Chapter 158

Aria’s POV

“Joe?” I asked, knocking lightly on the door. “Can I come in?”

“I’m sleeping,” Joe called back.

“Honey, I know that’s not true.”

A moment’s pause was the only reply. Then, at last, Joe said, “Okay.”

Opening the door, I walked into the room.

The lamp on Joe’s nightstand was clicked on, but he was under the covers, with the blankets pulled up over his head.

“Joe? Do you want to come downstairs? Liam and I would like to talk to you and William.”

“No,” replied the lump of blankets on the bed. “Why not, honey? We only want to apologize.”

“I don’t want to,” Joe said, sniffing. “You are going to say you are getting divorced.”

The words stuck straight into my heart. Liam and I had been far too careless with the things we’d said, throwing around accusations without caring who they hurt – or who might have been listening.

“That’s not what we are going to say,” I told him. Sitting on the edge of his bed, I reached up, gripped the top of the blankets, and slowly lowered them to reveal Joe’s tear-stained face. “We’re not getting divorced.”

“You were so mad… You only get that mad when you are really angry.”

“Your dad and I are having some disagreements about some things,” I explained. “But that doesn’t mean we are going to get divorced.”

Sniffling, he peered at me with damp eyes. It was clear he didn’t fully believe me.

“Come on. Come downstairs for a little while. Liam is getting William. We can sit as a family and sort this all out.”

“Am I in trouble?” Joe asked, his voice small.

“No, honey, I promise. You aren’t in trouble.”

That alone seemed to convince him. I pulled back the covers and he crawled out of bed. Yet, before joining me at the door, he veered to his toy chest and retrieved an old teddy bear. Holding it, he came out into the hallway with me.

William’s door was opened, and his room was empty inside. Liam and William must have already moved downstairs. Walking beside Joe, we descended the staircase, and then found the pair waiting in the living room.

Liam was sitting on the couch with William tucked closely against his side. The poor kid had already been through so much. More than sadness there was fear on his face. I could only hope he wasn’t thinking of Sophia.

“There you are,” Liam said. Forcing a smile, he looked at Joe. “Hey, kiddo.”

“Dad…” Joe clutched his bear tighter than before.

“We all need to talk,” I said. “The kids think we are going to split up.”

Liam’s eyes went a little wide. He glanced at William. “Do you?”

William worried his bottom lip with his teeth, but nodded.

“We aren’t,” Liam said at once. “Right, Aria?”

“We aren’t,” I agreed.

“But you hate each other,” Joe said, sniffling.

“We don’t,” I assured him.

“But then why would you yell like that?” Joe asked, looking up at me.

“It wasn’t your mom’s fault, Joe,” Liam said. “I did something hurtful and foolish, and your mom called me on it. Not to mention that I haven’t been around a lot lately and… well, I owe your mom a lot of apologies, actually.”

“We both said things that were out of line,” I assured him.

“We did,” Liam said. “But that doesn’t mean that we don’t care about each other, or that our family is breaking up.”

I hoped what we were saying was true, for all of our sakes. I cared about Liam and didn’t want to divorce him. The things I said had been spoken out of fear.

Liam had hurt me in the past, when he’d chosen to spend so much time with Sophia instead of me. I felt as if that was happening again now, only with Joanna.

I had been wrong back then, for the reason he’d been spending time with Sophia. But was I wrong now? With the things Joanna had said to me – things Liam had yet to reveal to me on his own – I didn’t know what to believe.

But our little family was worth fighting for. Even as angry as I was at Liam, I wasn’t ready to throw everything away.

Not yet.

“Make up, then,” William said, looking between Liam and me.

“Yeah,” Joe agreed. “Kiss and make up.”

I froze.

Liam noticed. “That’s not necessary.”

“It’s fine,” I said. I wasn’t opposed to kissing Liam, I was just scared. With how tumultuous everything had been lately, I didn’t want to get my heart broken again.

Maybe it was far too late for that caution though. Maybe my heart was already set on Liam and any heartbreak I faced was inevitable.

Liam pushed off the couch and approached me. “You sure?”

My heart pounded in my chest, anticipation soaring. Swallowing hard, I nodded.

Please don’t break my heart.

Closing my eyes, I tilted my head up. Stepping closer, he gently raised his hands to cup my face. Then, he leaned in.

I felt his warm breath first, a soft puff against my lips. Before it had time to cool again, he closed the distance and kissed me.

The kiss was soft and gentle, lingering, though with no effort to deepen it.

Eventually, but far too soon, Liam leaned back. I opened my eyes to find him looking down at me, some awe in his eyes.

After a moment of staring, we remember our audience and step apart.

“There,” Liam said. “Satisfied?”

Joe and William both agreed, “Yeah.”

It took some convincing but we eventually send them both back to bed. After tucking them in and saying goodnight, Liam and I returned downstairs.

The coffee was brewed by now, so I poured us each a cup. Holding our mugs, we sat down at the kitchen table.

I could still feel his lips pressed to mine in a phantom touch. It left my thoughts scrambled for a moment.

Liam recovered much faster than me. “We can’t fight like this again.”

In the past, before the children, we had argued with much more ferocity than this. Our passions ran high back then, and we’d both been quicker to anger.

Now, these feelings had festered for far too long and finally exploded between us. My patience had been at its end, and I knew Liam had been so tired from working so much.

We needed to do better, to talk out problems through without raising our voices.

Unlike before, we weren’t alone in this house anymore. There were two extra pairs of ears that were always listening, two extra sets of eyes always watching.

“I agree,” I said. The kids needed a stable home life. William, especially, had already experienced so much hardship with Sophia. I hated to maybe trigger something in him.

Both kids deserved to feel safe and loved, in a healthy, happy environment.

This agreement didn’t fully solve everything between Liam and me. Some tensions still remained. I alone had questions about Joanna and Markus, and some secrets Liam might have been keeping regarding our past.

I was sure Liam had his own questions about Samuel and his intentions toward me and the kids.

Both of us weren’t going to find the answers we wanted tonight.

This wasn’t going to be our last argument. But this was going to be the last time we fought in front of the kids.

Guaranteed.