Page 52 of Begin Again, Part 2

"Are you okay?" The nanny asked when the silence became unbearable. In a surprisingly steady voice, belying the flood of tears brimming in her heart, Eden assured her she was. She'd been through worse where Liam was concerned. It was total horseshit, of course. Tonight's confrontation was their most brutal, heartbreaking, soul-crushing battle yet.

"You should get some sleep," she added as she gently pulled Brenda to her feet and pushed her towards her bedroom. "It's late."

"What about you?" Brenda asked, as she paused in the hallway, the worry and fear etched on her face almost palpable. This was the first time Eden had seen her so rattled, and she was sorry she had to witness all that ugliness. She crossed the room and took the nanny's hands. "I'm so sorry you had to see that. Liam would never have done anything to us—to you. He'd never hurt us. He's just angry with me, that's all."

Brenda's smile as she spoke failed to banish the wariness in her dark eyes. "I know that. But Eden, I've never heard—"

She paused and shook her head, unable to articulate the horror she'd seen and heard because it was so painfully raw and heartbreaking. Eden understood. She, too, had never heard anyone weep the way Liam had when he saw Aiden for the first time. It was the sound of grief, love, and despair, all merging into a tsunami of emotions two years in the making. It chilled her to the depths of her soul and shattered her heart to pieces.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Brenda tugged at her arm, drawing her out of her thoughts.

Eden blinked back her tears and swallowed the huge rock stuck in her throat, convinced it would suffocate her if she didn't do something soon. So, with a brave smile, she said, "don't worry about me. I'll head to bed in a bit."

"Alright." Brenda waved goodnight and shuffled down the hall.

Eden couldn't go to bed yet. So, she neatened up her living room and put away Aiden's toys. Next, she attacked her kitchen because she was so afraid she'd unravel and fall to pieces if she stopped. And she couldn't do that. She had no right to cry, the same way she had no business feeling sorry for herself.

"Liam's right," she whispered as she took out all her rage on the grime on her gas cooker. What she did was unforgivable. She'd wounded him, probably broke him far more than she had when she vanished.

It didn't matter what her reasons were or how noble her intentions were for keeping the truth from him. She'd lied to and deceived him for two years, and she had to own her shit.

"God!" she mumbled into her hands when she remembered how defeated Liam had looked when he left. She'd seen him furious countless times in the past and witnessed his rage in Linda's office. She'd also felt his devastation after the burning of the trucks and the loss of his drivers. But she'd never seen him as gutted as he was when he knelt in front of Aiden's cot and wept.

When she heard his heartfelt words to their son and saw how shattered he was because of her actions, she would have given anything to take back her choices.

"Don't you dare cry," she said, blinking away the river of tears brimming in her eyes as she carried on soaping and scrubbing. "You have no right to cry!"

By the time Eden took off the cleaning gloves, she was exhausted, and the ice in her heart was nowhere close to thawing. Her gas cooker, though, looked like a brand new stove. As tired as she was, she couldn't drag herself to bed. So she reached for her phone and sent a text in the group chat, 'Code-Blue'

Within seconds, the chat exploded with her friends losing their heads while she stood in the middle of her kitchen staring at the clock above Grammy's fridge, unable to understand how things could change in a blink of an eye. Last week this time, Liam gave her a taste of his cock in the bathroom of La Famiglia. And in exactly two hours from now, he'd fucked her brains out on his bed. He never said it, never hinted at anything, but she'd sensed his feelings for her had changed.

Today...Now...They were back to where they were three months ago, the anger and animosity between them as palpable as their lust, the distance wider than ever. And she had no one but herself to blame. If she'd just told him the truth from the start when she found out she was pregnant. If she'd told him when she came back from the Blue Mountains. If she'd just been brave. And if she could have any superpower in the world, she would choose the gift of healing—

The sound of a key rattling on her front door snapped Eden out of her daze, and a moment later, her friends shuffled in, looking comfy in their jammies.

"Edie, what the fuck happened?" Lydia asked as she dumped her pillow and duvet on the sofa. Since it was bound to be a long night, she came prepared.

"Yeah, you haven't invoked 'Code Blue' since Simon," Cassandra added as she uncorked a bottle of Merlot and waited for Sienna to hand her the wine glasses.

Eden couldn't wait that long. She snatched the bottle, not caring that tomorrow she'd wake up with a banger of a headache or, worse, an upset tummy. She gulped it down, shocking her friends with her level of commitment. They exchanged worried looks as she set the bottle down on the counter.

"He knows!" she announced in a deathly calm voice, masking the turmoil in her heart. "Liam knows about Aiden."

"Oh shit!" Lydia picked up the bottle and guzzled it down before passing it on. Cassandra took the longest sip and handed it over to Sienna without a word. She didn't need to. The horrified look in her eyes said everything.

"What did he say?" Sienna asked as she cradled the bottle in her hand.

Eden told them everything, starting with their fight at Fashion Week and her walking in on Liam with Laura.

"Edie!" Lydia yelled. "And you tell us all this now? Oh, my God! That sonofabitch!"

"I don't think Liam getting head from his ex is the main attraction right now." Sienna pointed out. "Did you miss the part where he knows about his son, and he threatened Eden with his lawyers?"

Things went to shit from there as they all blamed each other for the mess Eden was in.

"I said it from the start she should tell Liam," Sienna reminded them. "And I warned her this shit wouldn't end well!"

Surprisingly, Lydia jumped to Eden's defence. "She thought he was married, remember? What else was she supposed to do? Ruin his life?"

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