Run, Girl (If You Can)

Aaron wasn't allowed to see his wife yet so they went to the area where newborns were lined up in little glass-sided beds so he could meet his son. He was still kind of a wreck so Aiden asked for him, briefly explaining the situation to the nurse. 

The woman looked incredibly sympathetic and let them in after making them sanitize their hands and put on thin cloth gowns over their clothes. 

"Your son is right here, Mr. Hale. Have you decided on a name yet?"

"Oliver," Aaron said quietly as he gathered his new son into his arms. He didn't speak again for a few minutes but when he did his tone was sad. "Keeley should have gotten to hold him first but she isn't even awake." 

The nurse let them have some privacy and busied herself elsewhere in the newborn room, sensing the mood. 

"This isn't your fault, Aaron," Aiden said seriously. "Accidents happen." 

"No, this isn't my fault," he agreed dully. "But her first death was. Lacy Knighton had her killed, just like her father. They both died as pedestrians in car accidents from the same man purposely running them down."

He had to be talking about Max. He had previously mentioned he was Lacy's accomplice. At the time Aiden thought it was only for the drugging incident but this new information changed things. That feud went much, much deeper than he could have imagined. 

How horrible. No wonder Aaron hated that woman so much and was determined to find something to nail her with. He must have been thrilled when his half-brother killed her. Although this raised the question of how exactly Graydon Meyer/Michael Gray fit into all of this. 

"Why would she do that?" Aiden dared to ask. 

Aaron wouldn't meet his eyes and continued gazing at his son. "Because she was obsessed with being Mrs. Hale and I married Keeley instead." 

No way. Keeley married him twice?! Things must have ended really badly for her to hate him as much as she did when they met again. You know, aside from being murdered. 

Aiden looked at his friend with entirely new eyes. What on earth did he do to her to make her hate him so much? Or for that matter, to get her to fall in love with him again? This whole thing was crazy.

"You're probably wondering why she hated me so much back then," Aaron said with a hollow laugh. "I wasn't a good husband. She gave up everything for me but I was still cold to her. Part of it was in a vain attempt to protect her from my father and the Knightons but it was also partly because I didn't know anything about love. We were about to divorce when she died."

What?! These two ridiculous lovebirds he had been forced to put up with had been on the verge of divorce? It seemed impossible but it would totally explain Keeley's earlier issues with her husband. Geez. What a tangled web.

"Dude, why would you go after your ex-wife again if you got a chance to start over?" Aiden blurted without thinking. He was suffering from information overload.

"Why not? I grieved her death for twenty-seven years before I died alone, bitter, and miserable. I wanted to make things up to her but Keeley was also the only person in my life who ever showed me the slightest amount of real affection. As pathetic as it was, I clung to that. You can imagine how mad I was when she wanted nothing to do with me," Aaron said wryly.

No kidding. Aaron turned into the ultimate ice storm when he was angry. If Keeley already hated him, dealing with that must have really pissed her off.

Piecing things together…they must have both been returned to high school after they died. That was when Aaron supposedly became obsessed with her and she started to hate him.

Wow. Knowing the truth, if not all the details, made it seem even crazier that she ever accepted him back. Why get together again with someone you know hurt you before? Keeley must really love him. Well, that much was obvious to anyone who watched two seconds of their mushy interactions together.

"Are you glad you did things over the way you did?" Aiden asked hesitantly.

Aaron had finally snapped out of his funk because he gave him a look that clearly indicated he was an idiot. It was a very familiar look.

"Are you kidding me? No matter how hard it was getting there, the past six or so years of my life have been like a dream. I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's a miracle that I actually got her back after everything I did."

He must have really screwed up. Aiden had seen firsthand how much Keeley loathed him back in 2012. She warmed up to him for a while until around the time Cameron and Jennica got engaged. Hang on…

"Why did Keeley get all mad at you when Cam and Jen got engaged?"

Aaron shot him another look indicating he was stupid. "She figured out I got a second chance as well and was pissed off at me all over again for having the nerve to come back knowing what I did. She called me a hypocrite, and to be honest, it was a fair assessment from her perspective."

Aiden shook his head. "Unbelievable. Anybody looking at the two of you now would never guess you had such a history. I always knew there was something weird about your relationship but couldn't quite put my finger on it. If you hadn't broken down like this today, I probably never would have guessed."

He finally had the answer to his seven-year-long mystery. He had sworn he would get to the bottom of it but the truth never would have even crossed his mind.

His friend narrowed his eyes. "You're not allowed to tell anyone about this. There isn't a single person in the world who knows about this other than me and Keeley. And now you."

Dang, not anyone? Not even Keeley's dad? Well, Aiden supposed it would be hard to believe. He was positive Aaron wouldn't have confirmed his guess if he wasn't so completely out of it earlier.

Anyone else hearing this would think they were both crazy. But to Aiden it made all of the unexplainable things he had seen and experienced as Aaron's right hand man fit together like puzzle pieces.