To say that I was shocked by the sight was to say the least.
I reflexively caught Jane in my arms before she collapsed on the ground. Her eyes were unfocused and fluttering about as she held Liam protectively to her chest. Her breath were so shallow that it sent my mind into overdrive.
She said that she was only going to visit my tailor to get Liam a suit made. I even sent all of my most reliable guards with her and they didn’t message me about anything happening, so what on earth happened to my two precious angels to leave them in such a state?
I swiftly swept her off the ground and nodded for Watson to close the blind of my office for me as I made my way over to the decorative sofa sitting in the corner of my office. The door clicked shut when Watson finished his job and resigned himself to standing guard outside my office to give us some privacy.
I pulled Jane’s favorite knitted blanket- the one that she left here the last time she took a nap at my office with Liam- over the two of them as I sat down on the sofa.
She kept muttering random words erratically under her breath. Something along the lines of “stares”, “too much”, and “stranger.”
I tried to gently ease Liam would out of her deathly grip but she only tightened her hold and frantically whipped her head around to look up at me in a panic.
I slowly eased my fingers under her grasp and softly cooed, “Love, it’s just me. Your Achi. I’m a safe person, right?”
She stared at me blankly for a moment before nodding slowly as recognition faded back into her eyes. Her grip loosened as she released a shaky breath and nodded, “R-right, Achi is safe. I came to find Achi…”
She took in a deep breath of my scent as she leaned into my chest for support. As all of her previous flight-or-flight responses drained out of her body, she slowly became limp in my arms and eventually released Liam from her arms for me.
I gently laid out our passed out little one onto the sofa next to us with his head resting against my leg. I pursed my lips when I noticed the streaks of tears dried on his cheek.
I silently pulled some of the blanket over him. Once I was sure that he would be alright for the moment, I turned my attention back to my shaken up angel.
I kissed her temple reassuringly as I held her in my arms, rubbing light circles against her back in an attempt to comfort her. With time, the tremors slowly started to fade out of her body.
She hadn’t gone into a full blown panic attack like this since the time she was attacked by that man on the streets before we got together, so it pained me to see her in such a state.
And all I wanted to do was to yank out the name of their offender and hunt them down for daring to harm my family, but I knew that that wasn’t what she needed at the moment. She needed me to be her pillar of support, to be calm and patient for the time being until she could ground herself again.
She whimpered slightly when I shifted my hold. I stroked her head reassuringly as I settled back down.
I started softly, “Love, would you like to talk about what happened?”
She pressed her lips into a thin line. Her head still lowered as she mindlessly thumbed a button on my shirt.
I didn’t want to push her, but it pained me not to know what was hurting her.
After a painfully long period of silence, she eventually mumbled, “I’m sorry for interrupting your work. I didn’t mean to get overwhelmed by everything.”
I gently pulled her hand away from my shirt. Engulfing her cold fingers in my much larger hands, I pressed her hand against my cheek in an attempt to pull her attention away from her spiraling thoughts.
She pursed her lips as she looked up at me. Her eyes wavered as they scanned over my features.
“I would never get mad at you for something like this.” A kiss against her palm. “Always remember that you forever come before my work.” A kiss on the inside of her wrist. “I care more about your well-being than anything else.” A kiss on the tip of her nose. “So please know that you can tell me anything, but also know that I will understand if you don’t want to.”
She nodded meekly, sniffling slightly as she rubbed her puffy eyes.
I kissed the tops of her eyelids gently while waiting for her to regain her bearings.
Once she was fully settled, she started, “You know how Liam had been acting a bit weird a few weeks ago?”
I nodded.
“He seemed to be getting better these last few weeks. He was happier and joyfully skipping with me when we went to Mr. Angelo’s shop. But when we were leaving, we ran into a lady who introduced herself as Mrs. Albedo, the mother of one of the new heads on the board of your company. She wasn’t rude or anything, but… Liam was unusually frightened of her… He was frozen stiff at the sight of her and became completely unresponsive after she left. I don’t know if they had met before or something, but I didn’t know what to do when Liam fell into such a state.” She bit her lip harshly and muttered, “I panicked and shut down. I should’ve been-”
I brushed my thumb against her bottom lip, easily interrupting her self-deprecation, and gently pulled her lip out of the confines of her teeth. “You did the best you could, Jane. There’s no need to do everything by yourself anymore. You have me and I promised that I will always be there to support you.”
Her eyes flickered up, twinkling lightly once they locked onto my eyes.
“I haven’t had any board meetings these last two weeks, so he shouldn’t have been able to meet any of them before. But there’s a chance that he might’ve known her from somewhere else. And I know that he might not tell us like all the other things he had been trying to hide these past couple of weeks, but I will still try to talk to him.” I kissed her forehead softly and reassured her, “Everything will be straightened out with time, so please don’t stress yourself out like this… It pains me to see you in such a state…”
She nodded, bashfully turning her head away as she leaned into my chest. She held Liam’s head in her lap and tenderly stroked his head.
I had already known this before, but Jane truly loved Liam like her own. It tore her apart to know that he was battling with demons of his own but could not help him in any way.
Half an hour passed by in silence before Liam started to wake up.
He tensed up under Jane’s hand when he first opened his eyes until he regained his bearings and eventually relaxed under her touch. He closed his eyes and snuggled deeper into her lap with a soft hum, making Jane smile at his actions.
With time, as he started to wake up a bit more, Liam started to sit up and look up at us, noting our melancholic expressions. “Is something wrong?”
Jane tensed up in my arms, obviously biting the inside of her cheek as she searched for an excuse.
Covering her hesitation, I replied in her stead and told Liam, “It’s nothing. We’re just a bit worried after you passed out. Are you feeling alright?”
He nodded timidly but leaned into my hand I patted the top of his head.
Jane shifted anxiously in my lap, looking up at me and begging me silently with her bright violet eyes to say something else. It was obvious that she was starting to feel overwhelmed with the need to find out about what or who was harming her child, but she wasn’t able to convey her messy thoughts either.
Trying to pull her out of her spiraling thoughts, I gently nudged her side and told her, “Liam hasn’t had any lunch yet, and I’m sure you haven’t either. Why don’t you pick up something quick for the three of us from the cafeteria downstairs? Although it’s a bit later than originally planned, we can still have lunch together in my office.”
She glanced over at Liam worriedly.
I softly called out to her, “Love? I’m sure you’re feeling a bit hungry by now. Please get something to eat. Liam and I will be alright until you get back.”
She eventually relented and stepped out of my embrace. She stroked Liam’s head longingly before leaning down and pressing a kiss on his head.
Liam stared at her in confusion as she slipped out of my office quietly, holding two fingers lightly against the spot where she kissed. He glanced up at me in concern and asked, “Is mom alright?”
“She’s… just worried about you…”
He lowered his head and mumbled guiltily, “I didn’t mean to make her feel bad…”
I sighed and pulled him into my lap. “You didn’t do anything wrong, honey. We just wish you would tell us what’s going on in that little head of yours… I don’t want to pressure you to tell us, but I want you to know that you don’t have to hide things from us. We love you for who you are, and nothing will ever change that.”
Just like his mom, he fiddled with the button on my shirt as he thought over my words. “Nothing?”
“Nothing.”
“… Even when you and Jane have a baby together someday?”
I halted momentarily, surprised by the question. “N-no, why would you think that we would love you any less just because of that?”
He pursed his lips. “I… You wouldn’t need me anymore when you get your own child…”
“Liam!”
He straightened up almost immediately at my sudden outburst, looking up at me with wide eyes.
“We will never do that to you, so please don’t ever think about such a thing again.” I turned his thing shoulders in my hand to make him face me as I drilled my words into his head. “Even if we may not share the same blood, you are just as much our son as any other child we may have in the future. You will forever be our precious first child. And when or if we ever decide to have more children, created or adopted by us, you will still be our child and will become their new older brother as well, okay?”
He sniffled, wiping his tears with the back of his sleeve as he nodded in understanding.
I pulled him into a big warm hug, whispering words of reassurance. “You are special to us. No one can ever replace you, okay?”
He nodded as he cried silently in my chest.
I gently stroked the back of his head, slowly calming him down with each stroke. “Why would you think that we would ever get rid of you?”
Between each sniffle and every hiccup, he confessed, “S-she said that I-I was- hiccup- b-bad child. That n-no would want m-me b-because- hiccup- I’m n-no good. I d-didn’t want you to f-find out, s-so – hiccup-so I tried very h-hard to be good. T-then – hiccup- y-you wouldn’t try to get r-rid of me too.”
I tried to rub a soothing circle against his back. “Liam, honey, who said you were a bad child? You are nothing like that.”
“B-but she s-said I was – hiccup- T-that’s why she got r-rid of me.”
I furrowed my eyebrow in confusion. “Honey, who said that?”
“M-my b-birth mom- hiccup- I-If even she d-doesn’t w-want me, then eventually y-you won’t either.”
I quickly pulled his head into the crook of my neck as he burst into a new round of tears and gently rocked him back and forth, reassuring him, “There’s nothing wrong with you, Liam. She’s the one who doesn’t know what she’s talking about. You are the smartest, the kindest, and most hard-working…” My eyes widened at the realization. Lowering my voice, I asked painfully, “Is that why you started studying so much? So we wouldn’t get rid of you?”
He nodded meekly. “I-I- hiccup- wanted to be a g-good child.”
Cupping his face in my hands, I forced him to look up at me. “You’re already the best child. Please forget about that woman. She is not your mother if she treats you like that. You are ours now, and nothing you can do will ever change that, even if you wanted to play all day.”
He nodded obediently as he took in a shaky breath.
I patted his head lovingly, brushing his hair off of his sweaty forehead, and carefully asked, “You don’t have to tell me, but was that lady in the tailor’s shop your birth mom?”
He didn’t say anything, but the way he stiffened up…
The way his eyes rounded momentarily…
The way he diverted his eyes…
The way he hid his face…
It was more than enough to give me my answer.
I quickly dropped the question and reassured him, “It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me. It doesn’t matter anyway because Jane and I will be the only ones to be your parents from now on.”
He nodded silently, fingers clenching onto the loose fabric of my shirt.
His lips parted for a moment as if he wanted to say something, but it quickly disappeared when a soft knock sounded at the door, and Jane’s head peaked in worriedly. A waft of a sweet and tangy scent flooded into the room, earning a resounding grumble from Liam’s stomach in reply.
A small bashful upturn of his lips appeared as Liam buried his face into the crook of my neck in embarrassment, drawing out a soft smile in adoration from both Jane and myself.
I naturally accepted his adorable side and chuckled lightly as he grumbled something about his “tummy” betraying him.
My adorable little son.