Chapter 187

Liam’s POV

“I sent out the invitations,” Joanna said first thing the next morning in the office.

“What? You were supposed to let me see the list first,” I said, surprised and annoyed. Per our previous discussions and agreements, I was supposed to have the final say on the list of invitees.

She rolled her eyes at me. “There’s no way you would have been non-biased about this. You would have wanted me to cut half the list, so I made the executive decision to take care of it on my own.”

“There are no executive decisions here,” I said. “We are in a temporary partnership against Markus. That does not make you an authority.”

“Don’t be difficult.”

“I will not be played with, Joanna. Give me the list.” I stood from my chair and rounded my desk, walking the short distance to hers nearer the door. “No games. I want the full list. Now.”

“The invitations are already sent. There’s nothing you can do.”

“Now, Joanna.”

Still seated in her chair, she frowned up at me. “Now who is the one thinking he is an authority.”

I glared at her. “Stop stalling and give me the list.”

She tried to hold my stare for a moment, but if this was a battle of wills, I was determined to win.

With the invitations already gone out, my options were limited. But at the very least, I could know the extent of the damage and do what I could to minimize it.

After another moment, she huffed a breath and looked away. “Fine.” Shuffling through the papers on her desk, she revealed a printed out list of names with pen-written check marks beside each one. She passed it over to me.

Immediately, my heart sank. This was a hell of a lot of names, three columns down the front, and even more on the back.

“This was supposed to be a small party…”

“It is a small party,” Joanna insisted.

I did a brief count. “There’s over sixty people on this list.” If they all invited dates, that would double the number of people that would actually be at the engagement party. “This is not what I agreed to.”

The names on the list were also concerning. In addition to the mayor were several city council members and… “Aren’t these the local news anchors?”

“Not just the anchors,” she said, smiling like she was proud. “I also invited the owners of the networks. Our party is going to be the talk of the century.”

“You’ve lost your mind,” I snapped. Mortification crept up inside of me, clawing around my heart with its bony fingers. “I don’t want anyone to talk about this! But you’ve invited the entire day news crew!”

“Don’t be so dramatic.”

“Joanna, you have to rescind some of these invitations. Tell them it was a mistake, I don’t care. Just fix this.”

She straightened in her chair. Lowering her chin, her expressions shifted into a harsh glower.

“There is nothing to fix, Liam. I have done everything exactly as how it needed to be. Maybe I got a little carried away with the number of guests, but as you were of zero help, I did the best I could.” Her eyes narrowed. “Perhaps you’d like to go to Markus and tell him why we have to start rescinding invitations? Maybe I’ll then tell him the truth about this whole thing.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Wouldn’t I?” she said. “Yes, I need his help recovering my family business, but when I commiserate with him how terrible his son truly is, backing out on our engagement, I’m sure he might help me anyway. All while making your life hell, of course.”

That was it, then. I was trapped between a rock and a hard place, with no easy way out.

“Don’t forget, you wanted this, Liam,” she said.

“Not like this,” I said.

“You don’t get to pick and choose here,” she said. “We are in this for all, or we aren’t in this at all.”

Not for the first time, I felt like I was in over my head here and drowning.

But there was no way out, not as far as I could see.

I made my choices, now I had to see them through – for better or worse.

Aria’s POV

I spent most of the morning out on the track with the drivers. Just before lunch, I returned to my office.

Anthony was at his computer. His headphones on, he was typing away on his keyboard. He didn’t seem to notice when I entered, which was for the best.

Though we had a cordial working relationship right now, it could be incredibly volatile. This peace between us felt fragile. For both our sakes, it was good if we just stuck with our own half of the room and didn’t bother the other.

But then I saw a strange envelope sitting on the middle of my desk. Walking there, I picked it up and checked the front and back. My name was written in small, tight print on the front.

There was something nefarious-feeling about this envelope. This wasn’t typically how anyone in the office would tell me about something. Normally, we would email each other, or someone would duck into my office to tell me verbally about something. At the most, someone would write a note on my post-it and attach it to my monitor so they could be certain I wouldn’t miss it.

Never would anyone do anything this formal.

“I’d never seen the man before, who brought that in for you,” Anthony said. I jumped a little, not having realized that he’d removed his headphones and looked over at me. “He definitely didn’t work her.”

“What did he look like?” I asked.

“Older guy with a pissed-off resting face. Wore a very expensive suit. He didn’t say anything to me, even after I asked him what he was doing. He glared at me like he was judging me. Um, excuse me. This is my office…”

My stomach twisted up into tight knots. From that description, I immediately thought of Markus’s butler. That man judged everyone he looked at, I was certain, and could make anyone feel small with just a glance. That was probably why Markus liked him. He seemed to love those intimidation power-plays.

Well, one way to know for sure was to open and read whatever this is. Without waiting any more, I ripped open the envelope and removed what appeared to be an invitation on cardstock paper.

Across the top, it read, You are invited…

A time was given for this Saturday, with an address for somewhere I didn’t recognize.

“What is it?” Anthony asked.

“It seems to be an invitation,” I said.

“To what?”

“I have no idea,” I told him honestly.

“What kind of invitation doesn’t say what it’s for?” Anthony lambasted.

This had to be some kind of setup, but I had no idea what for.

Flipping the invitation over, I searched for clues.

On the back, written in shaky cursive script, You will want to see this.

That only added to the mystery.

An invitation from Markus inviting me to some unknown location this Saturday night…

What would I want to see?