Chapter 134

Aria’s POV

Finally Liam stilled. Slowly, he turned around to look at me, then studied my face as if he was trying to determine if I was being serious or not.

Once he realized I was, his face twisted into disbelief. “Don’t be ridiculous, Aria.”

“That’s what the rumors are all saying.”

“You know better than to listen to those,” he said.

“If that was all it was, then I could ignore it. But she’s also been using every opportunity to make my life hell.”

The smile that had graced Liam’s face was entirely gone now. In its place, he was frowning deeply, his expression revealing a hint of annoyance. I hoped it wasn’t toward me, but I couldn’t be sure, given the circumstances.

We’d drifted apart from each other so much in the past few weeks. In many ways, looking at him now, he reminded me of the man he was back when we’d been actively married. He hadn’t found much time for me then, either.

“Did you know I’ve been demoted?” I asked.

His eyes widened marginally. “You… what?”

“Your signature was on the documentation,” I told him.

“Aria…” He ran a hand through his hair. “God, I signed so many things. Basically anything that was put in front of me. I didn’t think…”

“I lost my office. My desk is now down in the basement, in the boiler room, crammed up in a corner.”

“There’s no room for a desk down there…”

“There is not,” I agreed. “But Joanna made it work.”

“Joanna, again,” he said, as if finally coming to a realization.

“She’s been making my life hell, Liam.”

“I’m beginning to see that.” Liam’s jaw tensed. Reaching up, he rubbed his hand across his forehead.

“She seems to be targeting me, but I don’t have any idea why,” I said. “Could she know about our situation? If she has a crush on you or something…”

“It’s not what it seems like,” he said, but wouldn’t elaborate further.

“Do you know her?” I asked.

“I do,” he replied. I waited, but again, he said nothing. Glancing away from me, he appeared to be lost in thought.

I wanted to ask for more details on how he knew her, and in what ways. The rumors of their engagement was still bouncing around in my mind, making my skin crawl. He’d denied the engagement, there still seemed as if more was going on than just a boss and his new hire who had a power complex.

He wasn’t being forthcoming with the specific details, for reasons I didn’t know and he didn’t seem like he was willing to explain.

“Will you speak with her?” I asked. That might have been the best I could have hoped for in this situation, giving how cagey Liam was acting about everything.

I wouldn’t normally ask Liam for a favor like this, for him to step in to defend me at work. His personal feelings should not interfere with our work life, especially because I’d been so adamant about keeping our relationship a secret. We had to be extra careful or Liam would be accused of favoritism in the future if we chose to reveal the relationship.

This instance felt different than a simple work disagreement, however. Joanna seemed to be targeting me from the start, and it felt personal. At the very least, perhaps Liam could discover why she was so set against me, so that I could work to resolve it on my own.

“I’ll speak with her,” Liam said, but again he refused to look me in the eye when he spoke.

This gave me some doubts.

Something was definitely going on with Liam, perhaps involving Joanna too, but he wasn’t saying.

I didn’t want to assume, though the tight grip of jealousy clutched around my heart.

What was most important to me, however, was, “Liam, are you okay?”

Finally, his eyes met mine once more. In them, I could see how very tired he was – not just physically, but emotionally too.

I wished he would confide in me more the full depths of what was going on.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll take care of everything.”

An hour later, guilt was eating me alive. The trouble I was having at work was between Joanna and I. It was wrong for me to have tried to bring Liam into this.

Resolved to tell him to drop the entire thing, I quickly found myself returning to his office. When I arrived, his assistant was out, but Liam was in.

He was talking to someone inside his office. The door hadn’t been shut the entire way and hung open ever-so-slightly – enough for me to hear, even from the assistant’s desk, what was being said from within.

“Aria has done a lot for the team,” Liam said. “The drivers’ performance has improved since she’s returned and –”

“Those are your personal feelings getting in the way,” Joanna said. “Much of what she does is wasteful. I’m simply trying to trim down on the unnecessary fat this company spends, as was part of the reason I was hired.”

“You were hired to help cover some of my duties so that I could more fully focus on the expansion,” Liam replied. “Instead, you seem to be spending a large portion of your time targeting Aria with some kind of harassment campaign.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“You put her desk in the boiler room, Joanna.”

“We needed her office space for others. She’s a trainer, barely in the office anyway. Why did she need such a big space?”

“Aria has earned her place her,” Liam said, more firmly. “You slipped her demotion paperwork in when I was signing off on the new hires.”

“You signed it, so you must have read it,” Joanna countered.

“Joanna,” Liam said, curt with impatience. “Your issues with Aria are not professional. You cannot allow your personal issues to interfere with the team.”

Good. Liam was directly calling her out. But the way he was saying it… Did he already know that Joanna had personal issues with me? Did he know why?

“What can I say, Liam? Seeing her makes my blood boil.”

“That’s not professional.”

“Neither is what you are doing: keeping her here like a secret with what you two are behind the scenes,” she said.

I froze. How did she know about that?

Did Liam tell her? But he promised he would keep it a secret.

When Liam didn’t reply, I inched closer to the door. Through the crack between the door and the door jam, I saw Liam and Joanna. Both were standing, facing each other. Liam was standing tall, defensive, with a heavy frown on his lips. Joanna was leaning toward him, her hand outstretched as if planning on placing it squarely on his chest.

“Aria has always been a burden to you, Liam. From the very start, you should have chosen me.” Joanna spoke with a low and silky voice. She peered up at him through her eyelashes, with her lips curled up into a smile.

“You don’t know what you are talking about,” Liam said, his brow lowering.

Joanna placed her hand onto his chest, right over his heart. “I’m the better match for you, Liam. Why don’t you finally forget about her and focus on me instead?”