She was gone. She had actually left, just as she’d threatened. The realization struck him with a physical force, driving the air from his lungs. He braced himself against the door frame, memories of Sunny flashing through his mind — her radiant smile when the girls said something funny, her fierce determination when protecting them from that dog in Saint Lucia, the vulnerable look in her eyes when she first kissed him.
Liam bolted from the room, taking the stairs two at a time. If she had just left, maybe he could catch her in the house. He searched frantically — the kitchen, the living room, his office — each empty space heightening his desperation. The house felt cavernous and hollow without her presence, a preview of what life would be like if she truly left.
“Sunny!” he called, no longer caring if he woke the girls. Better they wake to his shouting than discover tomorrow that Sunny had vanished from their lives.
He burst into the den, the last room on his mental checklist, preparing to grab his car keys and drive through the rain searching for her — and froze.
There she was.
Sunny sat curled in the corner of the large couch, coat on, her packed duffle bag at her feet. She was clutching a white envelope. Her face was tear-stained, her blue eyes rimmed with red as she looked up at him.
“You’re still here,” he breathed, relief washing over him so powerfully that his knees nearly buckled.
“I couldn’t do it,” she whispered, a fresh tear tracing down her cheek. “I got as far as checking on the girls one last time, and I just… couldn’t leave them. Not like that.”
Liam crossed the room in three long strides and dropped to his knees before her. Without thinking, he gathered her into his arms, cradling her against his chest as if she might vanish if he didn’t hold on tight enough.
“Thank God,” he murmured into her hair. “Thank God you’re still here.”
She shuddered against him, her small body wracked with silent sobs. He felt her hot tears soaking through his thin T-shirt, her fingers clutching desperately at the fabric.
“I’m so sorry,” she choked out between sobs. “I thought leaving was the right thing. For everyone.”
“Why?” Liam pulled back slightly to see her face, searching her expressive eyes for answers. “Whatever’s wrong, we can figure it out together. Running isn’t the answer, Sunny. Are you sick? Is it something serious?”
She bit her lip, her gaze dropping to the crumpled letter in her hand. “You should read this,” she said, her voice barely audible as she held it out to him.
Liam took the envelope with a sense of foreboding, noting how his name was written on the front in her familiar handwriting. His hands were surprisingly steady as he withdrew the letter, though his heart hammered painfully in his chest.
The first lines confirmed his worst fears: she had indeed planned to leave. But as he continued reading, the world seemed to tilt beneath him.
There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just be direct: I’m pregnant, Liam.
The words hit him like a body check against the boards, stealing his breath.
Pregnant.
A baby.
Sunny was carrying his child.
He glanced back at Sunny’s face. She was watching him with raw vulnerability, her arms wrapped protectively around her midsection — a gesture he now understood wasn’t just about self-comfort.
“Is it…” he began, his voice thick with emotion. “Are you sure?”
She nodded, fresh tears spilling over. “I took the test tonight. That’s what was in the pharmacy bag you saw.”
Liam’s mind raced with conflicting emotions. Shock, certainly. Fear, undeniably. But beneath those immediate reactions, something else began to take root — a fierce, protective joy that caught him completely off guard.
“A baby,” he whispered, the word carrying a weight and wonder he hadn’t anticipated.
The unexpected gift of new life amid so much chaos.
Sunny’s eyes widened at his tone, clearly not the reaction she had expected. “Liam, I’m so sorry. The scandal, the team’s ultimatum, your career — this will make everything a hundred times worse.”
But Liam wasn’t focused on the team or the media.
His mind drifted back to the day Maddie was born, when the nurse placed that tiny, red-faced bundle in his trembling arms Then to Hailey’s birth, when Kate smiled up at him tiredly as he held their second daughter, marveling at her perfect miniature fingers and toes. The overwhelming surge of love that crashed over him in those moments was something he never thought he’d feel again after Kate’s death.
