Emma’s POVI was about to pack up my stuff and call it a day when I got a call from Liam. “Hey, Emma,” he greeted me once I picked up the call. “Hey, Liam. What’s up? Are you good?” I asked because I was quite shocked that he was calling at this time. He doesn’t usually call me during the day unless it’s really important. “Yeah. I'm fine,” he said, then sighed. “My mum just called me and said she wants us to come over tonight for dinner. She says it’s important because she and my dad have something they want to share with us or something like that”. “Your dad? Okay, now I’m kind of worried. Since when did your dad start wanting to discuss things with us? Not you but both of us?” I asked. “Trust me, I’m just as shocked as you. I tried asking her for details, but she wasn’t budging so we have to go. Please tell me you don’t have any plans tonight. If you do, I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to reschedule”. I sighed. “Lucky for you, I don’t. I’m free tonight so we’re good to g
Emma’s POV“Emma, darling,” Liam’s mum greeted me as she hugged me and planted a kiss on my left cheek. “I absolutely missed you”. “Good evening, Maria. I missed you too,” I greeted her back as we let go of each other. “How are you?” “Much better now that you’re here,” she smiled. “Oh, stop,” I blushed. Maria had come to welcome me from the door, as opposed to Lilian, who usually does it. It’s almost as though she’d been waiting by the door in expectation of me. She’s so cute. “Come on in, dear. Liam is in the living room waiting for you. He got here about five minutes ago, so we were just waiting for you to get dinner started. “Oh I’m sorry to have kept you all waiting,” I apologized as we walked toward the living room. “Oh nonsense. You did not keep us waiting at all. I said eighth o’clock and it’s barely seven fifty yet. You’re right on time, darling. Don’t worry about it,” she smiled. We had gotten to the living room and sure enough, Liam was there. Right next to him, Mr.
Liam’s POVCancer. One word. Six letters.That’s all it took for me to lose my appetite. It’s all it took for my mind to grow hazy. It’s all it took to disorient me.Cancer.“Yes. Cancer. Lymphoma to be more specific, and I’m at stage four. Unfortunately for me, it progressed quickly, so the chemotherapy is no longer working, and I don’t have much time left, which is why I wanted this dinner to be held tonight so I could tell you both,” my father continued, looking between Emma and me. “I need you two to produce an heir”.“What?!” Emma shrieked out from beside me. “What do you mean you need us to produce an heir?!”“Well,” my father cleared his throat before speaking. “Seeing as Liam is my only child, and I am currently without any grandchildren, my two options are to either leave everything I have spent my whole life working for to Liam or give it all away. I do not mind giving my fortune away, but I believe it unfair to not have my legacy passed on considering how much effort I hav
Liam’s POV“We signed a contract. That’s legally binding, right? Is there no way I can get out of this by some sort of legal means,” Emma turned to face me and asked, tears welling in her eyes.Fuck. I hate seeing her cry.Unfortunately, there was no way out.The contract she signed had a segment in it that talked about how the initial agreement was subject to change if any unforeseen circumstances came up. I don’t know if she read over that part or not, but she signed the contract regardless, so she’s stuck.My jaw, which had been clenched for a good part of the time during their whole conversation, relaxed as I saw the look on Emma’s face. I had had some anger towards her because of the comment she made before she and I stepped into the dining room but that all disappeared within seconds as I looked into her now tear-filled eyes.It broke my heart to do so, but I shook my head in response to her question to signify that there was indeed no way out for her.“No,” she whispered, foll
Emma’s POV“Oh my God,” I repeated, but slower this time as the realization really sunk in me.He planned this.Mr. Henderson planned this.The bastard!“Emma, you were not supposed to hear that,” Mr. Henderson spoke up as he cleared his throat and recovered from the shock of hearing my voice the first time. “Eavesdropping is rude”.“It’s not eavesdropping if I was just about entering the room, is it?” I snapped back. “My goodness,” I scoffed as I took long strides toward where I was previously sitting at the dining table.One thing and one thing only was on my mind.I needed to get the hell out of this house. “I’m leaving,” I said, shortly, as I picked up my purse and my phone from the table.I contemplated picking up the gift Maria had presented me with because I didn’t see the need to have it anymore, but I eventually decided to take it along with me.“This conversation is not over”, Mr. Henderson stated.“As far as I’m concerned, it is,” I paused to answer him. “You want me to ha
Emma’s POVAs soon as those words left my mouth, the front door opened. It startled us a bit, so we both sat up and looked over to see who had just walked in. Obviously, it was Liam. He walked in looking so dejected, but his demeanor just looked like pretense to me, as if he was only looking that way to try and sympathize with me. I may have been wrong, of course, but that’s what I thought at the time. “I know you don’t mean that, Emma,” he said as he walked further into the apartment. “Yes, I do,” I responded, then looked away from him and resumed the position I was in Sammy’s arms. “Hello, Samantha,” he greeted Sammy.I know this is totally off-topic from my current situation, but I’ve always found it funny how Liam doesn’t stick to one name when talking to Sammy. If it’s in a casual situation or something, he calls her either Sammy or Samantha. Many a time, though, in such situations, he refers to her as Sammy. However, whenever the situation requires the tiniest amount of se
Emma’s POVIt’s been two weeks since the news. Liam and I have barely said two words to each other since that night, especially after Sammy left us. To be honest, yes, I was mad at him, but I didn’t necessarily not want to talk to him. I just didn’t know what I was to say. I expect he felt the same way too, considering he’d been spending most nights out, probably with Anna, since then and I don’t even blame him. Whenever we would cross paths in the apartment, it was always very awkward between us. Sometimes, when he’s even coming down the stairs, and he notices me just chilling in the living room, he’d pretend like he had forgotten something upstairs and would proceed to stay there until I vacated the area and went up to my room. There have been many of those instances. He’d wait to hear the click of my bedroom door and then about five minutes later, I’m guessing, in a means not to seem obvious or whatever, he’d come out of his room and go downstairs to watch TV. It’s been crazy for
Emma’s POV“Emma,” Liam called out my name as he knocked on my bedroom door. “Are you up? We need to talk”.Ugh. “What’s up?” I asked as I swung the door up.“First off, good morning,” he greeted, clearing his throat and averting his gaze from me.“Good morning. Is something the matter?” I asked, confused as to why he looked away.“Could you maybe put on a shirt please and meet me downstairs? I want us to talk,” he answered, as he jeered his head toward my top half.“Oh please,” I said, rolling my eyes. “It’s just a bra top, Liam. It’s not as if I’m naked.“Sorry”.“Whatever. I’ll be down in a minute”.“Thanks,” he replied, then turned around and went downstairs.Once he was out of sight, I quickly put on a top and slippers, then headed down to meet him.“Coffee?” he asked, holding a cup of freshly brewed coffee towards me.“Sure,” I grabbed the cup from him. “Thanks,” I said, taking a sip of the coffee and sitting on one of the stools surrounding the kitchen island. “So what’s up?”“