Emma’s POV“Good morning, sweetie,” my mum greeted me as she slowly opened my bedroom door.“Morning, mum,” I smiled, softly. “Come in,” I said, gesturing for her to come over to the bed.“You look well. At least you look better than your father described last night,” she said as she laid next to me on the bed.“He told you I looked like shit, huh?” I laughed. “I’m not shocked. I know I did,” I shrugged my shoulders. “But yeah, I’m feeling much better this morning”.“That’s good. No work today?”“There is, but I just called in sick. I needed the day off,” I said.“I completely understand”.“Mhm. Where’s dad? Gone to work?” I asked.“Yeah. He left earlier today because he had somewhere to be before going into the office, so you were most likely still asleep at that time”.“Okay,” I nodded. “So how are you? Dad mentioned you were down with the flu yesterday. Are you feeling better?” I asked, placing the back of my palm on her forehead to check her temperature. “You feel a bit warm,” I s
Liam’s POVIt’s been three days since Emma was home, meaning it’s been three days since I last saw and spoke to her. Today’s Monday, though, and it’s the start of a fresh week, so she was bound to come back home today. At least I hoped she would. “Morning, babe,” Anna chirped up from behind me. It was around 7:30 a.m. and I was getting ready for work when she walked into the bathroom where I was brushing my teeth. “How did you sleep?” she asked as she snaked her arms around my waist from behind. “Short,” I responded as I spat out the toothpaste from my mouth. “Short?” she repeated, but in the form of a question. “Mhm”. “You couldn’t sleep?” “Nope”. “Is something the matter? Did I do something wrong?” she asked, pouting, as she unwrapped her arms from me. “Nothing at all,” I answered, then rinsed off my mouth and dried it with a towel. “You didn’t you anything,” I continued as I turned to face her. “I just had a lot on my mind that didn’t allow me to fall asleep early enough
Liam’s POV“Good morning,” Emma mumbled as she stepped out of her room.I had been standing by my doorway for a while trying to respond to some messages before eventually heading back into my room when Emma stepped out of hers. She had clearly just woken up and, judging from the raspiness of her voice, I had assumed she was going down to get some water to drink or something. From the look on her face, it was quite obvious she had forced that greeting out of her mouth. Like she only did it because of how close we were standing to each other, and she didn’t want to seem rude or something. “Good morning, Emma,” I greeted her back as I turned off my phone. “Hm,” she said, then made her way to leave, but I stopped her. I stretched out my hand to block her path and she stopped just a few inches from my hand. It was almost as if she made sure to avoid the hand just in time so she wouldn’t have to touch me. “Please wait,” I pleaded. She looked at me, then looked back at my hand, then lo
Liam’s POVAfter ending the call with Sammy, it was soon time to close for the day, so I began packing up my stuff when my secretary, Candace, walked into my office. “Don’t tell me a client’s waiting for me outside, Candace. This is 4:55 p.m. I’m a human being too, and I’m done for the day. Tell whoever it is to come back tomorrow,” I told her as I continued putting my stuff together. “Sir, it’s not a client,” she responded. I paused what I was doing and looked up at her, then I noticed a familiar face hanging around in the lobby behind Candace. “It’s your wife,” she said, then stepped aside for me to get a clearer picture of Emma standing outside my office door. “Well, why’d you keep her waiting?” I asked as I put aside the stuff I was packing up. “Let her in,” I said, then stood up from my seat and adjusted myself. “Yes, sir,” she said, then walked out of the office while Emma walked in. “Emma, hey. What are you doing here? Is everything okay?” I asked with a confused look on
Emma’s POV“What do you think of spending a weekend in Cabo? Or better yet, Mykonos?” Sammy asked me as she looked up from her phone. It was a Saturday and she and I had nothing better to do today, so she was over at mine, and we decided to spend it as a lazy day. The guys had gone out for the weekend to watch a basketball or baseball game. I wasn’t sure which because I wasn’t exactly paying attention when Liam was telling me about where he and Ryan would be going to today. That’s right. I’m still pissed at him.Anyway, since they were both out, I decided to invite Sammy over, and we’ve just been binging different shows and munching on snacks since. “Cabo or Mykonos? What’s happening there?” I asked, looking up from my phone with a confused expression on my face. “Your birthday, of course. I was thinking we could go the weekend leading up to the day since your birthday is on a Monday, but it’s entirely up to you. We could do it that weekend or the weekend after that. What do you t
Emma’s POV“Hey, birthday girl!” Sammy screamed into my ear as soon as I answered her call. “Girl, calm down,” I said when she reduced her tone. “First of all, I’m at work. Secondly, my birthday isn’t till Monday so can you please relax?” I sighed. “You’re way more excited about this than I am, and it’s quite fascinating”. “Emma, you’re turning twenty-five. Not just that, but you’re twenty fine as well. We’ve got to turn up this weekend!” she shrieked. “Sure thing, captain,” I laughed. “But could we please use our inside voices right now? I’m having the worst headache at the moment,” I groaned as I clutched my forehead in the palm of my left hand. “Oh, I’m sorry. I had no idea. What’s the matter though? Have you taken something for it? Painkillers?” she asked. “I’m not sure. I’ve just been feeling this way since I woke up, and I don’t know what to do or take. I took some ibuprofen earlier, but it didn’t seem to do the trick I guess,” I said.“Sorry, love. I hope you feel better.
Emma’s POV“Hey, are you ready?” Liam asked from behind my bedroom door. “Ryan just called and said he and Sammy got stuck in some traffic, but they’re almost at the airport, so they advised we leave now to avoid missing the flight”.“Okay. I’m almost ready. I’ll be out in five minutes!” I yelled back.“Alright, I’ll be downstairs. Do you want some coffee for the road?”“Yes, please,” I responded.“Okay,” he said, then the next thing I heard was the retracting sound of his footsteps.It was almost 6 a.m., so I knew we needed to leave the house immediately if we wanted to beat any traffic because without traffic, our apartment is about an hour and thirty minutes from the airport, but it’s definitely going to be more than that with traffic, and we needed to get to the airport by 8:30 a.m. latest.I used the next five minutes to organize the last of my things, then dragged my suitcase out of my room when I was done. I got to the top of the stairs and realized there was no way I was going
Emma’s POV“Guys, can I come in?” I asked as I knocked on Sammy and Ryan’s room door.“Hold on a second,” Ryan responded, then came over to open the door and let me in. “Hey, what’s up?” he asked.“Not much,” I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m just bored”.“Where’s Liam?” Ryan asked.“I don’t know. Probably in his room or something,” I answered as I made my way over to their bed where Sammy was lying down. “Hi,” I purred as I got under the covers and tried to force my way into her arms.“Hi,” she laughed, then wrapped her arms around me. “How are you?”“Full,” I responded. “I just finished snacking on some Doritos and Cheetos.“Girl, if you were hungry why didn’t you just say so, so we could get something to eat?” she asked, looking down at me.“I wasn’t hungry,” I responded.“Of course, you weren’t,” she rolled her eyes.“Anyway, what’s the plan for today? I’ve rested, and now I’m ready to be active,” I said, looking between her and Ryan.“If you had looked through the itinerary I sent yo
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