Page 50 of Begin Again, Part 2

"I don't care. I'm done being your toy. Call Laura the next time you're horny or need someone to scratch your itch. She'll happily get on her knees, it seems."

Liam ignored her. "I want you. And I'm not giving up on us. You're angry. And believe me, I'm also furious, but we can work through this. We have so much to work through, Princess, starting with why the hell you kept the truth from me—"

"No, Liam," she said, feeling drained suddenly. "Angry is what I feel when someone takes me for granted. Right now, I am livid because you keep playing me for a fool. One minute you hate me, the next you want me, and while I'm trying to catch my breath, reeling from your indecisiveness, some woman has your dick in her mouth. You can't keep beating my heart and expect it to be whole after all the shit you put me through. Let's stop now. Let's end it here."

"She didn't have my dick in her mouth!" Liam roared. "Nothing happened between us!"

"As I said, I don't care!" Eden spun on her heel and ran inside, not giving him room to change her mind.

Chapter

Eighteen

UNFORGIVABLE

Liam knew he should go home, regroup, and calm the fuck down. They were both upset for different reasons, and nothing good would ever come out of this night if he didn't walk away. But he could never think straight where Eden was concerned. His heart would always rule over his head when it came to her. So without thinking things through or weighing his options, he ran up her rickety porch and banged his fist on the door. "Eden, come out right now!"

He'd camp out here the whole night if he had to. But one way or another, they'd have it out tonight, and he'd get all his answers.

The door flew open instantly. Unimpressed and properly ticked off, Eden stepped out of the house and pushed him down the steps. "What the hell do you think you're doing? You'll wake my son up!"

"You mean our son?" Liam demanded. Confusion, and something he could only describe as fear, flickered across her face ever so briefly, but she quickly got a hold of herself. Her eyes hardened once more as she straightened her shoulders.

"I don't know what you're talking about! And it's late. You should leave." She spat and turned to walk away.

But Liam stopped her in her tracks before she could slip back inside the house, pushing them both closer to the edge of the cliff with his announcement, "I know Aiden's mine. I had a paternity test done!"

Eden paused, and he watched her back stiffen, and her shoulders slump as she released a long, shaky breath.

Without looking at him, she whispered, "he's not your son!"

Liam laughed. He was anything but amused, though, and the sound he made, dark and inhuman, stunned them both with the anguish resonating from its depths. He didn't know what he'd expected, but it sure as hell wasn't her outright denial, especially in the face of his announcement about the paternity test. Her stubbornness royally pissed him off, and he lost his shit as unbridled fury took over him completely.

"Are you insane?" He swung her around to look at him, his hands resting on her shoulders. "Have you lost your mind? Are you seriously going to stand there and deny he's my son? Two years, Eden! Two fucking years and you're going to stand there and deny it? How much longer do you plan to hide him from me?"

"Aiden is mine and mine alone!" Eden yelled right back at him, the rage in her eyes mirroring his own.

Things escalated quickly as they had it out there in her front yard, with wild accusations flying around and blame shifting back and forth at dizzying speeds.

"You didn't want him, remember? You told me you were glad he's not your son, and you were bloody relieved nothing was tying you to me." Eden brought up the one argument he wished they could both forget as she tapped her foot impatiently, her entire body oozing with indignation.

"I know what I said that day. I was an idiot. And I'm sorry," Liam groaned, pushing his hair away from his forehead in frustration. "But Eden, I didn't know about him because you didn't tell me! I asked you, and you looked me in the eye and said he's not mine. How do you lie like that?"

"I didn't tell you because you hated me, remember?" She retorted. "How was I supposed to co-parent with you when you hated me?"

And their brutal back and forth continued, showing no signs of easing, as they both said stuff they wouldn't normally say if they weren't still dealing with all their lingering issues from Fashion Week.

"How could you do a paternity test without my consent?" she accused. The russet pools Liam had drowned in countless times over the past few weeks were so dark with anger that he could hardly differentiate between her irises and pupils.

"I'm sorry, was I supposed to ask for your fucking permission when you weren't planning to tell me about my son?" he growled, refusing to be vilified. There was no way he'd allow her to flip the script on him. She chose to keep the truth from him. She was wrong. Plain and simple. And she had to own her shit.

"How did you even get his sample?" Eden narrowed her eyes as she crossed her arms.

Stunned by her question, Liam paused, unable to come up with a reasonable explanation. When he stomped to her front door, he had a plan. But for some reason, he couldn't remember it now. All he could think of was how much he hated seeing the mistrust in her eyes. He never wanted her to look at him like that again. Like he was the worst scum on earth.

"Eden—" he spluttered to life, trying to regain control of the situation as he reached for her. But she flew away from his grasp, groaning in her hands as the realisation hit her. "Oh, God! You don't know, do you? You don't know because you sent people to do it. Who was it? James? Stephen?"

Her questions came at him faster than the speed of light. Underprepared and overwhelmed, Liam remained evasive as he asked, "does it honestly matter how I got it?"

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