"Aria, you know I don't like people lying to me. It's your birthday today, so I won't make a fuss. Don't do this again in the future; I said I would give you an explanation."
Aria felt a moment of panic, wondering if the explanation he mentioned was what old Mr. Harper said about giving her a large sum of money, severing ties with her so they could go their separate ways from now on, ideally never meeting again.
Then what was the point of her persistence all these years?
"Edward, I didn't really mean to trick you into coming over. I just simply wanted to have birthday cake with you; it's just that the others were too enthusiastic and insisted on following. I didn't mean to expose our relationship in front of everyone; today was just a coincidence."
She shifted the responsibility onto her coworkers, not mentioning a word about her deception that brought him here.