Liam
He’d tried distracting himself with work, pulling up the Denver game on his laptop, determined to analyze where his defensive strategy had faltered. But the figures on the screen blurred and shifted, refusing to hold his attention.
Instead, he found himself clicking through photos on his screen — the ones he’d taken of Sunny with the girls, snapshots of domesticity he’d never thought he’d have again after Kate died.
Sunny helping Maddie with homework, her head bent close to his daughter’s, golden-brown hair falling in a curtain as they focused on math problems.
Sunny and Hailey covered in flour after an ambitious baking project, both laughing so hard their eyes crinkled at the corners.
Sunny asleep on the couch, a child tucked under each arm, all three lost in peaceful slumber after a movie marathon.
Then, a video he hadn’t seen before. He pressed play, and Sunny’s voice filled the room.
“Okay, ladies! Five, six, seven, eight!” She counted off a beat as the camera captured her teaching the girls a dance routine in the living room. All three wore improvised tutus, Sunny’s made from a blue bath towel wrapped around her waist.
“Spin, spin, arabesque!” she called, demonstrating a wobbly ballet move that sent Hailey into hysterical giggles. “Okay, maybe not arabesque. How about… jazz hands!”
Both girls immediately mimicked her, tiny fingers splayed as they shimmied in place. Sunny’s laughter rang out, bright and uninhibited, her face transformed with genuine joy.
“Daddy, you try!” Maddie’s voice called from off-camera, and the image shook as the phone was apparently handed off.
Then Sunny was reaching for the camera, eyes wide and sparkling. “No recording! Liam Anderson, don’t you dare — ”
The video ended abruptly, freezing on Sunny’s laughing face, one hand outstretched toward the lens.
Something snapped inside Liam — a dam that had been holding back the full force of his grief. A sound escaped him, something between a moan and a sob, as he slid from his chair to the floor, curling in on himself like a wounded animal.
What had he done? What had he thrown away?
The truth he’d been avoiding crashed over him in merciless waves.
He hadn’t sent Sunny away to protect his daughters or his career.
He’d done it to protect himself. He’d been terrified — terrified of loving someone that deeply again, terrified of building a life that could be shattered in an instant, terrified of becoming the man he’d been after Kate died.
So he’d attacked the threat like a hockey player — going on the offensive when faced with something difficult, striking first to avoid being struck. He’d agreed that Sunny should leave, even encouraged it, ignoring how the decision tore him apart inside.
And for what? A tenuous promise from management that they’d “see how things progressed”? The temporary approval of faceless executives who saw him as nothing more than a commodity, an investment with diminishing returns?
He’d sacrificed real love — genuine, messy, terrifying love — for the illusion of security.
Worse, he’d taught his daughters that people you love can be discarded when they become inconvenient. That relationships were disposable. That connections could be severed when they required courage to maintain.
No wonder they looked at him with hatred and betrayal. He’d confirmed their worst fears: that love wasn’t permanent. That people could walk away. That nothing was safe.
Maddie’s accusation echoed in his mind: “You were scared she’d leave like Mommy did, so you made her go away first.”
Out of the mouths of babes. His six-year-old had seen right through him, had understood his motivations better than he had himself.
Liam’s body shook with silent sobs as he pressed his forehead against his knees. He’d become the very thing he’d always despised in teammates — the coward who abandoned the fight when it got tough, who took the easy way out instead of standing his ground.
Kate would be ashamed of him. The thought emerged unbidden, but once it surfaced, he knew it to be true. His fierce, loyal wife would be devastated to see what he’d become — a man so afraid of being hurt again that he’d inflict pain on those he loved just to maintain the illusion of control.
A memory surfaced from the fog of grief — Kate, heavily pregnant with Hailey, looking up at him with serious eyes after a fight.
“Your problem, Anderson,” she’d said, “is that you’d rather shut people out than risk letting them see you’re human.
It’s easier for you to push people away than to admit you’re scared. ”
He’d laughed it off then, changing the subject with a kiss to her forehead. But she’d been right. She’d always been right about him.
The realization brought a fresh wave of anguish, but beneath it, something else stirred — a clarity born of hitting absolute bottom. He couldn’t fall any further. There was nowhere to go but up.
He thought of his father’s parting words: “Even good men make very big mistakes sometimes. The measure is whether they have the courage to fix them.”
Did he have that courage? Or was he the coward Sunny deserved to believe he was?
Liam lifted his head, wiping roughly at his tear-streaked face. For too long, he’d lived in the shadow of loss, letting fear dictate his choices. He’d convinced himself he was protecting his daughters, but in truth, he’d been shielding himself from the possibility of pain.
And in doing so, he’d inflicted pain far worse than any he’d feared.
Slowly, Liam pulled himself up from the floor, legs unsteady beneath him. He moved to his desk, gripping the edge for support as he stared at the frozen image of Sunny on his screen, her joyful face a testament to everything he’d thrown away.
She deserved better. His daughters deserved better. Hell, he deserved better than to live half a life, too afraid to reach for true happiness when it was offered.
He’d made a catastrophic mistake. The question now was whether he had the courage to try to fix it.
For the first time since Sunny’s departure, Liam felt something other than despair — a tiny flicker of determination kindling in the ashes of his self-destruction.
He had no idea if he could undo the damage he’d caused.
He didn’t know if Sunny would even speak to him, let alone give him a second chance.
But he knew, with bone-deep certainty, that he had to try. Not just for her, or even for the girls, but for himself — for the man he wanted to be, rather than the frightened shell he’d become.
Liam straightened, wiping the last traces of tears from his face. Whatever happened next, he was done living in fear. Done running from emotional risk. Done letting ghosts dictate his future.
It was time to fight for what mattered. And heaven help anyone who stood in his way.