Chapter 29
My big brother
Beautiful Views
Perspective
Truth
Rebellion
My kids
The Guest Bedroom
Liam was an idiot.
At least in whatever he assumed was going to happen or not happen with me getting to see the girls. I knew they were his, but they were also mine.
He’d kicked me out, but the first place I went was to my brothers.
Cole didn’t know what was going on yet, at least he didn’t act like he did, so when I walked in and gathered the girls around me, he didn’t seem to catch on to anything being different.
“Haley! Did you see our cupcakes? We made them with Daddy just for you!” Mila yelled, wrapping her tiny arms around my neck as I knelt down. Seraph gently hugged me next while Maddy stood there smirking.
“I saw them! They were the most beautiful cupcakes in the whole world.”
“Dad messed up on the first batch,” Maddy said with a giggle.
I stood, carrying Mila with me.
“What was written on them?”
The girls all blushed, looking down—then Seraph spoke up.
“We talked to Dad about it, and he thought it would be a good idea.”
My heart squeezed tight at the mention of Liam, and the memory of those cupcakes. I wanted to sit with the girls at home talking about this. I wanted them to point to what they had done, so I could tell them how proud I was that they’d done it at all.
“But they were too hot when we put the words on,” Mila added, her little face dropping in disappointment.
“Well, don’t keep me in suspense, what did it say?”
Maddy looked at her sisters, and they looked up at her.
“It said, ‘Will you be our mom?’”
Oh shit. I wasn’t prepared.
I’d come over here with a plan. I came with my pride slightly still intact because this wasn’t my first verbal spat.
It wasn’t the first time I had to hear someone’s unfiltered and unchecked thoughts about my character spat in my face in a fit of rage. I survived then and I’d survived again.
But this––hearing this. Damn it.
“She’s crying. We made her sad,” Mila whispered to her sisters.
I couldn’t see their faces through the tears.
“She’s crying worser than usual… We broke her. Uncle Cole!” Mila yelled, hopping off my lap.
I tried to swipe at my eyes, but it just got worse and then the sobs started.
It all hit me at once: The realization that Liam didn’t want me.
The fact that he’d asked me to go. The bone- deep loneliness that had trailed me my entire life.
The rejection. And stealing the biggest moment in my entire life—the girls asking me to be their mom.
How would I cope with losing them, not when something so wonderful and amazing had finally happened to me? I couldn’t lose them. I couldn’t leave them.
The couch dipped next to me, and Colson started rubbing my back.
“Sis, you okay?”
I sniffed, swiping at my face.
“Yes, sorry.” I needed the girls—where were they?
I got up and went to where they were standing over by the fireplace and knelt in front of them. Opening my arms, I tried to control myself as I gave them a wobbly smile.
“I love you girls so much. With my whole entire heart. That was the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.”
Maddy hugged me first, a few tears slipping free, and then the other two crowded around me.
Once I was sitting back on my heels, I gave them all a resolute look.
“I have to go on a little trip back home to tie a few things up, but I’ll be back….” I pulled their little hands and herded them back to the couch.
“We don’t want you to go,” Seraph said.
“It’s just for a little while. I’ll be back. But until then, we can talk on the tablets.”
The girls didn’t move.
They all sat, silently staring at one another. Mila sniffed. Maddy’s eyes watered, and Seraph’s face turned a deep shade of red as she crossed her arms.
“Here, let’s check out the new filters.” I held the tablet in my hand but Seraph suddenly grabbed it from me, stood, and threw the device on the floor as hard as she could in a shocking display of rebellion.
“No!” Seraph yelled at the top of her lungs.
Liam burst through the front door, his eyes searching the scene before him. Seraph didn’t even blink or look at him. She didn’t see Nora’s gaping mouth or Colson’s worried expression.
She focused solely on me. “We had to talk to dad for months on that stupid thing. I won’t do it again.
” Tears poured down her face as red blotches sprouted along her cheeks.
“We aren’t losing you now, too. We asked you to be our mom.
You can’t just tell us you love us and then leave. You have to be our mom now!”
She was shrieking, and I was silently sobbing.
Liam’s voice broke as he stepped forward, saying her name.
Seraph moved out of the way.
“Are you our mom or not?” Seraph cried, swiping at her face.
Mila was crying, hiccupping as she looked between me and Seraph.
I moved swiftly. I pulled Seraph into my arms and tried to breathe through my tears.
“Yes, I am. I’m your mom, and I’m not leaving.”
My eyes found Liam’s, they were red, watery, but relieved.
Maddy and Mila came over, joining our hug. My arms wrapped around them.
“Can we go home?” Mila asked, turning her head into my neck. I stood with Seraph in my arms, holding onto Maddy as Liam grabbed Mila. He said something to Cole and Nora, but I didn’t wait around to hear. I put the girls in my car, and when Liam buckled in Mila I locked eyes with him.
“I’m going home.”
He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he nodded.
The kids were finally asleep.
It took a lot of snuggling, pizza for dinner, and another viewing of Tangled, but they were finally out.
I walked out of Maddy’s room, clicking her door shut, and then turned toward the guest room.
I planned to figure out what my life was going to look like now that Liam wanted to break up with me.
But the girls had adopted me and I couldn’t leave them.
It was some weird backward bullshit that I had no idea how to manage.
Surely there were ways I could still be their mom but not live here.
I could get a cute house with four bedrooms, and Liam and I would just split the kids…
and the girls would have two moms that were on the outskirts of their lives.
Fuck. That wasn’t going to work.
I was crossing the threshold of the room when Liam stopped me.
“Haley—”
“Don’t, Liam.” I pulled my hand away, “I’ll figure this out. I know you don’t want me here.”
He pushed us inside and shut the door, and I crossed the room in a flash, my arms folded over my chest as I stood on the opposite side of the room.
“I was wrong. Please let me explain—”
I shook my head. “No. You need to go to bed.”
“I am—in here, with you.”
I was so angry at him. So hurt, and he didn’t get to stand there and make jokes.
“Fine, sleep in here.”
I pushed past him and stormed down the hall. He was right behind me, but not fast enough. I walked into his room, shut the door, and flipped the lock.
He wouldn’t risk waking the girls by knocking or yelling for me.
I was doing perfectly fine until I saw that Liam not only brought in my suitcases, but he unloaded them. All my skincare products were back on the counter, my pillows were back on the bed. My Kindle was in its usual spot, my paperback too. He’d put it all back.
I wasn’t sure what to make of that, but I was so frustrated that I decided to just get into bed and turn off the lights and hope sleep would claim me fast.
“Haley, this is ridiculous.” Gunther slammed my resignation notice down on his desk—at least it looked like he did from our FaceTime view.
I was using Liam’s office while he was at the gym.
The kids were at Colson’s for the day, hanging with Nora.
Days after our fallout, I was still trying to piece together my life.
Liam had finally stopped trying to “talk” to me.
All he was saying was that he didn’t mean what he said, but I believed a part of him did mean it.
Why else would the words have been on his tongue in the first place?
“Gunther, I know what I’m doing.”
Abandoning his desk chair, he paced in front of his window, which only made our connection fuzzy and his form blurry.
“You can’t leave the company just so your boyfriend will accept the deal of a lifetime. This doesn’t make any sense.”
He paused long enough for me to catch his brown eyes flashing, and I understood it. I’d be mad if he were doing the same thing, but I couldn’t help feeling more resolve on this decision than any other in my life.
“Gunther, it’s more than that. I’m moving permanently to Oregon. And besides, Liam and I broke up. This isn’t about him…not exactly. I just want to tie things up there.”
He shook his head, letting out a sigh. “You’ve managed working from Oregon this entire time. Why remove your name from the company now?”
I didn’t want to explain it. I just wanted Liam not to have a reason to turn down this offer. If my name wasn’t attached, then there would be no reason at all for him to turn it down.
“I’m paying out my shares, so financially you won’t even take a hit. Why are you so upset?”
Honestly, this was just business, and associates came and went all the time. I mean, I realized Hanes was the H in R it was the least I could do.
Give him this one thing to have, and he would be fine without me.
He made it clear the gym was his first priority. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have let me go.