Chapter 191

Liam’s POV

As William had been suspended from school for a couple of days, I had no choice but to take him back to the office with me, at least for today. We could later make accommodations for the rest of the week, but it was difficult to get a full day nanny at the last minute.

“Now, Liam,” I told him, looking at him through the rear-view mirror as he sat in the backseat. “Don’t forget that your mom and I are keeping our marriage a secret at work, okay?”

“Why?” William asked.

Good question, I thought bitterly. But with a sigh, I acknowledged that my past behavior was what led to this need for secrecy. Because of my actions in the past, Aria still didn’t fully trust me. Right now, I couldn’t exactly blame her.

I was keeping far too many secrets, and many of them would be enough to hurt her deeply. Maybe she would want a divorce…

“Adult relationships are complicated, pal,” I said. “It’s just easier for everyone involved if we keep things quiet, okay?”

William gave me a skeptical look in the mirror, but still said, “Okay.”

Satisfied, I changed the subject. “I know you like to see the cars but I have a ton of work to do in my office, so you might have to draw and color for a bunch of the day, okay? But we’ll get out to the track at some point.”

“I can go out there myself…” William suggested.

“Absolutely not,” I said. The track was dangerous for anyone, especially a kid on his own. There were far too many places he could get into and cause potentially dangerous trouble. While I trusted the staff around here to keep an eye out for William, it wasn’t their responsibility to have to babysit him.

I didn’t want to have to tell that to William though, not wanting to baby him. Instead, I reminded him, “Don’t forget you are being punished. Regardless of the reasons, you tackled that kid. You threw the first punch.”

“I had to,” William said. “Todd’s bigger than me. He’d only need one punch to end it.”

God. William and I were going to have to sit down for a long discussion later so that he could explain exactly how he knew so much about fighting bullies. What went on in this school when the teachers weren’t watching?

For now, he’d put a pin in it.

Aria had found a therapist for William and he’d gone a few times over the past few weeks. Maybe we needed to increase those visits. William was still carrying around a lot of Sophia baggage, and now this worry about Aria and I divorcing wasn’t helping.

How could he even tell Aria and I weren’t on the best terms? We’d honored our agreement not to argue in front of the kids anymore. They should have been none the wiser about our troubles.

Our kids were smart though, and they were always watching.

I’d mention this to Aria on Sunday when we finally had a big talk.

For now, I pulled into the headquarters, then, taking William by the hand, led him into the building. We took the elevator to the top floor where my office was. I nodded to my assistant, who waved brightly to William.

Everything was going really well, right up until I walked into the office and remembered Joanna existed. When dealing with Liam, I had totally put her on the back burner of my mind. Seeing her now was a bit of a shock to my system, as it all came crashing back.

She smiled at me, yet as her gaze dragged down to William, that smile grew tight.

“Why, hello little boy.” She looked back at me. “Are you going to introduce us, Liam?”

I really, really didn’t want to. But to not would be incredibly rude.

“This is my son, William,” I said. To William, I added, “William, this is my co-worker Joanna.”

“Just a co-worker? How cruel?”

“Joanna,” I snapped. I wouldn’t tolerate her attempting to drag my kids into this unpleasant arrangement between us, and if she even wanted to try it, I’d burn the whole thing down.

She seemed to get the message because she let the subject drop. Instead, she turned her gaze back to William. “Well, little boy…”

“William,” William corrected with annoyance.

Joanna’s eyebrow twitched. “William. Why aren’t you in school today?”

I opened my mouth, ready to come to William’s defense, but William was quicker.

“I punched the school bully,” William said bluntly.

Joanna was shocked a moment. “Odd that Aria would allow such behavior. Where is she in all this?”

William looked up at me with confusion.

“Joanna knows that Aria is my wife and your mother,” I explained.

William frowned as he looked back to Joanna.

William’s POV

William didn’t know what it was about this woman sitting at the second desk in Dad’s office, but he did not trust her or particularly like her. She was speaking to him like she would a baby, talking slowly in a cutesy voice like he wasn’t as old as he was.

Yet, because he didn’t like her, he didn’t feel the need to correct her. Let her think about him whatever she wanted. Let her do whatever she wanted. She meant nothing to William, so who cared?

“Here, Will,” she said, reaching into her desk.

“William,” William said again – the second time he had to tell her. If he wanted her to call him something else, he would tell her so.

She wasn’t respecting him.

“Why not take a candy here, and go let me and your dad have a chat.” She held out a lollipop, like this was the doctor’s office, only it was so old that it had already cracked into pieces.

“No thanks,” William said.

“Really.” Joanna shook the candy a little. “I insist.”

“No,” William said, more firmly. Maybe she was hard of hearing.

Joanna’s eye twitched, a move that made William tense up. He’d been around people like this in the past. Mainly, Sophia.

Joanna’s voice went tight. “This isn’t a request, little boy. Take this candy and go outside, or –”

“Or what, Joanna?” Dad snapped in William’s defense. “Because I know you aren’t about to make ultimatums with my child.”

Joanna pressed her lips so tightly together they formed a thin line. “Of course not.”

“That’s what I thought,” Dad said. To William, he added, “Come on, William. We’ll get you set up with a pencil and paper so you can draw.”

William really didn’t want to sit in this room with this woman a minute more than he had to. Since Joanna already knew about Mom, William asked, “Can I go see Mom?” William glanced sourly at Joanna.

Dad noticed. His face went puzzled for a minute, but then he said, “Okay. But only if she’s okay with it. And…” Dad frowned, obviously hating this next part. “You can’t call her Mom here, okay? She’s just Aria.”

“Okay,” William said, still not fully understanding this. But he didn’t want to do anything to cause more damage between Liam and Aria so he agreed.

Aria’s POV

I was about to leave the office. I only needed to file one more report before I would head back to the track. Any other day, I would save the filing for later, but with Anthony out of the office for a long lunch, I had a rare few moments of being in the office alone.

With everything filed, I turned toward the door and immediately froze.

“William?”