that we can fuck and make up already.” I held up my hand when I saw him try to speak. “You are the bad guy though. I am not saying Dean is the good guy in all of this, but you still had a hand in my father’s death. I didn’t forget this. You tried to trick me. You are always trying to trick me. You killed my father and messed with my memory.”
“I also didn’t wear protection last time we had sex.”
I stopped, “What? What does that have to do with anything? I am on the…”
“Pill. You left it at my house. Funny, I don’t think that works if you don’t take it every day at the exact same time. It has been a long time since you were at my house taking it on the regular.”
“You tricked me again. You tried to knock me up!” My fist clenched though I was trying to resist the urge to smack him across the face. I couldn’t believe how stupid I was. How blind I had been to everyone and everything. I didn’t know who I could trust anymore. Seth could still be right about a lot, but it was hard to tell what was a lie and what the truth was within him. The lines were so thin. It didn’t even matter if he was telling the truth or not. He still helped kill my father and tried to trick my memory.
“Well, I mean we got a couple of weeks before the signs of pregnancy start. You don’t know if you had the baby yet or not.”
I shook my head in dismay. “I cannot believe it.” I turned to walk out the door.
“I am giving you a family, isn’t that the one thing that you always wanted. You always wanted a family.”
“You took my family away from me, Seth! You killed my father. I don’t even care why anymore.”
“It was an acc-”
“Save it,” I said, stopping him in his tracks. “I don’t care what it was. It was the worst thing you could ever do to me. Baby or no baby, we are never going to get back together.” I marched out of the office. I didn’t want to know the details anymore. It wasn’t worth the heartbreak over. I was better off not knowing why my father had to die.
Now there was a bigger problem, where was I going to go tonight? I couldn’t stand to look at Alexa after everything that came out. I needed some time away from everyone. I knew I would have to see her at work, but that was enough for me right now. I needed more alone time. I stopped at the bus stop so that I could get to the nearest hotel...at least for tonight.
