My Freya & Our Miracle Baby

Chapter 9: "Uncle Liam"

Freya POV

I gulp down. He’s right. Liam has everything on his side, resources, money, power. Even I know that just being his mother isn’t going to be enough. If Liam wants to see him, one way or another he is going to.

“Fine. But on my terms.”

“And what exactly are your terms?” I have absolutely no idea. What the f**k am I supposed to say?

“I don’t know, alright. Why do you even care?” His head pops back a bit in surprise. What? Am I wrong?

“Are you joking?” Does it look like I’m joking or something. Simply shaking my head, I heave out a heavy breath.

“Look, he just started his first day of school today-“

“First day? He’s three?!” Is he seriously trying to tell me how to raise my kid? I guess, Theo is his kid too, but sigh, it’s just complicated.

“He’s kind of a genius, so I decided to start him early.” Liam smirks with pride in his chest.

“I want to talk to him.” He tries to open the door, but I put my back against the door and stop him.

“My terms.” I state firmly, but it’s no use. He lifts me off the ground and sets me back down behind him as he opens the door to go inside the cottage.

“Liam!” Even with me yelling at him, he doesn’t seem to care as he enters my cottage. s**t.

“Mommy, what’s for dinner? I’m hungry.” Young Theo turns around to realize that Liam is in the cottage too and shys away.

“Theo, this is your Uncle Liam.” I tell the boy, a bit nervously as Liam gives me a side eye.

“Hi.. Uncle Liam.” He sputters out as he struggles to say his name. “Mommy, can I have a snack?”

“Yeah, sweetie. You can grab a snack.” Theo jumps off the couch to scurry off into the kitchen and opens the fridge. Liam just watches him like he is this little miracle, and I guess some ways, that’s true. I mean, if what he told me was true. But to be honest, I don’t know what the difference between a truth and a lie is anymore.

Theo grabs a pudding cup from the fridge and tries to open the wrapping, but he struggles with it. With his big doe eyes, he turns to me and hands me the pudding cup. Before I can actually grab ahold of it, Liam grabs it and opens it for him with ease.

“Thank you, Uncle Liam.” Theo smiles shyly at this practical stranger to him. I hand him a small spoon and he scurries off.

“Why didn’t you tell me? How could you keep him from me? That’s my son.” His hurt words actually makes me shiver out. Woah. That has to be real, right?

“I didn’t think you’d want to be a part of his life.” I sigh out as I open the fridge to grab some ingredients to prepare for dinner. He grips my hand on the fridge door roughly, causing me to shut the door.

“You knew I wanted kids. I told you the doctors said it would take a f*****g miracle and you keep this from me?!” I look into his pissed off blue eyes. At least that part isn’t a lie, right? f**k.

“I don’t know anything.” I scoff at him as I reopen the fridge door to grab some ingredients to start working on dinner. I grab a yellow onion and some ground beef out of the fridge.

“What’s for din-din, mommy?” Liam looks over to me curiously.

“We’re having spaghetti for dinner!” I yell back at the boy. “Did you do your homework yet, baby?”

“I finished at school.” I nod, at least that’s good. I get out a cutting board to slice up the onions as Liam makes his way over to Theo in the living room. But instead of actually conversing with him, Liam just stares at Theo. Thankfully, Theo is in his own world of cartoons.

“Liam.” I call out to him, but he doesn’t pay attention, or he is choosing not to respond back to me as he continues to peer at the small child in the living room. I shake my head and grab out a pan as I have sliced up the onions and crushed the garlic.

Just as I start to heat up the pan and drop some oil into the pan, I feel a set of arms wrap around me from behind, causing my heart to skip a beat. Damn it, Liam. Forcing my body to not submit to him, I breathe in and out calmly before sprinkling in the crushed garlic into the pan. Liam gives a strong whiff of my hair and moans erotically into my ear.

“Get off, Liam.” I state very clearly, but he’s not budging. “I’m not joking.”

“Neither am I.” His hoarse voice is the tilting point as my body lets out a shudder against his chest. God damn it. I know he felt that one. Liam finally releases me, so I grab the onions and start to cook that to get it soft. I hurry over to the fridge and grab some smushed roma tomatoes I had prepared the night before and place it next to the pan.

“He has school tomorrow.” I say as I gulp down, still not looking in his direction. I just can’t bring myself to do it. “You can stay here until he has to go to bed at 9 tonight.”

Liam grabs my hand to stop me from running around the kitchen to get dinner ready. I stare at his hands on my mine, but I don’t look him in the eye. He is an asshole, quite literally vile. But why does he make me feel.. just f*****g feel.

“Let’s talk. No bullshit.” I scoff at him.

“I don’t think you’re capable of doing that.” Forcing his hands off of me, I place the tomatoes into the pan and add all of the seasonings necessary. I heat up some water in a pot and add some salt into it.

“Freya, come on. We have a kid together. The least the kid deserves is for his parents to be at the very least cordial together.” I breathe in and out. I’m not going to stand here and lie that it wouldn’t be great if Theo’s father was involved in his life, but at what cost?

“Did you ever think that maybe you’re the reason I kept him from you? I don’t want to hurt him, he’s just a kid.” I say to him, which catches him by surprise. Or at least, I think? God, I am f*****g screwed up. He stays silent on the matter, probably thinking of some witty comeback.

“How about tonight? After Theo gets into bed?”

“You won’t give up, will you?”

“It took me four years to find you. And now, I don’t exactly expect to lose either of you again.” This is when I finally meet his eyes again. He’s f*****g serious. He’s not going to leave. Even if he did leave, he could take Theo with him and what would I be left with? I bite down on my tongue and just suffer through it.

“Fine. Tonight. But just talking.” Liam nods as he will take what he can get.

“Uncle Liam...” Theo comes up to us after his favorite cartoons have stopped doing their re-runs. “Do you know how to play chess?”

“Hey, Theo.” Liam kneels down to the small boy as he innocently looks up at Liam. “Yes, do you want me to teach you how to play?” Theo shakes his head feverishly.

“Will you play with me? Nobody else knows how to play very well.” He gives Liam the puppy dog eyes. Oh, God. Those little daredevil eyes of his are a trap.

“Sure, kid. How about we set it up on this island here and we can watch your mommy cook dinner while we play?” Theo nods happily as he runs to his room to find his chess set.

“He’ll beat you.” I cross my arms and rest against the counter.

"Is that right?” His voice is softer, but his facial features are still rough.

“Does your man out there need food?” I gesture towards outside where a car has been parked this whole time.

“I’ll send him away.” Liam takes out his phone and texts something to the man across the street because in the next couple of minutes, the car starts and heads on out of here.

“Uncle Liam! Uncle Liam!” Theo’s voice gets louder and louder as he scurries back in with his small chess set. I let out a small laugh as a single piece of the chest set is probably too small for Liam to hold.

“Hi, big guy.” Liam lifts Theo into the air and instead of sitting him down on the other bar stool, Theo sits on Liam’ lap. “What do we have here…?” The two of them get really into their chess game as I slowly make dinner. I am in no rush to finish that up as I started earlier than planned. Because of that, I figure I could make Theo’s favorite dessert. Since it was his first day of school and all, he deserves a treat.

“Check.” Liam says to Theo who looks at the chess board with fiery all over his face. What do you know? Liam may beat Theo after all. Liam gives Theo a kiss on the head as he watches his son try to figure out the next move. He’s infatuated with him.

“Mommy, Uncle Liam is good!” I let a smile slip as I wash up some dishes, but neither of them can actually see me. Settling back down, I turn around to see Liam looking at me, just looking.

“You can ask him to help you get better if you want.” I shrug at the thought.

“I have to forfeit. I don’t think I can win.” He gives a small little pout, but he just looks up at Liam with some hope swiveled up in his eyes. “Can we play again?”

“If it’s okay with your mommy.” Liam pets Theo’s head like he’s this precious little angel. I mean, he is, but Liam doesn’t know that.

“Mommy, can Uncle Liam and I play another round?” I look over and see that dinner is about to be ready.

“Sure, but you have to eat a little while you’re playing alright?” Theo nods enthusiastically as he sets up his game again.

I drain the cooked pasta and put some olive oil to keep the noodles from sticking to one another. After that, I put the cooked ground beef and tomato sauce on top of some pasta on three plates. I push two plates over to them with two forks, one plastic and one metal.

“What do we say to your mommy for cooking dinner, Theo?” Liam holds Theo tightly.

“Thank you, mommy, for dinner.”

“Thank you.” Liam says to me and I just nod. I go over to the fridge and grab some wine. Pouring it out to two wine glasses, I set one down next to him as I sip off the other one. He gives me a suspicious look as he looks at me take a sip, almost like weary something is going to happen. Okay, weirdo.

I eat a couple bites of pasta before cleaning up my mess and start working on a puff pastry dessert for the kid. I hear Theo laughing as he tries to beat Liam in a game, but apparently to no avail. Just as I am about to roll out the puff pastry, Liam has beaten Theo again. I guess he really hates to lose, even to his own son.

“Again! Again!” Theo claps his hands together as tries to get the game pieces together. Liam looks in my direction and catches me watching them. They really are like father like son. I immediately look away. It’s not like I didn’t want Theo to have a father, but what else was I supposed to do?

“Ask your mommy first.” Liam gives another kiss on sweet Theo’s head. He loves him. Damn. He’s never going to leave now. I just nod at Theo before he can even ask me. It’s clearly a good bonding time for them. Who am I to stop it?

“It’s almost 6 PM, so you can play for another two hours. But after, we need to get you into a bath and into bed.” I tell them both, to which Theo gives me this adorable toothy grin that I return with a soft smile.

“Can Uncle Liam stay for bedtime?” He gives me a hopeful look, to which I look towards Liam who just looks utterly fascinated with the boy. Yeah, there’s no way in hell this isn’t going to be super f*****g complicated now, I mean more so than before.

“Sure, sweetie.” The two of them play an assortment of board games for the next two hours, though chess took up most of their time together. I think Theo just wants to figure out a way to beat everyone. Most of the people in this small town hardly know the pieces of chess, much less know how to play it.

I finish up the pastry puffs and put them in the oven. I gulp down a big chunk of wine and grab some more from the fridge. When I turn back around, I see Liam look at me with a hesitant look. He still says nothing about it. What is his problem? It’s not like he’s never seen me drink before. Is this because I drink in front of Theo? Probably not since Liam finished his glass too.

Time passes by quickly as the sun quickly sets and I finish up cleaning the kitchen. I hand Theo and Liam their pastry puffs before I take a big fat yawn. The wine made me sleepy. When the clock hits 8 PM, it feels like the whole night just passed by so quickly. Perhaps it’s because I was entertained by the boys playing on the kitchen island.

“Alright, Theo.” I clap my hands together to get his attention. “I’m going to start your bath, so you need to put away all of yours toys and then meet me in the bathroom okay?” I ruffle his hair up a bit as I head into his bathroom to turn on the water and fill up the tub. Pulling my hair up into a messy bun, I am about to get out of the bathroom to get Theo again when I smack into a hard chest.

“Need help?”