Chapter 177

Aria’s POV

Having an affair? Liam and Joanna?

Suddenly I didn’t feel very hungry for my lunch anymore and pushed it slightly away from me on my desk.

I didn’t believe her – at least I didn’t want to, but my doubts echoed over and over in my head.

Liam had been working many late nights recently. Once, when he had said he was working, I found him at the café with Joanna just having finished breakfast. Markus wanted them together. Joanna said they were engaged.

What if I was actually the odd one out here, the one keeping Liam from being with the woman he actually wanted – Joanna?

No. That couldn’t be. Liam cared for me deeply, he’d proven it over the past several months since our reconciliation. We had a family together. He wouldn’t do something like this to me.

Yet…

The doubts were not to be stopped. I tried to lock them away in the back of my mind, but they simply kept pounding on the door.

So many what if’s…

So few actual answers…

“Unless you have a work-related things to talk about, get out of my office, Joanna,” I said sternly. Attempting to harden my heart, I would refuse to talk to her about this. The person I needed to speak to was Liam and only Liam.

He wouldn’t lie to me.

I hoped.

“You don’t believe me,” Joanna said.

“Of course, I don’t believe you. You have no reason to tell me the truth, and every reason to lie.”

The future Joanna had planned for herself involved her and Liam being married. As he was already married to me, the only way her plans could come true was for Liam and I to divorce. Joanna, conniving as she was, would stop at nothing to attempt to achieve that.

I couldn’t believe a word she had to say.

“I’m not some other woman, Aria. I’m no one’s mistress. If a man and I are having an affair, I will not be secretive about it,” Joanna continued.

“You are living in a delusion of your own design,” I told her. “Liam would never have an affair.” At least, I hoped with all my heart that he wouldn’t.

“Oh?” Joanna pulled her phone from her pocket and unlocked the screen. “I was hoping you would take my word for it. I didn’t want to have to hurt you with the proof. But, I suppose, if my husband were to ever cheat on me – not that this would happen – I’d want to see the evidence for myself as well.”

My stomach started to sink. She had proof?

After fiddling with her phone for a minute, she handed it to me. The screen showed a text thread between Liam and her. At the top of the screen, Liam’s number was shown under his name. This was definitely his number that had sent these texts.

Reading them made me sick.

Your bad boy. Always talking about Aria. Does she know what you get up to when she’s not around?

Don’t bring her up. This is between you and me, and I want to see you naked.

I skimmed down further, flicking through revealing selfies of Joanna.

“I’m sorry you have to see those,” Joanna said. “But why hide it? He likes my body and I’m happy to fulfill his requests to see it.”

You are so hot. Much hotter than Aria.

You want more pictures?

Keep them coming.

Beyond that, the photos became even more revealing, with Joanna going totally topless at one point. Liam’s replies are all complimentary, though they quickly dissolve into devil and then eggplant emotes.

“What can I say?” Joanna says. “The man is insatiable.”

I didn’t want to believe it, yet how could I deny the evidence clearly right in front of my eyes. Some of these messages burned into my consciousness. I would remember them in my nightmares forever.

“My reasons for telling you are not entirely selfless,” Joanna said. “Of course I want the two of you to divorce. I’ve never made a secret of that. But, at the same time, I find his treatment of you, keeping you in the dark like this, to be entirely tasteless. No husband of mine will be allowed to behave this way.”

“He’s not your husband,” I told her.

“Maybe not yet,” Joanna replied. “Surely you’ve figured this out though, right? You’ve put all the pieces together? Liam has been spending a lot of time at the office, but he’s never been alone. I’ve always been here. We’ve always been together. He tells you it’s for work, but it’s actually to be with me.”

“You could have faked these messages,” I said, tearing my eyes away from the phone. This reasoning was the last I had to hold onto. None of this could be real. Liam wouldn’t betray me like this.

Yet, when I held the phone back out for Joanna, my hands were trembling. My belief in Liam wasn’t as strong as I wanted it to be.

I was still carrying the hurt from early in our marriage, where I had spent so many nights waiting up for Liam when he’d hit the club or gone to events. Last night had triggered those memories in me, reminding me of those doubts and that hurt.

It had all happened years ago, but it still felt fresh in my mind.

“I can’t blame you for not fully believing me,” Joanna said, “Even though I have clear proof right here. I’d want to catch him in the act maybe, or… Why not just check his phone? If I made up these texts just for you, then they wouldn’t also be on his phone, right?”

It wasn’t in my nature to invade Liam’s privacy like that. But if I talked to him and asked to see his phone, maybe he would show me.

If there was nothing to hide, he would show me in an instant, I knew that.

If he refused…

I shook my head. He wouldn’t refuse. There was nothing to hide. Liam was faithful to me and our family. Joanna was just trying to stir up trouble.

Things between Liam and I were already weakened because of the long hours Liam had been spending here at the office, rather at home with me and the kids. Joanna was just playing on this stretch in Liam and my relationship, taking advantage of how little time we had to talk anymore.

Once I finally had time to speak with Liam, he would set everything straight. He might even tell Joanna to finally hit the road for all the trouble she was causing.

He would pick me, I was sure of it. At least, I wanted to be.

“Check his phone,” Joanna said again. “And when you find the same messages there, proving that we did indeed have this conversation, don’t blame me. I tried to warn you. Truly, I’m sorry things had to be this way.”

“You aren’t sorry,” I said.

She shrugged. “I told you in the past that I wanted Liam. You had the chance to stay with him as his mistress, but you turned that down. Now, you are going to lose him fully. It’s not my fault.”

“Get out of my office, Joanna.”

She smirked. “Don’t be a sore loser, Aria.”

“Out.”

Still smiling, Joanna finally obeyed. Turning toward the door, she took her sweet time sauntering through it.

I glared after her, while my heart sunk low in my chest.

I needed to speak with Liam and find out what was real. But before that, I needed the support of my friends. I felt so much in a fog that I knew only Isabella could help me out of it.

With a quick text, I asked her, Hang out tonight?