"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
Her friends were at her work in twenty minutes, and Eden had to go through the trouble of signing them in because they insisted on seeing her posh office. They all forgot their anger at Liam the moment they stepped inside. Lydia immediately ran for her fancy chair while Cassandra and Sienna gawked at the vase and the painting. "I thought you gave them back?" Sienna threw her an accusing look. Eden held up her hands and shrugged. "I did, but the stuff was here when I came in." She called Rise and ordered some chai lattes and croissants and asked one of the waitresses to bring them up, and within ten minutes, their morning snack was laid out on her desk, and they huddled around to stuff their faces. "Look at you, Ms Fancy Pants," Sienna drawled as she gave her a big back squeeze. "I'm so proud of you, Edie. You've done well for yourself." "Have I, though?" Eden asked as the three of them crammed themselves on her couch because Ly
Liam changed into casual clothes as soon as he got home and headed to the nursery where a crib, baby changing station and rocking chair sat in various states of completion. He picked up his tools and got down to work. But an hour in, he was still nowhere close to putting the first leg on the crib. No matter how many times he read the assembly instructions, he couldn't get the bolts and screws to fit. "Fucking hell!" He groaned as he kicked a spanner on the floor and sent it soaring in the air, wincing when a sharp pain shot through his big toe. Fixing cars was far easier than trying to build a nursery for his son. But it was a project he planned to see to completion. He tried Eden again, but like the previous five times, her phone rang for a long time before the voicemail lady picked up. Sighing in frustration, he called the nanny, and she confirmed Eden was not home. As far as she knew, she should be at work already. "How's Kool-Aid?"