Page 87 of Begin Again, Part 1

"Mommy?" Aiden held up his hands, and she helped him up on the sofa.

"Who?" he asked in a chirpy voice, peering at the screen, his eyes wide with curiosity as they looked through the images.

"This is your Daddy, Aid," she smiled and kissed the top of his head.

"Daddy?" He touched his father's blown-up face on the screen and said the word, chuckling at how it rolled off his tongue. "Daddy!"

It was the first time Eden showed him his father's photos and taught him the word.

"Daddy!" He screeched again and clapped his tiny hands when she scrolled through more photos of Liam. "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!"

Eden chuckled. "How about we say 'Mommy' for a second."

"No!" He shook his head. "Daddy!"

Eden smiled, 'Daddy' was now well on the way to being a firm favourite in his growing vocabulary.

Her smile faltered when she clicked on a photo of Liam and the blonde she'd seen with him at Crush. They were at some fancy event, judging from their formal wear—a tux for him and a champagne A-Line gown for the blonde.

She gawked at the caption. 'Liam Anderson with rumoured fiancée, Laura Stone'.

"Well, well," she whispered, her heart exploding into smithereens the longer she stared at their faces.

The photo was dated three years ago...Exactly a year before she ran into Liam at Crush. If what he said that night was true, and Laura was his then-fiancée, rumoured or otherwise, she wasn't wrong about him. She'd made the right decision when she chose to keep her distance.

Eden wanted to look away from the photo, but Laura Stone was like a traffic collision scene. The horror that was her beauty— her sun-kissed skin, luscious blonde locks, and large luminous green eyes—lured her in. No matter how hard Eden tried to, she couldn't move along. That wasn't even the worst of it all, though. The worst was the realisation that she was so ordinary, so banal compared to Laura. There was no reason a man like Liam would want her if he didn't have his weird dysfunction.

In the unsettling silence of her living room, with her son practising his newly learned favourite word, all the little fantasies Eden had created in her mind since her return from the Blue Mountains came crashing down around her as the cold, harsh truth sank in. Liam was only paying her all this attention because she was the only woman who could get him off.

He wasn't flirting with her or using the term as some form of endearment when he called her his 'tonic'. Once she cured him, his perfect life with Laura would continue unchanged. And what would she be left with? A broken heart and a son who was a replica of his father, a permanent reminder of the man she wanted but could never have?

She didn't realise she was crying until she felt Aiden's soft hands on her cheeks as he brushed her tears away and kissed her cheek. "Mommy, don't cry."

"I'm okay, baby." Eden picked him up and hugged him close to her chest. "Mommy is okay."

Sometime after 1:00 AM, when Brenda returned, Eden was still tossing and turning, tormented by thoughts of Liam. When she dragged herself out of bed four hours later, she looked like something straight out of a horror movie with her puffy eyes and red nose.

Brenda tried to get her to open up over a quick breakfast of toast and black tea, but Eden assured her she was okay. She just had a restless night. Nothing five cups of strong black tea couldn't fix.

Gibby and Clara also coddled and smothered her with questions and concern. But no matter how hard they tried to get her to talk, she wouldn't.

Liam summoned her to his office after her lunch break.

He was the last person Eden wanted to see, especially when her heart was still so raw. But declining his requests and meeting invites would be gross insubordination. She'd resigned herself to reading the code of conduct last night when she couldn't fall asleep, and she knew all the clauses off by heart now.

Gibby showed her in and closed the door behind her.

Liam cut a fine figure in his usual dark three-piece suit as he stood in front of the window, watching cars breeze through Castle Bridge. Even from the back, he was as breathtaking as the view beyond the pane.

"Mr Anderson, you asked to see me?" she said, not making any attempt to move further into the room. She was fine by the door and the sooner he told her what he wanted, the quicker she could leave.

"I didn't see you the whole day," he said, turning from the window.

Eden's pulse skyrocketed at the longing in his voice. But she stilled her heart, reminding herself it was just that. Longing. Desire. Lust. She was his tonic. A means to an end. She'd never be anything more.

"I missed you." Liam drifted away from the window and approached her. "Did you miss me?"

"No," Eden lied. She missed him so much she thought she'd die from the searing ache in her heart.

---