*Two weeks ago*
ISABELLA'S POV
I kept seeing her walk away.
That was the thing that wouldn't leave me alone. Not the conversation itself, or the words I'd said or the way Aria's face had gone still while I said them. Just the after part. The moment she folded her napkin, picked up her bag, said thank you for lunch in that voice that had nothing in it except the decision to keep going.
And then she walked out with her back straight and an even pace. The walk of a woman who had been hit before and knew how to keep moving without letting the hitting show.
I had done that to her.
I sat on my kitchen floor with a glass of wine I'd poured and not touched. My back against the cabinet and I let that sit in me without trying to manage it into something more comfortable. I had done that to a
