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My steps are light on the stairs. My apartment is up two flights, and I usually drag my feet, clinging on the handrail and huffing and puffing. Today the ascent is easy. I hadn’t realized how much my fear and sadness had weighed me down.
It isn’t until I reach my landing that I pause. My neighbor is at his door, talking to a tall and very imposing-looking cop. Both of them turn to face me as I hover there, and my heart takes a jolt and lifts right up into my throat.
Is the cop here because of me?
“Hey, Aria,” my neighbor calls out, dragging me into whatever it is whether I like it or not. “You had anything go missing recently? A few of us’ve been broken into.” He glances at the cop. “She lives there.” He points at my apartment door, and I proceed closer, trying to slow my racing heart.
Break-ins are not uncommon in this neighborhood. It’s nothing. It has to be nothing. Not everything bad has to do with Rio or the men who work for him.
“You’ve had a break-in, Rick?” I ask, annoyed that my voice sounds so thin and reedy.
My neighbor nods and flashes me a lopsided grin. “Yeah. Lucky I ain’t got nothin’ too valuable. They got a couple of small things, but prob’ly gave up quick when they saw the shit in my place.”
“Ma’am.” The cop steps forward and introduces himself as Officer Howard. “Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary, Miss…”
He raises a brow, inviting me to provide my name, and a sudden sick dread passes through me.
What if the Feds are still looking for me, too? What if there’s somehow a link somewhere, between Aria Lowe and Bianca Carlotti, or even Bree Walker, the girl I used to be? What if I give him my name and he figures out who I am and calls it in?
I swallow hard, and the cop’s eyes narrow as he studies me. I’m making him wary with my hesitation.
I offer him a fake smile and my fake name. “I haven’t seen anything untoward, Officer. I’m sorry.” I glance at my door. “Should I check inside, just in case…”
“Yes. Do that,” the cop says smoothly.
Too smoothly? Is he suspicious of me?
It takes a couple of tries to get my key into the lock. My hands are shaking just a little bit too hard. But at least the door’s still locked and, when I enter, the apartment looks just as I left it.
Not that there’s much here to steal, but there is a small TV and sound system which would be easy to grab. It still sits atop the corner entertainment unit.
“Looks okay,” I confirm, the relief in my tone probably evident to the cop standing in the doorway scanning the room.
I point to the intact entertainment equipment, and the cop gives a short nod. Then I wander into the tiny bedroom and through into the bathroom, more to be thorough than because there’s anything valuable in either of those spaces for a thief.
I stop short.
Adrenaline lurches up through my body in a sudden violent rush. I clutch at the doorframe to avoid falling to the floor, and only just hold back a sob of terror.
There on the countertop, sitting neatly side by side, are my wedding and engagement rings. The rings I’ve kept hidden away in an unneeded tampon box at the back of my bathroom drawer ever since I arrived here. The rings I vowed to never lay eyes on again, unless I become desperate and need to pawn them.
The beautiful, ostentatious rings that Rio placed on my finger the day I became his wife and promised in front of a crowd of strangers to love, honor, and obey him.
The rings that became a symbol of my captivity and bound me to him and his violent world. Irrevocably, and forever.
* * *
Aria/Bianca
I haveno idea how I manage to stagger back out into the hallway and act as if everything is normal in front of Rick and the visiting police officer.
Somehow, I smile and nod and talk, and eventually the cop leaves, seeming satisfied, but I have no idea what was actually said, nor how I ended up back inside my apartment, door firmly closed, and with me sitting on the floor with my arms wrapped around my knees.
He’s found me. He’ll be sending his goons to fetch me soon enough. Will they shoot again, the way they did last time? Will innocent people around me die?
I rock back and forth, knowing I have to run. Knowing that my budding friendship with Nita will fall by the wayside because I won’t even have the chance to say goodbye. Just like before, when Dave and Shelley got shot, and I disappeared out of their lives as if I’d never cared for themormy job at the rescue center.
I hate with all my being that this is now my life and that Rio has forced me into this.
