"Are you sure you don't want to help your mom pick out her wedding dress instead?" I glanced down at Liam worriedly. I was going to spend the day running errands, so I wasn't sure if he would enjoy it all that much.But the little one only nodded in affirmation and chirped, "Mom said that I should go with dad because he doesn't notice when other girls hit on him." I sighed at his words. Was I really that bad? I had no problem noticing the golddiggers in the past who would try to come onto me with their suggestive touches and naked bodies sprawled out on my desks, but was I really oblivious to all other types of less extreme forms of flirtation?Holding my hand, Liam skipped along with my steps and continued, "Besides, I want to spend time with dad. We haven't gotten to spend much time together with just the two of us since I started taking classes from that professor." I smiled as I rounded the corner of the block. "Then, why don't we get breakfast together before we finish that to
I laced my fingers through Achilles's hair, twirling little strands here and there as I waited for him to finish the paperwork that he had brought to bed with him. He was dressed in only his sweatpants, as usual, but he normally tried not to bring work back with him and definitely never brought them straight into bed before. He had papers scattered across the bed as he laid stiffly in between my legs, sorting through the papers one at a time with deep crease lines etched into his forehead. I gently rubbed his frown lines away with my thumb and asked, "Did something happen at work?" He shook his head and set aside the papers with a heavy sigh. "I just got distracted thinking about something else at work today..." I carefully eased his reading glasses off and pulled his head back to rest against my stomach. Stroking his head soothingly, I asked, "Would you like to tell me about it? It's alright if you don't." He melted instantly under my touch, closing his eyes with a soft contentl
I hesitantly knocked on Liam's closed bedroom door as Achilles stood by my side, giving me a supportive squeeze to my shoulder. Not wanting to accidentally wake him if he was still sleep, I called out softly, "Can we come inside, honey?" Surprisingly, even though it was still quite early in the morning at only 7 AM, a flurry of scrambles scurried about behind the closed doors. The sound of fluttering papers and dropping pencils floated out from the room until the door finally opened up was a messy little boy standing in front of us. Although he was in his pajamas, his hair was tousled every which way and his eyes had little bags hanging underneath them. His face was pale, almost as if it had been completed drained of life. Handing the bowl of fruits off to Achilles, I worriedly crouched down to Liam's height and cupped his little face between my hands, gently turning his head side to side in a panic. "Are you not feeling well? But you're not warm... Do you have a headache? A sore
I tapped briefly on my phone's screen, making it light up with a wallpaper picture of Achilles and Liam squatting side by side of each other in the garden with dirt littered all over themselves. I smiled at the picture, but what I was more curious about was the time. 11:53 AM. 7 more minutes before Achilles arrives with Liam at my office to have lunch together. He sent me a text half way through the morning, telling me about how Liam was doing on his first day at his office and asking to try out a new café down the street for lunch. And even though I was swamped at work with meetings, I didn't have the heart to tell them no after I saw how happy Liam looked sitting in Achilles's ginormous office chair in the picture that Achilles attached to his message. Thus, I ended up rushing through my morning meetings and pushed off a few of my afternoon meetings to make room for an hour long break for my boys. But, I was still running a bit late despite cutting my morning meetings short and I
"So... I heard that my son recently turned into an overprotective hulk." I looked up from the tailor who was helping me alter my wedding dress. Keeping as still as I could, I hesitantly asked Mrs. Cordova, "Are you talking about what happened last week?" She nodded as she thumbed the edge of her magazine. "Benedict told me about it. He's practically my third son and often whines to me about Rafael like a younger sibling who can't win with his brother." I bit my lip nervously. I had tried to apologize to Mr. Serman about Achilles's behavior and the new holes in the walls of my office, but he had insisted that it was nothing and waved it off. He simply stroked the damaged walls over and over again with heavy sighs, muttering something about how he was going to get Achilles to pay back the damage in double. And it definitely didn't help that Achilles refused to apologize to Benedict for damaging his office building, saying that Benedict deserved it for not keeping a better eye on hi
"Mom, why aren't you going to work today?""Um... Mr. Serman said that I should take a few extra days off this week for my wedding, but uh...." "Dad forced him to not let you go to office, right?"I nervously diverted my eyes with a silent prayer for a change in subject. Liam was honestly much to perceptive for me to handle sometimes. But he paid no mind to my awkward demeanor and simply continued to hop along the sidewalk, happily swinging our intertwined hands back and forth. "Dad made a good decision. I like spending time with mom." My heart practically melted at his innocent confession. "I like spending time with you too."He beamed with delight as we rounded the corner and finally arrived at a little shop tucked away in the middle of downtown.The bell rang as we opened up the door to Achilles's personal tailor's workshop. The wall were lined with all sorts of luxurious fabrics and several half-made suits hanging on mannequins all around the floor.An elderly man immediately h
To say that I was shocked by the sight was to say the least. I reflexively caught Jane in my arms before she collapsed on the ground. Her eyes were unfocused and fluttering about as she held Liam protectively to her chest. Her breath were so shallow that it sent my mind into overdrive. She said that she was only going to visit my tailor to get Liam a suit made. I even sent all of my most reliable guards with her and they didn't message me about anything happening, so what on earth happened to my two precious angels to leave them in such a state? I swiftly swept her off the ground and nodded for Watson to close the blind of my office for me as I made my way over to the decorative sofa sitting in the corner of my office. The door clicked shut when Watson finished his job and resigned himself to standing guard outside my office to give us some privacy. I pulled Jane's favorite knitted blanket— the one that she left here the last time she took a nap at my office with Liam— over the tw
"On file, she is currently married to Arnold Albedo and has only son named Ivan— age 24 and in the process of taking over the family business. She does not seem to come from any major family and was simply married into the Albedo family." I glanced briefly over the pictures as Joseph gave his report.Margarett Albedo...I didn't recognize her from any of the events involving the families, but she also didn't have any features that particularly stood out. She had simple short dark hair and brown eyes. Not too tall and not too short. Not very large nor too thin. Even down to her name, she seemed average. Her husband wasn't anything particularly interesting either—dirty blonde hair with dull eyes. A lean stature without much confidence. Even their son looked just as plain, being a simple mix between the two.I thumbed passed the first page and asked, "What about off the paper?" Joseph shuffled nervously for a moment before handing me a packet of headshots. "It's not for certain, but t