Chapter 14 Congratulations
3225 Words
Aria's POV
"You seem happy." The words landed quietly across the table. I looked up slowly. Liam's eyes were already on me. Steady. Watching. The kind of watching that made you feel like he was reading something you hadn't said out loud yet.
My fingers rested lightly against my glass. "I am," I said simply. He held my gaze for a second longer before looking back down at the documents beside him. But he didn't turn a page.
I picked up my glass quietly and took a small sip. The smile was still there at the corner of my lips. I could feel it, small but stubborn.
For a moment, the only sound between us was the soft clink of cutlery and the distant footsteps of maids moving through the corridor outside.
Then Liam spoke again without lifting his eyes.
"Why?" I set the glass down slowly. "Why what?" "Why are you happy." It wasn't really a question. His voice stayed flat. Like he was simply collecting information.
I studied his face carefully. The sharp jaw, the cold eyes still lowered toward the papers. The slight tension running along his shoulders even while he sat perfectly still. He looked like a man who had not slept either. I almost asked.
Instead, I folded my hands quietly on the table.
His eyes finally lifted toward me again. "I made it to the final round of the Life Specialist Hospital recruitment." I heard my own voice and something warm rose inside my chest again as the words left my mouth. "Top five candidates."
Liam stared at me. I searched his face carefully for something. A reaction, any reaction but his expression didn't shift. No frown, no smile, nothing. He simply looked at me the way someone looks at a wall they are deciding whether to repaint. Then he lowered his eyes back to the documents again.
My fingers pressed lightly against the table beneath my palms. "It's a very competitive programme," I continued quietly. "Thousands of applicants every year." Still nothing.
The maid moved silently near the far end of the table, refilling water glasses. Liam turned a page without speaking. Something tight pulled inside my chest.
I looked down at my half-finished plate. The warmth from earlier began to cool slowly. Not completely. But enough to remind me where I was. Who I was sitting across from.
I exhaled through my nose. Why had I expected anything? He had not answered my calls last night. He had not replied to my message. He had stared at me this morning like I had committed some quiet crime simply by staying with Chloe.
I pressed my lips together and looked toward the window instead. The garden outside was pale with morning light. A gardener moved slowly between the hedges, trimming them carefully. Everything outside looked calm and ordinary. I wished I could feel that calm.
"Aria." I turned back, Liam's eyes were already on me again. Something in his voice was different this time. Lower, sharper, but without the coldness. "Which hospital?" I blinked slightly. "Life Specialist."
His jaw shifted almost imperceptibly. "That hospital is far." I looked at him carefully. "An hour away. Maybe less depending on traffic."
"From here." It wasn't a question either. I understood what he was really saying.
My fingers pressed together quietly beneath the table. "It won't affect anything." My voice stayed even. Measured. "The hours are standard." Liam held my gaze.
"You didn't ask your husband before applying." Husband? The word sounded wired to me.
My back straightened slowly. "I applied before we got married." I kept my voice calm. "I didn't think it needed discussing then."
"And now?" "Now I'm telling you." He stared at me for a moment longer. Then he reached for his coffee slowly and brought it to his lips without responding. The silence returned.
But this one felt heavier than before. I looked down at my plate again. The food had gone slightly cold now. I pushed a piece of toast carefully to one side.
My appetite wasn't entirely gone. But the lightness from earlier had shifted into something else. Something careful. Guarded.
I hated how quickly it happened. How one conversation, or the absence of one, could pull the floor from under something that had just started to feel solid.
I reached for my own glass and took another sip. Across from me, Liam set his coffee down without a sound. His hand remained still on the table.
"Congratulations," he said finally. I knew that deep down he was proud of me. I looked up.
His eyes were already back on the documents.
His face showed nothing. But the word had come out.
Something moved quietly inside my chest. I swallowed slowly. "Thank you," I said. He didn't look up again. And somehow, I did not expect him to. I left the dining room not long after.
The morning had stretched into that strange, open hour just before the day properly started. The kind of time where everything felt possible and nothing felt certain at the same time.
I walked slowly through the wide corridor, fingers trailing slightly against the wall beside me.
Top five. Day after tomorrow. I said the words again inside my head quietly. They still felt foreign. Like a coat that belonged to someone taller. Someone more ready. I stopped near the large window at the end of the corridor.
The garden stretched quietly below. The hedges. The stone pathway. The small fountain near the far corner that no one ever seemed to sit beside. This house was beautiful. I had noticed that from the beginning. Beautiful and utterly silent. The kind of silence that didn't feel like peace. It felt like held breath.
I pressed my fingertips lightly against the cool glass. I needed to prepare. Notes. Research. Practice answers. The interview panel at Life Specialist was known to be difficult. No softness, no kindness, they wanted people who could stand without flinching. I had learned to stand without flinching a long time ago. My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out quickly. Chris again. “Don't forget. Two days. Stop overthinking and go prepare.” I read it twice before a small laugh moved through my nose.
He always knew. I typed back quickly. “I'm already overthinking.” His reply came within seconds. “Predictable, call me tonight.” I stared at the screen for a moment before sliding the phone back into my pocket.
My chest felt steadier now, not completely, but enough. I turned away from the window and started walking back toward the staircase.
The maids moved quietly through the rooms nearby, straightening cushions, carrying linens. One of them smiled softly as I passed. I returned it without thinking.
Halfway up the staircase, I paused. Liam's study door was slightly open at the far end of the lower corridor. Through the gap, I could see the edge of his desk. The stack of files. The faint sound of papers shifting.
He was still working, always working. I had noticed that too. Even on days when the house felt completely still, there was always that sound coming from behind his closed door. Quiet but constant. Like a machine running without rest. I looked at the open door for a moment longer. Then I turned and walked the rest of the way upstairs.
The afternoon passed slowly. I spent it at the small desk inside the bedroom, spreading notes across the surface until no empty space remained. Physiotherapy protocols. Patient evaluation methods. Case studies from medical journals I had saved over the past year. My handwriting filled the margins of several pages, small and careful. I had done this before. Hundreds of times.
Studying alone at a corner table in a university library while others went out for lunch. Preparing for exams while working back-to-back shifts on weekends. Reading by phone light when the electricity went out in the small apartment I rented during my second year.
Preparing was the one thing I had always known how to do. I pressed my pen against the edge of a page and stared at the words without reading them.
Tomorrow I would visit Chloe. If she woke up today as the doctor expected, she would already be asking questions by tomorrow. Demanding real food. Complaining about the hospital smell. Making Mrs. Greg laugh despite herself. That was Chloe.
Even in the middle of disaster, she somehow found a way to make the room feel lighter.
I rubbed my eye with the back of my hand.
Outside the window, the sky had shifted into a deeper shade of afternoon blue.bEvening arrived before I noticed. I had moved from the desk to the edge of the bed at some point, papers arranged carefully beside me, when a soft knock came at the bedroom door. I looked up. "Come in."
The door opened slightly. One of the younger maids stood at the threshold, her hands folded neatly in front of her. "Ma'am. Dinner is ready downstairs." I glanced at the papers around me, then at the window. It was darker than I thought.
"Thank you," I said quietly. "I'll be down shortly." Darlene nodded once and pulled the door closed again. I gathered the notes slowly, stacking them into a careful pile beside the desk before standing.
My shoulders ached faintly from sitting bent over for too long. I rolled them back gently while walking toward the mirror near the wardrobe. My hair had dried unevenly from the morning. I smoothed it back quickly with my fingers and straightened my collar. Then I stood there for a second. Just a second, looking at my own face.
The tiredness was still there. Faint but visible. Shadows beneath my eyes that rest hadn't completely erased. But something else was there too. Something that looked almost like a person standing their ground. I held my own gaze for one more breath. Then I turned and walked toward the door.
Downstairs, the dining room was already lit warmly. And Liam was already seated at the table. His eyes moved toward me the moment I entered. Steady, and unreadable. I walked to my seat without looking away. And this time, I did not wait for him to speak first. "Good evening," I said simply. Then, quietly. "Evening." I reached for my glass. And somewhere beneath the careful stillness of the room, the day shifted into night.
- Writer
