Chapter 90

Liam’s POV

The next morning, as I walked into the office, I carried with me a confusing mixture of different feelings. It was nice to be on good terms with Sophia and William, though I still felt like they both were hiding things from me. Sophia seemed determined to act like everything was fine, and William followed her lead.

Yet, for as happy as I was to be a part of William’s life again, I was as confused to be suddenly shut out of Aria and Joe’s.

I’d asked Sophia if she had spoken to Aria, and she denied it. William had looked away, guilty, but when I asked him about it privately later, he didn’t reveal anything either.

It was all terribly frustrating.

Setting my briefcase to the side, I sat down behind my desk and tried to focus. I couldn’t fix anything about my personal life during work hours, so it would be futile to even think about it right now.

Aria and I had agreed to set aside our personal issues for the sake of the job, so I’d already vowed to only call her today if I needed to do so for the job. Else, I hopeed and prayed that she would reach out to me after work.

That was my plan anyway – until I looked down at the sheet of paper sitting on my desk.

It was a resignation letter, effective immediately.

I skipped to the end, inspecting the signature. It seemed genuine.

Aria had quit?

Not believing it, I picked up the phone and dialed her office number. It rang and rang before transferring to a generic voicemail. She’d already confirmed her resignation with IT, then, and they’d turned off her messages.

I hung up the work phone, then dug my cell phone out of my pocket. I dialed her personal number. This time, it didn’t even ring before ending the call.

For that to happen meant that she’d blocked me.

Slowly, I lowered my cell phone down to my desk. I didn’t understand. How could this happen?

What happened that pushed Aria so far away?

The question plagued me, making it exceedingly difficult for me to do my job. I spaced out during meetings, often needing to have things repeated. Even my assistant took notice.

“You need to sign off on those invoices,” she said. She’d been more on top of things since the last time I’d messed up. I was exceedingly grateful to her, though just as frustrated with myself, for needing the reminder. She nodded at Aria’s resignation, which I had pushed to the edge of my desk. “You also need to sign off on that, or HR will deny her final pay.”

I glanced at the resignation letter, so formal, so cold. Like we hadn’t meant anything to each other.

“I’m not ready to accept that just yet,” I said. I had one last plan to talk to Aria, and that was to camp myself outside of her door until she either spoke to me or called the police.

If she wanted us to break up permanently, then fine. But I deserved an explanation for the sudden change of heart.

I still suspected Sophia, but without proof, what could I do? Neither she nor William were talking.

“By the end of the day,” the assistant said. “Else HR will be unhappy, and you are running out of favors to give.”

“I understand,” I said grimly. That timeline certainly put a damper on my plan of standing outside of Aria’s door until she opened it, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t try knocking again.

At lunch break, I left the headquarters, got into my car, and drove to Aria’s house.

With a sinking feeling in my gut, I realized her car wasn’t there. Still, I parked in her driveway and jogged up to her door.

Before I could ring the bell, my phone buzzed in my pocket.

Checking the message, it read, I miss you. My heart jumped up into my throat, until I realized the sender was not Aria, but Sophia.

Quickly, I texted back, Busy. Returning the phone to my pocket, I lifted my hand and rang the doorbell. I heard the bell ring, muffled through the door, but otherwise there was nothing but silence.

It was possible that Aria had simply gone to do errands, but something felt off about this entire thing. It took me a moment to realize what.

Then it hit me. The wreath that had been hanging on the door last night was gone. So too were all of the small lawn decorations that had busied the gardens up front. No more kissing gnomes or lounging frogs.

No more Aria.

It was as if the house was vacant.

I rang the bell again. Even knowing no one would come, it was the only thing I could do. I didn’t want to believe that I was powerless here.

Aria and Joe had vanished without a trace. Would I ever see them again?

My phone buzzed again in my pocket. With desperate hope, I checked once more, only to find a photo from Sophia, of her in revealing black lingerie.

Don’t you miss me? The text read beneath.

“No,” I snapped, and deleted the photo. What did she hope to gain in sending me that? She knew I was with Aria.

At least, I thought I was…

Annoyed and frustrated with no outlet, I dialed Sophia.

“There you are, lover,” she purred through the phone. “I called your office number, but your assistant told me you’d gone out. I was hoping… well, maybe you’d want to stop by and see my new outfit…”

“Sophia,” I snapped. “What do you think you are doing?”

Her seductive tone hardened slightly. “I should think that would be obvious, Liam.”

“Why are you trying to seduce me?” I demanded.

“You know how I feel…”

“And you know how I feel about Aria. I keep telling you, she is my wife.”

“She’s not your wife anymore, Liam. I don’t know how you can keep saying these things, especially after what happened. Didn’t she tell you off?”

I clutched my phone more tightly, sensing some truth about to be revealed. Sophia did know something.

“Why would she do that, Sophia?”

Sophia huffed with annoyance. “Just forget about her. Didn’t you get my picture? I look good enough to eat, so come over here and have a taste.”

Bile rose up in my throat. “No. I don’t know how many more times I have to say this, or how else to say it that would make it clearer to you. We do not have that kind of relationship anymore, Sophia. We haven’t in a very long time, before Aria even came around. I don’t, and will never, want you again. Do you understand?”

“Even with her gone, you still cling onto her,” Sophia said, her voice trembling. She was likely crying now, though I had learned those tears were not genuine. She always cried when she wanted something from me. She knew the sight of a woman crying tugged at my heartstrings.

I was so damn tired of being manipulated.

“I’m off limits,” I told her. “That’s all there is to it. Until I tell you specifically otherwise, you can assume that I am in a relationship with Aria.”

Sophia sobbed through the phone. I nearly hung up on her, until her voice crackled through.

“If you don’t break up with Aria, I’m going to kill myself.”