I hesitantly knocked on Liam’s closed bedroom door as Achilles stood by my side, giving me a supportive squeeze to my shoulder.
Not wanting to accidentally wake him if he was still sleep, I called out softly, “Can we come inside, honey?”
Surprisingly, even though it was still quite early in the morning at only 7 AM, a flurry of scrambles scurried about behind the closed doors. The sound of fluttering papers and dropping pencils floated out from the room until the door finally opened up was a messy little boy standing in front of us.
Although he was in his pajamas, his hair was tousled every which way and his eyes had little bags hanging underneath them. His face was pale, almost as if it had been completed drained of life.
Handing the bowl of fruits off to Achilles, I worriedly crouched down to Liam’s height and cupped his little face between my hands, gently turning his head side to side in a panic. “Are you not feeling well? But you’re not warm… Do you have a headache? A sore throat? A-”
Liam patted my hands and gave me a weak smile as if he was trying to reassure me. “I’m not sick, mom. I just got caught up in one of my projects for school.”
I furrowed my eyebrows and questioned, “Did you stay up all of last night to work on this project?”
He diverted his eyes and tried to pull away from my hands, but I refused to let him go.
I repeated my question firmly, “Markliam Ace Belcalis, did you stay up all night?”
He shamefully confessed, “Yes…”
“Why?”
He flinched ever so slightly from my harsh tone. I had never yelled at or even raised my voice at him before. He never did anything to upset until now. How could he hurt himself like this?
I sighed and pulled him into my arms, tucking one of my arms under his bottoms and the other around his waist. Liam’s eyes widened as I lifted him off the ground with a bit of a struggle and walked him over to his bed, trying to ignore all the papers and textbooks lying around.
Achilles followed me quietly, setting the breakfast aside before joining Liam and me in bed.
Snuggling Liam between the two of us, Achilles stroked my head soothingly and calmly told Liam, “Your mom didn’t mean to yell at you. She was just feeling bit anxious because you seem to be hurting yourself by doing this. We heard from your professor that you were already acing all the exams and assignments, so we were wondering if there was any reason why you decided to take on so much work.”
Liam nodded solemnly as he leaned into Achilles’s side, mumbling softly to me, “I’m sorry for making you worry, mom. I just wanted you to be proud of me…”
I pressed my lips into a thin line before releasing a heavy sigh. Giving into his watery eyes, I scooted closer to my two boys and warmly wrapped my arms around Liam as I pressed a soft but reassuring kiss to the top of his head. “I’ve told you so many times already, but your dad and I don’t care if you are a genius or not. You’ve already accomplished more than others have in a lifetime. We only want you to be happy and healthy. Just know that you can tell us anything at anytime. We will never judge you.”
Unable to contain his tears anymore, little pearls started trickling down his cheeks one at a time. He reached his thin arms out for me as he buried himself into my lap with a muffled sob. “I’m so tired, mom…”
I stroked his head tenderly, easing out all his anxieties little by little. “I know, honey…”
Achilles’s eyes shook with every sob that came out of our boy. Although he didn’t say anything, it was clear how much it hurt him to see Liam like this.
But all we could do was to stay patiently by his side, quietly whispering soft words of reassurance. The only thing we wanted was for our little boy to feel better.
Almost half an hour passed by before Liam could raise his head from my lap, rubbing his puffy nose as he glanced worriedly between the two of us. He sniffled and quietly mumbled, “You’re going to be late to work because of me…”
I stroked his head reassuringly and explained, “Your dad and I decided to take the day off from work last night. Today’s just going to be all about you, honey.”
He murmured shamefully, “But you’re going to be-”
“But nothing,” Achilles interrupted. “We realized how much we had been neglecting you with work and the wedding coming along and wanted to make it up to you.” Achilles tenderly pulled Liam into his lap and reached over to hand him a tissue for his running nose. “We can do anything you want today. No paperwork or projects. Something away from all computers and calculators.”
Liam blew his nose with an adorable little wrinkle to his baby cheeks.
Tossing Liam’s dirty tissue away, Achilles continued, “Now let’s get you some food into your system first. I made your favorites.”
Liam nodded in understanding as his eyes silently drifted across all the food without much of any sparkle in his eyes.
It pained me to see him so lifeless, but Achilles easily filled in where I faltered. He pulled the cart of food closer to us and fluidly speared a plump ruby red strawberry onto his fork before holding it up to Liam’s lips.
Liam mindlessly accepted the juicy morsel, wrapping his pink lips around the fork with a small hum in delight when the sweetness bursted on his tongue.
With a never ending amount of patience, Achilles continued to feed Liam his breakfast one bite at a time, only stopping occasionally to remind me to eat as well.
And, with each bite, color slowly returned to Liam’s face as life started to come back to his little body.
Once he finished his plate, Achilles set the fork aside and silently sat next me, waiting for me to finish as Liam sipped on his hot chocolate.
Achilles had one hand resting comfortably on Liam’s knee as he played with the ends of my hair with his free hand, seemingly lost in thought. Although he wasn’t saying anything, both Liam and I found his silence quite comforting.
Several minutes passed by without a single word until Achilles suddenly came out of his thoughts and bluntly stated, “I want to take Liam out of college for a while.”
Liam immediately tensed up from his words.
I squeezed Liam’s hand reassuringly and looked up at Achilles to continue.
Achilles sighed as he leaned forward to wrap his arms gently around Liam’s little body. He patted Liam’s head comfortingly and explained, “I don’t want set him to stress himself out like this again. He’s already more than smart enough to graduate from college if he wanted to, but he’s still young, and I think it would be best if he took a break and did something aside from studying for a while.”
Liam chewed his lower lip, sitting silently without a word.
I rubbed my thumb softly over his little hands, uncurling his clenched fingers one at a time. “Liam, I agree with your dad. I also think it would be good for you to take some time off.”
He mumbled lifelessly, “But then I wouldn’t have anything to do at home.”
I bit my lip. My workplace was too crowded to take him there. Of the few times when I had no other choice but to bring him to work with me, he had to stay confined to my office all day by himself.
Maybe I could take some time off for a while? I did have some-
“What do you think about coming to work with me then?” Achilles abruptly offered.
“But you’re very busy at work, Achilles. I don’t want to burden you even more-”
He interrupted, “I was thinking that maybe Liam could take a look around my company for a week or two. I don’t plan to pressure him into taking over the company. I could always just sell it off when I retire or pick out a successor from one of my VPs, but he could try it out and see if he likes it as an option for the future.”
“But-”
“He is my son too, love.” Achilles gently laced his arm around my shoulder and pulled me in close for a reassuring kiss to the side of my temple. “If anything, I would be happy just to get to spend a bit more time with him.”
I sighed and gave into his persuasive caresses. Glancing over at Liam, I asked, “What do you think about it, honey?”
Liam squeezed my hand but eventually gave a small nod in agreement. “I don’t mind…”
Achilles had a soft smile as he gazed upon our little boy. Ruffling Liam’s hair ever so slightly, he added, “We can visit your mom together every day for lunch.”
A small smile appeared on Liam’s lips. He nodded with a bit more spirit, finally relaxing into our hold.
Though I wanted Achilles to take back his words, to not push off his work for us when I knew how he would always have to catch up on it later late at night, I couldn’t bring myself to say it when Liam seemed so much livelier after such a simple promise.
I would do anything to see my little boy happy.