Chapter 211

Liam’s POV

“Isabelle, I just need to talk to Aria,” I said, pleadingly. “If you just tell me where she is –”

“Then you’ll continue to bother her.” Isabelle, arms crossed, glared at me in open disgust and distain. “She told me what she saw. And it makes me feel a thousand times worse, for having told her what I saw.”

“You saw me with Joanna’s ring,” I said.

“Yes, but I thought it was a ring for Aria. When she went there tonight, she was expecting you to propose, Liam. You can imagine her shock at seeing what she saw instead.”

“She…?” The thought fizzled my brain. How could that be? She thought I was going to…? And still she went…?

Would she have said yes?

God, just how badly did I mess everything up? Earlier tonight I had no idea I had been on the cusp of claiming everything that I ever wanted. If I’d known I had been so close…

I’d made so many excuses. I twisted everything around in my head to make it make sense. But the truth was much messier, wasn’t it? I’d thought that by appeasing Joanna and Markus, even falsely, that I could gain control over the situation.

Truth was, I never had control of this at all. Markus and Joanna had probably worked together in this. Markus was likely never in the dark at all. One or both of them probably orchestrated to have Aria show up to the engagement event and see everything.

I’d thought I had everything figured out, and that after tonight, I could return to my life with Aria as if nothing happened with Joanna.

I should have known that Markus would have been one step ahead. He lived and breathed for my misery, for his legacy. If he hadn’t died tonight, he’d probably still be orchestrating everything. If his will was anything to go by, his plan had always been for me to marry Joanna in the end.

He wouldn’t have stopped at an engagement. He just would have kept hounding me.

The very reason I had done all of this for, to protect my family, to preserve my relationship with Aria, and protect the team from Markus’s constant attacks. All of it was, in the end, entirely pointless. My sacrifices were meaningless; my plans folly.

Isabelle watched me closely as cruel revelation after cruel revelation struck through me, one after the next. Seeing me, my reaction, her expression slowly softened.

“I knew it,” she said. “You really do love Aria, don’t you?”

Could she see the pure devastation on my face? I had done all of this to protect Aria – my family – and I lost her anyway. My entire world was crashing down.

“I love her,” I said, and the words came out as easy as breathing. “All of this is a massive understanding.”

“If you love Aria, why were you proposing to Joanna?”

“It was all a farce,” I said. “Joanna was in on it. I just wanted to spare Aria and the team from his endless attacks and pestering. Aria told you about the check Markus tried to give to her?”

“She did,” Isabelle confirmed.

“I thought so,” I said. “The thought of him showing up here, when I wasn’t, and speaking to Aria like that. What if one of the kids had been there? What if Markus decided to bother them? And then there was the team. I genuinely wasn’t sure how much more harassment the team could survive. As the president and part-owner of the team, I have an obligation to those people.”

Isabelle heard me out, which I was grateful for, even if her eyes narrowed with suspicion.

“So what was the plan then? To go with Joanna all the way to the altar? To keep Aria in the dark until the bigamy court date?” she asked, scoffing.

“No. Tonight was supposed to be it. We planned to fake the engagement for a long time, long enough to appease her parents and Markus.”

“And when were you going to tell Aria about this?”

“Tomorrow.” I glanced at my watch. “Well… today.” It was after midnight now.

“Why not tell her before?”

That was the heart of the matter wasn’t it, and the question I wasn’t sure I’d be able to answer well enough. I didn’t want Aria to worry about it. I’d been hoping to take care of everything on my own, to spare her any pain.

That was most of my reason. But that wasn’t all of the reason.

The rest, unfortunately, was because I didn’t know if she would go along with it. What was the expression? Better to beg forgiveness than ask permission?

In the moment, I had thought that I knew best on how to protect us from Markus. In hindsight, I had been incredibly shortsighted and naïve.

“I should have told her,” I said, knowing that clearly now. “I should have told her everything and we could have worked this out together.”

“You should have,” Isabelle said, though annoyed as she looked, there was a touch of sympathy in her voice.

“So… Will you tell me where she is?” I asked.

“No,” Isabelle said.

“Isabelle, please.”

“It’s not up to me, Liam. You hurt her, and now she’s the only one who can decide whether to speak to you again.”

Aria’s POV

For the night, I moved into a hotel. I didn’t want to face Liam right now, and Isabelle generously offered to stay with the kids overnight.

In my pajamas, I was tucked under the covers. With the lights out, and with how late it was, I should have fallen fast asleep. Yet, sleep could not find me.

Instead, through bleary, teary eyes, I watched the minutes tick by on the clock on the nightstand. Minutes felt like hours. I didn’t think I’d ever survive this heartache.

How could Liam do this to me – to us?

None of it made sense. Everything hurt. And I had no idea what to do next or where to go from here.

I tried to close my eyes, but every time, I saw the scene behind my eyelids once again. Liam down on one knee, holding up a ring for Joanna.

It was my nightmare come to life, and there was no escaping it.

Eventually, the sun crept up past the horizon, sending daylight in through the curtains of the window. No longer even willing to pretend I could sleep tonight, I sat up in bed and turned on the television instead.

I was hoping to distract myself.

Unfortunately, the first channel was the news. And on that news was the footage of Liam and Joanna’s engagement.

Fresh pain stabbed through my chest. Lifting the remote, about to change the channel, I stopped when I saw the feed at the bottom of the screen.

Liam’s father Markus died last night, unable to attend the ceremony.

Markus was… dead?

I felt numb, unsure how to react to that news. He was a terrible man, whose influence had led to the events that hurt me so very much.

My stomach twisted realizing that Markus had the last laugh.

With Joanna and Liam engaged, he was finally getting what he wanted.