Chapter 219

Aria’s POV

He loved me. I was the only woman for him.

They were pretty words, but when paired with the raw earnestness and love in his eyes, I found I could not disbelieve them.

Maybe it was wishful thinking on my part. Maybe I was simply allowing myself to be vulnerable to hurt once more.

But, the truth was, as much as I doubted Liam, I also loved him. I loved him with the full entirety of my being and I had for some time, perhaps forever, though I hadn’t want to admit that to myself. I still didn’t, not fully. Though the truth of it was undeniable now.

This hurt was far too real, cracking through the very center of me, seemingly shattering everything that I had even believed.

Having Liam’s love confession made me so unbelievably happy and yet sad at the same time. Nothing fit together perfectly as long as we were so far out of sync. I wanted to fix everything, but I wasn’t the one who broke it.

“Is that true?” I asked him. “If it is, why have you done so much to hurt me?”

He sighed and in that moment, he seemed so unbelievably lost. “I thought I was doing the right thing to protect you. Us. I was an idiot, Aria, but from now on, I will do whatever you want. I won’t make one step without your consent. I’ll keep you in every loop. I’ll even… well…”

He stopped himself suddenly, as if he thought of a reason not to say what he was going to say.

It was past the time for more secrets. Whatever he was going to say, hurtful or foolish or not, I wanted to hear it.

“Even… what?” I asked.

“I know you have had your reservations in the past about this,” Liam said, “But if you let me, I will tell the whole world this engagement with Joanna was a farce to appease my father. And that I refuse to go through with it because I’m already married to the woman I love. The woman of my dreams.”

“You mean…”

“Please, Aria. Let me tell everyone that you are my wife.”

My heart racing, I considered his proposal. I wanted to go along with it. Let him humiliate himself and tell the world this was all a stunt. Now that his father was dead, he didn’t need to uphold it anymore.

But…

The reason I hadn’t wanted him to tell anyone about our marriage to start with was because I still hadn’t been fully sure it would last. I wasn’t any surer now. In fact, things seemed even worse than they had been back then when I had first made him swear to secrecy.

“It’s too soon,” I said.

His lips pressed hard together. I could tell he disagreed.

Maybe I was making excuses. But, though his love confession stole my breath away and made us believe we had a chance yet, I wasn’t totally ready to trust him again.

“How can I convince you it’s not?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I said, somewhat hopelessly.

He, however, saw this as a challenge. “I’ll find a way,” he said. “I’ll prove to you that my love is real, and that I’m reliable, and that –”

“Liam,” I said, stopping him. “Just keep loving me. Keep doing the right things. No more secrets or lies or anything else. Just love and truth and family. Make time for me and the kids. That’s how you solve this. Time.”

“Okay,” he said, pensive. “I will do that. Whatever it takes, Aria. I love you. You are the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with.”

“Okay,” I agreed. This was going to be a matter of wait and see, but for Liam, for everything we’ve shared together, and for the family we had built together, I was willing to hold on for a little while longer.

Already, I felt less like I was falling apart every moment, and more like I might survive now.

Joanna’s POV

Seeing Aria’s doubt initially filled Joanna with a sense of delighted glee. After all, this was the end game she had been hoping for: driving a wedge between Liam and Aria so big that eventually Liam would cast Aria off entirely, or vice versa.

Seeing Aria so upset was a big indicator that things were heading in the right direction.

What wasn’t so great, though, and this was something Joanna would slowly realize after Liam had rushed after Aria, was that her willingness to speak with Joanna at all meant that she still wanted to believe in Liam.

In which case, Joanna’s denial of the truth might not have been enough.

Those two shared a stronger bond than Joanna had previously thought. This meant that she was going to have to continue to take measures to ensure that the inheritance ended up in her hands.

If Liam was going to be stubborn about this, then Joanna needed to push extra hard. She had learned from the best after all. Markus had left her with a lot of good ideas and instructions.

“I’ll protect your legacy,” she whispered to the thought of Markus, then stood up.

First, she checked just outside the door. Both her and Liam’s assistants were busy at their desks. Liam was nowhere to be found, likely still dealing with Aria. Who knew how long that would take? Joanna had to move quickly just in case Aria finally told him to buzz off.

Seeing the coast was clear, Joanna shut the door to the office and then walked over to Liam’s side. Sitting behind his desk, she turned on his computer.

She didn’t even have to guess at the password. Having sat so near him for so long, she’d seen him enter it a hundred times. He never even tried to hide it. Trusting fool.

Joanna typed that password in now, pleased when it took her into the desktop with no problems.

Immediately, she went straight for Liam’s email. Opening it, she perused his contacts.

Quickly, on a piece of paper, she scribbled down a few names as well as their attached emails, addresses, and phone numbers. Liam even included a few personal items for his own reference, like the names of their spouses and kids.

Liam really was too trusting. He hadn’t even made this difficult for her. All of the shareholder names were right there and properly labeled. It was so easy to transcribe.

Her list complete, she closed the email and locked the desktop once more. She left everything as she’d found it and returned to her desk.

Without missing a beat, she grabbed the phone and typed in one of the shareholders phone number.

She wasn’t surprised to get ahold of a secretary instead.

“Yes, I’d like to arrange to have lunch with him as soon as possible?” Joanna said. “Oh, who am I? Why, I’m Liam’s fiancé Joanna. Over at the racing club. Yes, I know he’s a shareholder. There’s something important I’d like to discuss with him regarding the club… as well as Liam and my engagement. No, I don’t mind holding.”

Joanna’s lips curved up into a smile.

Liam shouldn’t have pushed her. Now it was her turn to push him back.

And he wasn’t going to like what she had up her sleeve.