Liam’s POV‘We’re married but not together’. Emma’s words. Those words continued to echo in my head throughout my drive to Anna’s place. I just couldn’t seem to get it out of my mind. Yes, we’re married. Yes, we’re not together. I agree. The way she said it today though. Damn. She really meant it this time. The thing is, with the way Emma and I have operated since we started sleeping with each other, yes we definitely fought more, but at the end of every fight, she’d say that same line, but then we both knew that something would still happen between us again, which it did until recently. Now, though, there was a lot more truth to what she was saying, because she actually had someone to fall back on. Tony. I know it’s wrong of me to think in this way, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t happy when I knew that Emma would always come back to me. Until now, that is. Now, Tony is in the picture. Bastard. I may have never met him before, and he may have not done anything to me, but i
Liam’s POVIt was a bit past 4 a.m. on Monday and I had just woken up. I spent the weekend at Anna’s place but because I didn’t actually plan to, and I just said I would because I wanted Emma to feel bad, I didn’t actually pack any work clothes. I had to wake up early because I planned to go home, take a shower, and get dressed, then head to work from home, and I needed to do all of that before eight o’clock because I had a big meeting this morning. “Hey, baby,” Anna greeted me as she opened her eyes slowly.She picked up her phone from the nightstand by her side. I assumed to look at the time based on the next words that left her mouth. “Why’re you up so early?” she asked as she sat up. “Morning,” I greeted, clearing my throat. “I’ve got to get to work early, and I didn’t bring any work clothes, so I have to head home now”. “But why?” she whined. “Because I have a job?” I answered sarcastically. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, turning on the lamp on her nightstand to
Emma’s POV“Hey, girl,” my co-worker, Dina, greeted me with a hug as I walked into the office. “I’ve missed you”. “I missed you too, Dina,” I smiled as we let go of each other. “How have you been?” I asked, setting down my bags in my space. “Good, good. You? How was Greece?” she asked, wriggling her eyebrows. “It was fine,” I said, letting out a laugh. “I had a good time”. “That’s great. And how’s that husband of yours? I’m sure you both got down and busy over there” she said with a wink. “Dina,” I playfully smacked her arm. “You don’t have to be so loud about it,” I warned, with a hushed tone, as I looked around and noticed someone had turned their head toward us when she spoke. “Sorry, sorry,” she apologized, giggling. “My bad. But tell me you both didn’t have a good time together there”. “We did,” I lied. Dina obviously doesn’t know that my marriage is fake and even though I consider her one of my close friends in this office, I just can’t tell her. The fewer people that kn
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
Liam’s POVIt was currently Friday, meaning Emma has officially been back to work for a full week now. On the other hand, it also means that it had been six days of me asking her to remarry me and her telling me that she needed to think about it. I wasn’t about to pressure her more than she already was, so I tried to distract myself from it by immersing myself in work this weekend while at home with her. At the same time, I wanted her to also feel relaxed, so I sent Amelia away with my mother for the day to give Emma room to catch a breath this weekend. “Hey, are you up?” Emma’s voice spoke up from behind my bedroom door following a knock. I didn’t want to stress my voice by shouting a response, so I stood up from my desk and went over to the door. “Good morning,” I greeted her with a small smile as I opened my door. “How are you?” I asked, leaning on the door frame with my arms folded across my chest. “I’m good,” she nodded, unable to maintain eye contact with me. “You?”“I’m fin
Emma’s POVAfter hours of work that were mixed with hours of contemplation following me and Liam’s conversation from that morning, the work day was finally over, and it was time for me to go home. I knew that if I went home, I would have to confront the situation at hand between Liam and me, which I was not prepared to do, at least not before talking to Sammy first, and since I felt this was a conversation that I had to have with her face to face, I did the same thing of calling Liam ahead to let him know I’d be coming home late. “Hey,” his raspy, tired voice spoke up as he picked up the call. “How are you?”“I’m good, how are you?”“I’m okay”.“Are you sure,” I asked, worried. “You sound tired and stressed out. Are you still at the office?”“Yeah, I am. I’m tired, but I have a case I’m working on right now and want to try and make some progress with it before leaving here”. “Hm. Alright then. Just take it easy please”. “Yeah, I will,” he said. I could practically hear the smile i
Emma’s POVThroughout my drive to the office, all I could think about were Liam’s last words to me before he left the house. Considering how shocked I was by everything he had said, it goes without saying that I had no adequate response to give him at that moment. All I could muster at that point was, “I’ll think about it”. Shit. One thing for sure was that I know I definitely didn’t even say those words in a reassuring tone or anything, because the way his face fell once the words left my mouth was enough to let me know that he was disappointed. In my defense though, it was all too sudden. I felt cornered and just didn’t know what to do.“Emma! Hi!” my coworker, Dina, startled me out of my reverie as she knocked on my window. “Hey, Dina,” I rolled down my window and smiled at her. “You startled me”. “I’m sorry,” she laughed. “One of the janitors mentioned he saw you pull in a few minutes ago and, since you hadn’t come in yet, I decided to come down and check on you”. When she sa
Emma’s POVIt had been a bit over four months since I gave birth to Amelia, and it was finally time for me to go back to work. Normally, I should’ve resumed last month, but the management of the Fashion House asked me to stay back a while longer because they didn’t want to stress me out and all that. I definitely wasn’t going to argue with them, so I obliged, but I kept it down to a month extra because, truth be told, while I’ve been having the time of my life caring for my daughter, it’s been very exhausting and I need a break. I need to get some normalcy back in my life and the only way I can achieve that is by going back to work. Thankfully, today was finally the day. “Emma!” my mum’s voice called out to me from behind the front door after she had knocked. “Coming!” I responded, placing Amelia down on one of the chairs in the living room and rushing to open the door for my mum. “Hey, mum,” I hugged her. “Thanks for coming,” I said, stepping aside for her to walk in. “No need to
Emma’s POVAfter close to forty-three hours of labour, my baby was finally here. “I was told you were unaware of what the baby’s gender was before now, so it’s my pleasure to tell you that you’ve just delivered a beautiful baby girl,” the doctors said to me, her voice overlapping my baby’s cries, as she handed me my child. “Hi, there,” I cooed, poking her nose a bit as I looked back up to the doctor with a smile on my face. “Thank you, Dr. Bailey,” I said to her. “You’re most welcome, dear,” she smiled back. “Alright, I’ve got to go now. The nurses will help get you cleaned up, then I’ll see you again in a few hours, okay?”“Okay, I nodded. Please can you help call in Liam on your way out?”“Of course. Take care now,” she said and walked out of the room. “Baby!” Liam said as he rushed into the room, pausing when he saw our daughter in my arms. “She’s beautiful,” he breathed. “Yeah, she is,” I smiled at her. “Shame on you for not being in here for the birth,” I smacked his hand.
Liam’s POVIt has been nearly nine months of Emma’s pregnancy and God knows that these past two months of it have been hell. Not just for her, but for me as well. Unlike at the start of her pregnancy, over the past two months have been when Emma has been experiencing terrible morning sickness and all the pains that come with being pregnant. For some reason, the first six months were a breeze for her. She barely showed, she barely felt pain, and she was rarely sick. Now though, where do I even start?At about four months in, her bump began to appear and with how well-rounded it looked, there was no way we could lie and say she was merely gaining weight. So, Emma and I decided it was finally time to expand the number of people who knew about the pregnancy from Ryan and Sammy to her parents, my mother, and all our friends and colleagues who cared to know. As expected, both our parents were ecstatic about the pregnancy; my mother was more than her parents, of course. Considering I am all
Liam’s POVIt had been days – nearly a week actually – since Emma and I had held a proper conversation with each other. To be specific, following that little bicker we had during our last hospital visit which lasted until we got home later that day, she and I had yet to talk to each other. We were taking this thing so far between ourselves such that she hadn’t slept in my room since that evening, and we hadn’t shared a meal since then either. What was funny was that appointment of hers was last Saturday. It was currently Thursday morning and I had only gone to work one day this week, and she has not at all, meaning that we were spending much more time in the house at the same times during the day, but we just weren’t spending them together. If I was upstairs, even though it was in my room, Emma would be downstairs. Then, if I was downstairs, she would be upstairs. Obviously, it was clear that she was behaving in this petty manner that she was, because she wanted me to give in first
Emma’s POV“What do you mean?” Liam asked me again, in a smaller tone this time. Honestly, my heart broke at how heartbroken he sounded by my words, but let’s be real, this marriage of ours isn’t an ideal one for anybody at all, and I do actually love him and want to be with him, so why not just come clean about exactly how I feel now?“Liam,” I took a deep breath and turned back around to face him, grabbing his hand in mine. “I love you and that much is real, but let’s be true to ourselves right now, this marriage isn’t real, and I need you to recognize that. Maybe it’s because I was the one who was forced into the marriage, so I recognize it all the time”. “And what makes you think that I wasn’t forced into this marriage too?” he asked, visibly upset now as he pulled his hand out of mine. “You think I wanted to have to settle down at the time that I did, let alone get married?”“Oh,” I responded in a low tone. “You really think that this marriage was on the top of my bucket list
Emma’s POV“And that right there is your baby’s bead,” my OBGYN said as she pointed out what looked like a small rock on the screen of the ultrasound machine. “Perfection,” Liam gushed. Yeah, that’s right, I told Liam everything. Three months ago, Liam and I had a lengthy talk about my being pregnant and what that meant for us. As expected, even though I had a lot of doubt in my mind, he was in full support of me, willing to ensure I was okay and that everything about the pregnancy went smoothly. If I’m being honest, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any man as excited to have a child as Liam was that night. Now, with about two ultrasounds out of the way, he and I are finally starting to see our baby take proper shape and, judging from his expression as he stared hard at the screen while the doctor spoke, I think it was safe to say that he was most definitely more excited than I was. If I’m being honest, it’s so crazy. Because this was a man who first presented himself to me as this st