Chapter 87

Aria’s POV

After pushing the doorbell for the third time, I knocked on the door to Sophia’s house instead.

“Mom…” Joe sounded nervous. Maybe we should leave. I could call the police and have them do a wellness check rather than have us out here, possibly endangering ourselves.

Turning to Joe, I was about to usher him back to our car in the driveway, when the door, at last, opened.

Sophia, standing inside, offered us a friendly smile. It was strange, since she’d never shown me any kind of friendliness in the past.

“Aria. Joe. Are you here to see William?” she asked.

I placed both my hands on Joe’s shoulders, still unsure if we should stay or go.

Even with Sophia’s friendly disposition, there was something off about her. Maybe it was the dark, heavy bags under her eyes, or the way the white of those eyes was red and bloodshot. Or maybe it was the way that smile of hers seemed to tremble around the edges, like it was taking a considerable amount of effort to keep it in place.

This unusual behavior made me even more concerned about William.

“William is welcome to come with us,” I said. “Joe was hoping for a sleepover.” I squeezed Joe’s shoulders, hoping he’d play along.

“I like sleepovers,” Joe said, to my relief.

The alarm bells in my head warned me that there was something considerably wrong here. If I could get William out of this house, I needed to take that chance.

“William can’t go out on a school night,” Sophia said.

“But William hasn’t been at school,” Joe said matter-of-factly.

Sophia’s gaze shifted down to him. “Of course he has. You must be mistaken.”

“I’m not,” Joe said stubbornly.

“Joe,” I said lightly. I believed him with all of my being, without a shred of doubt, but now was not the time to antagonize Sophia. To Sophia, I said, “We would like to see him.”

Sophia nodded as she stepped back away from the door, giving us room to enter.

“William!” she called. “Joe is here to see you!”

“Joe?” William echoed from further inside the house.

Joe looked back at me as if asking for permission. With a pat on the back, I gave it. Joe then scurried deeper into the house, leaving me alone with Sophia.

As she closed the front door, she spoke, “Your visit is well-timed. I’ve been meaning to talk to you, Aria.”

“You have?” I couldn’t imagine what about.

“Yes. Why don’t you join me in the living room for a moment? I think you should be sitting down when you hear this.”

On any other day, I likely wouldn’t have entertained such an obvious trap. Sophia undoubtedly just wanted to get me alone so that she could upset me in some way. But with everything going on… with her avoidance of Liam and her potentially hurting William… I felt like I needed to see this through, if only to get more information on her mental state.

In the living room, she gestured to one of the comfortable looking arm chairs for me to sit down. I did. Then she crossed the room toward a bookshelf. Once there, she retrieved what looked like a letter from between two antique books.

“Liam told you a great many things about me, I’m sure,” Sophia said. “About how he sees me as a kid sister, or something similar.”

I neither confirmed nor denied, knowing the truth would only hurt her. She was acting strangely enough. She didn’t need more hurt to add into the mix.

Sophia seemed to take my silence for confirmation and laughed bitterly. “He’s always been cruel like this, keeping me tucked away in the shadows. His dirty little secret.”

That was not how I remembered their relationship at all. In fact, especially toward the end, Liam was constantly breaking plans with me to spend time with Sophia instead. There was nothing secret about it. Sophia was certainly never tucked into any shadows.

“All this time, he has been lying to you,” she said. She walked toward me the way a cat would towards its prey. When she was close enough, she held out the letter for me.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Proof,” Sophia said, without any clarification.

Reaching up, I accepted the letter and then opened it. At first, I was confused by what I was looking at. It seemed to be some kind of DNA test results.

“I don’t understand,” I said.

“Keep reading,” Sophia insisted.

I continued. Halfway down the letter, I stopped when a conclusion was made. The company who had sent this letter had compared one of Liam’s hairs against one of William’s, to test for paternity.

That test proved positive.

William was Liam’s son.

For that to be true meant that Liam had lied to me about everything.

“I’m sorry you had to find out this way,” Sophia said. “But everything Liam ever told you about him and me was a lie. We’ve been lovers for a long time…” She lowered her head, as if ashamed. “Even during his marriage to you.”

A chill slipped over my entire body, leaving me cold and numb. I didn’t want to believe any of this, but how could I deny it, when there was DNA evidence right in front of my face.

Sophia could have mocked up this letter, but I remembered Joe asking me if I had any of Liam’s hair.

“The kids did this?” I asked.

“Yes,” Sophia said. “Liam hasn’t always been the best father. William wanted to confirm they were connected by blood – which they are. I, of course, always knew the truth.” Tears welled in her eyes, as if brought by command. “If only Liam could be more honest with everyone…”

Liam had told me that since Steve’s death, he saw Sophia as a sister, and that he had always treated her as such. He insisted that he was trying to help her.

Well, he didn’t need to sleep with her to help her.

My heart cracked down the middle, splintering into a thousand tiny pieces that pierced into all different sections of my body. My own tears rose, but I pushed them back, unwilling to cry here in front of Sophia.

“I’d like to check on William myself, and then I’d like to leave,” I said.

She batted her long lashes at me, as tears dripped down her cheeks. “The guilt has been driving me insane, Aria. Do you think you could ever forgive me?”

I didn’t know what I thought about her.

The person I would never forgive was Liam.

“I want to see William, then Joe and I will leave,” I said, more forcefully.

She stepped back as I stood up. Clutching the letter to my chest, I left the living room and found William and Joe playing in the study. William was showing Joe a new car he’d gotten.

“William?” I asked. “How are you doing?”

“I’m fine,” he said.

Joe confirmed. “He seems okay, Mom.”

“Good. Then, Joe. We have to go now.”

“But Mom…”

“Now, Joe.”

As Joe and William gave a quick goodbye, I glanced William over once. He was wearing long sleeves and long pants, so I couldn’t check for bruises. But he seemed okay.

Joe walked to me and I ushered him toward the front door.

“If you ever want to talk about it,” Sophia started, trying to stop me along the way.

I swiveled around her and kept walking.

Over the past few months, I’d dedicated far too much time and effort into Liam, agonizing over our past.

No more.

From this moment forward, he was out of my life for good.