Begin Again novel Chapter 170

"Is it true Aiden McBride is your son?" Lois got straight to the heart of their visit as soon as they were all arranged around the fireplace in his living room.

"How do you know about that?" Liam groaned and buried his face in his hands, already dreading the unavoidable inquisition from his parents.

"James," Clarke replied. "You forget he reports to me."

Right, Liam seethed. He should fire the whole lot of them and get his own people.

"So?" Lois leaned forward, her eyes shining with hope and expectation.

"He is," Liam admitted.

"Has it been confirmed?" His father asked, a deep frown creasing his forehead.

"Yes, it was."

"Unbelievable," Lois burst into tears, and Clarke held her while she sniffled, and his sisters threw mildly unimpressed looks in his direction.

Her eyes still moist, her nose red and blotchy, his mother stirred to life again with endless questions and demands. "Where is he? I want to see him. I want to hold him. Bring him to me. Is he upstairs—"

She was already on her feet, about to dash up the glass staircase when Liam stopped her.

"He's not here, Mom. He's with Eden in Forrest Creek."

"Why?" She asked in a shrill, thin voice, her face scrunched up in confusion. "I don't understand. Why is he not here? Why are they not here with you?"

Liam explained things with Eden were complicated, but he assured them he'd bring Aiden home as soon as he could.

"How could you keep him from us?" Clarke accused, and for a tense fifteen minutes, everybody lost their heads.

Overnight Liam became a deadbeat dad who had allowed his child to live like a pauper's son.

"Which part of I didn't know about him until today is so hard to understand?"

"I knew you were sleeping with her!" Holly shouted gleefully, going way off tangent with her recollections. "I called it on my birthday when you defended her honour!"

"Shut up!" Liam snarled at her. "You don't know shit about our relationship."

"Why didn't you tell us you have a history with Eden?" Lois stopped sniffling long enough to cast him another accusatory frown. "Why pretend you don't know her? Why keep the truth from us?"

"Mom, it's complicated!"

"Well, simplify it for us, son! We have the whole night." Clarke took over with the disapproving head shakes.

"Ugh!" Liam collapsed in the armchair beside the fireplace. "It was a hookup! We met at Crush two years ago, we spent a night together, and she vanished from my life only to resurface recently."

Shocked gasps resonated through the room following his announcement.

Clarke looked just about ready to chop off his head, and his mom was inconsolable.

Holly and Willow couldn't hide their glee. They were thrilled to finally have front row seats to his moment of shame and were enjoying every minute of his humiliation; after all, he was always the golden boy, the apple of their father's eye.

"I did nothing wrong!" Liam balled his fists on his lap. "I didn't know about Aiden. If I knew, I would have taken care of him from the very beginning!"

"I warned you your life of debauchery and your philandering ways would catch up with you someday! Look at this mess! In all six generations of this family, no Anderson man has ever sired a child out of wedlock! Liam, you've disappointed me!" Clarke bellowed, his voice louder than it has been in a while. But it wasn't his anger that startled Liam. It was the look of disappointment he saw in his eyes. It killed him a little.

He bowed his head in shame and stared at his hands. "I'm sorry I've disappointed you. But I believe I'm old enough to make my own choices, and times have changed—"

"Times may have changed, but principles don't!" Clarke shouted, his whole face as red as their hair. "And you know damn well every choice has a consequence. You will do the honourable thing and take responsibility."

"That goes without saying!" He shot back. "I plan to take care of Eden and my son."

"Good, I'm glad we're on the same page," his father continued. "We'll need to set up a meeting with the McBrides to—"

"It's too soon," Liam jumped in and stopped the train before it could go off the rails. "Things are complicated with the McBrides. They're going through a divorce."

"Oh, dear!" Lois dissolved into a puddle of tears once again. "They looked so happy when we saw them just last month."

"The McBrides' divorce has nothing to do with your marriage, Liam. So don't find silly excuses to wiggle out of doing the right thing. I taught you better than that!" Clarke announced. "Get this shit done and wrap it up neatly and quickly! The tabloids will have a field day if they find out about this, and I don't need to remind you what this will do to our share prices."

"He's getting married? When?" Both his sisters looked flummoxed.

Things were changing moment to moment at neck-breaking speed, plans were being made on the fly, and the dynamics were constantly shifting, so their confusion was understandable.

Liam had a few hours head start to the circus show that's become his life, but he, too, was just as bewildered.

He needed a minute to collect himself and regroup and make sense of everything.

In less than twenty-four hours, he'd waded through every emotion imaginable, gone to war with the love of his life, stared grief and heartbreak in the face. He was so tired, not just physically, but in the depths of his soul, too. If there was ever a reset button, he'd hit it right this instant and start over—

Silent for a large part of the meeting, Willow burst to life, like she'd just been zapped by a jolt of electricity. "There must be a reason she kept him from you! Why would she not tell you about him?"

Liam threw her a murderous glare. "Stay out of this."

"But she's right. She chose to go at it alone for two years," Holly, ever ready for their tag-team fight, jumped to Willow's defence. "Why is that? Liam, what did you do to her? No woman in their right mind would freeze you out knowing you're worth billions."

"I'm surprised no other woman has come forward. With your reputation, I think we're all just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Poor Laura, she must have been so crushed by the news. And poor Eden, she doesn't know what skeletons will pop out of your closet!"