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He added gently, “It was your mother’s name,” and then looked at me to see how I would respond.
“I’m sorry…what did you say?”
“I…um…well, you said your mother died while giving birth, so I did some research and found out that her name was Lanky. She was only twenty.”
His gaze moved over my face as my mouth was open, waiting for me to say something. He started to babble while I didn’t. “I’m sorry. I should have asked you before I found out all this. I thought you might want to know your mother’s name since you didn’t know anything about her and–”
I placed my lips on him, cutting him off as usual. A bit later, he kissed me back slowly and lovingly.
I drew back after softly biting his bottom lip. “You talk too much,” I said softly. His cheeks were a little rosy. “I’m sorry. I freaked out.”
“Thank you for finding out about her,” I said, tears welling up in my eyes for what he accomplished.
He kissed my forehead and wiped away my tears. “Anything for you, honey.” “Lanky…” I muttered, trying out that name. “Do you like it?”
He smiled and nodded. “I love it.” “What if it’s a boy?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I haven’t thought about it.”
“What do you think of Beckham? I really like that name.” “Sounds good.”
“Lanky Whitmore…”
“Or Beckham Whitmore…” He said, and then he kissed me for a long time.
“Liam.” I gasped and opened my eyes wide. My chest was rising and falling as I breathed deeply. I was lying on a bed in a strange place. I saw the IV tubes that were hooked up to my arms.
What happened?
“Liam,” I muttered, and everything fell apart. Liam. I recall Blake shooting him.
NO.
I sat up straight, and my head was spinning from the rapid movement. No one was in the room. I was about to get out of bed when Alley came in through the door. Her eyes were full of tears. When she saw that I was awake and walking closer to her, she gave me a faint, sad grin and then hugged me tightly.
I wept as she stroked little circles on my back and wrapped my arms around her torso. “It’s okay…” She attempted to make me feel better.
“I didn’t even get to tell him I loved him,” I cried. “He said he loved me, and then he left.”
At that point, Alley drew back and held my cheeks. “Hey…look at me…” “He died because of me, Alley…he died…” I wept.
“No, he didn’t.”
My head turned quickly to her. “What?”
“He’s not dead, Sophie. He’s still alive.”
“No. Don’t make fun of me, Alley. Don’t give me false hope.”
“Really? No! He’s alive, Sophie. He’s still alive.”
“How can he be alive? I saw Blake shoot him in the heart!” Alley shook her head. “No, he didn’t.”
“What do you mean?” I said, my brows furrowing. “How can this be?”
“Did you know Blake had a nervous disorder?” she said, and I remembered when he told me about it. I nodded, and she said. “His hands shook, and his aim wasn’t great as he raised the pistol to fire him. He didn’t get him in the heart, but he did hit him a few inches away from it.
Ruby Garrison and his men got there just in time, as Liam had planned. You had passed out, as Ruby informed us.
“He’s not dead?”
She shook her head. “He’s alive but is having surgery right now. He needs prayers.”
This knowledge made my brain hurt. He’s still alive. Is this a miracle?
“I want to see him,” I informed her.
“He’s being operated on, Sophie. You can’t see him.”
“I want to see him!” I said, but as tears started to fall, my voice got lower. “I want to see him… please…”
She kissed me on the head. “He’s fine, Sophie. You need to rest. You can meet him later, okay?”
I bowed my head and glanced down at my tummy, where I put my hand. I looked at Alley, and she answered my question without me having to ask it. “The baby is fine.”
I nodded in relief, and she told me to lie down on the bed and relax. And she went away, and shortly I fell asleep.
Someone was caressing my hair as I woke up. I gently opened my eyes and saw Alley’s face.
She whispered quietly, “He wants to see you.” “Is he okay?”
She nodded. “Yes. He has had a successful operation. He wants to see you.”
I woke up and saw that the IV tubes that were linked to my arm were already gone.
Alley helped me get out of bed because I was still feeling weak. She took my hand and led me out of the room and down the hall to another room where Nathan and Saffron were waiting. They grinned when they saw me.
Nathan and Saffron both hugged me from the side, which made me feel lucky to have them in my life.
I smiled at them to reassure them and put my hand on the door handle. I took a deep breath, opened the door, and went inside, where I saw a big room.
When I saw Liam on the bed with a bandage over his left side of the chest, I sobbed. His hair was all over the place, and his eyes were closed.
He opened his eyes and smiled a little as I cried.
I raced to him with all my power and held him hard, weeping my heart out.
He held my shoulder hard with his right hand, and my face was buried in the crook of his neck.
“Sophie,” he said softly, making me cry even more. I could feel my shoulder growing wet as tears fell from his eyes.
I was still weeping a minute later, not believing he was alive after I witnessed him die.
He gently pulled back and moved about on the bed to make room for me. He then motioned for me to sit next to him.
I sat down next to him, unsure of what to do. He stroked my hair and kissed my forehead slowly.
“I thought I lost you…” I wept again. “Why would you do this to me?”
“Well…you could have taken all my money. That would have been good for you,” he said with a laugh, lightening the situation.
In between my weeping, I let out a little laugh. “Yeah…”
“I love you, Liam,” I said in a whisper, and his hand stopped caressing my hair right away.
He let out a long sigh. “I love you too, Sophie.” My heart skipped a beat. “Please say it again,” I replied quietly.
He said in a sweet voice, “I love you, honey. More than you could ever know. I love you so much that I can’t put it into words.”
“Now, this sounds good,” I muttered, which made him laugh quietly.
I looked up at him, and our lips gently met in a passionate kiss that made my heart skip a beat and my breath hitch. I kissed him while he grinned against my lips and put my hand over his cheek. Our tongues touched for a little time before I pulled back. The kiss didn’t last long, yet it was long enough for us to pour our feelings into it.
He kissed my forehead and mumbled. “I love you.”
I muttered back, “I love you too,” and put my head back on his chest.
He moved his hand from my hair to my tummy and stroked it in circles. “How’s my Lanky doing?”
“She’s fine…wait a minute. How do you know it’s only Lanky? What if it’s Beckham?”
He smiled. “I think it’s Lanky,” he said with a wink. “And I think it’s Beckham.”
He made a clicking sound with his tongue. “Okay, okay.” “We’ll see.”
I lightly ran my fingertips over the bandage. “Is it still hurting?” “A little bit.”
“I’m sorry. You had to do it because of me.”
“Shut up!” he yelled at her. “I love you, Sophie. It was the least I could do for you.”
“Least? You almost died for me!”
“I didn’t care what it cost, Sophie. I just wanted you to be safe.”
“And what about me? Do you think I would have lived without you? What about this child? Did you want to make him an orphan? I cried again.”
“No, Sophie. That wasn’t the plan. Blake called me there and told me to come alone. I told Ruby to follow me, but only after 15 minutes. So, while Blake was busy with me, they could all sneak up behind him. I never thought Blake would shoot me. You passed out, and that’s when they all came in.” “I still have to thank him.”
I wiped my tears away. “Don’t do it ever again, or I’ll kill you with my bare hands.”
He laughed. “I wouldn’t dare, sweetie.”
Someone knocked on the door interrupting us and I got down from the bed and told the guy to come in.
A stranger came in as the door opened. I didn’t know who he was since Liam appeared delighted to see me. “Ruby…”
Ruby smiled at me and said to Liam. “You scared all of us, buddy.”
“Because of you, I’m still alive.”
“Oh, no need for it, Liam. I was just helping my friend.”
“Thank you, Ruby. I really owe you.” Liam said this and then turned to me. “And Sophie, this is Ruby Garrison, the CEO of Garrison Holdings and my friend.”
I shook Ruby’s hand and smiled back at him. “Thanks for keeping us safe.”
“Oh, just drop it already,” he muttered with a sigh and then laughed. “I’m tired of everyone thanking me.”
We both smiled at him, and after saying a few more things to Liam, he departed. I then sat down next to Liam on the bed. “So…um…what about Blake?”
Liam’s jaw tightened. “Don’t worry about him; Ruby will take care of him.”
He held my hand. “Did he hurt you?”
I shook my head. “No. He was more like taking care of me. The area where he kept me was nice, too. Some penthouse, and he made sure I was
having food and everything. But when you got there, he brought me to that strange old home in the woods.
He arched an eyebrow at me and said, “He really took care of you?”
“Yes. I think he really cared about me, but he was obsessed with me, which was a bad thing.”
“Is he mentally sick or something?” Liam enquired.
I shrugged. “I don’t know…maybe…because he really did take care of me. For example, when I wouldn’t eat, he picked up the spoon and tried to feed me himself.”
Liam frowned and pondered about something. “If he’s mentally sick…and did all this because of his sickness, then…he needs treatment. It isn’t fair to throw him in the prison directly.”
“Um… maybe…”
I picked up Liam’s phone from the tiny table next to his bed and gave it to him. He phoned Ruby and instructed him to check on Blake first before doing anything else.