Begin Again novel Chapter 231

[Six Months Later]...

After months of preparations, Eden's weeklong exhibition at Fugue was a smashing success. She even managed to sell two of her paintings. But with all the smiling and pandering she had done to Rock Castle's uber-rich, she would not have expected anything less.

So when Saturday rolled around, the only thing she wanted to do was to crash on the couch and put up her feet. Not a lot for a girl to ask. But she wasn't destined to enjoy the little things in life.

Having tried every trick in the book to get her to give up her spot on the couch and leave the house with him, Liam finally let the cat out of the bag. Her friends had tasked him with the sacred job of dropping her off at Heat for a surprise baby shower.

Eden didn't want to go anywhere, but she would never hear the end of it if she didn't show up. So she threw on a pair of black leggings—the only thing in her closet that still fit her— and Liam's denim shirt and a pair of sneakers.

She piled her hair in a high ponytail and dabbed some light lipstick, and grabbed her tote.

Downstairs, she found Liam watching the news and Aiden scribbling in a colouring book. The latter immediately ran up to her to check on his little sister.

"Baby is sleeping?" He asked after touching her tummy for a few minutes and still didn't feel the baby's kicks.

"Yeah, she's tired like mommy." Eden laughed and ruffled his hair.

"Okay!" Aiden called over his shoulder as he dashed to the living room to put on his shoes and get his backpack.

"You're rocking that denim shirt," Liam pointed at her and smirked. "It looks familiar."

"I stole it from my hookup!" She smirked right back at him as he drew her in his arms and kissed her nose before he poured her a glass of orange juice.

"Thanks!" She mumbled while she looked through her tote for her prenatal vitamins.

"Ready to go?" He asked.

"Uhmhum." She nodded and popped the pills in her mouth, washing them down with the juice.

"Remember, you have to act surprised; they'll skin me alive if they know I told you," Liam reminded her as he crouched on the floor to tie her laces.

"I'm not sure why they thought you could keep a secret!" Eden stifled a yawn with the back of her hand.

"I can definitely keep a secret, Mrs Anderson!"

"You? Please!" She scoffed at him. "Remind me again, who told everyone we're having a girl as soon as we learned the baby's sex?"

"It wasn't me!" He smiled guiltily.

"You sure know how to make Shaggy look innocent!"

"Who's Shaggy again?" He laughed as he stood up and turned to the living room to call their son. "Kool-Aid, come on, let's go, let's go! If we don't leave now, we'll be late, and I'll get in trouble with your aunts!"

"Coming, Dad!" Aiden yelled as he ran back to the kitchen with his shoes on the wrong feet, dragging his backpack behind him.

"Dude, how did you even run in those without tripping over your feet," Liam sighed and knelt again to fix Aiden's shoes before he picked him up and threw his backpack over his shoulder.

Brenda came down just as they were about to slip out of the house.

"Have fun!" She called after them.

Half an hour later, they were at Heat.

"Call Jace when you're ready to leave. I have a meeting after my appointment with Linda," Liam told her as he drew her close and kissed her.

"It's okay. I'll ask Cass to drop me off," She said as he helped her out of the car.

"Bye, Aid, be good, don't make Daddy's therapist cry." She waved at her son and blew him a kiss.

Aiden blew ten more back at her and promptly forgot about her and carried on babbling to Steven and James in the front.

"I love you, Princess." Liam kissed her forehead and pushed her to the entrance.

Despite being under new management, the restaurant hadn't changed much since Eden was there on Sienna's birthday several months ago. The hostess showed her to the private room her friends had booked.

"Surprise!" Everyone screeched as soon as she walked in, and because she wasn't expecting Liam's mom and sisters and Erica, she didn't have to fake her 'surprised' face too much.

"Oh, you guys!" She squealed right back at everyone as they all hugged her like they hadn't seen her in a while, even though they'd all stopped by her exhibition throughout the week.

"This is so pretty!" Eden gushed as she took in the decor in the room. On any other day, the place was normally kitted out in minimalist elegance. But today, her friends had gone all out to transform it into a starry night themed wonderland.

She waddled around the room and 'oohed' and 'aahed' at all the small details, completely smitten with everything, from the stars and crescent moon floating from the ceiling to the star-shaped cupcakes she nibbled on the whole afternoon.

She was tickled pink when she saw they'd used Aiden's book as a centrepiece on the snacks table.

She'd printed several copies and sent a few to all her friends even though they didn't have kids. She also gave one to Zara from HR and shipped another to Isaac's daughter.

She'd received raving reviews from both Zara and Isaac, and they'd even encouraged her to think about publishing it. But she wasn't planning to commercialise the book. It was a labour of love she'd wanted to share with those near and dear to her.

"He told you, didn't he?" Her friends ganged up on her as she was about to grab more cupcakes.

"Who? Told me what?" She feigned ignorance.

"About this, of course!" Sienna groaned. "Honestly, this is why I don't trust married people!"

"Hey, watch it!" Eden scolded her.

"But are you surprised he told her, though?" Cassandra pointed out. "This is the same guy who prattled off to Eden just last week about my accidental smooch with Matt in his office."

"Liam can keep a secret!" Eden defended her husband and artfully changed the subject, throwing her friend under the spotlight. "Speaking of that accidental smooch, are you guys like seeing each other now?"

Cassandra turned a bright pink and shook her head quickly. "It was an accident, you guys. I dropped something. He helped me pick it up and—"

"And your mouths accidentally touched!" Lydia made kissing faces and smacked her lips together.

"You are so gross!"

"So you are still not a thing?" Sienna joined the fray.

"I think I'm falling for him, you guys!"

And they all squealed, attracting Erica and Lois' attention from across the room.

"I'll be right back," Eden told her friends and strolled over to chat with them for a bit.

"Not much longer now?" Lois said as she touched her belly.

"Yeah," Eden agreed. "In two weeks, she'll be here."

"Have you guys picked a name?" Eden shook her head even though they have. But she and Liam had promised they wouldn't tell anyone until the baby arrives.

But across town, on his therapist's couch, while his son pushed his car on the floor and talked to himself, Liam couldn't stop talking about Riley Anderson.

"I can't wait to meet her, Doc. She has the cutest little face. Did you know how realistic 4D scans are?"

Linda nodded and smiled at him. "I have three boys, Liam. Of course, I know. I knew 4D scans before they became a thing in your world."

"Thanks, Debbie Downer; why couldn't you let me have this one?" Liam growled as he sat up. "Anyway, I bet you don't know what Riley means!"

Linda shook her head and shut her notebook.

"Me neither," he smirked and picked Aiden up. "Your assignment this week, Linda, is to figure out what Riley means and call me with your research."

"You can just google it, Liam."

"Then why do I pay you if I can just google everything myself?" He asked, his eyebrows arched, his eyes flashing with amusement.

"Bye, Liam. I'll see you next week," she laughed and waved them out of her office. "Bye, Aiden!"

Aiden waved back at her. "Bye Bye Linda. Be good!"

They were at Anderson Logistics fifteen minutes later, where Liam spent a large part of his afternoon in a meeting with Aero Shipping and Lusso, discussing their quarterly earnings.

Despite his initial misgivings about Andrei, the man had stuck to his part of their agreement and hadn't rocked the boat.

But personally, Liam thought he was still an asshole. His opinion was firmly cemented soon when the meeting drew to a close, and Andrei just had to boast about the new painting he bought at Fugue.

"I own a piece of your wife now, Anderson!"

"No, asshole, you own a piece of her creativity!" Liam growled and walked off to his office, his cousins following behind him.

"Why do you allow him to rattle you like that?" Julian asked as he warmed them all up with a round of drinks.

"Would you not be rattled if the man kept talking smack about your wife?"

"It's Andrei!" Matthew added his two cents worth to the conversation. "He's an asshole. That's what he does. Anyway, you must be relieved the other crazy twin is finally behind bars."

"He got off easy," Liam scowled. He'd never be happy with the light sentence Aleksei had gotten. Six years was way too short for attempting to take someone's life. But he knew he had to make peace with it at some point.

"When is she arriving?" Matthew asked as they watched the view of Castle Bridge and sipped their whiskeys in silence while Aiden tried to peek through the telescope even though he could hardly reach the eyepiece.

"Two weeks," Liam replied.

"So soon?" Julian panicked on his behalf.

"I mean, are you even ready for her? You just got married, haven't even gone on your honeymoon yet because you were so paranoid shit would go wrong—"

And it did, Liam thought sadly. They'd had two scares with the baby, but thankfully both times, the doctors had managed to avert their worst nightmare. None of their family members knew, though, because they'd kept the harrowing incidents to themselves.

"—On top of that, you're still learning how to communicate with this dude over there," Julian carried and pointed at Aiden, who in turn pointed back at him and laughed his head off.

"And now you have this little one on the way," Matthew added and topped up his glass.

"I'll handle it." He said.

"How can you be so sure?"

"I have Eden. With her by my side, I can handle anything."

"Yes, master, I want to be just like you when I grow up!" Julian bowed and retreated from the room. But at the door, he just had to let them know of his very exciting plans for the evening. "Remember Chloe Lennard, the lingerie model? I finally got my 'meet and greet' with her."

"Hold on to your bank card!" Both Matt and Liam said at once and laughed at how in sync they were.

"And I have a cooking class to attend," Matthew announced as he dumped his glass on the table, fist-bumped his nephew and skipped off.

"So that's what they call banging these days? Cooking class?" Liam called after him.

Matthew flipped him the bird and vanished out of sight.

"Dad," Aiden said from behind him.

"Yeah, what's up, Kool-Aid?" He turned to look at his son.

"What's this?" He asked, holding his index finger high up in the air, mimicking his uncle.

Liam groaned and quickly brought down his hand. "We don't do that."

"Why?" Aiden asked.

"Because it's not a good thing."

"Why?"

"We'll ask Mom."

Aiden seemed pleased with his response, and he returned his attention to the telescope. Liam picked him up and adjusted the eyepiece for him, and for a little while, they zoned in on the cars speeding on the bridge.

Later that evening, when they got home, the house was unusually quiet, and Liam went straight to their bedroom in search of Eden as soon as he put Aiden down for his nap.

But she wasn't there.

Her art studio, directly opposite his study, was also empty. The door was ajar, though.

He'd rarely set foot inside and had tried not to go in without an invitation because he thought of the room as a sacred space where all of Eden's creativity dwelled.

He was right.

When he stepped inside, it was like he had walked through a portal and into another dimension, a nirvana of colours and emotions, where ideas and creativity and feelings collided.

Drawn to one particular painting, Liam approached it, and for the longest time, he just stood there, rooted to the spot, gazing at the scene in front of him. Not because of the moody backdrop of dark colours and bold strokes or the moment forever frozen on the canvass. But because of the raw emotions Eden had so perfectly encapsulated.

"You're back," she said from behind him, pulling him away from his grief and anger and sadness she had managed to trap inside the painting.

"Why would you paint this?" He asked.

She moved deeper into the room and stood beside him. "I had to. If I didn't, I was so sure it would drive me insane. I had to get it out of me."

"But you never gave it to me."

"It's not yours."

"It's me. My feelings."

"No," she shook her head. "It's a reminder of how I should never push you too far again."

"I want it."

Eden stared at him for a while, confusion and sadness flickering in her eyes.

"Why?" She asked at last.

"Because I've never seen anything like it, and I've never felt so alive when I look at a painting."

"Okay." She nodded as though she understood. But Liam knew she didn't because, he too, couldn't understand any of it or why he had such a visceral reaction to the painting.

"Thank you." He smiled and kissed her, his grip tightening around her the longer she purred in his arms.

"You're not allowed to make those sounds," he groaned when they eased apart. "Especially when we both know we can't do anything about them."

"Aye, captain!" Eden laughed, and he lowered his head again to kiss her dimple.

"I'm heading to bed. Are you coming?" She asked when they drew apart.

"I'm right behind you," Liam replied as he reached for the painting and held it up. "I love it. I'm going to hang it in my office."

They went through their nightly ritual—took a shower, brushed their teeth, slipped under the covers and turned off the lights.

But for some reason, Eden was restless, and no matter how long Liam rubbed her back to soothe her, she couldn't settle down.

"Should I run you a bath?" Liam asked.

"We already took a shower," she reminded him.

"Okay, do you want ice cream then?"

"No," she shook her head. "Just hold me."

Liam scooted closer, his hand resting on her belly.

"I'm scared," Eden cried in her pillow. "I didn't feel her move today."

He unconsciously tightened his arms around her and kissed her hair. "You know she's lazy. She's probably sleeping."

"But still she kicks—" Eden stopped, and they both burst into laughter when their daughter kicked in her tummy.

"See, I told you she's just lazy. Get some sleep."

And they did until Eden woke him up sometime after dawn when she came back from the bathroom.

"Liam, wake up. My water broke."

He was instantly wide awake.

He flipped on the lights, stared at the splash of water pooling at her feet, and forgot everything Google had taught him. "What do you mean your water broke? She's supposed to be here in two weeks! What are we supposed to do now? She can't come now."

"I don't think it's up to you. She just put in her RSVP. She's coming. Very soon. We need to go."

"Okay," he threw on his clothes, bundled Eden up in a clean nightie and carried her downstairs.

"We forgot the go bag!" She reminded him.

"Right the go bag!" He hollered at the top of his lungs. "Dave! Brenda! Bring the go bag!"

Instantly the house was a hive of activity as everyone coordinated their trip to the hospital, and they were at the Medi Clinic in fifteen minutes.

Unlike her older brother, Riley Anderson came into the world kicking and screaming and ready to claim her throne in her father's heart some three hours later.

And as Liam held her for the first time and touched her tiny rosebud lips while she screeched her little lungs out, he couldn't have loved her more.

He'd thought his life was complete and his heart full when he found out Aiden was his, but Riley added a whole new dimension of love.

She was a mirror image of him and Aiden with her dark red hair and blue eyes. But when Liam looked at her, all he saw was Eden's resilience and strength and courage.

"Liam?" Eden cried weakly from the bed while the doctors and nurses attended to her. "Is she okay? Is she fine?"

"She's perfect," Liam murmured as he approached the bed and sat on the edge and gently placed their new baby girl in her arms. "And you, Mrs Anderson, prepare my payment."

"She's so tiny," she cried, her eyes shimmering brightly with tears.

"But she's a warrior!" Liam said. "Like her mom."

Their little girl had defied all odds and fought so hard to make it into the world. Even when the doctor's thought she wouldn't make it, Riley had proven them all wrong, and he couldn't wait to watch her grow up and see all the amazing things she'd go on to do.

"Thank you," Liam said much later when they were alone in their private room with their new baby.

"I guess I should thank you as well because you contributed a lot, and I was just the incubator again," she smiled impishly at him, and he pulled in her and kissed her long and hard.

"That was your first payment. You owe me a lifetime of those since you lost the bet," he murmured.

"You are never going to let me forget that, are you?"

"Of course not," he chuckled as he reached inside his pocket and pulled out a small silver box. "Open it."

She gasped and burst into tears when she saw the charms inside.

"Do you like them?"

"Uhmhum," she nodded. "I love them."

"Good, because now our family is complete," Liam said as he unclasped her bracelet and added the sun and star charms to the rest of her set. "Up there, the sun and the moon and the stars may never share the same sky at the same time. But right here— you, me, Kool-Aid and our little warrior—we'll always be together."

[The End]

***

Author's Note:

Dear readers, thank you so much for reading Begin Again. I appreciate all the love and support you've shown me and I'm so honoured you chose to follow along on Liam and Eden's journey. Your comments have made me smile and laugh and cry and I wish I could reply to each and everyone of you.

If you'd like to read more of my works, please check out The Forsaken, a paranormal romance between a witch and a vampire MCs. It's almost complete.

Follow me on Instagram @fading_inkstains, to stay up to date on Save Him, the second book in my Rock Castle Series.

Love, Val!