Page 79 of Lonely Heart

I didn’t want to bring up his ex, but I was beginning to think I might need to, if he couldn’t bring himself to say her name.

“Is this about?—”

“I’ve seen her,” he declared.

My brows shot up. I hadn’t been wrong. “Layla?”

In an instant, I regretted saying that name. Liam’s whole world tilted on its axis, shutters coming down in his eyes. “Why would you bring her up?”

God, he sounded tortured. Just her name being spoken once after all these years still brought him such pain. In all fairness, I couldn’t say I didn’t understand. I’m not sure I would be feeling much differently if I was in his situation with Ivy.

“I’m sorry, Liam. I just… you seem like you’re having a hard time with something,” I explained. “Are you okay?”

It took him a few beats to shake off whatever he was feeling. “No. No, I’m not okay, but this has nothing to do with…” He couldn’t even say her name. “This has nothing to do with me.”

Now, I was even more confused. “I’m not sure I understand what’s going on?”

“Well, I’m kind of hoping you do.”

“Can you clarify what this is about? You said you saw her? Who are you talking about?”

He pinned his stare on me, his expression serious. “My sister.” Now that he’d narrowed it down, it was either Ivy or Jules, and something told me this wasn’t about his younger sister.

I braced myself. “What about her?”

“That you didn’t ask which one I’m talking about says a lot,” he countered. I remained silent, waiting for him to share whatever it was he needed to share. “Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve noticed what’s going on. I’ve seen you disappear into her office. I’ve watched her come out to the villas and find you. I happened to see her leave in your truck the night it snowed.”

“Are you… are you spying on me?”

This seemed so out of character for Liam. While his reserved and quiet nature led to him being more observant in recent years, this was on a much different level for him.

“My sister was attacked at night less than two months ago, Marco,” he shared. “I’m sure you recall sitting in a meeting where Tate shared that Ava believed Ivy wasn’t coping well. I haven’t gone outside my normal routine with my sister to make it obvious I’m keeping tabs on her, but I have been more observant when it comes to her. I wanted to make sure she wasn’t spiraling.”

Damn it.

He knew. He knew what was going on.

I forced myself to remain calm despite the way my stomach tightened. I set my things down on the counter and reached behind my neck to massage the sudden stiffness out of it. “What did you find?”

“I think you already know what I found, Marco. There’s something going on between the two of you.”

I swallowed hard. How was Ivy going to react when she realized that Liam knew? Worse, had he said something to anyone else?

Regardless of what I felt at this news, I didn’t balk at it. Not yet. Not until I knew there was something to be overly concerned about. I wanted to believe the best.

“I never intended for things to progress with us like they have,” I admitted. “But ever since that night she was attacked,something changed for me with her. I care deeply about her, Liam. More than I ever have for anyone else. I don’t want this to be a source of contention in this family.”

“Didn’t you hear me?” he asked. “I put a hole in the wall.”

Confused, I shook my head. “What does that mean?”

“Fuck, Marco. I was working in the villa a couple days ago and saw Ivy show up,” Liam began. “I’m not going to talk about what you may or may not have been doing in here with her. That’s none of my business. But I have a pretty good idea she wasn’t just coming here to check out your progress, especially not in this weather. I’m so happy for the both of you. Really, I am. But you’re hiding this, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why.”

I kept my eyes on him, feeling some of the tension in my gut starting to unfurl. He was happy for us. At least Ivy would be relieved to hear that.

Recognizing Liam wasn’t finished, I waited for him to continue.

“I got back to work, but I was at the window facing the villa the whole time,” he went on. “I saw Cooper make his way there, and I had a feeling that things were going to take a bad turn. So, I did the first thing I could think of doing and destroyed one of the walls to the point the drywall would need to be replaced. Then I hauled my ass down to the villa where the three of you were, hoping I’d convince Cooper to come and help me and praying I wasn’t going to walk in and find my brother fighting his best friend.”