Mated To My Stepbrother-Chapter 36

*Aria’s POV*

It’d been two days at the hospital and Jaxon still hadn’t shown up to check on me. My broken ribs were half healed and that gave me the ability to sit up and move around a little.

"Why did you tell your mom this was minor accident"

I turned around from the windowpane where I sat reading a book and turned to face Tim as he entered the ward with his backpack slung over his arms.

"Hi how was school today"

"Answer my question Aria", he padded into the middle of the room and placed the box containing a box of pizza and a jar of milk on the bed. "I was expecting your mother to show up"

"But she already settled the hospital bills"

"That’s not the issue here, "he said and I watched as concern swallowed up his face, "you’re in a critical condition, you can barely stand for two minutes"

I placed my hand over my left eye to reduce the pain I was feeling in my left eye, the pain that had been recurring since the accident took place.

"Did Jaxon come to school today?"

"He did not", Timothy answered impassively, picking the box of pizza from the bed and opening it wide. The fresh aroma engulfed the atmosphere but a pain shot through my nose as I kept inhaling it

"Why didn’t Jaxon come to school today?"

"I don’t know, he hasn’t even been coming since last week"

"What!"

My nose ached again as I made the noise and I rested my head back on the wall. The pain was becoming too unbearable, every part of my body ached and my ribs started bleeding the last time I coughed.

"I don’t know Aria" , he continued, mixing some milk and glucose in a bowl, "I don’t know anything about Jaxon and as it is,I don’t feel like talking about him at all"

"But you know I haven’t..."

"The only thing I know Aria" he cut in, "is that Jaxon doesn’t care about you"

Those words slapped my face and the plausibility of it added salt to the wound in my heart.

"I called Jaxon this morning but he didn’t answer the call and he didn’t reply any of my messages. Your mom said it’s okay if you move to my house temporarily"

"I thought she was coming back home?"

"No, she headed to Venice and I wouldn’t blame for not checking on you because you already gave her the impression that nothing has gone wrong with you"

The moment of silence between us passed swiftly as the thousand unanswered questions in my mind hummed. Why was Jaxon being distant? Had he been kidnapped at the camp? Or was he simply avoiding me? If so, why? Did he profess love to me just so he would be able to sleep with me? Was Timothy right about his intentions towards me? It seemed weird and even foolish that all I could think of at that point in my life was Jaxon but what was I to do?

The loud ringing of my phone jolted me back to reality and I hopped off the window pane excitedly thinking that it was Jaxon but all I saw on my phone was a stranger. I didn’t answer the call until it dropped but just as I was about to drop the phone and join Jaxon at the table the phone ringed again. This time I answered it and raised the device slowly to my ears

"Hello", a deep masculine voice greeted, "please am I speaking with Aria Luther?"

"Yes you are", I answered slowly, "who is on the line please?"

"This is Gregory, hmmmm.. your father", the voice became shaky and it paused for a second, "this your father Aria, I got released from jail yesterday morning and I’ve been looking for you ever since."

Aria pov

After listening to the voice on the phone, I couldn’t help but feel scared. I could not understand why suddenly my father was walking into my life.

Why would he suddenly claim to be in jail all these years after my mother had clearly said that he ran away from us, even if my mother had lied to me? Does that mean that the police also lied to me, or did he run away and then get in prison? I couldn’t even understand and became so confused. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"Hello Aria, are you hearing me?" I heard my father’s voice again through the phone, and I couldn’t help but fall the phone down to the floor in fright. I still placed my hand in my ear. I was in shock, reminiscing on everything I had just heard again.

This was just so unbelievable. I couldn’t believe it. One of the nurses walked in and dropped some medication for me.

She noticed my phone on the floor and quickly bent to pick it up. She cleaned it thoroughly and then stretched it back to me.

"What happened? Why did you drop your phone on the floor? You know that is the only way to communicate with your mother", the nurse said to me, and I smiled at her weirdly before collecting the phone from her. I was now the only one in the room, and I felt scared. What if he was somewhere close by, and now he is lying that he has been in search of me? This was all just so confusing.

I opened my phone and quickly removed my SIM card from the phone as I dropped it on the table close to me. I dropped my phone separately as I feared that it might ring again and I would not know what to say, as I was the kind of person who could not watch my phone ring without picking it up. I covered myself very well on the bed in flight.

I could not wait for Tim to come back finally, and that was when I remembered that Jaxon had not called me back at the same time.

I wanted to ask about Jaxon, and still, I did not want to get a call from this weird man who was calling himself my father. He did not even sound anything like my father, and yet, I was so scared.

I began to chuckle and then scoffed before picking up my SIM and putting it back in my phone after turning it on.

I called him continuously five to six times, but still he didn’t pick my calls, I could not understand. What exactly was he doing? This meant that he was not aware of the fact that I was in the hospital after what Maya had done to me.

Just then, I remembered I was meant to be in so much pain. I closed my hand on my head, and it began to hurt again. I did not even know what I would do to my hair because they had all burnt it so badly that it was sore.

Despite the pain I felt, I continued to rub my hand as I felt so bitter and in so much agony for the kind of pain I felt.

I knew I had to cut my hair at this stage, but I was just scared of how I would return to school with the kind of hair on my head.

What if I go to the Barbershop, and he cannot do anything about the hair because it was burnt so badly? Does that mean that I would have to shave my hair like a guy? I couldn’t help but panic as I covered myself with the blankets and lay on the bed, still thinking about it.

It came to me more like a bad dream of shaving my hair, but I knew I would not have any choice but to do that.

Just then, I heard my name, and I opened the blanket only to see that Tim had already returned, and he had some food with him.

"I am sorry for the delay," he said to me and arranged the food on the table before placing it on the bed so that I could balance and still enjoy my meal without moving an inch.

I smiled at him widely and began digging in without thinking twice. I was so happy that he had thought about me when he left, and now he returned with a full meal table for me. I was finally going to eat to my satisfaction!

I wolfed down my food, barely registering Tim’s gaze.

When I finally noticed, I smiled at him. "What’s up?" I asked. But instead of answering, he just smiled back and looked away.

It bugged me, so I prodded him until he spilled. "Seriously, tell me what’s wrong." He sighed. "I just can’t believe your stepbrother, the guy you’re head over heels for, didn’t bother to check on you or even pick up your calls. He was supposed to be here." I felt a flare of anger at Tim’s words, but I knew he was right. I’d been calling Jaxon all night, but he never answered.

I tried to brush it off and continue eating, but Tim wasn’t done. "We need to talk about this. Don’t you think it’s time to move on from this one-sided love for Jaxon? I’m here for you, always have been. Does that mean I’m the only one in love with you too?" I was speechless.

We stared at each other for some seconds, both being speechless. After staring and noticing I was not letting go of his deep stares, he smiled and looked away.

"It is fine! I had already known from the very start that it would be nothing but a one-sided Love, so you do not have to worry. I would not rush you neither would I worry you too much, so don’t worry." Tim said to me, and even though I felt assured and could trust him that he would just continue to care for me.