**6 months later**After a long discussion between Hayden and the boss, a hard decision was made with the intent to remove Hayden and me from the Torex gang as much as possible. It took a long time and multiple conversation with the boss for a decision to be reached that allowed Hayden to change his last name from Torex to something else. Of course, that also meant that I wouldn’t have the Torex last name, and neither would our children if we ended up having them in the future. The decision probably wouldn’t have been reached had it not been for Harvey’s support. In the end, the boss had to give in on this. For the boss, this was a very big deal because the decision held significant symbolic meaning. Publicly, it would look like Hayden had been disowned from his family.“Are you sure that this is a good idea?” I asked.“Of course, it is. We’ll be freer to do whatever we want to do without the Torex last name on our backs and it’s not like I’ve been disowned for real. Within Torex, I

I heard his familiar voice close to me before his warm lips pressed itself against my cheek. “Hayden…welcome…” I greeted him a little shyly. “Oh, good that you’re here,” Harvey said with a smile. “Thank you for coming to support my wife…” Hayden mumbled his thanks. “Actually, there’s another reason why we wanted to come over apart from supporting Malissa…” Harvey said before he glanced over at Amelia.“Well, we’re supposed to tell you at our next family gathering but I’m having a hard time holding it in so…the thing is…I’m pregnant,” Amelia announced before beaming us a bright smile. Her hand went to pat her still flat belly as her face seemed to glow more radiantly then usual. My eyes widened at her announcement. “Wow! Congratulations to you both!” I exclaimed happily. I knew that Amelia and Harvey had been trying to conceive a baby for a while now. Now that Harvey had taken over the gang, the pressure was squarely on their shoulders to produce the next heir as soon as possibl

It was early in the evening and my team, and I were still busy at work. With the many things that we had left to do for the day, it seemed like today would be another late night at the gallery again. Thankfully, my team was full of passionate members who were truly dedicated to their jobs. It was going to be rough, but I had the confidence that we would make it through. “What about we hang this one here? Malissa, can you come over to have a look?” one of my staffs called out to me.“Sure. Be right there!” I called back before I quickly got up from my seat.The moment that I stood up, I suddenly felt extremely dizzy. My head throbbed and it felt like I wouldn’t be able to keep my balance. I closed my eyes and took in deep breaths before slowly lowering myself back down onto the chair that I had been sitting on. “Malissa, are you ok?” I heard someone ask from close to me.“I’m…” I began saying but then my head just hurt too much. My body felt strangely hot as well and my chest starte

“No…I…” I began saying but I had to stop. Tears welled up in my eyes and my chest suddenly felt tight. All the emotions that I was holding in all started pouring out at once and it was too much for me to handle. I covered my mouth and sobbed. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I cried from a mixture of relief, happiness, confusion, excitement, anxiousness, stress, and so many other emotions that I couldn’t quite name or identify. “Congratulations, Malissa. You’re going to be a mother soon,” Hayden whispered tenderly to me as he pulled me into his embrace.I hugged him back tightly as more tears streamed down my cheeks. There were so many things that I wanted to say to him, but I just couldn’t find the words. I was also crying so much now that I doubt that I would be able to form the words even if I could find them. All I could do was nod my head at his words. Hayden smiled at me lovingly before he kissed both my cheeks softly in turn. “Hay…den…” I sobbed his name. “You don’t need to

“You’re not going to eat? Are you and the baby not hungry?” Hayden asked from across the table. I doubt anyone could get hungry when faced with this kind of food. However, I couldn’t bring myself to tell Hayden that after all the effort that he put in to ensure the best food for me and the baby. “I’m not that hungry but I’ll eat…” I replied before forcing a smile. “Do you want me to feed you?” Hayden asked. “Umm…no. There’s no need for you to do that,” I refused while trying to maintain my smile. “The food looks and tastes bad, doesn’t it?” Hayden asked but it didn’t really feel like a question. I guess he did realize it after all. There’s no point in lying about it now so I just nodded at my head in response. “You should have told me. I can fire the chef or get the nutritionist to change something to make it more palatable,” Hayden said as he stared at me from across the table. “I just didn’t want to burden you with something like this. Plus, I guess it isn’t that bad when I