Chapter 212

Aria’s POV

Bitter thoughts of Markus made me feel sick, but I pushed those dark feelings away and turned off the television again. With Markus gone, he could never hurt anyone ever again. He couldn’t haunt or stalk us.

Liam might have already made his choice, but at least the children and I would be free from Markus’s influence, even if Liam had already chosen money over his family.

What a disappointment. One I wasn’t sure I’d ever fully recover from.

Yet, as upset as I was, as the minutes continued to tick by, I knew I couldn’t hide away forever – if only for the sake of my children. I’d never abandon them.

As difficult as it would be to face Liam again, especially so soon after his betrayal, I knew I could do it. I’d walked away from him once, I could do it again. I’d already proved myself to be strong. I knew I could survive this too.

So, steeling myself, I gathered my things and dressed in fresh clothes. Applying my makeup felt like putting on war paint.

It would be the fight of my life, maintaining my composure while being around Liam after what he’d done.

I wouldn’t lose my cool. I wouldn’t react to him at all. Instead, I’d totally harden my heart and avoid him as much as I could, while being there for the children.

Until I could figure out what to do next, things would have to be this way.

I genuinely had no clue where to go from here. Should I move away? But what happens to the children then? I couldn’t deny Joe and William there father.

But the alternative meant that I had to stay in the same house with the man I cared about so much, my husband, the one who had just betrayed me in the worst possible way by proposing to another.

This was no choice at all, at least for now.

I had to go back.

Gathering my things, I checked out of the hotel and went to my car. Then, I drove back to the house I shared with Liam.

Liam’s car was there and Isabelle’s was gone.

She wouldn’t be here for me, then, not that I could expect her to be. She was kind enough to stay the night with the kids, and she had no idea when I was coming back.

Besides, this was something I needed to learn to face on my own.

After parking, before I even exit the car, Liam was there, standing in the doorway, looking at me. Had he been waiting for me to come home?

He’d changed since last night, thank God. Now he wore comfortable slacks and a black t-shirt. His hair was still damp like he’d just come out of the shower.

He was handsome as ever, and I hated it. Looking at him, knowing what we had and what could have been, was absolutely devastating. Like I was witnessing the moment of my heartbreak over again just by looking into his eyes.

“Aria,” he said, coming toward me.

I held up my hand, stopping him at once. “Unless something is happening with the children, I don’t want to hear a single word you have to say to me.”

“But if you’d only let me explain –”

“There’s no point,” I said firmly. “There’s nothing in the whole world you could say that would make what I saw last night okay.”

“It’s not okay, but –”

“I’m done, Liam. Seriously. Stop. Or I will turn around and leave again.”

I hated making that threat, especially since it was mostly hollow. I was adamant not to leave the children, not even for another day. We were a family and I was more committed to them than I was to my own heart.

But if Liam continued trying to push this issue, I didn’t know. Maybe I would have to leave for a while. I couldn’t be calm when he started saying things like this, reminding me of the pain, and I absolutely refused to cry in front of him.

How many tears, from our original breakup and now, had I cried over this man?

The first time he’d hurt me had come as a shock. But this time, I just should have known better. I felt like a failure, responsible for my own pain, because I had given him a second chance. I had started to open my heart again and he had torn straight through it.

I wanted to blame Liam, but the only person in the entire world that I could actually blame was myself.

“I’m sorry, Aria,” he said. “But I… If it means you’ll stay, I…” He pushed his hand roughly through his hair. “I will respect your choice. At least, for now. But Aria… we promised we would talk today, so I could explain…”

“That was before…” I told him.

His face twisted as if he was tormented by his own pain. Perhaps it hurt him to betray me. Though not as much, I imagined as it hurt to be betrayed.

“I need to go inside,” I said.

Liam, frowning, continued to block my path for a moment more. Then, with growing misery, he stepped to the side and let me pass.

William’s POV

While Dad went outside to talk to Mom, William flipped through the channels of the television.

“Dad said to leave the cartoons on,” Joe said.

“I’ve seen that episode,” William replied, bored. “I want to watch something else.”

In his flipping, he thought he saw something strange. Stopping, he went back a few channels.

He had seen something weird! That was Dad on the screen! But why did it say he was engaged to that terrible woman from his work?

Then the news showed the actual footage of Dad proposing down on one knee to a woman who was definitely not Mom. In fact, she was the opposite of Mom in just about every possible way.

William and Joe stared at the screen in shock, until Mom started coming through the door.

“Change it!” Joe hissed at William.

William quickly flipped back to the cartoons.

Mom walked into the living room, kissed the top of both Joe and then William’s heads and continued on to the kitchen. Dad watched her longingly from the doorway, but they didn’t say a word to each other.

William, not wanting to see it, his feelings all mixed up inside, stood up from the couch and rushed upstairs to his room.

Joe, he realized after a minute, was following him.

“You saw that, didn’t you?” William asked Joe when they were alone.

“Yeah,” Joe’s eyes were wide with worry, like he was stunned. “Is Dad marrying someone else?”

“It seems that way…” William frowned.

What would this mean for their family, and for him?

If Mom and Dad broke up, did that mean he was going to be sent back to his birth mom? Joe would always be tied to Mom and Dad, because he was theirs by blood. But William wasn’t…

He didn’t want to go back to how things were before.

I’d rather get as far away from all this as possible.

“What can we do?” Joe asked. “We have to do something.”

“I know what I’m doing,” William said.

“What?” Joe asked.

“I’m running away.”