Too Late Mr. White! I'm Married To Your Rival Now novel Chapter 31

ARIA'S POV

"You could find a guy to test his reaction."When Lillian dropped this suggestion, I nearly choked on my tea.

"Excuse me?" I set down my cup, giving her a sideways glance that I hoped conveyed exactly how ridiculous she sounded.

"Relax, Aria," she rolled her eyes, clearly exasperated. "I'm not suggesting you actually seduce someone. What do you think this is—some trashy prime-time drama?"

I rolled my eyes right back at her. "That's exactly what it sounds like you're proposing."

"Don't be so uptight." She waved her hand dismissively, leaning forward on my couch where we'd been sitting for the past hour dissecting every moment of my weekend with Aiden. "I'm just saying you could create some... reasonable misunderstandings. Like having dinner with a male friend, posting a casual story on I*******m, or maybe mentioning someone you've 'been talking to a lot lately' when he's around."

I fell silent, absently tracing circles on my knee with my fingertip. The idea made me uncomfortable in ways I couldn't fully articulate.

"Lillian... I'm not just myself anymore," I finally said softly. "I'm his wife—even if it's just on paper. Everything I do gets magnified and interpreted, especially in the Carter family circle."

"God, you're such a perfect little wife already," she sighed dramatically, throwing her head back against the cushions.

"Nobody said you can't have friends! It's not like I'm suggesting you check into some hotel suite and drink champagne with your feet tangled up with some guy's."

That mental image made me laugh despite myself. "That sounds more like something you would do."

"The point isn't what you do," she said, her tone suddenly more serious. "It's whether he cares about what you do. You honestly have no idea how he feels about you. Do you?"

I bit my lip, not answering because she was right. I didn't know. Last night had left me more confused than ever.

I bit my lip, not answering.

Lillian made it sound easy, but I knew that once I took this step, even as a test, I'd be pushing our relationship toward some kind of boundary.

I'd thought before that maybe Aiden had some different feelings toward me. But the idea of using "someone else" to verify that made me instinctively resistant.

"I'll think about it," I said softly.

"Fine," Lillian huffed, clearly seeing through me. "But you'll never know unless you try something. You can't just keep waiting for him to make the first move—especially since he clearly has some issues opening up."

Her persistence wore me down over the next hour. Eventually, I found myself reluctantly scrolling through my phone contacts, looking for potential male friends I could casually mention to Aiden.

To my dismay, I realized I'd cut ties with almost all my male friends during my years with Liam.Any time he'd shown even a hint of discomfort with a friendship, I'd gradually let it fade away.

Looking back now, I could see how pathetically devoted I'd been—sacrificing my social life piece by piece to accommodate his insecurities.

"This is embarrassing," I admitted to Lillian, showing her my pitiful contact list. "I've got my dad, my cousin who lives in Europe, and about five elderly music professors."

"Good lord, girl," she looked genuinely concerned. "You really did go full relationship-hermit for him, didn't you?"

"I guess I did," I said quietly, the reality of how much I'd surrendered hitting me hard.

"I could lend you one of my hook-ups," Lillian offered with a mischievous grin."Kyle is super hot and totally willing to play along. He owes me a favor anyway."

"Absolutely not," I shut that down immediately. "I'm not borrowing your hookup buddy to make my husband jealous. That's crossing way too many lines."

Just as I was ready to abandon the whole scheme, my phone pinged with a message. I glanced down to see a text from Julian Hayes, a rising pop star I'd worked with occasionally.

Two months ago, he had reached out about playing piano for his new album.We'd met at a music festival in Berlin last year and hit it off professionally.

I'm not exactly a household name, but I've earned some respect in indie music circles. His offer came with a generous paycheck, but more importantly, it was work I genuinely wanted to do.

"Oh my God," I breathed, suddenly remembering. "I completely forgot about this."

"What?" Lillian peered over my shoulder.

"Julian asked me two months ago to play piano for his new single. The recording's tomorrow." I scrolled through our previous messages with a pang of guilt. "He's checking if I'm still available. I didn't forget about it, I just... forgot it was this soon. With everything that's happened, it completely slipped my mind."

Lillian's face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Perfect! He's gorgeous, famous, and you actually have a legitimate reason to see him. This is perfect!"

"It's just a professional arrangement," I protested weakly.

"Which makes it even better! It's completely above board. Just make sure Aiden knows about it." She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Maybe post a rehearsal photo. Nothing compromising—just enough to show you're spending time with an extremely handsome musical genius."

After Lillian finally left, still talking excitedly about "Operation Jealousy" (her name, not mine).Honestly, if she ever quits her job,she missed her calling as a soap opera screenwriter.

I sat at my piano, practicing the accompaniment piece. I'd received the sheet music from Julian earlier, and I needed to rehearse if I was going to do this.

The piece was challenging but beautiful—a ballad with complex chord progressions that would highlight both his voice and my playing. I lost myself in the music, fingers flying across the keys as I worked through the difficult passages again and again.

Did he really think that? That Aiden cared about me?

I wanted to believe it.

But then I remembered last night,My chest tightened.

"I will," I said softly, managing a nod. "We'll talk."

His eyes grew misty as he reached across the table to squeeze my hand. "You've grown up so fast. Now you're married... I feel like I've finally fulfilled my promise to your mother—to see you settled and happy."

My own eyes stung with tears. "Dad, I promise I'll be happy. I'm going to make this work."

I will. No matter what.

After dinner, I returned to the music room to practice Julian's piece a few more times. Around midnight, exhausted but satisfied with my progress, I headed upstairs to my childhood bedroom.

Just as I was about to turn off my phone, it buzzed with a notification. A video message from Xander, one of Liam's closest friends.

My finger hovered over the delete button, but curiosity won out. I pressed play.

The video showed Liam clearly drunk at some bar, looking disheveled and miserable. "She won't answer my calls," his slurred voice complained to someone off-camera. "How can she marry him? She loves me... she's always loved me..."

Disgust and something like pity washed over me. I typed a quick response to Xander: "Please don't send me any more messages about Liam. This Chapter of my life is closed."

Then I blocked his number, turned off my phone, and crawled into bed.

As I drifted off to sleep, my mind wasn't on Liam or his pathetic display. Instead, I found myself wondering what Aiden was doing right now.

We used to exchange goodnights—over text, sometimes a brief phone call.

Tonight, there was nothing.

No message. No call. Only silence.

And I hated how empty it felt.

Whether he missed me？