The next couple minutes were beyond awkward. All eyes were on me, then Aria, then Lily, then back to me. Aria though seemed to find me more interesting because her eyes never left me and mine never left hers.

Before things could get any weirder Cherry and Pops walked into the room completely oblivious to the whole thing until they noticed their daughter standing in front of them.

"Lily," Cherry gasped, throwing her hands up to her open gaped mouth.

"Hi Mom, hi Daddy," Lily whispered. "It's good to see you two again."

"What are you doing here," Cherry whispered in amazement. If I remembered things correctly than Lily stayed in contact with her parents over the years, receiving letters and photos of her daughter of whom I completely spaced about. I was too busy with my own problems that I didn't put two and two together, but honestly, I figured there was more than one Aria from Ohio.

"Yeah what are you doing here," Aria seethed with eyes blazed in anger. "You have no right."

Xander noticed the way his fiancé was feeling so he shot to her side, grabbing her hand in his for a reassuring squeeze.

Lily looked close to tears and one step from running out the door. Since she was my friend I couldn't help but feel remorse for her. I wanted to do the same as Xander and take her hand for company but I knew that wouldn't end well.

"I invited her here," Pops spoke up calmly.

Aria went silent in shock, not able to do anything but shake her head at her grandfather, tears pooling in her eyes before she spun around and ran upstairs.

Pops groaned while Cherry hissed at him and Xander chased after Aria.

"You weren't supposed to make a grand entrance like this Lily," Pops scolded his daughter. "We agreed that I would tell her you would be waiting in the barn if she wanted to see you. She deserved a choice!"

"I know," my friend cried, breaking my heart. "But I was scared she would say no! I didn't want to take a chance."

"Well you just lost the only chance you had," he grumbled, running a wrinkled hand over his face tiredly. "Just go outside alright? I'm going to go talk to her."

Lily hesitantly nodded her head and didn't spare me even one last glance before heading back out the door to the porch. Pops climbed the stairs while his wife scolded him from behind. Marco and I stayed where we were as we listened to Xander called his fiancé's name over and over again.

"Let's head to bed," Marco sighed, grabbing my hand and trying to pull me down the hallway.

I snatched my hand from his hold quickly. "I need to speak to Lily first."

"She's the girl you've been talking to isn't she," he asked suspiciously. I nodded my head in which he huffed and said angrily, "She left her daughter Eliza! That's not okay! Don't choose her side in this."

"First of all," I growled, "if it weren't for her I would have left that night in London and secondly, do not tell me what me what to do!" Leaving a surprised Marco behind, I walked out on the front porch, letting the screen door slam in my wake.

I found Lily curled up on the swing like a child, her blonde hair covering her face and her body shaking with sobs. I didn't say anything as I sat down beside her and pulled her into a hug.

Minutes passed by until she said, "I shouldn't be here."
I pulled her into me so her head was on my lap instead of on the arm rest of the swing. "That's ridiculous."

"She's hates me," she sobbed harder.

"Lily," I barked, "don't say that. She is your daughter, she loves you."

"You saw the way she looked at me, how she spoke. She never wants to see me again."

"Okay so maybe your entrance wasn't the best or at the best time either," I said honestly. "But you didn't come all the way here just to give up did you?"

"I don't want to see her look at me that way ever again," she argued.

I sighed and pulled Lily up so she was sitting up straight next to me. While I wiped her tears off her face I said, "When your husband died you gave up on your daughter." Lily began to sob some more before I grabbed the sides of her face and sternly said, "Do not give up on her again."

Something changed in Lily at that moment. Disappointment, sadness, and agony was switched with defiance, confidence, and courage.

"Let me talk to her. Go wait in the barn," I told her. She nodded her head, stood up with her chin held high and her shoulders back and marched down the steps before walking off into the darkness.

I sighed regretfully. I wasn't sure that my plan would work or how Aria even really felt about her mom. All I knew was that I had to try, so did Lily.

When I reached Aria's room Pop's, Aria, and Xander were all arguing. It didn't take long before I snapped and shouted, "Shut the hell up all of you!"

All of them did shut up, their eyes wide in shock. Today really was a bad day for anyone to cross my path and from seeing the fear in Pop's eyes, a veteran, they all knew it as well.

"I need to speak to Aria so unless you're her get the fuck out," I seethed. Pops ran from the room, his tail tucked between his legs and Xander reluctantly followed him only after I shot him a glare. I closed the door behind him, not caring to gentle with it.

When I turned back around to Aria she was sitting on the edge of the bed, her eyes red with crying and her cheeks flushed. She didn't acknowledge me but I didn't care. I plopped down on the bed beside her, making the bed jump around us.

I covered my eyes with my hands and groaned. Today was a day full of stress and complete mayhem. I only wanted it to be over but not before I set things right.

"I know what you're wondering," I told Aria, not bothering to open my eyes. "I met your Mom a couple weeks ago in London on a bench in a park. After talking to her the guilt that had been eating my heart for five years began to fade away. She helped me more than anyone else."

"So," she asked angrily. "Why do you think I care?"

I opened my eyes and sat up. "Because I saw the way you looked at me after I said her name. I've been with Marco long enough to know what jealousy looks like."

Aria shamefully bowed her head, trying to hide herself from me.

"I want you to know that I've only known her for a couple weeks and have only spoken to her a handful of times. She is my friend, only my friend. She isn't my mentor or my role model. She isn't my mother, I already have one of those. Or well had," I said sadly. From the corner of my eye I see Aria tense and quickly look over at me. I knew I caught her attention so keeping my eyes trained on a poster of boy band in front of me I kept talking. "It was always just my Mom and me. I never had a Dad. I never celebrated father's day, I never bought anyone a tie, I had never called anyone Daddy before." Aria sniffles beside me, trying to contain her tears. "My Mom had to be both parents for me from the very beginning. From what she told me so far your father died when you were young. Five years old right?"

Aria let loose a sob, nodding her head slowly. "She left a week later. I lost two parents in the span of one week and she didn't even care!"

"Do you want to know a secret," I asked her quietly. "She does care. She cares so much that she has lived almost the past two decades in guilt. She cares so much that she hasn't taken off her wedding ring. She talks about you all the time. Her biggest fear is you hating her. If that's not caring than I don't know what is."

"It would be not leaving your five year old daughter when she needed you the most," she argued.

"Look," I said angrily. I began to feel the anger of the day starting to build up again and I knew it wasn't good but I was going to make it work with the situation. "Your mother left you yes, but she never stopped loving you. She is here today trying to start a relationship with you, trying to be your mother again. Do you know what I would do to be in your position," I seethed, with tears falling freely from my eyes. "My mother is dead because of me. She sacrificed herself so I could live! And I regret it every damn day! I beg, I pray, I wish that we could switch spots just so she can be here again!" I breathe deeply, trying to calm down but it hardly works. "Nobody knows this, not even Marco so I'm trusting you not to say anything okay?" With a hesitant nod from Aria I continue. "When I was fifteen I was still having nightmares and depressing thoughts about my Moms death. She was literally the only family I had and suddenly she was gone. I was ten when she died, I watched them carry her body out of the ocean but by then it hardly looked like her at all. It haunted me, it killed me inside. Imagine a little girl trying to deal with her mother's death all on her own. It was torture," I cried.

"I woke up every morning wishing a bus would hit me. I went to bed every night wishing I would never wake up. From ten years old to fifteen years old I had those thoughts. Do you know why?" She sat in shocked silence, letting me continue. "I wished for that because it would mean I would be able to be with my Mother again. I was holding onto the hope that if I died I would see her again. So one night after I had a nightmare I tied up the sheets on my bed and hooked it around the ceiling fan in my bedroom." Aria gasps in shock but I continue anyways. "The Stavros's were all on a family vacation, one that I refused to go on so it was only me and the other employees in the house. I put my head through the hole and after thinking it through more," I paused, trying to keep the tears at bay. "I jumped.

"I took that step off my bed with the noose around my neck, thinking that I was going to see my Mom again. But I didn't. The fan couldn't hold my weight and it fell along with me. I sat there on the carpet of my floor, the fan beside me while I cried. I cried for hours and hours. But then I heard something... it was my mom's voice as clear as day in my own head. She repeated the same words she would always tell me. 'It's going to be okay. Be strong and keep going.' So I did. I picked up the fan, told the Stavros's that I was messing around with it, I began to fight the demons in my dreams, and eventually it did get better. Because of Marco really. He gave me something to hold on to again and so no matter how many times he breaks my heart I will always love him," I say quietly. Only when I'm finished do I realize that I said the last part mostly to myself.

I jumped up from the bed and brush off the nonexistent dirt off my pants. "Look," I told Aria who seemed to be deep in thought. "The point is you only get one mother and we both know what it's like to lose her. But unlike me you can get yours back. I'm not telling you to forgive her, I'm not telling you to call her Mom again. But please, for people like me, look at her one last time. Hug her one last time," I begged. "Because we don't' get to and you might never get to either."

With that I left the room, closing the door softly behind me. When I reached the hallway I was surprised to find Xander standing right there, his eyes as wide as saucers.

"I swear that if you were eavesdropping I will cut off you damn balls," I seethe.

"I won't tell anyone," he promised, making me calm down a little because I could tell was he telling the truth.

I walked past him, letting my shoulder bump into his. Before I could descend the stairs he said, "I'm glad it broke." I hesitantly looked back up to him. "I don't know where our family would be without you."

Forcing the tears to stay back I mustered up the strength to say, "Tell Aria that she's waiting in the barn."

...
Please vote and comment!!!
I know I promised Marco and Eliza will have the talk in this chapter but it will have to wait until the next one because this is longer than it already should be.

I don't know how many chapters are left in this book, maybe 4-5 including the epilogue but don't count me on that.

If you want more than check out my other stories!:)

**next update: Monday**