Chapter Six – If My Heart Stops Beating, by Boo Keller
*I don't own any characters*
"I warned you that if you didn't tell, I would.
-A"
I was doing the best for her and her family; I just wanted to help. Or did she think that she could live her life pretending she didn't see or know anything? Poor baby. I get that she got smarter after her trip to Iceland, but she's still naïve. And I was nice enough to give her a chance.
The little lost girls think I have no feelings for putting them through all of that, but it's not true, really. I feel. I felt cheerful when Ali's dead body was found and I was able to prank the girls. I felt bad for Ella, Aria's mom, when I told her the story nobody was telling her. But I feel no regret in anything I do.
"Aria, can I talk to you, please?" Ella called Aria as soon as she stepped inside her house after school.
"Uh, I'm in a rush, actually. Spencer's sick and I promised her I'd go meet her after school. I just came to leave my books and get a coat."
"Just like you promised to lie to me?"
Aria froze. She never lied to her mom. But of course that's a lie.
"What?" She asked, putting her school books down at the little table in the living room.
Ella started sobbing, and Aria walked closer; but mommy just stepped back, handing a piece of paper to her daughter.
"This letter came in the mail today while you were at school." Aria started reading, and Ella began to cry harder. "I tried to convince myself that this is not true, but I don't know. Is it? And please, please, don't lie to me." Aria stood silently in the living room, her mouth open wide, reading the letter over and over. "Well?"
"Um... I'm going to call Spencer and tell her I'm not going anymore."
"Were you the one who wrote this letter?" Mommy Ella asked. Daughter Aria denied. "Then who's 'A'?"
"What are you talking about?" Ella showed the verse of the paper to Aria. 'IF I WERE YOU, I'D PAY MORE ATTENTION TO MY FAMILY. -A' it said. "I have absolutely no idea." Montgomery answered.