Page 105 of Begin Again, Part 2

"You'd better," she said cheekily. "Because you'll be paying good money to see my exhibition at Fugue soon. Watch this space."

"What's going on?" Liam asked, his smile faltering when his eyes fell on the bags in front of the crib. "Are you going somewhere?"

"Yes, back to my place," Eden replied and looked around the room, avoiding his gaze.

He lifted her chin with his finger and searched her face. "Princess, what's wrong? Did something happen?"

Eden shook her head quickly. But she was a terrible liar, and since she couldn't even meet his eyes, Liam knew something had gone down, but for the life of him, he couldn't imagine what.

"Tell me what's wrong."

"I just don't feel comfortable here, yet, that's all. Mrs Stone—" She said and shook her head again. "Never mind."

"Did she say something? What did she do?"

Dave walked in, sending Liam into a mini rage with his announcement. "I overheard Mrs Stone earlier giving the missus a hard time about last night for ruining your shirt."

"Where is she?" Liam growled, and turned to the door, ready to take on his housekeeper. Before this latest stunt, she was skating too close to a termination anyway. He might as well speed it up. He'd put up with enough of her bullshit.

Eden held him back. "You have the board meeting to focus on right now. You can chat to her later."

His phone rang, and his scowl darkened when he pulled it out of his pocket and saw the caller ID.

"I have to go," he said as he drew Eden in his arms and kissed her again.

Aiden was now play-wrestling with Julian and Matthew amidst the fallen tower. As Liam watched them over Eden's shoulder have fun without him, he couldn't help but feel a little sad and somewhat jealous of his cousins. They'd done something he hadn't—made his son laugh.

As if Eden could read his mind, she tightened her arms around him and gently nudged him. "You are his father. No one can ever replace you, and it's only day two. Give yourself time."

"I know," he nodded and kissed her nose before dashing out of the room to take another intense round of tongue-lashing.

When Liam switched on his camera, his father was in the middle of walking everyone through the crisis management plan to turn the tide on the therapy story.

"That only takes care of one problem," Bill grunted from his living room. "What about the conflict of interest? He hired his girlfriend. Are we just going to overlook that? Heir apparent is becoming a huge liability the longer we sit in this meeting."

"They were not dating when he hired her," Lois jumped in and tried to fix a messy situation with bigger and better lies that sounded highly plausible. "But they've recently rekindled their romance, and they want to do what's best for their child."

Clarke eased in with more fairy tales of his own. "Liam's engagement party will be at The Empress a month from now, and you are all invited."

"And everyone will officially meet his fiancée and child at the upcoming family day. We hope to see you all there," Lois added, her smile as radiant as the diamond necklace around her neck.

Liam slumped in his seat and held his head in his hands. Not for the first time since he woke up to this nightmare of a day, he wished someone could hand him a remote control. He was ready to press the reset button and start over. His parents had no idea the mess they'd just plunged him in. In their attempt to bury the truth about his therapy, they'd unwittingly backed him into a corner. Now, he'd have no choice but to push Eden into something he knew she wasn't ready for, and there was no telling what she would do when she felt cornered—

"This isn't right." The aunt by marriage shook her head, pulling Liam out of his anxiety, and he couldn't agree more. Covering up one simple truth with so many lies didn't sit well with him.

"Then we'll do things democratically. Let's vote," Lois suggested quickly. "All those in favour of the crisis management plan, raise your hands."

Surprisingly, everyone was on board, but they wanted Liam to fire Eden urgently. He dug in his heels, explaining they had no recourse to dismiss her. She hadn't done anything wrong, and HR processes had to be followed for all terminations.

"That's your only way out of this." Holly stepped in at some point.

Liam figured she had a manicure appointment or something equally arb to attend to. He'd wasted enough of her time with his scandalous ass.

"And my offer to sign her as my artist still stands." Willow tapped her hands together and beamed brightly at him through the camera.

"I'll leave," Eden said from behind him. She was fully clothed now, with their son on her hip and his backpack flung over her shoulder.

"Daddy!" Aiden screeched and threw himself into his arms, stunning Liam with his excitement. He caught him quickly and blew bubbles on his cheeks while he absently watched Matthew and Julian take their seats at the kitchen island.

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