Save Us - An Ezria Story - Discontinued

Chapter Three

Aria's POV 

When I walked through the doors of The Brew with the bag full of clothes, food and juice boxes for Anastasia, Ezra, who was sitting on the couch with his head in his hands, stood up and wrapped his arms around my small frame. I made the most of this moment and let Ezra hold me in his comforting embrace for a few minutes.

"Aria, why didn't you tell me?" Ezra asked me, still holding me close to him. His voice sounded husky, like he was upset, or tired, but he didn't look tired.

"Tell you what?" I responded, not sure of what he meant.

Ezra pulled away from the embrace, which I honestly didn't want to end, and looked into my eyes.

"That Andrew hits you," he said with a tone of sorrow in his voice.

I looked down to ground and blinked away the tears that were forming in my eyes. 

"Can we please not talk about this in front of Anastasia?" I asked Ezra, my voice cracking.

"Yeah, we can go to my office to talk," Ezra offered me as he took one of my hands, "if you want?"

"Ezra, I can't just leave her through here by herself," I stated as I looked over at my beautiful daughter, who was now fast asleep on the couch again, "what if Andrew walks by and sees her? He'll know I'm here."

"I'll lock the doors and close the blinds, so if he does walk by, he won't be able to see and and he'll think the place is closed."

"Yeah, alright," I agreed after a few moments of hesitation.

I walked over to the couch where Anastasia was sleeping and started too gently shake her. She woke up slowly and and pouted.

"Hey, baby girl. I brought you something to eat," I started as I held up the bag containing the snacks and juice boxes, "I'm just going to go to the back to talk to my friend okay?"

"Okay, Mommy." she replied in her adorable sleepy voice.

"You can go back to sleep if you want to." I said softly and she nodded.

I smiled at her as she closed her eyes and drifted back off to sleep. After I planted a kiss on her cheek, I stood up and set the bag of food on the couch at the opposite end of the couch. Ezra locked the doors of The Brew and turned the 'OPEN' sign over so the people outside saw 'CLOSED' if they walk by and want to come in. He pulled all of the blinds shut then we walked to the office in the back of The Brew.

Ezra's POV

I motioned Aria to sit down in one of the chairs in my office. She sat down and held her hands together on her knees. I sat down in the chair next to her and took her hands in my own. Aria looked me in the eyes and forced a smile.

"What do you want to know?" she asked me quietly.

"Everything he did to you," I said softly, "from the start."

Aria looked to the ground closed her eyes and nodded slowly. She looked back up at me and sighed.

"It started a few days after graduation, before you left Rosewood," she started.

"Wait, this was going on before I left?" I asked her "Why didn't I notice it?"

"I covered the bruises with makeup," she told me.

I nodded slightly and waited for her to tell me more about Andrew's violence.

"He was drunk the first time he hit me," Aria continued as she looked down at our intertwined hands, "he was also really angry, I don't even know what he was angry at, but he took that anger out on me. I looked past Andrew hitting me because I thought it was caused by the alcohol in his system, but it wasn't. He hit me again a few days after that, he was completely sober, he hadn't even drank a sip of alcohol. It got worse when I moved in with him, I didn't want to, but I was scared of what he'd do if I didn't."