Chapter 207

Liam’s POV

I sat on a stone bench along the walkway, my mind in shock over what just happened.

I’d risked so much trying to appease Markus with this fake proposal, and now I was going to lose it all. And with Markus gone, it hadn’t even been necessary.

I should have waited this out, or fought harder. Because I gave up too soon, I allowed Markus to have his way in the end. Maybe he’d planned all this from the start. I had no proof of it, but I was willing to believe that he had arranged for Aria to be here tonight.

Even from beyond the grave, he was still trying to control my life.

That was the other issue weighing heavily on my mind. My father was dead. I hated him for all that he had done, and as I knew he was dying, I’d had time to adjust with his inevitable end for a time now.

Yet, despite everything else, he was still my father.

My mother was gone, and now my father too. For years, I had seen them both as anchors, for better or worse. My mother an anchor of love, until her untimely end. My father was more of looming, unpleasant presence. I’d thought he’d always be there, threatening me.

Now that he was gone, I was finally free.

Without Aria, that freedom meant nothing.

With news of Markus’s death spreading, the event ended early out of respect. I received several condolences as the guests left, many placing their hand on my shoulder.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” they’d say to my face. Yet, as soon as they turned away, I’d hear them whisper, “Who was that woman who ran off? I didn’t recognize her but she seemed so upset.”

That woman was my wife, I wanted to scream. Yet, Aria had wanted to keep things secret. Probably now more than ever, she’d want me to hold to that. I’d already betrayed her so much. If this was the last promise I could keep to her, then I would do it.

Holding my tongue, I lowered my head instead.

When Chuck came near me, he and his wife offered condolences. Then, he sent his wife ahead.

“I tried to warn you,” he said when she was out of earshot. “You should have worked harder to keep these worlds separate.”

He waited a moment, but when I didn’t reply, he shrugged and continued walking, eventually catching up to his wife further down the walkway.

I was entirely numb. The world was moving around me, but I felt like I was still, an observer of the changing world more than a participator.

Oscar and Janet were ones of the last to leave the banquet hall. Joanna tried to stop them from approaching me, but they simply steamroller their way through her as they always seemed to. In the end, Joanna was the one to step aside looking cowed.

“I’m sorry for your loss, Liam, but this was an absolute disgrace of an engagement event,” Oscar snapped. “How dare you storm off after another woman? Did you think we wouldn’t notice?”

“You’ve humiliated us,” Janet said. “Have your affairs if you must, but for the love of God, learn some discretion. Inviting your mistress to your own engagement party – the gall of it all!”

“It’s only because of Markus’s good name that you now carry that we will continue to support this engagement at all,” Oscar continued.

I lifted my head, about to tell them off once and for all, when Joanna rushed to stand in front of me, blocking me from her parents and vice versa.

“Mother. Father. Please. Allow me to handle this. I’ll speak with him privately, and I vow this will never be an issue again.”

“See that it isn’t,” Oscar said coldly. Then he and his wife walked toward the gate. Though they walked side by side, they didn’t touch or say one word to each other. I doubted they even liked each other.

Joanna stayed near me until all of the event goers disappeared through the gate. Then, she looked at me. Glancing at her, I saw the fire in her eyes. She was furious.

“You embarrassed me when you chased after Aria,” she said. “This was supposed to be our engagement party, yet you abandoned me the minute she showed up.”

“She wasn’t supposed to be here. Did you invite her?”

“You think I wanted to ruin my own party?”

That wasn’t a denial.

“You have no idea how much I’m going to have to go through to try to keep this from falling apart now,” Joanna said. “The husbands mostly understand your affection for a mistress, even if they think you are a fool for placing her over your own fiancé –”

“Aria is not a mistress. She is my wife.”

Joanna continued on like I hadn’t said anything. “But it’s the wives who will be furious. They don’t like to be reminded of their husbands’ wandering eyes. By chasing after Aria, not only have you humiliated me, but you’ve humiliated every woman in that room who has a cheating husband, too.”

Those women deserved better, but not from me. It was their husbands who had humiliated them by cheating.

But then… without his having explained anything to Aria, she must have felt cheated on too.

He had to find a way to explain everything to her. It couldn’t be too late… could it?

God, he was an idiot. How had he let things get so tangled up? He should have been honest with Aria from the start. Even if she disagreed, she would at least have understood then, that he held no affection for Joanna. This entire engagement had only been a means to an end.

“This farce is over now,” I said and stood so she would be forced to consider me and my words, and wouldn’t be so easily able to ignore me anymore. “With Markus dead, there’s no reason to keep up this ruse anymore. It’d been a mistake from the start, and I’m ending it now.”

Joanna narrowed her eyes. “You are letting your grief control your emotions, Liam. Else you would see things differently.”

“I see things more clearly now that I’d ever before. I never should have agreed to any of this. I knew how much it would hurt Aria if she found out, but I pushed forward anyway. I might hate myself for it, but I’m done playing along with it.”

Joanna straightened as if preparing for a fight. “Who do you think you are? You agreed to this, Liam, and you are stuck with it now. There is no backing down or walking away.”

“Watch me,” I snapped, and started to turn.

She roughly grabbed my arm, her long nails biting into my skin. “All of high society has seen this engagement, Liam, and it will be all over the news tomorrow. Everyone will know we’re engaged.”

“Not when I tell them the truth,” I said, and pulled my arm from her grasp. Her nails left scratch marks over my wrist and hand.

“They won’t believe you, Liam. Not when they’ve seen you propose with their own eyes. Face it. We’re in this together, whether you like it or not.”