T W E N T Y F I V E
As the days all jumbled together, I couldn't get Chloe's words out of my head.
It didn't matter how I tried to interpret her words. It all sounded like a threat to me.
Evan, on the other hand, saw the whole thing as a sincere warning, believing that maybe just maybe, Chloe was no longer the person we had met before. That was clearly something he and I did not have in common. Evan was the type of person to see the good in everyone, contrary to me.
How could I after she tried to kill me not just once but twice?
"You look better." Liam pointed out, leaning against the deck's railing.
I let out a loud sigh, brushing my freshly cut bangs with my fingers. "I feel better too, considering everything."
I knew Liam was referring to the fact that I finally had color on my face and no longer looked like death compared to how I looked not long ago.
When someone loses their will to live, they also lose all sense of wanting to look presentable.
The only reason I got out of bed to shower and brush my hair back when I was in the dark hole was due to the constant push I got from my family, Daisy, and Theodore. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have bothered ever leaving my bed.
"That's good."
"Okay, fine. Let's get the awkwardness over with so we both can move on." I said, straightening in my seat. "I owe you an apology."
"Apology? For what?"
I chuckled, shaking my head. This guy was way too nice for his good. "You know what for. I didn't plan to leave you waiting for me that night, but I also couldn't allow myself to play with your feelings."
"It's fine, Agatha," He shrugged, staring down at his feet. "Though it would've been nice to have a heads up so I wouldn't worry or worry your friend for that matter."
I later found out that Liam drove to my house that night
I was supposed to go to the event with him. Daisy had been staying over after I got out of the psychiatric ward to keep me company.
Instead of finding me there, he encountered himself with her and told her I never showed up. She panicked, but Evan was one step ahead of me and messaged her that I was with him.
I guess none of them trusted me after what I did.
"It's not fine. I know how much that event meant for you. I also know that you and I got really close throughout those months we spent together, that some lines were blurred, and we never labeled our relationship. I like you, Liam, but I will never love you like I love Buck. You deserve so much better than what I could've ever given you."
I tried. Oh, God knows how much I tried to move on from Evan and make myself feel something else than just simple attraction with Liam, but my tries were all in vain.
As I got to know Liam, I realized how amazing and caring he was. He knew what he wanted in life and was stable, something that I haven't been able to do myself in my own life.
But no matter how many wonderful things I kept learning about him every day, he wasn't the messy, frustrating, and at times childish man I fell in love with.
"I always knew what I was getting myself into, Agatha." Liam shook his head, smiling at me. "Just answer me something,"
"Yeah?"
"Does he make you happy?"
A stupid grin formed on my lips as I didn't have to think twice about what to answer. No matter how messy my relationship with Evan was, I was madly in love with him.
"More than happy," I replied. My fingers finding their way to the sunflower pendant Evan gave me for our first Christmas together as roommates. "He's the one."
"Then that's all that matters." He said, sounding genuine.
"Daddy home!" Maia's squeal made Liam and I turn to where she was playing in the front yard.
As soon as she spotted Evan pulling into the driveway, she dropped her doll and made a run for it, not giving Evan the chance to fully get out of the car before she immediately jumped on him.
"She really loves him, huh?" Liam said, watching the interaction between the two people that owned my entire heart.
My eyebrows slightly creased together at the weird look he had on his face. I couldn't help but notice the worried looks on his face every time he looked at Maia.
"More than anything in this world." I said, watching Maia giggle at whatever Evan was telling her while he took out his overnight bag from the trunk.
Together we decided that he would only stay over a day or two with Maia and me throughout the week after agreeing that it was better for Maia and us if we slowly eased into the relationship rather than pretending that everything was back to normal between us.
I was still learning to trust him again while he wanted me to get better. At the same time, we didn't want to confuse Maia in case things didn't end up working between us as we wanted.
"Morning," Evan said with such seriousness that it didn't even sound like him, giving Liam one of those stupid greeting head nods guys gave each other as he made it up the porch's steps.
"Morning," Liam replied, returning the gesture.
Once Evan made it to me, he stopped for a few seconds taking in my new look with a smile on his face. Before I had the chance to say anything, he leaned down, kissing me deeply.
I had to resist the intense urge not to laugh because the way he was kissing me felt highly territorial, but I honestly couldn't entirely blame him for it.
"You squeeshing me!" Maia complained between Evan and me. One of her tiny hands pressed against my chest, trying to push me back. "Daddy down, peesh."
Evan pulled back, setting Maia on the ground before she went back to play with her doll.
"Liam came by to see how I've been doing," I informed Evan, trying to ease whatever thoughts were running through his head.
"That's nice of him." I watched him set his bag down before sitting next to me on the porch swing.
"Actually, I wanted to talk to the two of you." Liam hesitated.
Well, this was weird.
"Oh, about?"
"I don't know how to begin because it's all quite bizarre to me. A couple of weeks ago, I got a letter saying that I might be Maia's biological father." Liam explained, reaching into his back pocket.
I held in a breath as I stared at him. I must have imagined hearing the words that came out of his mouth. There was no way that this was real.
"What?" Evan asked, stiffing next to me.
"Liam, what are you even—" I trailed off, taking the envelope that Liam passed me. Evan leaned toward me to read the papers in my hands.
They were from the adoption agency. Liam's words weren't a lie. The agency reached out to him weeks before I even applied to adopt Maia. That was when the agency was trying to find any possible family members, but what I couldn't understand was why he was telling us this now.
I also couldn't understand how they contacted him if Lizzie wasn't even alive to share anything about the possible father.
"Why are you telling this to us now?" Evan questioned what I was silently thinking.
"I recently received the letter. When it was sent to me, I was in the process of moving here from Washington. Whoever is now living in my old place must have sent it back, and the agency sent it to my current address." Liam explained.
"What are your intentions here because you have no rights whatsoever. You aren't even on Maia's birth certificate." Evan spoke.
I sat there trying to process all this. I couldn't wrap my head around the idea that Liam could be my daughter's birth father and that he had been around her all this time.
"And I understand that. I simply want to get a DNA test to see if it's true."
"And then what?" Evan snapped.
"Evan—" I struggled saying, giving him a look.
"No, Agatha. We raised her for almost three years, and out of nowhere, he shows up and wants to take over father duties?" He said, throwing Liam a death glare. "I sure hope you didn't try to get close to Agatha to get to Maia because I swear I'll make you regret moving to LA."
"I would never do such a thing, Buck. I do really like and care for Agatha. I didn't even know about the possibility of being a father until I got that letter. Elizabeth never told me she was expecting. We dated on and off for years."
My head spun at the mention of Lizzie's name. Evan and I never gave him a name, and the letter doesn't say anything about her either. This was getting more real by the second.
I was going to be sick.
"What do you know about Lizzie?" I asked.
No matter how much this hurt, I was still curious about Maia's real mom. All I knew about her was from the night I helped her give birth and the minor detail that she was an addict.
"Elizabeth—" Liam started with a sigh. "She was lost even before we met. She was constantly fighting many demons while trying to find who she was in this world. Elizabeth was adopted by an extremely religious family that overprotected her, never letting her explore the world like everyone is supposed to. On top of all that, she struggled to accept her roots. She expressed to me on multiple occasions that she felt like an outcast after being raised in a white household when she was clearly of color."
My eyes wandered to where Maia was running around with her dolls and stuffed animals. Her curly pigtails bounced with every skip. I know that I haven't been the best mother to her, but if there was something I wanted her to know in this life was how special, valuable and beautiful she was, no matter what she did and didn't look like.
"We met in college during one of our medical orientations. The long study nights and constant partying mixed her with the wrong crowd once she started being exposed to the real world. Our relationship was a complete mess, constantly on and off. We were broken up for good before she even left Washington. That was the last time I heard from her. If I knew she was having my baby, I would've done the impossible to be there from the start."
Evan scoffed, getting his bag from the floor. "Well, you weren't."
"Evan!" I snapped at him. This whole situation was messy and quite hard to take in, but being an ass would not change anything.
Instead of apologizing or saying anything constructive, Evan stood up and went inside the house, slamming the front door behind him.
I sighed, rubbing my chest as I felt it getting tight the more I tried to process this whole information.
"Look, Liam, this is a little too much right now. Could you give us some time to discuss if we agree to the DNA test? I'll get back to you, I promise."
Liam nodded. The look on his face said more than he was saying. Some guilt and confusion were going on. I was sure this whole thing was being hard on him too. I don't know what I would do if I were in his shoes.
"Take all the time you guys need. I don't want to cause any trouble." He said, looking at the front door of the house. "I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault, Liam. He'll be okay. It's just a lot to take in." I tried to reassure him, not sure if things were actually going to be okay.
- - -
After Liam left, I figured that it for the best to give Evan some space to process the bomb that was thrown at us by Maia's possible birth father. The last thing we needed right at this moment was an argument.
Just as I was about to call him for lunch, I spotted him leaning against the doorframe that led to the living room, watching Maia play.
"Do you believe him?" He asked without bothering to turn around to face me.
"Why would he lie about something like that, Buck?"
"I don't know. What I do know is that I don't want to lose you now that I finally got you girls back."
My face softened at his words. I should've known that there was slightly more to his outburst towards Liam. He wasn't one to lose his temper, especially during a situation like this.
Then there was also the fear that he was not saying aloud just yet when it came to Maia.
"Even if we agree to the DNA test, nothing will change. Even if Liam turns out to be the biological father, I'm still the legal guardian. The adoption can't be reversed, and by law, he can't even sue about it." I made him faze me so he could tell how serious I was about this. "And you won't lose us."
"It still worries me, Agatha. Why aren't you reacting to this?"
That was a great question. Why wasn't the news of my daughter's biological father showing up after almost three years and that he was someone I casually dated affecting me?
"Honestly? I believe it's a mixture of the cocktail of medications I'm on and that my life has been a joke for so long that nothing shocks me anymore." I shrugged, trying to take this situation as calmly as I could. Panicking and overreaction were not going to be helping this situation anyway.
"If you say so."
Taking his face between my hands, I made him look down at me, "Evan, baby, you are and will always be Maia's father. Nothing or anyone will ever change that, okay?"
I could care less that Maia might share Liam's DNA and blood, but to me, she was my and Evan's baby girl, and nothing or anyone could ever change that. Not even a paternity test.
With a shaky sigh, Evan pressed a kiss to my forehead. At the same time, we watched Maia drive her to ride on a Paw Patrol firetruck to where her Pooh Bear plush lay on the ground before she immediately started checking the bear's heartbeat with the plastic toy doctors kit my father and Cara got for her.
I had to smile at the scene in front of us. Maia was practically imitating Evan and I during our calls, not that she has been part of any of our calls.
"What if she wants him in her life?"
"Right now, she's only two. Well, cross that bridge when we get there." I told him. "And Evan, you are her entire world. I don't see that changing anytime soon."
Ever since he reappeared in Maia's life, the girl was all daddy this and daddy that. There was only a handful of times where she rather have me instead of him, but that was a rare occasion.
"Daddy come rescue Pooh," Maia called, putting the plastic stereoscope in her ears.
"You better go, daddy. The Captain has spoken." I winked at him making him roll his eyes in return.
As I watched him walk into the living room to play with our two-year-old, I sent a silent prayer into the world that things HAD to be better soon as things kept getting complicated.