Now, looking at Sunny’s tear-streaked face, he was blindsided by the realization that life was offering him another chance — not to replace what he had lost but to build something new from the broken pieces of his heart.
“How… when did this happen?” he asked, struggling to process the timeline.
“After Morgan’s visit,” Sunny replied, her voice small. “That night when you came to my room… we weren’t as careful as we should have been.”
The memory flashed vividly in Liam’s mind. The night had been a blur of comfort and passion after Morgan’s cruel accusations had left Sunny shattered. They had sought solace in each other’s bodies, desperate to prove that what they shared wasn’t shameful or wrong.
“I don’t expect anything from you,” Sunny continued, pulling him back to the present. “I understand if this changes things, if it’s too much with everything else…”
“Stop,” Liam interrupted, taking her trembling hands in his. “Just… stop.”
She fell silent, her eyes wide in her pale face.
Liam struggled to organize his chaotic thoughts. The team’s ultimatum echoed in his mind: “End your relationship with Miss Thompson.” His career — his only identity outside of being Kate’s husband and the girls’ father — hung in the balance.
But looking at Sunny — brave, selfless Sunny, who had been prepared to leave rather than complicate his life further — made everything suddenly, blindingly clear.
“I almost lost Kate once, before she died,” he said quietly, the words emerging from a deep place he rarely accessed. “There was a car accident when she was pregnant with Hailey. The doctors weren’t sure if either of them would make it.”
Sunny’s breath caught. “You never told me that.”
“I’ve never told anyone this, except for my family,” Liam admitted. “I sat in that hospital waiting room for six hours, bargaining with a God I wasn’t sure I believed in. I promised I’d be a better husband, a better father — anything if they both pulled through.”
He swallowed hard, the memory still painfully vivid. “They did survive, and for a while, I kept those promises. But eventually, I fell back into old habits — hockey first, taking Kate’s support for granted, missing more of Maddie’s milestones than I’d like to admit.”
Liam’s voice broke under the weight of his regret. “When Kate collapsed that morning, I knew she was gone before the paramedics even arrived. All I could think was that I’d wasted the second chance I’d been given. That I’d failed her.”
“Liam,” Sunny whispered, reaching up to touch his face. “You didn’t fail her.”
“I did,” he insisted. “Not by being a terrible husband, but by not appreciating every moment we had. I thought there would always be more time, that there would always be a tomorrow.”
He took a deep breath, forcing himself to meet her gaze. “When I lost Kate, I thought that was it. Life had given me my one shot at happiness, and I’d squandered it. Then you walked into our lives.”
A hint of warmth returned to Sunny’s eyes, though uncertainty still clouded herfeatures. “I never meant to complicate things.”
“You didn’t complicate them,” Liam replied firmly. “You made them make sense again.”
He placed a tentative hand on her abdomen. The gesture felt both foreign and achingly familiar. “This baby — our baby — it’s not a complication. It’s a miracle.”
Sunny’s eyes filled with fresh tears, but they seemed different from the earlier ones. “You don’t hate me? For getting pregnant?”
The question struck Liam like a hockey stick to the face. “Hate you? God, Sunny, no. How could I ever hate you for this?”
“I was so afraid,” she confessed. “With everything going on — the scandal, the team’s demands, Morgan’s accusations — I thought you’d think I did this on purpose. To trap you.”
Liam pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her slender frame. “I know you better than that,” he murmured against her hair. “You’re the most selfless person I’ve ever met. If anything, I’m the one who failed you by not being more careful.”
They sat in silence for several moments, the steady rhythm of the rain outside creating a gentle backdrop to the monumental shift occurring between them. Liam’s mind raced, trying to navigate this unexpected turn in their lives.
The team’s ultimatum no longer held any power over him. His priorities had crystallized with stunning clarity the moment he read those words:
I’m pregnant, Liam.
Three simple words that had reconstructed his entire world.
Maddie and Hailey’s faces flashed in his mind. How would they react to this news? They adored Sunny, but a new sibling would be a massive change, especially after everything they had already endured. Would they feel replaced? Threatened? Or would they embrace this new addition as enthusiastically as they had welcomed Sunny into their lives?
Then there was the practical side — the media firestorm that would inevitably erupt when news of the pregnancy leaked. The scrutiny would be brutal, the invasion of their privacy relentless. But they had weathered the first wave of scandal; they could face this too, especially if they stood united.
