Chapter 95

Liam’s POV

Nerves spiking, I tapped my hands against the wooden armrests of the uncomfortable chair I found myself sitting in. I was in my lawyer’s office, with him occasionally peering at me from overtop the mountain of paperwork towering on his desk.

When he looked, I stopped fidgeting. As his gaze fell away, I immediately began to fidget again. I’d been this way since walking in here an hour ago, when I arrived straight from work.

I was waiting to hear back from an earlier phone call I’d made. Until that call came back through, I wouldn’t be able to relax.

My lawyer was already appraised of the situation. Everything was ready for the next steps. We just needed that phone call to come through.

When my phone finally started ringing, I was so amped up that I’d jumped straight up from the chair like it had ejected me. Phone in my hand, I answered at once.

“This is Liam.”

“I have them. They’re safe,” said the man on the other end of the line.

I paused a moment. “Them? It was only supposed to be William.”

“You should have known Aria wouldn’t leave well enough alone,” Logan said through the phone.

I exhaled. “Jesus. Joe too?”

“Don’t be too upset with them,” Logan said. “They were in danger briefly, sure, but it’s only thanks to them that I was able to get William out at all. Sophia was fired up.”

My already fraying nerves stretched impossibly further. I had known William was in danger, but Aria and Joe too? They were supposed to be far away from me, avoiding me. They weren’t supposed to be in the lion’s den itself.

It was a miracle Sophia didn’t actually hurt someone.

“Everyone’s safe,” Logan said.

Hearing him, I forced myself to breathe. Yes. Logan had done all I asked and more. When I’d called him earlier, I had no idea how he would manage to convince Sophia to let William go, but he seemed to be confident he could.

Even as my sometimes-enemy, he was the only one I could think to trust with all this. We were enemies now, but we’d been friends once.

That meant something to me.

“Thank you, Logan.”

“You don’t have to thank me for saving a kid,” Logan said. “Just do the right thing now, or so help me, I’ll sue the hell out of you for putting me in the line of fire.”

“I am. I will.”

“Good.” Logan hung up.

My lawyer watched me from behind his desk. “William is safe,” I said.

“Glad to hear it,” my lawyer said. “Then we can move forward with our plans.” He lifted up the landline phone and pressed three numbers. “Yes? I need the police please. We have video footage of a mother threatening to harm her son.”

I hoped this would all work out without further trauma. My lawyer had earlier assured me, after I showed him the video, that this should be enough to win me temporary custody of William, as one of his legal guardians.

Sophia, he had said, would go to jail. Or maybe a mental facility, where she could finally get the help she needed.

I didn’t wish her ill will. I just didn’t want her to hurt anyone, including herself. This entire episode had likely taken years off my life.

“Yes, I’ll hold, thank you,” my lawyer said. Covering the receiver of the phone, he looked up at me and said, “You are doing the right thing here.”

If that was true, why did it still feel like I failed everyone?

Aria’s POV

William, Joe, and I sat around a small table with silver chairs in the ice cream parlor while Logan went outside to make a phone call.

Joe had ordered a hot fudge Sundae with extra whipped cream. William had wanted a banana split. I had indulged them both by letting them get whatever they wanted, though halfway through, both of their tummies were started to hurt.

“You don’t have to eat it all,” I told them, having already finished my cone, though even that might have been a mistake. My stomach was already topsy-turvy since Sophia had fired at us.

I’d never been shot at before.

The kids still didn’t understand what had happened though, thinking instead that we were all playing some game. They thought Logan was cool, like a getaway driver from a spy movie.

Logan had played up that image, flashing a thousand-watt grin at the kids through the rearview mirror.

I’d done my best to keep up appearances too, not wanting the kids to know how much danger they had truly been in.

“I have to eat all of this, Mom,” Joe said, “Or it will go to waste.”

Meanwhile William had become increasingly selective with his banana split, choosing to eat only the chocolate part.

Logan returned from outside and glancing at me, dipped his head toward the far end of the small parlor.

“Don’t move an inch,” I told the boys. “Logan and I need to have an adult conversation.”

“Boring,” Joe said, and William snickered.

Logan and I moved to the corner, though we both turned to keep an eye on the boys. After what just happened, neither of us seemed willing to take any chances.

“I spoke with Liam,” Logan said.

My stomach twisted and I regretted that ice cream cone all over again. “I don’t want to hear about it.”

“You will want to hear this,” Logan said. “He’s at his lawyer’s office. He has a video of Sophia threatening herself and William, which he is going to turn over to the police. His lawyer has already drafted up paperwork to help him receive temporary custody of William.”

“Good,” I said. With luck, Liam would be able to get permanent custody as well. “William should be with his father.”

“I’m not sure I’d put it quite like that,” Logan said. “Liam’s only ever been a stand-in, though he should be applauded for taking that job so seriously.”

“You don’t know,” I said and sighed.

“Know what?”

It hurt to say the words aloud, but Logan might as well find out. Everyone would, sooner or later. “William is Logan’s legitimate child.”

Logan’s brow pulled together. “Who the hell told you that?”

“I’ve seen the DNA test…”

“There is absolutely no way that can be true,” Logan said. “Sometimes these tests have errors. You really should have another one done.”

The words were so simple, spoken so matter-of-factly. Did Logan truly have no idea that he was turning my world upside down once again?

“Don’t give me hope, Logan. Not now. Not when I started making plans to move on with my life.”

“I’m telling you, Aria. It’s just not possible. I’ve known both of them for years, and I knew Sophia’s brother too. When Steve died, Liam was different with Sophia. She might have carried a torch for him, but he never looked at her that way. He even got mad about it when the other guys teased him.”

“That doesn’t mean anything…”

“Liam wasn’t in the club that night Sophia got pregnant,” Logan said. “We were having a card game. Him, me, and a few others. We didn’t have any idea what happened to her until the next morning.”

My mind went very quiet, trying to process this new information.

“Liam isn’t William’s biological father, Aria. He never had an affair with Sophia. Hell, he was so caught up on you that he never strayed with anyone.”