Page 97 of Begin Again, Part 2

"Really, Liam, couldn't this wait until I got to the office?" She sounded hopping mad. Not an unreasonable reaction, considering most people hated being bombarded with demands and questions first thing in the morning. And that was exactly what he did as soon as she picked up.

"No, Linda, it couldn't wait!" Liam snapped right back at her. "Now, was there a security breach in your office or what? Were your patient files compromised? Was my file leaked?"

There was a long pause on his therapist's end, and Liam could almost see the cogs in her overworked brain moving slowly.

"Linda!" he growled, demanding some reaction from her.

"Why are you asking this? Of course, there wasn't any breach!"

"Did you see today's headlines?"

She hadn't. But she planned to place him on hold for a moment or two while she caught up on the day's news.

"Do you mind?" she asked.

Liam didn't. Now that his business trip was shelved and he didn't have a 09:00 AM flight to catch, he had a lot of time on his hands.

"Oh, Liam," Linda said when she came back on the line three minutes later. "I'm so sorry. I know how you didn't want people to know—"

Liam quickly jumped in before she could drown him with more platitudes. He'd waded through enough of his parents'.

"Now, Linda, is there a chance my file was compromised?"

His therapist swore up and down that all her electronic files were encrypted and stored on a costly but reputable cloud service to keep them safe. The chances of the highly-secure servers being hacked were slim to none. Liam found her words comforting, but he couldn't relax. "What about the notes, the four journals you've kept over the years?"

"You know I lock them away in my cabinet, and only I have access to the key. I keep it on a string around my neck and tuck it in my bra."

"Too much info Linda!" Liam grumbled at the mental image she'd created with her words.

"Sorry," she said, and he found himself relaxing at the sound of the smile in her voice. "I promise you, Liam, the leak didn't come from my side. It has to be someone close to you. Eden, perhaps?"

"Don't," he gritted his teeth, warning her softly. "Don't you dare suggest it!"

"She's the only one who knows the reasons for your visits, and that one comment on Dirt's website is too close to the truth—"

"She'd never do that. What reason could she have?" Liam pushed away from the counter and began pacing the length of the kitchen. He paused in front of the window, struck breathless by the sight unfolding before him as the sun rose on the horizon, painting the sky a brilliant reddish-pink hue. This was his first sunrise in a long while. He was always at the office around this time, with his nose buried deep in the ever-increasing reports and business proposals—

"I'm just saying it's possible she unwittingly overshared with someone. One of her friends, maybe." Linda pulled him away from the window, his gut clenching at her words.

No way, Liam shook his head. Sure, Eden's best friend worked for the same gossip rag running with his therapy story. But not his Princess. She wouldn't.

"Thanks, Linda," he said and hung up, refusing to give her a chance to mess with his head and shake his faith in Eden.

He sat down and accessed his notes app on the laptop, and typed out a very short list of names. He scratched off the first three: Princess, Matt, and Jules. And he was left with only two names.

Aiden's displeasure crackled through the baby monitor, yanking Liam away from his fact-finding mission. He raced upstairs to attend to him before he woke Eden up and found him in his crib, with one foot over the rail as if attempting a prison break.

They paused and stared at each other for the longest nanosecond as Liam held his breath, praying his son wouldn't start screaming like he had last night.

Surprisingly, Aiden dropped his leg from the rail and smiled sweetly at him, waving his hand, "hello."

"Hi," Liam smiled back as he crossed the room and stopped in front of the crib. "I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to do that, and now you're bribing me with your smile!"

Aiden chuckled his little head off, as if he understood everything he said. Liam hesitated briefly before reaching down to scoop him out of the crib. "Do you remember me, Kool-Aid? I'm your daddy."

"Hello," he waved again. "Daddy."

"You slept okay?" Liam asked and kissed his hair.

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