Chapter 6: Forbidden Sketches
652 Words
The storm had softened, but inside the cabin, the air was sharper than ever.
Aria moved through the rooms with practiced avoidance. She didn’t speak. She didn’t look at him longer than a glance. She just existed beside him like a shadow that wanted nothing more than to disappear.
She cooked. Cleaned. Brought him his meds in silence.
And Rowan?
He watched.
Watched the way her shoulders tensed every time he tried to speak. Watched her lips press into a thin line when he said her name.
“Aria.”
No response.
“Aria, please. Just talk to me.”
She poured water into a kettle like he wasn’t even there.
“I know how it looks,” he added gently, his voice cracking like thin ice. “But it’s not what you think.”
The kettle clicked into place. She still didn’t meet his eyes.
“Just… please ask me anything. Yell at me. Something. I’ll take anything but this silence.”
She turned.
Her expression was unreadable. Calm, in the worst way possible.
“Fine,” she said, her voice deceptively light. “Why do you have my name tattooed on your chest?”
He swallowed.
Hard.
“I can’t tell you that.”
Her brows knit. “You can’t?”
He opened his mouth again, but nothing came. Just regret.
That was all she needed.
Aria took a slow step backward, her face crumbling into something broken and disgusted. “Then don’t say anything at all.”
She turned to walk away, but this time he moved. Faster than he should have.
His hand wrapped gently but firmly around her wrist.
“Don’t,” he said, his voice raw. “Don’t walk away again.”
She stared at his hand, then at him, eyes blazing now.
“Let. Go.”
“Not until you—”
“I SAID LET GO!” she screamed, yanking herself free. “God, what is wrong with you?”
He stood there, stunned. But she wasn’t done.
“You show up in the middle of a snowstorm, claiming James told you to stay here. I know he didn’t. Then you act like you don’t know why I’m freaking out over your body literally being branded with my name.”
He opened his mouth, but she cut him off.
“No, you don’t get to talk right now. Because I’m starting to put things together. And they don’t look good, Rowan.”
“Aria—”
“You were the one who ended the investigation so fast, weren’t you? You said there was nothing else to look into. No leads. No evidence. You called it a tragic accident.”
“It was,” he muttered.
“Was it?” Her voice cracked like lightning, fury boiling over. “Or did you just want him out of the way?”
His eyes widened.
Because there it was.
Her deepest fear, unwrapped in the ugliest way possible.
“You were obsessed with me,” she whispered, shaking her head. “That’s why, isn’t it? You wanted me. And James had me. So you did what you had to do.”
“No. God, no.”
“You killed him,” she spat. “You killed your brother so you could have me.”
His face crumpled. “Aria, I would never—”
“Don’t lie to me!”
Her voice echoed off the log walls.
For a long, long second, neither of them moved. The only sound was the rapid beat of her breath and the distant whistle of wind through the cracks.
She blinked, her bottom lip trembling.
“You’re a monster.”
The words shattered something between them.
She didn’t wait for his reaction. Just turned, walked to the bedroom, and slammed the door shut behind her, sealing herself off from the man who had her name inked into his skin and heart.
- Writer
