Chapter 136

Liam’s POV

“I’ve been expecting your call,” my father – Markus – said on the other end of the phone. “You are a stubborn one to have kept me waiting for so long.”

“I foolishly thought that you decided to mind your own business,” I replied. “You haven’t tried anything like this in a while.”

In the past, my father had a bad habit of meddling in my life, where he wasn’t welcome. For years, however, he’d been quiet, giving me hope that he’d finally stopped. I should have known better. Apparently, he’d just been biding his time.

“You’ve wasted more than enough time running around not taking your life or your legacy seriously,” Markus said. “It’s past time for you to give up this racing ridiculousness that you indulge yourself with and take up the family business.”

“Racing isn’t a hobby, father. It’s my life, my career, and my own legacy.”

“That industry is volatile. You could lose everything at any moment. It’s in your better interest to join the family company and prepare to take over for me.”

“You aren’t listening to me. I’m telling you that you are pushing this too far.”

“And you aren’t listening to me,” Markus replied. “You aren’t looking at the bigger picture. You can’t see the future like I do. You are too shortsighted, only chasing the pleasures of the now. It’s your legacy that should be at the forefront of your thoughts, just as it is in mine.”

With the way he’s talking so much about his legacy and what the future holds, it almost sounded like he was tying. I paused a moment, considering.

Was he dying?

I’d been low-contact with him for some time, so I hadn’t been keeping up on his health. He was a man of a certain advanced age, so time alone was coming for him, even if health concerns were not. But with the way he was talking now, it seemed as if he had reason to suspect he might not be long for this world.

“Father… You are talking like you are dying.”

“That’s because I am, Liam. But I’ll be damned if I leave this earth without you set on the right path for success. You are still my son. No matter how old you get, I am responsible for you.”

“I’m sorry to hear about your health,” I said.

My father and I were never close. He’d always put sky-high expectations on me that I had no desire or ability to fulfill, and then expressed consistent disappointment in my ability to achieve his impossible asks. I realized from an early age that there was nothing I could have done to satisfy him.

Then, there was what he’d done to my mother…

I didn’t want the man to die, but I found it difficult to find the appropriate sympathy for him given all he had done to my mom and me, and with the rules he still seemed set on wishing to impose upon me now.

“If you are truly sorry,” Markus continued, “then you will join the family company at last. And you will stop dragging your feet with Joanna.”

There. That had been the reason I called.

Joanna’s arrival here had been no coincidence. My father had been pushing for me to marry Joanna ever since we were both of legal age.

Joanna was highly-educated, to her credit, but it was not her intellectual prowess that made my father want to push us together. What enticed him was that she was the oldest daughter and only heir of another wealthy family in town.

To Markus, the wealthy class had no business crossing class lines to cohort with those of lesser means. He was likely still enraged that I had chosen to marry Aria, which had gone against all the plans he’d made for me since my childhood.

Aria had been an unassuming, working class woman. She had nothing to offer Markus or his business endeavors. Markus hated her for it.

“I will not marry Joanna,” I said.

“Always so stubborn,” Markus said. “You will marry her eventually. I don’t know why you are putting off the inevitable. She is your perfect match.”

Joanna was only my perfect match in that our father’s financial information had the same number of zeros at the end.

“I will never marry Joanna,” I said firmly.

“Give me one good reason why not,” Markus demanded.

I had several. The biggest of which, to me personally, was that I was presently married to Aria and trying very hard to make that work. But my father wasn’t likely to listen to that reasoning. As he’d always viewed Aria as lesser, he’d undoubtedly continue to see her as such.

Love was nothing something Markus bothered with, or cared about at all.

Neither was loyalty to his spouse.

“Mom is the reason why not,” I snapped. “I will never allow myself to be trapped in a loveless, transactional marriage like she had been.”

“Don’t drag your mother into this,” Dad said, his own voice turning gruff. Good. Let him feel the guilt of what he’d done. If he’d been faithful, and loved my mother instead of all those other women, then maybe she would have still been here.

Instead, her depression led to her death, and I refused to let myself or my children suffer the same fate.

“I’m telling you to back off,” I said. “I will not take on your company, nor will I marry Joanna. We had a good run the past few years, where you stayed the hell out of my life. Let’s get back to that.”

“I’m dying, and this is how you treat me. Don’t forget that you called me.”

“Only to tell you to stop. Whatever you are planning, it won’t work.”

“We’ll see,” Markus said, a hint of a threat in his voice.

“Goodbye, Markus,” I said and hung up.

Even with the line disconnected, I didn’t feel any better. I could still feel Markus’s presence looming over me, the same as it had when I was a child. Even now, as an adult, I could feel the pressure of his expectations for me pushing down into me.

I wouldn’t give in. I had Aria, the kids, and the team. That was far too much to lose.

But I knew Markus wasn’t going to give up without a hell of a fight.

Aria’s POV

Liam had been quick with his assurances, but even hearing his honeyed words, I knew he was still holding something back. It irked me. I wanted to trust him, but… he was hiding something. I could sense it.

I wanted answers, and since Liam wasn’t giving them to me, and Logan was still in another country, that left only one person who might tell me more about what exactly was going on with the team and with Liam.

Joanna.

I was loathe to speak with her, and there was no telling that she would even tell me the truth. But I had nowhere else left to turn.

If I couldn’t fully trust Liam, I had to search elsewhere.

Joanna hated me, that much I could tell without even knowing she was jealous of my relationship with Liam.

But maybe, somehow, I could use that hate to my advantage. If she lowered her guard, maybe she would slip and reveal some truths.

And maybe I could finally learn what was going really on with Liam.