Chapter 1

Flashback

"I... I didn't mean for it to turn out this way, Aria," his voice was quiet. He stepped forward. "I didn't want to hurt you. I just worked with the team for some information for my book. They promised me answers, and that's all I wanted. It wasn't supposed to end up like this. I did fall in love with you. And I still love you now. Please, just let me have one more chance. I'll quit the team. I just want to be with you again, because I love you." He stepped forward and cupped her cheeks. She thought of all the kisses they had shared, and that moment felt nothing like the previous kisses! It had all changed. It would never be the same again. She couldn't look at him as the old Ezra Fitz. He was dead to her.

And literally, he was dead to her.

"Don't touch me!" Aria screamed, grabbing a knife from her kitchen counter. "Get back, Ezra! Get back. Don't you dare touch me. Get out of my house, leave town, never come back! I'm giving you a chance to walk away. I don't want you or your twisted lies in my life!"

"Hey, don't say that. I love you, Aria. It's not as bad as it seems, just let me be there for you with all honesty," Ezra said, stepping forward again. "My love for you is realer than ever. You and I, we are forever. I know you still want to make this work, and we can. Let's just settle down and talk. I know you won't hurt me. Put that knife down. We need to talk about us."

"There is no us anymore, don't you get it?" Aria screamed, threatening the knife at him. "Get out of my house right now, or I'll kill you! I'll call the police. I don't know what I'll do, but we are never going to work this out. If you don't leave, this is going to be so much worse than it already is!"

"No, no, no. You're not going to hurt me," Ezra said quietly. "There's no need. I'm not leaving without you forgiving me. I'm determined to make this work, because I'm so lost in love! I still love you. I always have! I know what I am doing with the A-Team is wrong, but I can help you. I will do whatever it takes to have you back, so I'm not leaving until we talk."

"We're talking right now, and I say leave!" Aria yelled. "I have forgiven you every time you have hurt me before, but nothing you say or do can make you forgive me for what you've done this time! I've never been so hurt in my life before! No one can ever hurt me as badly as what you have done, so I want you gone from my life." He shook his head, and tried to lean in to kiss her. She refused the kiss, and then she did it.

She stabbed him.

"Aria, Aria? You in there?" Spencer's voice echoed through the small Montgomery home. "Hanna, Emily, come on. I think I heard something in the kitchen. Follow me."

The three girls wandered into the kitchen curiously. They trembled as they walked into the small kitchen. Their eyes were immediately drawn to the tiny hazel eyed girl who was curled up into a little ball on the kitchen floor, a bloody knife at her side. There was blood on her hands, and she was crying insanely. Tears were freely flowing from her hazel eyes. The girls had never seen her so distraught before. What did she do? Cut herself? But they knew that wasn't the case when their eyes analyzed the room. Because near the tiny girl was their former English teacher with a god damn big stab wound in his torso. He was dead. Ezra Fitz was dead.

"Aria," Hanna mumbled, stepping closer. "Oh, Aria! What the hell happened in here? You didn't... You wouldn't... You couldn't!"

"I did," she whispered, more distraught than ever. "But Hanna, I really did." She paused for a moment, looking like she was in some kind of coma. She looked like Mona when she was in Radley and wouldn't speak to anyone. "I did it. I killed Ezra."

"Aria!" Emily cried, falling to the floor, grabbing Hanna's hand as she fell. "How? Why? What happened in here?"

"He... he is A. He was trying to touch me, and I... I couldn't let him," Aria whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I told him to leave several times, but he refused. Then he touched me, and I freaked out. I grabbed the knife and I stabbed him. I stabbed him right in the god damn chest! I stabbed him several times! I stabbed him until he fell to the floor unconscious. I killed my boyfriend!"

"He's not your boyfriend, he's a creep. He's no good," Hanna said, trying to comfort her.

"But I killed him! I'm the killer!" Aria cried.

"No, no, no, Aria, that's not true," Spencer said, cradling the bloody girl into her arms. "It's not your fault, sweetie, okay? You did what you had to do. He was going to touch you when you didn't want to be touched. You did what you had to do. Now, we are going to call the police, and we are going to explain to them what Ezra did. We are going to tell him who he is. It's all over, he can't hurt us anymore. You got rid of the one that hurt us the most. You saved us. You're a hero!"

"But... he didn't deserve to die like that," Aria said, sobbing. "No one deserves to die like that! I'm not a hero, Spencer!"

"You are," Spencer said, kissing the top of her head in a friendly and coaxing way. "You did what you had to do, I already told you."