Chapter 230

Liam’s POV

I worried about revealing the full truth to Aria. Our relationship felt so fragile. I didn’t want to put even more pressure on it by revealing our ugly past.

But she was right. The truth was long overdue, and the only way for us to move forward, stronger than ever, was to face and overcome the ugliness of the past.

Still, I hated hurting her, so it took me a long moment, even after I had agreed, to collect my thoughts and gather my strength enough to start speaking.

“My father didn’t approve of my career. Well, no, it wasn’t just that. He didn’t approve of any of my life choices,” I began. “He wanted me to be his perfect heir, to take a job at his corporation and learn from him until it was my time to take over. He didn’t understand my need to distance myself from him, or my desire to strike out on my own with a passion like racing. He saw both as failings on my part.

“My engagement to Joanna was something he had conspired when she and I were teenagers. I told Markus again and again that it would never happen. Even before I rebelled, becoming a racecar driver, I was adamant that I would pick my own wife. He wouldn’t listen.”

I remembered the arguments. So often, I would try to speak with him, to tell him what I wanted from life and from a partner. That being his apprentice and marrying Joanna was not part of my life plan. He never listened to me, always blowing me off with a laugh or a dismissive, “You’ll thank me when you grow up and quit these asinine games.”

He was wrong. I would never want to thank him, and those asinine games were my life’s passion – racing.

“He continued to build the pressure onto me. When he sensed I wouldn’t budge on Joanna, he began to push other socialites onto me. It was relentless. I couldn’t go anywhere without a socialite approaching me and saying, ‘Your father thinks we would be great together…’ I had no interest in these women!”

Carefully, I watched Aria. So far her face was neutral, though she watched me, attentive. She was listening closely, but didn’t seem hurt – yet. I dreaded what was to come.

“I defied my father at every turn, wanting to live my own life. As a racecar driver, I was successful enough to support myself. I didn’t need his money or the future he had planned for me. And to keep myself out from under his thumb, I was willing to stay single forever,” I continued. “But then I saw you.”

“Me?”

I swallowed hard and forced myself to continue. “I can’t say it was love at first sight, though I did, as now, believe you are incredibly beautiful. But it was in seeing you that I realized the perfect way to get back at my father wasn’t to remain single, it was to marry someone he wouldn’t approve of.”

A flash of hurt crossed Aria’s face, and though she buried it quickly, the image of it dug into my heart and would likely stay there the rest of my life.

“I wanted to date you regardless,” I was quick to correct. “But… I moved things so quickly because I also wanted to defy Markus.”

Our marriage had been quick and private. Though our families and closest friends knew, we had kept it secret from absolutely everyone else. Even getting the marriage license had been done in secret. Our ceremony had been so small and quick; we hadn’t wanted to arouse suspicion.

No. I hadn’t want to give us away to the press. Aria was just so kind that she had gone along with my wishes.

“I was a lousy husband because I didn’t know how to be married,” I said. “I wasn’t ready yet, then. I rushed everything so much.”

Aria’s POV

Listening to Liam’s story, I tried my hardest to be understanding. Knowing Markus, I could understand the intense pressure he was under, and we’d both been so young back then. Young enough to make some truly foolish decisions.

Liam shouldn’t have rushed into marrying me.

And I shouldn’t have been so eager to accept him. I’d been so in love that I’d turned a blind eye to the red flags I’d noticed. Keeping me a secret being the biggest of them.

We’d both made mistakes back then.

But the truth still hurt, even when I tried to tell myself not to let it. In an attempt to comfort myself, I reminded myself that these feelings are of Liam’s past. We’d gone through so much since then, and our relationship had grown. Our love had deepened.

To be sure, and knowing the words would help ease some of my hurt, I asked, “Do you love me now?”

“I love you,” he said quickly and clearly, while holding my eyes. There was no room for doubt. His words went straight to my heart, filling it and sealing closed all the wounds that his previous words had opened there.

But he didn’t stop there.

“I loved you then, too, Aria,” he said, “I was just too much of a fool to realize it.” Shaking his head, he added, “It was only after you left me, and I felt your loss, that I realized how much you meant to me, and how big the mistakes I’d made truly were.”

He inched closer to me. When I did not move away, he stepped another inch. “You are so important to me, Aria. I’m so sorry for everything that I did in the past.”

“I know,” I said, because I fully believed that. I could see in his eyes how much he was hurting even in just revealing this final piece to me.

I wouldn’t lie. It hurt to discover that our relationship had only initially blossomed because of Liam’s attempts to defy his father.

But our relationship had evolved so much since those days. We’d become so much more than the place where we started.

“I’m sorry,” Liam said, and I know that too. His regret was palpable.

I didn’t want him to feel that anymore. How long had he kept this bottled up inside, letting it eat away at him from the inside out? All in a fool’s effort to protect me.

No more.

With things out in the open like this, I now felt closer to Liam than I ever had before.

Now, we could finally heal. Together. And never look back.

Liam came closer but now he seemed to stand still as a statue, waiting for me to make the next move.

So I make it.

Stepping into him, I closed my arms around him. Immediately, he reacted, folding me into his own embrace. We fit together like two perfect puzzle pieces.

I didn’t care why we had first gotten together. None of that really seemed to matter in the scheme of things now. All that matter was the present. We had each other and our family, and that love between us was strong.

But to make things even clearer, I said, “Liam. Will you sleep in my room tonight?”