Chapter 42

Chapter 42
Before she could read one headline, others popped up, all tying her with Devan, all naming her the scandalous heiress.
  Had Hartie set her up again? And how fast would they be moving to have uploaded the news to media outlets in such a short time? 
  “Mommy, I want milk pudding today,” Asher’s voice snapped her out of it. She subconsciously hid her phone, for no reason other than the fact that she didn’t want Aston to see it…yet. 
  “Yeah, yeah okay,” she said absentmindedly, smoothing down his hair with her hands. The car pulled into their driveway, and her phone chimed. 
  She shakily glanced at it, and saw she had been tagged on insta. No one knew her real account except Linda, so she sighed and patted her chest. She went to the app. She had initially been worried because she thought Devan would have tagged her or something.
  When she saw what it was, she almost dropped her phone.
  It was Liam.
  He had taken a blurry selfie and uploaded it, like he usually did to rile up his followers, like some kpop idol. There was a noticeable reddish hue around his neck, and Aria saw her username tagged on the hue.
  The caption was “always so feisty.”
  He was crediting her for the marks.
  Her phone was blowing up.
  @Mavaisdagoat: “What does this even mean? She strangled him?”
  @Jemharper: “She touched our god Liam, I knew she came back for a bad reason.”
  @Miacho_not_macho: “OMG! Can we just ban this ugly ass woman from existing?”
  @LeahThorn: “Um, why would a woman put her hands on your neck? What did you do to her?”
              |-> @luca__not__found replying to comment above: “You’re so out of the loop. She gets violent whenever he says no, obviously.”
             |-> @clara.frames replying to comment above: “She’s obsessed with incest and can’t read the room when someone says no! She should be jailed! She should be in prison! This is full assault!”
             |-> @back_to_maya replying to comment above: “Maybe they were having kinky sex and she overdid it lol”
             |~> @its.just.thesa replying to @back_to_maya: “What kind of twisted thought is that? She literally strangled him!”
            |~> @back_to_maya replying to @its.just.thesa: “Yall lack reading comprehension! He literally said always so feisty. My bets are on that they had kinky sex!”
  @marlowe_cuts: "The fact that he's the one posting it means he's either obsessed or she's got dirt on him. No sane person tags their 'attacker' with a wink-nudge caption!”
  @vivi.archive: "I missed three chapters of the lore, why is everyone saying prison? Looks like a hickey to me if you squint. This is so Lannister coded”
  @vantage_point_vick: "The way she’s trying to hide her face in every paparazzi shot but then leaves marks on his neck? Pick a struggle, honey."
  @cancel_culture_cass: "If the roles were reversed, everyone would be calling for his head. Why is she still allowed in the city?"
  @tea.with.tina: “I thought she was married????”
  @the_boba_vendor: "Wait, so Devan in the morning and Liam at night? @Aria_Official is working harder than the devil himself. How many boats are we rowing today? “
  @cynical_cyrus: “@Aria_Official really out here playing Battleship with the city’s most eligible. Which boat is sinking first? My money is on Devan. She’s obsessed with Liam”
  @lost_in_the_sauce: “Wait, I thought she was with Devan? Now she’s choking Liam? @Aria_Official, please, my brain can’t keep up with your rotation.”
  Aria stopped reading.
  What the fuck?!
  That bastard, that absolutely disgusting bastard. He had bothered her and followed her and she had spared him. She’d saved him from being strangled to death by her husband after he’d harassed her, and the result was this. People insulting her again.
  Her grip on her phone tightened. 
  A single notification like a drop of water sounded, and Aria went rigid. Her grandfather sent her an email.
  He had his own notification, because all his messages were important. Aria didn’t want to see what his text would be. She’d implode if it was relating to Liam.
  “Mommy?,” Asher’s voice sounded, making her look up. She had somehow gotten out of the car and was already walking to her room on autopilot. Aston had disappeared — or she had speedwalked — and Asher was basically chasing at her heels.
  “Oh my darling”, she immediately sank to the floor to hug him, her heart beating in overdrive. It was like everything was against her again, she still had the vision of Arthur's stony face as he pulled her up after Camille had dragged her out of Liam’s room, with nothing on her but a blanket.
  She had been powerless.
  She had been helpless.
  She had felt like she belonged on the ground. 
  But not anymore, she had her Asher. Her son must never see her on the ground, unless it was because she was kneeling to hug him.
  “What’s wrong, mommy?”
  “It’s nothing I can’t deal with, my darling, mommy’s going out,” Aria said calmly.
  Asher’s bottom lip stuck out in a pout but he hugged her tight then released her. “Okay… will you be back early?”
  “Of course. Mommy doesn’t delay. You can bother…daddy in the meantime. Dance on his precious tables,” she always still hesitated trying to call Aston ‘daddy’. 
  Asher snickered and a mischievous light glinted in his eyes. He wouldn’t be dancing on any tables but Aria knew Asher could do enough distraction on his own.
  Aria hadn’t fully seen Devan’s bullshit, and she had a sinking feeling her grandfather’s email was about him.
  It was crazy, like a coordinated attack. Two men with a wide fanbase because of their face cards, a fanbase so wide they were basically celebrities on their own. 
  She would snuff them both out.
  She sent Asher off to sit in his tiny bathtub, as he insisted on bathing himself sometime three months ago. She couldn’t afford her precious baby drowning, and the perfect choice came as a very low kid bathtub where he could sit and play all down without Aria’s heart shaking in fear when she wasn’t near him.
  “Deal with this yourself.”
  That was the title of Arthur’s email.
  There was no text in it, just a link to a video.
  She clicked on it, it was an interview that had been uploaded 20 minutes ago.
  There was Devan Piccorin, the mosquito himself, sitting on a plush leather chair in a massive house. He looked smug, his legs crossed as he leaned toward the interviewer.
  “Oh, Aria and I?” Devan’s voice was a smooth, practiced drawl. “We go way back. Childhood sweethearts, really. Some things never fade, no matter what people say.”
  Had they gone to him? Brought the interview to his house after the headlines got leaked? Insane.
  “But the rumors say she’s married to the Beaumont clan?” the interviewer prodded.
  Devan let out a dismissive, airy chuckle. “The Beaumonts? Who are they? They don’t even exist. My woman can’t be married to people that don’t exist. I think the public knows who she really belongs to.”
  Fuck. “Who the fuck is your woman fucking Picaridin!?” She yelled and threw her pillow against the wall. 
  Her life was imploding. Again. The "whore" narrative was being rebuilt brick by brick by the two of the men she hated most.
  “I have to fix this,” she muttered to herself . “If I don’t bury this now,  Grandfather will use it to strip my inheritance and take Asher. I need to meet my contact.”
  “So…she’s not married?,” the interviewer’s voice drifted into Aria’s ears.
  Devan didn’t say anything, simply looking at the camera with an eyebrow raised, basically implying she was just lying.
  Aria didn’t even bother checking the comments. She knew she was cooked. She had to bury the news immediately.
  She hadn’t thought of how to deal with Liam, but she could definitely handle the news outlets.
  It was time for ‘Arlo’ to make his debut away from France.