Chapter 67

Liam’s POV

Sophia was not an easy person to track down. She should have been home, spending time with William, but once again at dinner time, William was home alone with a sitter, neither of which had any idea where Sophia was.

I stayed to have dinner with William, not wanting him to eat alone. After, when I had to leave again, William followed me all the way to the front door.

“Are you leaving?” William asked, his voice small, a frown tugging down the corners of his mouth.

As enraged as I was at what Joe revealed about Sophia, and as much as I wanted to confront her right at this moment, I couldn’t abandon William. I might not be William’s biological father, but I was the only father that he knew.

“No,” I said, changing my mind about the urgency of confronting Sophia. If no one knew where she was, I would have a hell of a time trying to track her down. Staying was better for both William and myself – even if it meant I had to stew in my anger for a while.

William’s despondent mood immediately brightened. “Really?”

“Really,” I said.

“Cool. I want to show you my new video game,” William said.

After paying off the babysitter, I spent the evening watching William play. Around nine, I told him he had to head to bed.

His disposition changed again. He lilted like a wilting flower.

“Everything okay?” I asked. If Joe’s intel was correct, I already knew the answer. William was the only one who could have shared the recording of Sophia with Joe. If Joe was conflicted about it, William must have been as well.

“I don’t know…”

“You can tell me anything, William. You know that.”

William shook his head. “Not this. I have to talk to mom… but then she’ll be mad…”

I wanted to tell him that his mom would never be mad at him for anything he wanted to talk to her about, but I knew that wasn’t true, especially when William had the information he did. Sophia was more likely to scold him and ground him for eavesdropping than she was to give him an answer if he wanted to know why she did this.

“Why don’t you let me talk to her instead?” I suggested. That had been my plan anyway. I had no intention of letting William or Joe take any heat for this truth being discovered.

William stared at the ground. “You don’t know what happened.”

“Actually, I do.”

William’s attention snapped to me. “You can’t…” Then he realized. “Joe told you?”

“He thought I could help you both,” I said. “You know you can trust me, William. I want to find the truth to save Joe’s mom, but I’ll try to keep Sophia out of it as much as I can.”

“She’s going to be mad.”

“That’s why I’m going to be the one to speak with her,” I said.

William thought over it for a minute. “Okay…”

With relief, I placed my hand on the top of his head and messed with his hair.

“Cut it out,” he said, laughing. When I removed my hand, his laughter slowly died away.

“You need to get some sleep,” I said. “Off to bed.”

William gave me a look. “Do you want to hear the recording?”

For the next few hours, I paced back and forth in the living room of Sophia’s house, waiting impatiently for her to show her face. William had played the recording for me, and then sent it to my phone before I was finally able to convince him to get some sleep.

I checked on him around midnight, and he was fast asleep.

Sophia didn’t stumble through the front door until half past 2 in the morning.

Stumbling, she kicked off her shoes at the door, clearly tipsy if not totally drunk. She stopped short when she saw me standing in her living room.

“Liam?” Confusion crossed her face for only a moment, before a sultry smile stretched her lips. It turned my stomach as it always did. How many times did I have to tell her that she was like a sister to me, before she would finally believe me?

As she strutted toward me, I realized it needed to be at least once more.

“Have you finally changed your mind about us?” she asked, her words slightly slurred. Her breath reeked of alcohol.

In response, I lifted my phone and played the recording.

Her voice filled the speakers, each word digging her deeper and deeper into a pit. Obviously she was guilty of setting up Aria. All I had to do to turn things around was release this recording to the proper channels.

She crossed her arms near the end, and pouted her bottom lip. That look might have worked on him if she had been a child. As an adult, it was just frustrating.

“Why did you do it?” I asked.

“You know why.”

“You can’t possibly hate Aria this much.”

“She’s taking you away from us, Liam. Before she came back, you would spend all your time with us. Now, William barely sees you.”

“He barely sees you either,” I replied.

Sophia huffed a harsh breath. “I needed to find a way to cope with your abandonment. This is the only way I can make it through the nights alone.”

I was not convinced. At all. Maybe in the past, I would have blindly believed everything she had ever said, but she was acted too erratic lately. Ever, she had been at odds with Aria.

“I’m giving you one chance to do what’s right,” I said. “Tomorrow, you will come forward and tell everyone what you did. If you don’t, I’ll never speak to you ever again.”

“You can’t be serious,” Sophia snapped.

“I won’t let you ruin a good woman’s life because of your petty jealousies.”

“Always so ready to believe the worst in me,” she said. “Well, how is this for turnaround? You say my name, implicating me in any of this, and you’ll never see William again.”

“You’re bluffing.”

“Try me,” Sophia said, then hiccupped. After, she giggled. “You’re cute.” She reached up and placed her hand on the side of my face.

I stepped back, away from her.

Sophia let her hand drop, but not her smile. “See you tomorrow, Liam.”

With that, she walked around him and started for the stairs, heading up to her room.

I’d come here, wanting her to tell the truth. Now, I was stuck. If I revealed the truth, I’d lose William. She could have been bluffing, most likely was, but I wasn’t the kind of man who could take chances like that.

Not anymore.

I cursed, as I looked at my phone. The recording was still opened, so I pushed play, listening to the recording once more.

This recording could save Aria. I could save Aria.

I just needed to figure out how to do it, without losing William.

The recording ended, and I played it again. This time, I focused on the man’s voice.

Maybe if I could find out who that was…

Aria’s POV

“It’s late,” I said, standing from the couch.

Having Logan here had been a welcome distraction. Once the initial awkwardness passed, he’d been able to distract me with the pleasant kind of conversation shared between old friends.

But with a yawn, I realized just how tired I truly was. Even though I had accomplished nothing, it still felt like a very long day.

“I think you should head home,” I said, when Logan hesitated.

Logan stood then as well. I turned to lead him toward the door, but his voice stopped me, “Aria. There is something… I’ve been meaning to ask.”

I looked back at him, lifting a brow. “Oh? And it can’t wait until tomorrow?”

“It’s waited too long already.”

He sounded serious, so I faced him to listen. “What is it, then?”

Logan took a breath and asked, “Do you still have feelings for Liam?”