Chapter 237

Aria’s POV

I sat on the couch between Liam and Joe, with William sitting on the other side of Liam, watching as the interview was about to air on television.

I’d been nervous, even up to a minute ago, but now I only felt numb. I had no idea what was about to happen, but in this moment, I had nothing left to give. I could only watch, and be comforted that I was at least surrounded by my family.

“It’s going to be okay, Mom,” Joe said, looking up at me.

I gave him a small squeeze, not really wanting him to know how worried I had been or how numb I presently felt.

On the screen, Craig appeared, welcoming everyone. Seeing him made my skin crawl, and I braced myself, knowing what was about to come.

Most of the early interview stayed the same, showing the kids and how well we all got along as a family. That part was somewhat touching, and I started tearing up seeing us through that lens. The kids looked so happy on the screen, and so did I, looking at them as they spoke.

It was so strange, seeing myself from the outside like this. Even I could tell, from appearances alone, how much I loved my family. I hoped the others watching this at home could tell too.

When the part with the children ended, I tensed up, I was about to send the kids from the room again, despite what I said, not wanting them to see me be directly insulted.

The interview progressed unedited, right up to when Craig made his accusations regarding Joanna.

The insult was blessedly edited out, but Liam’s impassioned speech was left in.

“So you admit that your engagement to Joanna was real. You admit that you deceived her and Markus about your marital status?”

“Joanna knew from the start what this was. I made it clear that I didn’t want to be with her, and while I kept my marriage to Aria a secret from most of the world, it was no secret to Joanna, my father, or any of my close friends.”

They even included my explanations and apology.

“After our reconciliation, keeping our marriage a secret was my idea. I thought I wasn’t fully comfortable in my relationship with Liam, and while that might have been true, I also think I enjoyed keeping him to myself a little bit. I’ve never been one for the spotlight.

“But that was selfish of me. And it made more problems than it should have. Liam has many loyal fans, and they should have been allowed to share in our joy. I’m sorry.”

With that, the interview ended, not showing the blowup that happened shortly after, despite there still being some time left in the hour. These segments were usually an hour long.

Right as I wondered what they’d fill the additional time with, the scene switched to a different room with the producer sitting there.

“As we consider ourselves a balanced news source, we thought we should use this last fifteen minutes of our program to include a rebuttal interview from Joanna herself,” the producer said.

“Joanna?” I gasped. This was supposed to be our return to glory, a chance to rebuild our reputations and explain everything. By including a chance for Joanna to counter us, especially at the end, giving us no time to defend ourselves, was showing Joanna favor once again. There was no balance here.

The producer was just like Craig. We never should have trusted any of them.

The scene switched again. This time the producer was sitting down with Joanna. He was showing her some footage on a tablet, presumably the interview that was just broadcast.

When it was finished, he leaned back and placed the tablet to the side. “Having seen that, do you have anything you would like to say to Liam and Aria?”

“You are fools,” Joanna said. “Absolute imbeciles.” She turned to look directly in the camera lens. “Liam, you might think you are gaining something by rejecting me and picking that disgrace of a family, but the whole thing is a waste.” Looking at the producer again, she asked, “Do you have any idea how much money he’s throwing away by staying with Aria?”

“No… Money. Are you referring to his father Markus’s will?”

“Billions of dollars. Billions! And for what?” Joanna scoffed. “Love? As if that’s more important than money.”

I stared, surprised that she would say such a thing, especially in an interview, but then I reasoned for Joanna, that was the eternal truth. To her, money was the most important thing in the universe. She simply couldn’t understand why someone would choose love instead, and she seemed ready to mock anyone who would.

“She’ll never have that money,” Liam said under his breath, glaring at the television.

On the screen, Joanna continued her rant. Before she even finished, Liam’s phone started to ring. As he looked at the screen, I looked at him.

“It’s one of the investors,” Liam said to me, and then answered the phone. “Hello?”

As he spoke I grabbed the remote and muted the television, tired of hearing Joanna’s voice anyway.

“Yes. Yes, she’s here, as are our children. Oh. Uh, of course. One moment.” Liam looked at me. “He wants to be put on speaker.

I glanced at the children, but ultimately agreed. “Okay.”

Liam put the phone on speaker and then held it out in the air. “Alright, sir. Go ahead. You are on speaker now.”

“I just watched this interview tonight and there is something I want to tell you both,” the investor said. “You, in particular, Aria, I want to say this too.”

I tensed. “Yes?”

“I’m sorry,” the investor said.

I exhaled sharply, not having expected that.

“I know Joanna’s family. I know she comes from good stock. So I believed everything she said to me without question. But I should have doubted. I should have looked more into what she was saying. I should have seen it was greed, not love or passion that drove her. But that is done. I want you to know that I’ve canceled the sale of my shares. Joanna will not be majority share so long as I can help it.”

My heart lifted. That was wonderful new, and would cut into Joanna’s power over us significantly.

“I’m sorry, Aria,” the investor said. “She had me convinced you were some type of villain, trapping Liam in a loveless marriage. I can see now that is very much not the case. Your love for each other is clear on all of your faces, even the children. I expect to see your family on the company picnics now, Liam.”

“Of course,” Liam said, smiling at me, fresh hope in his eyes. “I’m never going to try to hide them again.”

“Good. Take me off speaker now.”

Liam did as he was asked. Standing, he walked away a little to finish the conversation privately.

William looked at me. “So does this mean we aren’t moving?”

I gapped at him. “How did you know about that?”

“Are we moving?” Joe asked.

“No, I expect not,” I told them.

They smiled at each other, and then high-fived conspiratorially. Before I could investigate what they were, or had been, up to, Liam hung up the phone.

He was about to walk back to us when it started ringing again. He paused, mid-step, his own happiness falling.

There was only one person alive right now who could make him look like that.

Joanna.