Aiden had NEVER seen his boss like this in all the years he had worked for him. He was honestly tempted to panic too at seeing such a stoic person sobbing like the world had ended. Well, for him it probably had. He knew better than any of Aaron"s other friends how much his wife meant to him.
The whole reason he even bothered taking over his father"s company…the whole reason Aiden ended up working for him in the first place…was to take revenge for people who hurt Keeley in the past.
He had always vaguely wondered what Aaron meant when he said only he and Keeley could remember what happened with those people hurting her. But today had kind of cinched it for him.
Before he got too incoherent, Aaron said "I"m going to lose her again." Which implied he had lost her before. Then he went completely catatonic after the horrible sobbing stopped. As if he had already given up on the thought of his wife being alive even though she was clearly still fighting.
That could only mean one thing. Keeley had died before and Alistair Hale and Lacy Knighton had something to do with it. It explained everything. Aaron"s long-term paranoia, how he originally knew all those things about Aiden"s hacking to recruit him, and his weird obsession with a woman who wanted nothing to do with him for the longest time.
But that raised a whole lot of other questions. Specifically, how? How did his boss and his wife get the chance to do their lives over? What had happened to them back then? What did Aaron do to make Keeley originally hate him so much?
Most importantly, how and when did she die? Aaron had been on edge lately. More so than Aiden had ever seen from him. If he had to guess, it was probably around now.
Aaron did have this weird omniscience about certain things. Living as the same person twice would definitely do that. If he was freaking out this much…
"Aaron, did Keeley die today in your other life?" Aiden dared to ask.
He didn"t even register that his secret had been outed and answered dully from where his head was buried in his hands. "Yes."
Wow, having his suspicions confirmed was so much weirder than he thought it would be. He had a million and one questions Aaron most definitely was not in the mood for. He asked only one more.
"Was it in a car accident?"
Anyone would freak out if their pregnant wife got into a wreck but Aaron"s resignation about the whole thing seemed to imply this had happened before.
"Yes."
Aiden knew his boss didn"t like being touched (unless it was his wife) but he looked so pitiful right there that he couldn"t help but hug his friend. It was obviously a different car accident that killed Keeley; one involving either Alistair Hale or Lacy Knighton. Neither of them were a problem right now so this was obviously nothing more than a horrible coincidence.
"Aaron, she"s going to be fine. The woman said she was having a C-section right now and then they"re going to treat her injuries," Aiden said calmly as he held the trembling shoulders of his friend.
He hated seeing Aaron like this. This was not the man he had looked up to since he was fourteen. He was supposed to be invincible, not broken. Sure, he was cold and stiff and humorless (at least until Keeley married him) but he was a strong person.
He held Aiden"s family together after it fell apart by finding his mother a full-time job that paid well and completely paying off their mortgage in secret. His mother still didn"t know that all the money she put towards the mortgage had been secretly put back into her account. She thought the extra money came from bonuses at her new job.
Aiden would always owe Aaron for that. He couldn"t leave him alone now even if it did scare him seeing the indomitable Aaron Hale like this.
"Aaron Hale?" the front desk woman"s voice called after what seemed like a lifetime but had probably been less than an hour.
He was too out of it to respond so Aiden went up there for him after giving his shoulder a gentle pat. "He"s a little out of it. Tell me how Keeley is."
"Her baby doesn"t appear to have been affected by the crash at all. It was delivered safely and they"re running tests on it now. He"s six pounds and five ounces this early so he would have been big if he made it to term."
What a relief. He nearly wilted against the counter. "And Keeley?" he asked eagerly.
"She lost a lot of blood and is receiving a transfusion. Has a concussion too and broke her leg. But she should be perfectly fine when she wakes up."
Aiden was finally able to breathe. She was alive. There was no permanent damage. Aaron hadn"t lost her again after all.
"Thank you," he said fervently before running back to his lifeless friend. "Aaron! They"re fine; they"re both fine! Your son is healthy and Keeley only has a broken leg, a concussion, and some st.i.tches."
Aaron finally looked up, disbelief written all over his face. His eyes were still hollow. "She"s alive? She"s really alive?"
"Yes, now go see your kid! The lady said you could. Keeley is still receiving her blood transfusion but after that you can see her too."
He stood up and seized his friend in a tight hug, his tears soaking Aiden"s s.h.i.+rt as he slumped forward onto his shoulder. "Keeley said I had nothing to worry about. She said she would make it through today."
Aiden wasn"t sure what to tell him. She clearly made it through the day but had gotten hurt in the process. In a way, both of them had been right and both of them had been wrong.
Really though...what were the odds of getting into a serious car accident on the same day in two different lifetimes? Now that Aaron knew his wife and child were okay Aiden had a lot of questions. He had just been hit with something impossible after all.