"Are we going to stay with daddy?" Liam asked getting down from the car.

"Yes honey but I'm going to leave you with him." I say grabbing his bag pack and closing the door behind him.

"Why don't you want spend time with dad?" he asked once we we got to the elevator door.

"Oh I want to honey but I have to meet up with someone remember?" I see a keypad and I press the enter button since I had no clue what the password might be.

"Yeah I remember." He nodded. "But I still wish you could stay."

"Who's there?" I heard a voice but I wasn't Ethan's.

"Uh, Dorothy Harper." I say into the speaker. "I'm here for Ethan King."

"Dora!" He said sounding excited. "Come in." The elevator opened and me and Liam stepped in.

"So cool." I heard him say.

"You think?" I smile down at him. My apartment is trash compared to this place, and we haven't even seen inside.

The elevator finally come to a stop and it opened to reveal a beautifully furnished apartment. It was so homely but the expensive at the same time. The huge windows gave a wonderful view of the city below. Just like the one in Ethan's office.

"You must be the infamous Dorothy." A man walked up to me. He looked like he was in his mid twenties and he was quite handsome, not as handsome as Ethan but he was the definition of an eye candy. I didn't miss his slight Italian accent. "I'm Luca. I've heard so much about you."

"All good things I hope." I smile shaking his hand. God that is so cliché.

"It depends on what your definition of good is." He smiles and looks down at Liam "And you must be Liam."

"Yes sir." Liam hid behind me but I pull back in front of me.

"You can call me Luca." I crouch down to his level. "Maybe later you and I can build a Lego city."

"Really?" Liam eyes widened in excitement.

"Of course." He said. "But only if your mom is okay with that."

"You can play with him if you want." I say to him when he looks up at me.

"You're probably wondering who I am." Luca said getting up.

"Yeah." I smiled. "For a second I thought we were at the wrong apartment."

"I'm Ethan's personal assistant." He introduced. "I don't work in his company though, I'm literally his personal assistant. And let me tell you it's no fun hanging out with him."

I chuckle at his remark. "Well, I'm Dorothy Harper and I'm a dentist. Not that you don't know."

"I'm Ethan King and I'm joining this conversation." Ethan walked into where we are.

"Daddy!" Liam ran to hug him. "Your house is so cool. I wish I live here."

"Me too buddy." Ethan picked him up.

"Nice seeing you Dora." Luca said excusing himself.

"Same." I smiled back at him. He walked down the hallway leading to some unknown place. "Thank you so much for being available."

"It's not a problem I've always got time for my family." He said dropping Liam down.

"I know. It's just that Charlie had to go to Connecticut and Mia had to go for her doctor appointment." I sigh. "I would have dropped him off with your parents but I haven't talked to them since..."

"It's okay baby doll." I see him force a smile which makes me feel guilty for stressing him out.

"Okay." I nod not pushing it any further. "So I need you to make sure he does his homework and not just sit in front of a screen all day. He needs to eat his veggies, I already packed some for him."

"Is that all?" He asked collecting the bag from me.

"He shouldn't take so much candy." I try to remember anything else. "There is a list of things he can and can't do in the bag."

"Noted." he said. "Now go."

"Bye little monkey." I bend down and peck his cheek.

"Bye mommy." He said hugging me.

"Thanks once again." I say to Ethan again.

"Don't I get a kiss." He asked grimly.

"Nice try." I smile and head to the elevator.

*******************************************************************

I walked into the café. I look around and enjoy the homely design. I see Nicole sitting sipping coffee.

"Hey." I say when reach where she's sitting.

"You made it." She smiled showing her perfect set of teeth. "Don't just stand there sit."

"How long have you been waiting." I asked sitting opposite her.

"Oh don't stress yourself I came earlier than we agreed on." She assured me. "I'm glad you made it. I really want to get to know you."

"Me too." I agreed. She looks so calm and collected. Like all the problem in the world is lifted of her shoulder.

"Why would you want to get to know me though?" I asked. Not many people pay much attention to me, not that I'm complaining I like being in the shadows. It's always been like that since high school and I guess I got used to it.

Dating Ethan was really brought me out of my comfort zone. Couldn't really avoid the press and the paparazzi even if you needed to.

"You looks so sophisticated and you are extremely hard to read which makes it difficult to call out you next moves." She said not holding back. "And that makes you interesting."

"You thing I'm interesting." I say in disbelief. "My life is like one of those boring classic books no one ever reads in the library."

"Don't underestimate yourself." She leans forward. "You tend to do that a lot."

"I know." I said looking down. I don't even know what to say, she's right. But what can I do I lost my self confident after the incident.

"Do you have kids?" She asked. I look up at her. "They way Emma can't seem to shut up about you feels you have a lot of experience with kids."

"I have a son." I answer. "Majority of my patients are children too."

"Tell me about him " She says sipping out of her mug.

"I'll tell you all about him the moment I get a drink." I say raising up my hand to get a waitress attention.

"Oh I'm so sorry." She apologizes. "I completely forgot."

The waitress takes our orders and leaves a promising it'll be here within ten minutes. I lean back into the chair. I need to go out more. I haven't been out with a friend for a very long time. I think the last time I went on a girl's night out was my bachelorette party.

"So tell me about your son." She says bringing me out of my thoughts

"He's name is Liam and he's four. He is like the light in my darkness. I was going through a difficult time when I had him." I say picking my nails. "I really love him. It was just the both of us until his father showed up from nowhere. I don't even know how I to feel about any of this."

"It must be hard." She whispered. "Did you love him? Did you love Liam's father?"

"I still do." I whisper. "A lot off people would think I'm an idiot for stilling being in love with the man that dumped me on my wedding day. He didn't even leave a note. He just left without a trace. The next few days I found out I was pregnant. It was really hard."

"I'm so sorry." She says but the look on her face is more of guilt than sympathy. "Men are dicks."

The waitress comes back with our order breaking off the awkward tension.

"What bout you?" I asked biting into a scone. "Have you ever been in love."

"Once." She looked outside the window admiring the busy streets.

"What happened?" I pressed on.

"He betrayed me." She sighed. "He betrayed me and my family. We all trusted him and he just stabbed us on the back. I never thought he'll ever do that. But what do you expect men are just stupid immature pieces of shit."

"I agree with you sister." I lift my mug up to the air. "To all the single ladies who have gotten their heart ripped by men."

"To all the single ladies who have gotten their hearts ripped by men." She raises her mug up too.

"You fun to hang with." I confess. Maybe I was being paranoid over nothing. I think she's really cool and we have something in common. We are both strong women.

"You still have a chance." She tells me. "He came back for something you know. And that something could be you."

"I don't know I just don't want to get my heart broken again." I whisper. "I'm not ready to go down that road again."

"You still love him right?" She grabs my hands.

"Very much." I say. Maybe I love him too much. Maybe that's the problem, I love him too much.

"Then go for it." She advices. "Maybe he left for a reason. Maybe he was scared of letting you down. Don't you want to know why he never showed up. Aren't you tired of wondering why?"

"I guess I am." I mutter under my breath. I've always wondered why he didn't show up. I never thought about asking him.

"Then give him a second chance to explain himself." She says. "Sometimes you just have to take the risk of you heart being broken again."

"What will people say?" I asked. "I can't just go back to him like nothing happened."

"This is your life, you call the shots." She grips my hand firmly and looks at me seriously. "Don't live your life to please people. Your just going to hurt yourself. If you really want to be with him then give him a chance. He might not wait forever."

She was right. Everything she said was like a wake up call. I've been avoiding Ethan because I didn't want everyone to think I'm weak and pathetic. No one ever made me think about giving him a second chance. Everyone just told me to move on. Nicole is the first person that made it clear that there's hope. There's hope that Liam, Ethan and I can be a happy family.

"What about you?" I asked. "There's still hope for you too."

"Dorothy, I don't think so." She chuckled lightly. "He's dead. Even if he wasn't, he and I was just not meant to be."

"Damn." I mumbled. "Your love life sucks."

"Your not the first person that said that." She busted out in laughter and I join her.

I really hope she finds happiness one day.

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