Family Business: Anarchy (Book II)

Chapter 19. *Djordje POV*

Chapter 19.

~Djordje POV~ Flashback June 2037

I look up as Aria comes into my office. It is obvious she has been crying again, her eyes red and puffy, but she has a wide grin on her face. I glance at my email once before sending it, hoping there are not any typos before closing my computer. "What's going on, beautiful?"

She lifts a bag, leaning on the side of my desk before placing it on the surface. "I got us something," Her voice is raspy as if she is sick though I think it is from yelling. She fell asleep early last night but this morning, I saw the alarm triggered at around 4 am in the early morning. I fell back asleep but when I checked the cameras in the morning, I saw she sat outside watching the sunrise. At least she slept. Aria sees my confusion because she is not supposed, technically, to leave the grounds. "I sent Elijah."

I stand, moving some papers out of the way of the bag. "May I see?"

Aria lifts a book from the bag, handing it to me, then takes out an assortment of coloring markers, gel pens, and crayons. "Oh yay!" She beams at the color options. "Look, he got pastels!" She holds up some gel pens with pastel pink, blue, orange, green, and yellow.

"Wonderful!" I say, forcing enthusiasm into my voice, glancing down at the book in my hand. The title reads, Adult coloring to de-stress. Confused, I look back over to her, seeing a few more different book options in the bag. "Coloring?"

Her face crumples, tears filling her eyes. "You don't want to do it with me?" Her voice cracks as I crush her plan.

"Of course I do!" I say quickly, then open the book. I am pleasantly surprised to find that it is not a simple farmscape, but a kaleidoscope of shapes needing to be colored. "Oh, this does look fun!"

Aria beams up at me, blinking the tears away. "I was thinking that I can set it up in the living room, is that okay?"

I reach down, wiping a tear from her cheek. She is not wearing makeup today so I can see the small white scar on her cheek from Xander's ring. The thought of him hitting her more than once makes my jaw tighten, pulling her into my chest gently. "Thank you for doing this. What a nice way to spend an afternoon."

She hugs me back, burying her face into my chest. I hold her against me, setting the book back in the bag so that I can keep her in my arms for a moment longer. I need to make sure that she eats today and takes her vitamins after being outside all morning. "I'm sorry," She says, pulling back to look up at me.

"Why are you apologizing, love?" I ask quietly, one hand remaining on her waist, the other resting lightly on her shoulder.

"Because this is childish and-"

I shake my head, "Don't apologize, it's going to be fun!" I force a grin, surprised at how easy it comes to me now since she started staying here. "Let me finish some things up, and why don't you go set it up downstairs? I'll be down in 10 minutes. I promise." I press a kiss to her forehead, letting myself smell her cucumber and mint shampoo.

She smiles and then takes the bag, walking from my office. When the door closes, I let my shoulders sag, running a hand over my face. Then, I am rescheduling all my afternoon meetings with various business partners, and spraying myself twice with cologne. Things have been different since Aria moved in. I try my best to make sure that she has everything she needs to recover but recently she has been spending time with me which has proved challenging because I did not anticipate that as part of her recovery.

I walk downstairs to find Aria has destroyed my living room. Well, destroyed is not quite the correct word. The furniture is moved, pillows gone, and blankets draped in specific ways to create a tent.