8. Even if I die, no one will know or even care

The sound of his faint laughter and his deep seductive voice was hard to ignore making her heartbeat to slightly quicken.

To hide her tomato like face, she looked away changing the topic.

" How's your wound? "

Xander's dark eyes fell on the decently dressed wound on his right shoulder and shrugged.

" It's okay. "

It was painful but the pain was manageable.

The little woman usually cleaned and dressed it everyday for him.

" What happened to your family... Sorry, it's okay if you're uncomfortable. "

Xander quickly added the last sentence when he saw her face loosing color.

He had heard her saying that she had lost her family. He just wanted to know more about her.

Aria's gaze fell on his gentle and apologetic face before her head lowered, her lips slightly curling upwards in a bitter smile. After a while she opened her mouth.

" My dad... my only family, he died. Two months ago. "

" Sorry... "

Xander's gaze towards her turned even more gentle. He badly wanted to wrap his hands around her and place her in his arms but he restrained himself.

" It's ok. "

Aria sighed wrapping her arms around herself.

" He's in heaven, probably watching over me... He promised. "

She laughed lightly, wiping the cold tears that threatened to stream down her face.

She remembered her dad, her most favorite human being ever.

Growing up, she was singlehandedly brought up by that man. He was very caring and attentive towards her, to him she was always his first priority.

When she grew up a bit and realized that she didn't have a mom like the rest of the kids , she decided to ask him but that look on his face when she asked was still fresh in her mind. It was a look of both pain and hatred but in his eyes there were flashes of sadness and loneliness.

Her mom had disappeared.

Adam Smith her dad never remarried but devoted his life to his little princess till she grew up.

Although just like any other child there was a part of her that yearned to have a mom by her side, Aria never brought up that conversation again.

It was not until she was in campus that she got to know that her mom betrayed her dad and eloped with a rich heir who had divorced his former wife.

She was now a famous wife of a very rich businessman in New York.

The woman didn't even seem to care about her. To her, Aria and her dad were as good as dead, a disgusting and shameful past that she loathed to remember or be associated with.

To Aria's surprise, her long time boyfriend also betrayed her with the woman's daughter, her half-sister. She didn't know whether it was fate or she was just unlucky.

Xander's face darkened as he quietly listened to her. The look in his eyes had a tinge of range.

" I mean... I'm I not the unluckiest person on earth? After everything that has happened I'm now stuck in this hell of a place. "

Aria started chewing on her lower lip as her eyes filled up with tears.

" After doing all that, they killed my dad and got away with it because of their money! "

She was sure that her dad's accident wasn't a normal accident. He was intentionally ran over by those people.

They killed her only kin and left her alone in the entire world. Aria's dad meant so much to her that when his life was taken away she felt like she too had lost her life. She was just a living she'll, hopeless with no purpose.

" I don't care... this life has no purpose anyway! No one's waiting for me, even if I die here no one would know or even care... "

A great sob escaped her and she covered her face with shaking hands.

Xander held her shoulder staring at her with knitted eyebrows as she let out gut wrenching sobs that tore through his chest. He had never consoled anyone and he certainly didn't know how to.

Faced with the woman whose body wracked with an onslaught of sobs and tears he was at a loss on what to do or say to her.

Looking at the grief and loneliness on her eyes and her red and swollen face, he felt like a huge stone was stuffed into his chest as if he had to gasp for air. He clenched his fists his face stiff as he tried to endure the pain.

" Aria enough! "

Xander clenched his jaws and held her palm size face with both his hands.

" There's no need to cry over those bunch of fools. "

Aria was startled by his icy voice before her eyes met his cold gaze, clearly filled with rage yet still restraining his temper.