Emma’s POV“You have got to be kidding me!” I yelled at the movie I was watching on the TV.“I don’t think it’s ever that serious, Emma,” Liam said, laughing, as he walked down the stairs and into the living room where I was.“Good morning,” he said, walking into the kitchen and grabbing a glass of water.“Good morning,” I responded, glancing at him briefly.It’s been about three weeks of me living in the same house as Liam Henderson, a bit over a month since he and I got married, and two weeks since I started my new job at the Williamson Fashion House.If I was to be honest, life was going surprisingly smoothly. I mean, it’s not where I expected to see myself right now, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought things would be, especially considering my current situation.Living with Liam wasn’t entirely that bad. With the way we moved around, we were more like housemates who shared the same apartment. He respected my space and I respected his. The only thing was there have been days that we
Emma’s POV“Ryan? As in Liam’s best friend, Ryan?” I asked slowly.“Yes, Liam’s best friend, Ryan,” she said laughing to break the awkwardness that was growing between us.“How? When? Why?” I asked.“Is there a problem, Emma? Is there something about him that you know and I don’t? Because I honestly don’t understand why you’re reacting this way. Don’t you like that I’m happy?” she asked, getting agitated.“You’re happy?” I probed.“Shouldn’t I be?” she asked, getting up from the chair, growing more angry.“Calm down, Samantha. I’m not trying to rain on your parade. I guess it’s just that I don’t really know anything about Ryan and I just find it weird that you’re dating my husband’s best friend and you’re just now telling me about it,” I said, standing up as well.“First of all,” she said, holding a finger up, “Ryan and I aren’t dating. We’ve been on two dates and that’s it. We’re still figuring things out. Second of all, he’s your fake husband. Liam is your fake husband,” she correct
Liam’s POV“Well?” I asked, urging her to speak. “Do you have a problem with my friends coming over?” I asked again. “I don’t have any issues with your friends coming over, Liam,” she said, grabbing a piece of bacon and munching on it. “It’s just that earlier, you mentioned it was just Ryan who was coming over. Now, you’re saying two other people are coming as well,” she said, looking between me and the bacon in her hand. “Okay, so?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “Forget about it, Liam,” she said, rolling her eyes at me in a dismissive manner then standing up. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she continued, walking over to the kitchen door. “Emma,” I called out her name, grabbing her hand, and stopping her in her tracks. “I don’t appreciate your attitude. Fix it,” I warned. “No way you just said that to me,” she replied, scoffing. “I’m serious, Emma. I expect you to respect me,” I said, letting go of her arm.“First of all, don’t ever grab me like that again, and secondly, what’s
Liam’s POV“Hey, man. Come on in,” I said, dapping up Ryan, Tim, and Louis. “Samantha, these are my friends. You already know Ryan, but that’s Tim, and that’s Louis,” I said, pointing at Tim and Louis, respectively.“Hi,” she responded, waving at them. “Hi, Ryan,” she said to Ryan, her cheeks turning visibly red. “Hey, Sammy,” Ryan responded, walking over to her and grabbing her hand in his. “Uhm, what's going on?” I asked, looking between the both of them. “Well,” Ryan started, scratching the back of his head. “Sammy and I have kind of been seeing each other since the day of the wedding,” he continued, looking guilty. I was taken aback. “You’re kidding right?” I asked. “How? I didn’t even see you guys talking that day”. “We spoke later in the evening, man. I told you. Don't you remember? When you and Emma took that walk in the garden or wherever it was that you both wandered off to. I was looking for you, so I asked her if she knew where you guys were and she told me, then we
Emma’s POV“Why’s it so bright already,” I groaned as I struggled to get out of bed. I checked the time and saw it was 11:03 am. I got in at past midnight, so seeing the time made me realize this was the longest I’d slept in a while. It’s been three weeks since the day Sammy and Liam’s friends were over at the apartment, meaning it’s been three weeks since Liam and I last spoke to each other. It’s honestly been so funny and crazy. We haven’t had a reason to be out publicly together in that time, so we’ve been able to take that time off from our pretense. Considering there’s been no reason to make any public appearances with Liam, I’ve been working later hours at the Fashion House because of the upcoming fashion show the company is hosting in three weeks, but I know within myself that the real reason I’ve been working late is so I can easily avoid Liam without having to make it seem like I’m purposely doing it. He hurt me, but I don’t need him knowing that he hurt me. It makes me lo
Emma’s POV“We need to talk about us. This thing we’re doing. I realized we haven’t sat down together to have an actual conversation to talk about the best way to go about this whole marriage thing so it works out for us until it’s over,” he started. I nodded, turned my body to face his, and took another sip of my coffee. “First off, I want to apologize for what happened that day when Ryan and the guys came over. I get now why you were upset and I’m sorry about it. Literally, everyone that day kept repeating the same thing to me, even though I didn’t want to hear it, but they were all right and I’m accepting that now. We live together now and I understand that we’re going to have our differences on some things, so I’m willing to compromise if you are,” he continued. I wasn’t sure if he was done talking so I just nodded again and kept looking at him. “Aside from this discussion of what we can do in the house to make it conducive for both of us, I feel we should also talk about what
Emma’s POV“So what’s up with you and Liam?” Sammy asked as we lay on my bed together. It was my day off and a few days till the fashion show, so Sammy had come over to keep me company while I worked on some last-minute designs. “We’re good actually,” I said, looking up from what I was sketching out. “Since the day we spoke about everything, everything’s been going smoothly with us. We’re able to have proper conversations here and there and living together isn’t as annoying or uncomfortable anymore”. “That’s good,” she said, clapping her hands together excitedly. “On that positive note, I’m happy to announce that Ryan and I are thinking of going on a trip next weekend and we would love it if you and Liam came along. It'll be like a group trip or whatever. I’d have my best friend with me and Ryan would have his. What do you think?” she asked. “Oh,” I said, putting down my sketch pad. “You guys have been together for what, two months tops, and you’re thinking of going on a trip toget
Liam’s POV“Candace,” I called out, signaling for my secretary to come into my office. “I’m not feeling too good so I’m just going to cut the day short,” I said to her as she stepped into the office. “Sorry about that, sir. Is there anything you want me to do? Should I call a doctor?” she asked. “No. It’s not that serious, don’t worry about it. It’s probably just stress, so I’m just going to head home and continue work from there,” I continued, walking over to my office door. “You’re supposed to have meetings with three of your clients today. Should I reschedule or just cancel?” she asked, following behind me. “Reschedule them for tomorrow. If I’m not able to meet up with them tomorrow, I’ll let you know then you can cancel till whenever,” I replied, stepping onto the elevator.“Alright, sir. I hope you get better soon. Goodbye,” she waved just before the elevator doors shut. Soon as I stepped off the elevator I got into my car and headed home. I was burning up and I knew I sho
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
Emma’s POV“Is this seriously something that you’re considering, Emma?” Sammy asked again as she let me out of her grasp. This time, her tone was filled with disappointment. “I can’t believe this”. “Are you seriously judging me right now, Sammy?” I asked in disbelief. “Yes I am,” she answered with a straight face. “If I wasn’t judging you right now, then I would be the worst friend, but that’s not me, Emma. I’ve known you for far too long to believe that getting rid of this pregnancy is something you really think is the right thing to do. Hell, I want to believe that you’ve known me for far too long to even think I’d support you wholeheartedly if you made a decision like this”. “Wow, Sammy,” I chuckled dryly. “You know what, Emma,” she hissed. “Keep up whatever act this is that you’re putting up for as long as you want, but deep down, you know that what I’m saying is the truth. This isn’t a pregnancy that came from a one-night stand that we’re talking about, Emma. This is somethi