Wronged

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QOC: Anyone have any suggestions on what awesome books there are please? Particularly romances. Thanks.

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- Anna's POV -

"You love me?" Aiden asks, seemingly starstruck.

In love with you. There's a difference.

"I..." I stare at his eyes. They're hopeful. He wants me to say that I do. But I thought he thinks I'm a bitch. Regardless, I can't lie. "Yes."

Aiden forms a smile on his lips before he reaches out and grabs my arm, pulling me into him. He tells me he wants me to lay with him, and although I protest in the beginning, he wins in the end. We're both facing to the right, lying on the hospital bed. He wraps his arms around me from behind. I am careful not to press into his torso, afraid I'd hurt already injured knife wounds.

"I am in love with you too," Aiden says huskily into my neck. He kisses the base of it, causing chills to be created once more. My heart rate fires to the extreme with those simple words said. He is in love with me? Someone...loves me?

"I thought you said I was a liar," I whisper. I feel confused as to what signals he's sending. "I hid things from you."

His arms tighten around me. "I'm a dick. I'm so sorry, Dimples. I don't know what compelled me to say those things. They aren't true. I don't want you to tell me anything until you're ready. I just was pissed because that fucking drug-consuming asshole came into my house and touched my girl. I wanted to kill him." Aiden pauses as I process his words. What really gets me is the phrase, my girl. His? I like that. "I think I might have actually done it too."

"Dakota told me he's here too, but in critical condition," I say. "He said he might even...die."

"Really?" Aiden asks. I nod. "Damn, I really did go crazy then."

I roll my eyes, but the corners of my mouth can't resist lifting a little. I know he knows I'm grinning too, because he chuckles a bit. It's not something to laugh about, but if Noah passes or is stuck in the hospital for a long time, then that could help me not work for him somehow.

"Eidetic and photographic memory," I say quietly after our laughter dwindles entirely. My smile fades and my voice is distant, but I tell him with complete confidence. If I want things back to how they were, I'm going to have to let all of my secrets out.

"What?" He says, confusion lacing his tone.

"That's what I have, and that's what was on those files. Noah threatened to send me back to this institution I was once living in after I was taken from my father's house. I had, and still have, severe PTSD. I thought going to the institute would help me, but all they did was experiment on my head. They even surgically cut me open to observe it. The scar is hidden by my hair now, since they shaved it off to do so and it grew back. Anyway, I acted like I was healthy so I could get out. They can't hold me there legally if I'm healthy, so I aced their tests and everything. But if I show any instability, I will be sent back. Noah said he'd tell them that I was showing signs of obsessiveness over you. That would surely send me back. And that's how he's blackmailing me." I finish with a deep breath, the blood rushing through my veins at ten speed. Aiden's body has stiffened, and I can't just picture the anger evident on his face.