Chapter 223

Liam’s POV

“I have a plan,” I said, which such a blatant lie that I needed to rephrase. “I have the beginnings of a plan…”

Jackson crossed his arms. “So you have no idea what you are doing.”

God, it really did seem that way, didn’t it? He should have spoken to Aria more at length this morning about what to do, but I had been more confident then and more fired up.

I didn’t like seeing that the press had taken to calling Aria, my wife and the love of my life, as the other woman. She was the only woman. That anger had lit a fire under me, making him determined to push through and fix everything.

Yet, once that anger dimmed down to a low, consistent simmer, I realized I needed a much more substantial plan than just go in and fix it.

Jackson must have seen my uncertainty because he unhooked his arms, his anger slowly shifting to disbelief. “You really don’t have a plan?”

“I’ll talk to Joanna.”

“And get more of her lies and bullshit,” Jackson said. “You need to have a press conference. Tell the whole world the truth. That you are married to Aria and that you faked the engagement to Joanna because your dad is an asshole. Was, excuse me.”

If a perfect world, I could do that and it would work, however… “Aria hasn’t told me yet that she wants our relationship to be public. I still have to keep that private.”

“Did you ask her about it?”

No, but she would have told me if that was what she wanted me to do, right?

I frowned slightly. I was making assumptions again, like I have in the past. Instead of assuming I knew what Aria wanted and what was best for her, I needed to actually talk to her about it, discuss it and find out what she wanted and thought.

Jackson shook his head. “For being married, the two of you have awful communication. Are you sure you live together?”

He was right, and it tore me up instead. I needed to do better. For Aria, for myself, and for the sake of our family, I needed to communicate better. Aria was my partner, not a roommate. My wife. She needed to be in on the loop about these things, and we needed to be open and honest about our wants and concerns.

I’d been so busy trying to protect her from everything that I had forgotten to be a good husband. Again.

Granted in the past, I had been too selfish, prioritizing my own desires and love of the spotlight and attention over her needs. Now, I was prioritizing my desire to keep her safe from hurt and harm.

One wasn’t as bad as the other, and came from a much better place. Still, neither were very good ways to sustain a loving relationship – especially a marriage.

“I’ll call her,” I said.

Jackson cursed and shook his head. Pushing past me, roughly jostling my shoulder, he muttered, “I’m not your damn marriage counselor.”

Upstairs, I walked into my office and found Joanna sitting behind her desk. She wasn’t even pretending to work, with her computer monitor turned off and her phone off the hook. Instead, she was applying nail polish. The smell of it permeated the office.

My new plan was to call Aria right away but seeing Joanna, and watching her blow off work, set my angry fire ablaze once more.

My initial plan of talking to Joanna suddenly seemed like a good idea again.

“I assume you saw the news,” I said. I stopped beside her desk, glaring down at her.

She didn’t bother looking up, continuing instead to work on her nails.

“I did,” she said, as calmly as if they’d been talking about the weather.

“We have to set things straight,” I said.

“No,” Joanna replied without even needing to think about it.

I wasn’t surprised though. Given that her end game here was to obtain my father’s money, of course she wouldn’t want to have the truth be revealed.

Even so, I wasn’t going to take no for an answer this time.

Joanna had gotten away with too many lies, too many manipulations, for far too long. Her control ended here.

“Either you make a joint press statement with me about the true nature of our relationship, or I make it alone, but either way I’m going to tell the world that our relationship is a farce,” I said, sticking to my strong convictions.

“No, you won’t,” Joanna said with infuriating confidence.

She must have had what she thought was an ace up her sleeve. I didn’t much care for that. At all.

Someone as smart and as greedy as Joanna was also dangerous. There was no telling the depths she might go to, to keep a hold on me and on Markus’s money.

“I will,” I said, hiding my growing nerves.

“You won’t,” Joanna said. She glanced up at me. “I already have a statement prepared that tells everyone I am aware of your infidelity and have been forced to accept it, because I’m so in love with you,” Joanna said flatly. “Tell me, which one of our statements do you think the public will believe?”

My stomach twisted in disgust as my anger grew once more. Her statement would make her seem like the victim here. Even if I released mine first, hers was much more damning.

And she was right.

My story involved a vicious, manipulating father, and both Joanna and I being liars, which already painted me in a bad light, despite it being the truth. Her story that I was a serial cheater was much more believable.

We were at a standstill then, with her having the upper hand. Though the reveal of my statement would still cast some doubt on her, and even with her own, I doubted she wanted to appear as a victim. She was too proud for that.

Neither of us, then, it seemed, were in a hurry to publish our statements.

“I need to talk to Aria,” I said. I was done keeping secrets from her. Jackson was right; I needed to communicate better with her. She might even have a better solution to all of this.

I moved to my desk and sat.

Joanna, smirking, went back to painting her nails as if the entire conversation had not occurred.

Yet, just as I was about to reach for the phone, it started to ring. Caught off-guard, I answered it.

“This is Liam.”

“Liam, I’m glad you are in the office early.” It took me a moment to place the voice, though it was familiar. Soon, I realized it was a trustee, a member of the board of directors, Mr. Alistair Greene. “I need you to meet me for brunch. We have some very important matters that we need to discuss.”

“Sir, if this is about the news that’s being reported, I can assure you that –”

“It is and it isn’t,” Alistair said, cutting me off. “Trust me, son, you are going to want to hear what I have to say. 10 am at the Circle Café.”

I checked my watch. “I can do that.”

“Good,” Alistair said. “And whatever you do, don’t tell Joanna.”