Chapter 6

                                    

                                          
Chapter 6 






                          
Iris Williams





                          
And there he stood, in all of his glory, Liam Parker. 

                          
His dark blonde hair was neatly combed back and as his light green eyes met my gaze, I held my breath. He wore a black suit with a white polo inside, looking professional as he always did. The first two buttons of his polo were unbuttoned and I already knew that he must've been stuck in his office for quite some time now. 

                          
I stared at him intensely, breathing him in after all these years of not seeing him. I remembered every detail of him, his captivating gaze, his soft lips, his sharp jawline, and everything else. Liam was always tall and muscly which gave him a rather intimidating image, but seeing him now, he looked... different. He was oozing with authority and a don't-mess-with-me look, his eyes displayed no emotion and his face didn't show anything either, just like all the billboards with his face on it. He looked stoic. I mean, being in position like his, of course he had to look tough. 
                          
He furrowed his eyesbrows at the sight of me, slightly cocking his head to the right as if to get a better view at me, making sure that I was the one in front of him. I saw a glint of softness in his eyes which quickly disappeared, but I dismissed that thought right away. 
                          
'He'd never care if you came back or not, Iris.' 
                          
"I'm so sorry, Mr. Parker. This lady was insisting to--" he interrupter her.
                          
"It's fine." he says in his deep baritone voice causing me to feel a chill in my body and he turns around, the door slowly closing behind him. I finally released a breath that I wasn't even aware that I've been holding all this time and I swear I could hear my heart. The secretary nodded and instructed me to go in or something. I wasn't too sure of what she said because my mind couldn't even think straight.
                          
I slowly took nervous steps towards the office doors and the secretary offered to open the door for me. I absolutely wanted to leave, I wanted to run away. I don't want to face him, I don't want to see him, I don't want the pain that I've been trying to bury down all these years to come back again. 
                          
I felt the door close behind me and I slightly leaned on them because I felt all my strength dissipating into the air. Liam was seated on his swivel chair, looking at me, his chin rested on the back of his fisted hand. I always imagined many scenarios of us meeting again, but never in these circumstances. 
                          
Looking at him, I remembered the triplets. I was always amazed at how they looked so much like him, but seeing Liam it was even more astonishing and maddening. I am their mother too, so why is it that the only trace of me in them was their slightly darker shade of hair? 
                          
"Well, this is a pleasant surprise." he started and smirked. How I want to wipe that smirk off his face, but I remembered the reason I was here. Jace. 
                          
"It's been quite a while." I admitted. I scanned the office to divert my gaze away from his. 
                          
The whole room was painted in grey and all of the furnitures were either black, white or grey which gave off the modern vibes. It was neatly fixed and again, it screamed of professionalism. It didn't look like his old one, where it was a bit more colourful. Just a bit, though. 
                          
"Things have changed ever since you left." he says as a matter of factly and I looked back to him, his gaze never failing to take my breath away. "Now, why don't you take a seat first, love." I bit my lower lip and stayed in place, a good 5 or so meters away from him, and ignoring both his offer and nickname-calling. 
                          
"You're right. A lot of things have changed for the better." I replied, wanting to sound tough. The truth is, ever since I left, the path on my own was very hard. However, I overcame them. Coming from a well-off family, everything was always given to me, so learning to live alone and learning that I was going to have three babies, it was surely hard. 
                          
Liam raised his eyebrows at my statement and once again, his lips curled to smirk. 
                          
"And that's why you're here?" he asked, a hint of amusement could be heard in his voice and I felt a tug in my heart. Jace. 
                          
"The reason I'm here... is not for me." I started, my voice trailing off. I felt the tears rising, my cheeks getting warmer at the memory of Jace smiling at me. In my head, I could hear him calling me mommy or telling me about the model of a car toy that he just got. My heart squeezed at the thought that he was somewhere out there and I didn't even know if he was alright. "It's for Jace." 
                          
The glint in his eyes darkened and his smirk fell off as he takes his hand off his chin and stood up. He leaves his desk and started to walk towards me, each step making my heart beat faster. I tried to take a step back and realized that I was already leaning against the door. "So you come back here, seeking help for your boyfriend?" he says coldly and harshly. "May I remind you th--"
                          
"Stop. He's not my boyfriend, he's our son." I raised my voice a bit to stop him from whatever he was going to say and dropped the bomb. His eyes widened and it was evident in his face that he was stunned. The tear that I've been fighting to stop from falling, rolled down my cheek and the hurt came back all over again. 
                          
I didn't want to cry in front of him. As much as possible, I wanted to look strong, I wanted to show him that even after breaking me, I still made it. I made it without them all, I made it without him. 
                          
But being in front of him now, all that confidence and strength were instantly gone and I feel so vulnerable, so helpless. I hated the fact that I couldn't even protect Jace, I hated that he was my hope right now.
                          
"What?" he said in a whisper, more to himself and the tears kept streaming down my face. I looked away, not wanting to see his questioning face, but his hands landed on my shoulder forcing me to look into his eyes. "What did you just say? Our son?" he said in utter shock and disbelief. I nodded slowly. 
                          
"J-Jace is the oldest... Then th-there's Jamie and Ja-Jacob's the youngest." I managed to say in between my sobs. His eyebrows furrowed even more in confusion as he was trying to put two and two together. He slowly let go of his grasp and he ran a hand through his hair as the realization struck him. 
                          
"They're triplets... aren't they." he said in an assured voice instead of a question. Again, I nodded, because I couldn't find any words to say. I felt guilty all of a sudden. Guilty that I hid them from him for so long. Guilty that I tried to take away my kids' father away from them. I felt so selfish and I've failed at taking care of them. 
                          
Liam muttered curses under his breath as he stood there confused, still trying to process everything, making sure he understood what I was saying clearly. There was a long silence in which I managed to calm myself down and wiped my tears off my face. I probably looked like a mess, but that was the less of my worries right now. 
                          
"Where are they?" he asked in a stern, cold voice that matched his emotionless eyes which sent chills down my spine. I wasn't used to this side of him. 
                          
"A-at my friend's house..." I answered, again my voice sounded weak. 

                          
"And Jace?" There was silence, a lump was suddenly stuck in my throat and I couldn't speak. Don't cry, Iris. Don't cry. I repeated and it seemed to work because not a single tear fell. "Iris. What happened to Jace?" Don't cry, don't cry. His eyes looked at me intensely with worry and eagerness, waiting for a response. 
                          
"He was kidnapped."