Chapter 293: From the beginning

Song recommendation - Trade Mistake by Panic! At the Disco

Aria glared at the man who was sitting leisurely on the couch in front of her. Seeing him, she was sure that the man would not listen today and he had come here with a motive to end the confusion she was in. She could not evade him nor the questions she was having in her mind. So, be it. She could as well corporate this time and get things cleared.

"Fine, let's do as you say." She huffed and sat on the opposite couch. "But whatever you say better be the truth, otherwise you can say goodbye to forgiveness from me."

Noah smirked seeing her compliant behavior. At least she had decided to listen to him and he was happy with it. He was confident that by the end of the night, their fight would be resolved and she would be in his arms. 

"Sure. I am not going to lie to you, not at this point when whatever I speak could sabotage my love life." Noah answered honestly and his answer made Aria's mind to wander elsewhere. She knew what he was talking about and for a second she could not help but blush at his words. This man had such a glib tongue that at times she would lose herself to him completely. 

Noah saw the way she was staring at him with a dazed expression and his smile widened. Aria was affected by his presence as much as he was affected by her and this was a good sign. He could use this to his advantage completely when the time came which was just a few hours away. He did not say a thing but gazed at the woman before him, his eyes filled with love and affection for her until she herself blinked and looked away embarrassed.

Though Aria was flustered about getting caught at being ogled by Noah, it was not her fault that he was this handsome. Why did he have to be this charming and sexy? She could have continued to be angry at him if he was at least ugly. But the man was incredibly lucky in that area to have been bestowed with a gorgeous face that could make women drool. She cursed the almighty creator for not being fair. Why did all the good things have to be this charming and evil?

While Aria was silently complaining to God, Noah was busy admiring his woman's features. Although he knew she was beautiful, he found her to be incredibly enthralling when she glared at him in anger. To him, she looked like a beautiful enchantress who had come especially to trap him in her invisible web, and he gladly willing to get trapped by her. He wondered if Aria knew how alluring she was right now that it made him want to just fuck the brains out of her. But it was not time for it, not yet.

"Looks like you want me to stay here forever. I am fine with it." Noah spoke all of a sudden startling Aria. He had been waiting for her questions as he was thinking about her cuteness. But the words never flew out of her mouth. Noah was lying when he told her he had all the time with him. No, he didn't. He was desperate to hold her in his arms and kiss her the way he wanted. He wanted to see her smile at him warmly rather than give him a cold shoulder. He wanted to hold her, talk sweetly to her, laugh with her and do all possible things he had in mind. 

Noah wanted to get over with this sooner, but the woman was being stubborn. If she was not willing to speak, then he was here to give her the push. He would make her speak at all costs and end the misunderstanding between them. He had made up his mind and nobody could stop him now, not even Aria.

"Umm," Aria cleared her throat in awkwardness. She was so deep in her thoughts that she had forgotten about the main intentions they were here. "Right. I am sorry."

"Oh no. No. Don't apologize, love. I like it if you look at me that way with a lovestruck expression. It makes me happy and contented." Noah intervened and added his flirtatious words, rendering Aria speechless.

It took her some time to comprehend what she had just heard. "I'll just pretend that I did not hear that."

"Your wish."

"Let's start with what we have met here today. Why did you hide the truth from us when you took Dad with you?"

"Because your life was in danger," Noah answered to the point.

"From whom?"

"From the people who wanted your father dead."

"Why would want to kill us?"

"Though I am not sure about the answer, my guess is that they might have assumed you two to have known things about them from your father."

"Okay, that seems acceptable. Why did you hide the truth from us when you found out about us after we met? Don't tell me you didn't know. We both know that you knew about us when you came to help us find Dad."

"That.." Noah scratched his head thinking if he should tell the truth now or not.

"Tell me the truth," Aria stressed her words seeing Noah hesitate and Noah could only follow her orders.

"Fine. I'll tell you everything from the beginning and if you have questions after I finish, you can ask me. Okay?" Noah suggested. 

"Seems fair to me." Aria shrugged her shoulders with an indifferent expression which was completely contradictory to how she was feeling right now.

"Three years ago, my mentor went missing. He was the person who trained us, Joshua, Ian, and me. We were very close to him and to Ian, he was like a father. After he went missing, we searched for him everywhere but with no results. We then found out that he was acquainted with Mr. West and he was the last person my mentor contacted. We wanted to meet him. But the man himself was in a dangerous situation when we met him. Some people were trying to kidnap him and he was poisoned by them. Though we were successful in preventing Mr. West from getting kidnapped, we could not provide him the medical assistance and he went into a state of coma. We tried all we could to keep him alive as he was the only one who might have known about my mentor's whereabouts."

Noah stopped talking when he realized he was getting angry as he recapped everything that had happened in the past. He did not want to scare Aria. So, he took a deep breath to calm his raging nerves. Aria saw the way his eyes were glaring as time progressed. She could not help but worry for him. She went to the kitchen, poured a glass of water, and brought it for him. "Here."

Noah gave her a grateful smile and took a sip from the glass before he continued speaking. "After we took your father with us, we kept a watch over your family. We knew the men who were responsible for his condition would first come to you. But they did not have the chance to attack you guys as you were surrounded by people every time. They kept following you to make sure that you did nothing out of ordinary. The men behind this matter were dangerous. Though my men eliminated most of them who kept following you guys, we could not stop them forever. Also, it would arise suspicions to them if their men went missing every time they came at you. This would only make it more dangerous for you two. Unexpectedly and fortunately, you guys decided to move out of your house and taking this as the cue, I asked Joshua to erase all the records of your relationship records with Mr. West."

"You could have told us once they stopped following us right?" Aria asked the question that was eating her head for long.

"Yes, I could have. But the problem was your Dad was in a serious condition. His chances of living were was negative and we didn't want to hurt you. With you not knowing him, you at least had hope of him being alive."

"Noah, he is my father. It is our right to know about him and who are you to stop us from meeting him? What right do you have?" Aria could not control herself any longer and her anger took over her. "How dare you do something like this?" She seethed, her eyes narrowing in fury.

"I know Aria. That was the mistake I did. I overestimated things and I apologize for it. I should not have done something like that." Noah said, regret taking over his expression. This was one mistake he could never forgive himself for. He did not want anybody else to find out about Oliver, not until he got the answers he needed. He had even kept Oliver away from his family when they had all the right to know about him, more than him.

"Your apology cannot ease the situation we are in. You cannot bring back the three years we lost with our father. Do you have any idea how we spent those days when Dad went missing and Mom died, leaving us two sisters to fend for ourselves? We never felt this lonely before. We had a happy family and all of a sudden we two were the only ones left. Do you even know how miserable we felt and how difficult it was for us, those few days until we could start over once again?"

"I am sorry Aria. I really am."

"Sorry does not mend the mistakes you have committed. Though our Dad was not conscious, we could at least be hopeful that he was alive. We could at least be satisfied seeing him every day." Aria's anger took a new level this time and Noah was scared that things might not go as he wanted. He might have annoyed her more than he had thought and now he was unsure whether things between them would go back to normal or not.