Total pages in book: 19
Estimated words: 17714 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 89(@200wpm)___ 71(@250wpm)___ 59(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 17714 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 89(@200wpm)___ 71(@250wpm)___ 59(@300wpm)
“Be careful but hurry. Liam, I love you, too.”
I end the call before I start crying. I know there’s nothing he can do to stop the pain for me, so I don’t want him to freak out and crash to get there. Nina brings Max over to give me a kiss goodbye then Owen helps me to the car. He would carry me, but he doesn’t want Liam to kill him. Liam is a bit possessive like that.
Thank goodness that he didn’t carry me because as I walked to the driveway, I suddenly freeze. My water breaks soaking the floor beneath me. My legs are completely drenched in amniotic fluid. I can’t even feel mortified because I’m in pain. This baby wants to come out and this time I’m staying at the hospital.
Owen helps me in, and we drive off as fast as possible without being unsafe. He’s called ahead to the hospital, but they inform him that Liam has already called, and they have a team waiting. He adds that my water broke to clarify the urgency.
We pull up, and so does Liam. He opens the door before Owen gets to my side. “Park my car, please.” He throws his keys to Owen who catches them easily. Liam carries me to the wheelchair and follows by my side as the lead nurse pushes me inside.
“Breathe, baby. You’re so strong.”
“I need you, Liam. I’m hurting,” I sob. He clutches my hand, rubbing as best as he can while we rush to the delivery room.
“I’m here, Renee. Always.”
As soon as we get into the room, they lift me onto the bed. The nurses and Liam help me into a gown before the doctor takes a look at my aching bits. “Whoa. We’re having a baby right now.”
Everyone is moving quickly around us. I try to focus on my loving husband who’s brushing my hair absently with his hand while staring at the doc and where his hands are. I don’t have time to complain that it’s a male doctor. At the moment, I don’t give a fuck who pulls the baby out.
“Everything seems right on track. I want you to push on the next contraction.”
I nodded and the next hour passed in a painful blur. My son, Liam Evan Hart cries as they hand him over to me. I kiss my baby boy who is huge. “I love you,” Liam sobs, kissing my forehead then our baby boy’s fuzzy head. He has a thick head of dark hair. I can see the resemblance between my three men. I can’t be any happier.
Liam
Fifteen Years Later
“Liam, my mother has been released. I still don’t want anything to do with her. Is that bad of me?” Max asks after all these years. I know that she’s his mother biologically, but she wasn’t emotionally. We’ve had Max since he was one, but we raised him as my brother not as a father. Even though I feel like a father figure to him.
“Not at all,” I say, clapping my hand on his shoulder.
“She doesn’t want to see me either.”
“Does that bother you?”
“A little. It’s hard to know your mom doesn’t love you. Renee loves Liam and Steven so much.”
“And she loves you too. You became our first child and the reason we even met even though you were my little brother. She loved you even when she didn’t know how to care for a baby. You need to remember that your mother isn’t a good person. Some people are so selfish that they can’t love anyone but themselves. I’m sorry, but you’re just going to have to deal with Renee’s and my love for you. Can that be good enough?”
“Of course it is. I just wondered why I wasn’t lovable enough.”
“It’s not that you weren’t loveable. We loved you from the start. My mother has loved you like the boys. You know that some people are just pure assholes. Our dad was a dick, but he would have loved to have known you.”
“Thanks, bro.”
“Why is this coming up?”
“There’s a girl I like. And well I don’t know if I’m good enough for her.”
“You are the best student and are becoming a great man. Keep it up, and women will be more than fortunate to find a man like you.” Things worked out the way they should have. Cherry could have ruined him if she’d raised him.
“Thanks.” He smiles, picking up the bottle of water and walking out of the kitchen.
“What was that all about?” Renee says as she comes into the kitchen from the back steps. We bought a large house a year after our son was born. It was built in the early 1800s with a bunch of hidden pathways. We modernized it over the years, but it’s steeped in history still.
“Cherry,” I tell her. I don’t know how much she heard or saw, but I have a feeling she’s been thinking about Cherry’s release, too.