The sound of a key rattling on her front door snapped Eden out of her daze, and a moment later, her friends shuffled in, looking all cosy and comfy in their jammies.
"Edie, what the fuck happened?" Lydia screeched as she dumped her pillow and duvet on the sofa. Since it was bound to be a long night, she came prepared.
"Yeah, you haven't invoked 'code blue' since Simon," Cassandra added as she uncorked the bottle of red wine and waited for Sienna to hand her the glasses.
Eden couldn't wait that long, though. She snatched the bottle as soon as it was opened, not caring at all she'd wake up with a banger of a headache or, worse, an upset tummy.
She took a huge mouthful, stunning everyone with her level of commitment. They knew she'd gone on a bender recently, but it was the first time in two years she was drinking in their presence.
They exchanged worried looks as she set the bottle down on the counter.
"He knows," she announced in a dead
Cheerful and chatty by nature, both James and Steven were unusually quiet on the drive back to his place, and Liam wasn't exactly in the mood to figure out the reason behind their long faces. He had a pretty good idea, though. Both men were less than thrilled with the way he'd handled his confrontation with Eden earlier. They'd be glad to know it made three of them. But he'd carry all the regrets. Liam didn't want to admit it, but Linda was right about everything. He should have given himself time to process and accept his new reality instead of rushing to Eden's place like a mad man. And he certainly should have given her time to acknowledge her mistakes. But now that he'd already backed them both into a corner and he saw no other way out. The only way to go now was forward. He laughed—but it sounded like a snort more than anything— when he remembered a bumper sticker he once saw on an old pickup truck, proclaiming hindsight i
"Is it true Aiden McBride is your son?" Lois got straight to the heart of their visit as soon as they were all arranged around the fireplace in his living room. "How do you know about that?" Liam groaned and buried his face in his hands, already dreading the unavoidable inquisition from his parents. "James," Clarke replied. "You forget he reports to me." Right, Liam seethed. He should fire the whole lot of them and get his own people. "So?" Lois leaned forward, her eyes shining with hope and expectation. "He is," Liam admitted. "Has it been confirmed?" His father asked, a deep frown creasing his forehead. "Yes, it was." "Unbelievable," Lois burst into tears, and Clarke held her while she sniffled, and his sisters threw mildly unimpressed looks in his direction. Her eyes still moist, her nose red and blotchy, his mother stirred to life again with endless questions and demands. "Where is he? I want to see him. I w
Their cold war lasted three days. It would have carried on longer if Eden didn't decide to grow a pair and confront Liam. After wearing the tiles thin with all her pacing outside his office, she finally plucked up the courage and knocked on his door. She knew he was free. He'd cancelled his 11:00 AM and offered no reason. Of course, since he's the boss, she never asked because she was already skating on thin ice as it was. She waited exactly two minutes to be invited inside. Liam's disembodied voice drifting from the other side of the door sent an exhilarated spark up her spine, and she closed her eyes, remembering all the blissful moments he'd said her name, the way he'd touched and kissed her. God, she craved his kisses as much as she missed the way he called her 'Princess'. "Keep it together," she told herself. Getting distracted when she was so close to an important negotiation wasn't the smartest of ideas. She needed all her wits
Eden spent a restless night, imagining every possible scenario, her mind already inside the plush offices of Thomas Blaine Inc. By the time 5:00 AM rolled around, she was highly agitated. The longer she went through her morning routine and tried to pretend it was just like any other normal Wednesday morning, the harder it became to resist the urge to pack Aiden up and make a run for it. Liam would hunt her down for sure, but if she left now, she'd have a three-hour head start. She strolled to Brenda's room while she brushed her teeth and stared at Aiden, still sleeping peacefully in his cot. She could totally pull it off. She won't take a lot of stuff. Just an overnight bag and— Her phone pinged in her room, and she went to get it, her heart dropping to her feet as she read Liam's short but firm text. 'Don't even think about it.' Was he psychic? How did he know she was thinking of skipping town? Did he k
"George Whitman—" A bespectacled, overweight, silver-haired man in an ill-fitting but expensive suit stood up, extended his sweaty palm and smiled at her. "—Is your legal team on the way, Ms McBride?" "No," Eden shook his hand firmly and walked to the end of the table where Liam sat, took an empty glass and poured herself a shot, stunning everyone with her boldness. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Liam cast a hush over the room with his loud growl, and for the longest minute in history, Whitman and his team looked painfully uncomfortable. "Don't start with me, Liam! You summoned me here bright and early. I didn't even have time to eat. I'm hungry as fuck, so just don't!" She warned him softly as she took her glass back to her seat and sat down across from Whitman. His colleagues exchanged bewildered looks, and he was equally ill at ease as he took off his glasses and set them down. "Ms McBride, in my email, I stated you should bring
If George was mildly puzzled before, he was now downright confounded as they all sat in numb disbelief and watched the negotiations that should have been over in under forty-five minutes reach a screeching end before they'd even begun. Liam was equally shocked. He really wasn't expecting Eden to take it all the way. She sipped her drink and swiped and tapped on her phone while his legal team sputtered in their seats, demanding to know if she understood the terms of the agreement. "Yes," she replied, barely looking up from her glass, making it known loud and clear who was in charge. If he wasn't so furious with her, Liam would have reached for her and kissed her senseless, and maybe fucked her right there on the table too, because her composure, her level-headedness at a time when she should have been an emotional mess, was a huge turn-on for him. George tried to take control of the meeting once more as he addressed Eden again in a much firmer
"How did it go, sir?" Both James and Steven asked when he slid in the car. "You and the missus made up? Will she and the baby move in?" "She played me!" Liam grunted as he loosened his tie and yanked it off his neck. "She fucking backed me into a corner, and one of those idiots in there thought I'd struck gold with a custody agreement I didn't even want. I wanted her to come home! I wanted her and our son home with me. What am I supposed to do now with Aiden on my own?" "Ask the missus for forgiveness?" Steven offered his two cents, and James quickly shook his head to shut him up. "Why must I always ask for forgiveness? Why should I beg for forgiveness when Eden lied to me and kept my child away from me? When do I get my apology?" All thoughts of finding a way to move forward were momentarily forgotten as Liam fumed in his seat and racked his brain, trying to understand how their meeting had turned into such a circus. "She's apologised, Sir,"
A half-hour trip to get to work ended up taking two hours because of a horrific car crash on the R51. By the time Eden made it to the office, she was hangry and royally pissed off from being caught in bumper-to-bumper traffic for so long. She'd barely sat down when Clara came to deliver some much needed good news. Liam had decided to take the day off. Eden smiled but didn't ask for details. Still fuming from his stunt with his attorneys, she didn't care and wasn't in the least curious as to why he'd suddenly decided he needed a break. But Clara was very curious, and she made it known as she traipsed up and down in front of her desk. "I wonder what's wrong with the Dragon? Aren't you worried?" No, she was not. So, she ignored her because she knew she's fishing and trying to sniff out the reason behind Liam's sudden absence from the office. Out of all the women on the 36th floor, Clara's gossip radar was the strongest, and right now, her suspici