Ever since Veronica took care of Liam after he punched Drake he could tell she still loved him, but he did worry that her feelings for Drake still lingered, he worried what would happen if she was carrying Drake’s child and not his. He tried not to worry, not to let it get to him, he tried to tell himself it wouldn’t matter—but it would, the child wouldn’t be his heir. His Queen having another man’s child would just hurt the crown and cripple the country. With Leo abdicating, the scandal, his ending his engagement to Madeline—enough had happened, the crown couldn’t take another hit. His heart couldn’t take the hit either, he tried not to, but he already felt love for the child his wife carried. If it was Drake’s—it would crush him more than the fact that she cheated.
Liam wished more than anything that he would have told her no when she asked for a final fling, but he loves her so much and he only wanted to see her happy—he couldn’t say no. Even if saying yes broke his heart, even if his heart was breaking more now because of the fling, he knew he never would have been able to say no. Even if saying yes helped bring the downfall to their marriage, he knew in his heart he never would have been able to say no to her.
So now things were stuck in limbo, not knowing who was the father to the child his wife was carrying. The truth of his best friend having feelings for his wife coming out, he couldn’t believe he missed it for so long—but now that he knew he saw it in every smile, look and glance. It was all he could see and part of him wished he remained in the dark, the other was terrified that Drake would use this as his chance to take his wife away from him. He knew Drake was his friend, but he never would have thought his best friend would fall in love with the woman he loved and sleep with her when they were engaged. All the startling truths coming to light had him questioning Drake in ways he never thought he ever would.
For now Liam tried his hardest to push past, to try to fix his relationship with his wife, his queen, the woman who claimed his heart. He stopped busying himself with his work, started to make time for Veronica once again. It was hard, he still felt deeply hurt by her admissions, but he couldn’t just let let her slip through his fingers, not when he knew that she still loved him—no he had to fight for her, for them.
Veronica wouldn’t say things were perfect or even easy with Liam, but they were getting better, they were trying. It was far from easy, she could tell he was still hurt deeply by her betrayals, but he was fighting for her. He no longer worked late into the night, but the pained looks on his face were hard to miss. She knew she wrecked them to a point of almost no return to who they were, but they needed to work together and try to save their relationship—what other option was there? She couldn’t, wouldn’t give up, it didn’t matter if they occasionally fought about her stupid decisions she made, she couldn’t leave him. She couldn’t walk away when he was engaged to someone else, how could she walk away from him now? She knew she messed up in the worst ways imaginable, she knew their relationship may always have a crack down the middle reminding them of the harm she had caused to them. She knew what she had done was wrong, but still she couldn’t figure out why.
That was what their fights had been about, Liam pleading with tears in his eyes, begging her to tell him why—why she fell for Drake, why she cheated, and why she had had a fling with him just days before they were to be wed. The answer was always the same, she would be sobbing telling him she didn’t know, she wished she could take it all back, she’d do anything to just take it all back. The fights were tiring and she hated that they happened, but if they stopped fighting with each other, wouldn’t that mean they would stop fighting for each other? She didn’t want her mistakes to be the end of her marriage, she couldn’t let her mistakes cost her the man she loved—so she fought for him.
Shortly after the fights had started, they stopped, Veronica started to fear that this marked the end of her marriage to Liam. He was still there, still trying he just knew the fights weren’t getting them anywhere, the answer was always the same and he couldn’t take her sorrow filled face of regret anymore. So he stopped begging for a reason why, maybe he’d never know. The one thing he knew for sure was he couldn’t let her go. He loved her so much, the thought that she may no longer be his terrified him almost more than the thought that the baby was Drake’s. He fought to push that thought down, he’d deal with it when, if it came. For now he clung to the hope that the baby was his, that they would survive this and they would be stronger in the end. He knew these were likely lies, but it was these lies that helped him move forward. Without these lies he might be paralyzed by fear that they were just blindly marching to the death of their marriage before it even had a chance to begin. These lies helped him believe they had a chance at being what they would have been without the weight of 100 elephants weighing down on their shoulders.
The lies helped him through, helped him move forward, that’s all there was to do, move forward. There was no changing the past, but he could try his best to move past it, move forward, be present, be the man, husband he was before his world came crashing down around him. Moving forward wasn’t exactly easy, he was still stunned, numb, paralyzed from the wreckage of what could have been crushing him when his world crashed down around him. He pushed through, he had to, if he wanted to their marriage to remain when they reached the other side he needed to stay strong and move forward.
It didn’t matter that it felt like his heart was torn from his chest, ripped to shreds and hastily stitched back together, he had two options—walk away or fight for the love of his life. He wasn’t ready to walk away, even when he avoided her he knew he couldn’t just walk away from the only woman that ever held his heart. It didn’t matter that she hurt him in the worst way imaginable, he couldn’t give up on her, she hadn’t given up on them, he couldn’t do it now. But did part of her give up on them? Is that why she fell for Drake and they were in this mess to begin with? He couldn’t shake the feeling that he might have already lost her before the fight for her had really begun.
He pushed it aside, buried it with every other thought that could doom their marriage, he fought them all, pushed them to the hidden recesses of his mind. He ignored it all and he fought for the life he wanted, the family that was his—even if it never was or never could be again. It didn’t matter how much he was hurting, he was a husband, a king, he didn’t have time to sit and stew in self pity. The only path, only choice was to put on a strong face and hope no one ever could see through his façade.
She knew, she had to, she had a way of seeing through him, knowing him in a way he never thought he’d ever have. That used to give him hope, but now he was scared and afraid, not because she saw him, but because maybe she was never his. Maybe it was never meant to be a comfort, maybe it was part of some wicked curse that kept them apart.
Veronica knew Liam was hurting more than he’d ever let on, she could always see through him—was it a blessing or a curse? She used to think it was blessing, to know what was on the mind of the man who swept her off her feet, the man she loved. Somewhere along the line it turned into a curse—long before she blew the life they could have had to smithereens. No, it turned into a curse somewhere along the engagement tour— when she could see his pain, feel how much lying to the press and the country crushed his soul and there was nothing she could do to help. This was so much worse, knowing she was the reason he was hurting under his stony façade.
How was she supposed to move forward when she knew that the reason he was in such pain was all her fault? The winds of change were blowing all around her, as she sat in the eye of the storm—not knowing what was to come. Her life was swirling around her and she didn’t know where she would be when it stopped. Her life turned upside down, heart torn in two, trying to forget the one man, and fix things with the other. Who would they be when the storm settled, who would she be? Where did her heart truly lay? Was her life with Liam ending before it had the chance to truly begin?
Veronica hadn’t even thought about Drake since the night she tended to Liam’s hand, but in the back of her mind, just as she drifted off to sleep, she worried that Drake may not be ready to let her go this time. That split second thought each night scared her, she had seen the hope in his face when she told him the baby might be his. The look of pure heartbreak as she tended to Liam after Liam had punched him—no she knew that this time he wasn’t going to walk away so easily and that scared her more than anything. With Drake fighting for her, did her marriage even have a chance of surviving?
