Chapter 137

Aria’s POV

When I walked to Joanna’s office, her assistant sat behind the reception desk, glaring at me. I could only imagine the lies Joanna had told this assistant about me, to get her to hate me this much without even knowing me.

Regardless, I held my head up high. If I had to walk through the fires of hell to find answers, that was what I would do.

“I need to speak with Joanna,” I told the assistant. “It’s about a personal matter.”

“She’s out,” the assistant said coldly, though I could see the reflection of Joanna through the window of the door to her office. She was sitting at her desk.

“She will want to speak with me,” I said. “Tell her it’s about Liam.”

Even mentioning Liam was sure to set a fire under Joanna, with how red hot her jealousy seemed to be.

The assistant glowered at me, but still lifted her phone and called Joanna. Through the window, Joanna lifted up her phone.

“Aria is here. She wants to talk about Liam,” the assistant said.

I didn’t hear Joanna’s response, but watched as she straightened in her chair.

“Yes, ma’am. At once.” The assistant lowered the phone. “She says that you may enter.”

“I thought she was out?” I asked, calling her on her dishonesty.

The assistant glared at me. “I was mistaken,” she said flatly, clearly another lie.

Already on thin ice, I decided not to push my luck. The assistant lied to my face and we both knew that I knew it. That had to be enough of a victory for now.

Leaving the assistant, I entered the main office and closed the door behind me. As I approached Joanna’s desk, she gestured for me to sit in one of the chairs opposite her. When I did, she placed her hands together on top of her desk, lacing her fingers.

“You wanted to talk about Liam,” she said.

“There are rumors that you are engaged to him,” I said.

Eyes narrowing, she hummed. “That’s right.”

“That’s impossible and we both know it.” Typically, I would fight hard to keep my relationship with Liam a secret, but I’d already overheard that she knew the truth, as she’d been trying to tempt Liam away from me.

“Do we?” she asked, baiting me.

“Liam is already married.”

“So he is,” Joanna said. Scoffing, she glanced away. “For now. It’s only a matter of time before that course is corrected.”

“Things are already correct,” I said.

“Please, Aria. Are you really so naïve? Do you think Liam pursued you for love?” She laughed. “He only married you to avoid an arranged marriage.”

Arranged… marriage? “What are you talking about?” I demanded.

Joanna’s gaze sliced back to me. “Liam and I have been engaged longer than you’ve been in the picture, Aria. Our families prepared for our eventual bonding while we were still children. Only, when the time came for us to go through with it, Liam got cold feet and went running to you.

“He doesn’t love you, Aria. He never loved you. You were just a means to an end to help him try to escape his true fate. But he’ll come around. Soon, he’ll realize that it’s not love but legacy that really matters.”

Was this what Logan eluded to, when I asked him what Liam could be hiding? I wished he had told me more, or Liam did. I hate that I’m getting all this information from Joanna of all people.

Unkind to me, she delivered each word with a kind of vicious delight, as if she enjoyed being the one to torment me with these details that were previously unknown to me. Things Liam should have shared with me himself.

Whatever smile graced her lips faded though, as she continued. “Liam’s father Markus has been of ailing health for some time. Lately, he’s taken a turn for the worst. He doesn’t have long now. With Markus’s nearing death, if Liam gives up his claim to the family fortune, others will see him as a threat.”

“What kind of threat?”

“With all that money up for grabs, no one will believe Liam isn’t secretly plotting something. Rather than try to piece together what his plot could be, it would be much easier for these people just to have Liam killed,” Joanna said.

My heart started to race.

“Marrying me is the best option. My family’s money will protect us, regardless what Liam decides to do with his own fortune,” Joanna said.

“He won’t love you,” I said.

“So what?” Joanna replied. “He doesn’t have to love me to be my husband. In fact, in most marriages, spouses don’t love each other.”

I didn’t know if I loved Liam, but he had said he loved me. All of these new facts were throwing everything into disarray, but I still wanted to believe that was true.

“Why would you want to enter into a marriage without love?” I asked.

“The net worth of Liam’s family would double my own. Everything comes down to numbers.”

Even with her explaining it, I still didn’t understand. For her, personal gain mattered more than love. But as she was already rich, how much more money did she really need?

This, I supposed, was one of the many differences between us as individuals. Joanna valued the monetary things and would always act in the best interest of her bank account.

Money was important to me, only in that I had enough of it to support Joe and now William. I had already walked away from Liam and his racing fortune once. I would do so again to protect myself or the kids if necessary.

Joanna looked at me with her own measure of sympathy, as if she had just as difficult a time understanding my perspective as I did hers.

“You believe in love,” Joanna said, watching me. “That’s naïve, but admirable in its own way. Even so, you need to wake up from the dream you are in, Aria. You need to face reality and accept that this is how things are for people like Liam and me.”

“For you, perhaps,” I said. “But Liam is different.” He married me, after all. And he continues to want to be with me now, even though I’m not hoarding any vast sum of wealth.

“Liam was on a rebellious streak. But with his father’s ailing health, he’s lost his greatest asset: time. Soon, he will have to make a choice between his plight for freedom and the desire to do what’s right by the man who raised him. Soon, you will be collateral damage, Aria, when he leaves you to become his father’s heir.”

I didn’t believe her – or at least, I didn’t want to. But there had been a lot of information thrown about here very quickly, very little of which I had actually been expecting. With time I could process what was said here and draw my own conclusions.

But for now, my knee-jerk reaction was trepidation. The fact was, Liam had been different the past few weeks. He’d been too busy for family – for me.

Perhaps, in the end, he would decide that the money was more important than love.

“You need to ready yourself,” Joanna said, smirking. “Soon, Liam will divorce you completely.”