Impending doom

Aaron sighed. He placed his hand on his forehead before saying, "Is that even a question that you need to ask? I heard from Ariel that you escaped from the third floor of the hospital. Even though she did not tell me the gist of the situation, I understood that you must have done something out of the ordinary." 

He looked at Ari who looked back at him with confusion, "I was worried, Ari." 

Ari turned to look at the calendar on the wall before turning her attention back to Aaron as she remarked, "It is not April's fool's day." 

"You think that I am joking with you?" Aaron questioned with an affronted expression on his face. God knew how worried he was when Ariel told him that Ari escaped from the ward that had two bodyguards stationed outside. Even though Ariel tried to downplay the entire matter, Aaron knew that his youngest sister took a risk that she shouldn't have. 

For three days, he had neither eaten nor drank properly. All he cared about was to find Ari as soon as possible. It was a good thing that, unlike Noah and the rest of his family, he had paid little attention to his sister and knew her friends and colleagues. If not, he would be like Noah searching for Ari in various hotels in the hope that she might have checked in one of them. 

"Will you trust yourself if you were in my shoes?" Ari questioned Aaron, who stared at her before he covered his eyes with his palm. 

"Fair enough," he sighed before dropping his hand and looking at Ari, who seemed to be confused by his actions. "As long as you are fine, nothing else matters." 

In fact, Aaron also did not know how to treat Ari. When he was young, his mother would often say that Ari was a jinx and an unlucky child. His elder sister said the same thing, this was the reason he treated Ari in the same manner as his mother and elder sister.

However, as he grew up, he realized that the way their family treated Ari was not correct. But it was too late for Aaron to fix the relationship between him and Ari. A few times he tried to make his mother understand that everything that happened in the past had nothing to do with Ari, but his mother scolded him. 

She reprimanded him for acting like he knew better than her and asked him to not pay attention to Ari. In fact, if he treated Ari better than his elder sister would cause even more trouble for Ari and his mother would start scolding Ari more than usual. 

As Aaron could not withstand the blatant abuse that his mother and Ariel did when it came to Ari, he left home when he was only nineteen. He had hardly stepped inside that house, which was more toxic than the relationship he was in three years ago. 

Because he would rather not be bothered by his family, he had taken a small apartment for rent and stayed there. However, when he received a call from Ariel who seemed to be gloating, Aaron knew that something was amiss and sure enough when his elder sister opened her mouth, he knew that she had caused another mess for Ari. 

Ari waited for Aaron to say anything else, but when he did not speak any further, her brows furrowed instinctively. 

Was he here to just say this? Ari, of course, did not believe Aaron, as it had always been him and Ariel against her. So, him telling her that he was worried about her was equivalent to Noah informing her that he was in love with her. 

"If this is all that you wanted to say, then I guess it is time for you to leave," Ari said to Aaron. She knew that she was being rude, but Ari had no trust in the Harlow family, and how could she? Neither of them has ever stood up for her, though Aaron had never done anything to her—— he hadn't exactly helped her either. 

Aaron was speechless when he saw Ari's indifference towards him, but when he thought about it—— her reaction was normal as he had indeed bullied her quite a lot along with Ariel and his mother. Not to mention he never reached out to her, he exhaled heavily before pinching the bridge of his nose and stated, "Mother's birthday will be in three days… and she wants you to be there." 

In fact, Mother Harlow's words were much harsher than what Aaron relayed to Ari. She had told him that if Ari missed her birthday, then she better hide all her life because if Ari ever came in front of her——

Mother Harlow would beat her until she would think twice before ignoring her mother.

When Ari heard Aaron's words, her lips set themselves in a thin line. She knew very well that Aaron was not relaying the entire thing to her. Given Mother Harlow's temper, she must have said something even harsher. 

"I understand, I will see what I can do," Ari said to her brother, who stared at her. He opened his mouth to say something but then shook his head as he swallowed his words. 

Aaron reached his hand to the pockets of his pants, from where he took out two hundred dollars and handed it all to Ari. "Here, take this," he said to Ari. "I know that you are in a difficult situation, use this money when you run out of your savings." 

He knew that most of Ari's money was taken away by Mother and Father Harlow. Though she had a secondary account, Ari couldn't save enough, as Mother Harlow would start making a fuss if the money in her primary account was less than what Mother Harlow expected. 

"I don't——" Ari opened her mouth to refuse, but Aaron did not listen, instead he rushed past her before running out of the apartment as if he were being chased by a demon. 

Ari: ???