"For the hundredth time, Emma, it was just because of my negligence that my stitches got stretched." I pinched the bridge of my nose and tried explaining furious Emma, who was nothing more than a volcano that would burn down my whole damn house.

"You are lying as always! Shut up and take the proper rest. I will be by your side the entire time. I don't believe him anymore." Emma said, furiously glaring at me. She said she saw him with a woman at his house and I knew who that woman was. Explaining Emma would have worsened the situation as she mentioned that the woman was in his room. I couldn't find any proper explanation.

"Stop overreacting. Look at me." I said as I dragged her to the couch and held her face to focus on me.

"I'm good. I'm healthy. It's a minor injury. I had my painkillers. I'm perfectly fine." I said as slowly and gently as I could. Looking at her worried expression saddened me. She couldn't catch her flight because of me and thank God Dima wasn't home when all this happened.

"Please take a breath and have this," I said as I handed her a glass of water.

"He should have been by your side, Liara." She whispered.

"I didn't want him to. Privacy is something I like, and he respects that." I tried assuring her.

"Dima will be home any minute. Just look at you. You look like a patient and not me." I said, mocking her at her appearance.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh all you could. The way I saw you lying on the bed in the morning, Mia or Dima would have gone crazy." She said, shaking her head. I plopped on the sofa beside her and massaged my head. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath. The morning wasn't as good as it should have been. I didn't know how my stitches opened up and blood stained my bedsheet.

Not until Emma shook me. I was completely unfazed. She immediately took me to the hospital, making sure Dima went out to the Sams Orphanage. John strictly gave me orders to stop working and stop stressing if I wanted to work like before. And meanwhile, Emma went to Zearo's house to drag him out and saw Julie over there.

This marriage was getting complicated and another stress piling up for me to sort out. I asked him for only one year and he couldn't even respect that. How impractical of him.

"Emma dear? Are you sick? What happened?" I heard Dima's worried voice as she put the bags on the kitchen table and rushed to the hall near us. I looked at Emma and raised my eyebrows, gesturing to her, "I told ya".

"Just tired of taking care of an animal, Dima." She said nonchaotically, calling me an animal. I glared at her and took a bite of an apple from the table.

"You girls don't know how to be healthy. Look at how princess looks weaker day by day. I have to do some improvisations on her diet." Dima said, holding my chin and studying my face.

"I'm not a kid. Let me finish my apple. I have to get ready for the office. It's already lunchtime." I said, but soon enough, I heard them both in unison.

"No!"

"What." As I stood up, I glanced at them as if they went crazy. I had work piled up and they want to take leave.

"You are THE CEO! Bring the files home and work from home." Emma suggested. I thought this through, but it would be a burden for Aria to move so much.

"Client meetings cannot be held here, Emma. I promise I will take care of myself." I said, assuring them.

"No can do. I brought all your files along with your assistant who kept eating my head asking about you." I saw Anthony walking with a bundle of files and I sneered at him.

"You shouldn't have bothered her." I glared at him. I cannot do office work at home. I prefer keeping them all sorted and now they messed it up.

"I've arranged everything properly, along with your meeting schedules. You have nothing to worry about, Maam." I turned my head to the right as I heard Aria's voice, but couldn't see her. She poked her head out beside Anthony. Her tiny figure engulfed behind Anthony's broad shoulders.

"You have such a great team, but still you keep beating yourself up." Emma scolded, and Dima joined her, making me roll my eyes.

"Let's just start. Take those files to the hallway next to my study." I gestured towards them.

Eating another bite of my apple, I stopped Anthony and told him, "Book tickets for the next flight to LA for this crazy girl. She will give me a headache if she stays a little longer."

"Okay, boss. Let's throw the trash out." He said and high-fived me. We both laughed harder when Emma started cursing us.

"I will bring something to eat," Dima said and, as usual, made her way towards the kitchen. It was already lunchtime, and I was hungry. Dr. John said I should have proper food and gave me some medicines to increase my appetite. And as if on cue, my stomach growled.

"Dima, someone is hungry. Please make it fast." Emma laughed at me and shouted at Dima. But Dima didn't look at us, rather her attention was on the main door.

"Is something wrong, Dima?" I enquired when I saw her, unmoving. Waiting for her answer, I looked at Anthony and he nodded at me, placing the files on the table.

"Dima?" I called her again but still found her standing like a statue.

"I will check," Anthony said, and Emma gestured to me to stay where I was. The main door was behind a wall separating the living room from the first room close to the main door. The kitchen was an open kitchen. It was from the living room to the first room attached to the main door. Dima wanted to monitor the door and people when she worked in the kitchen, so they designed it the way she wanted.

"Aiden." She breathed. I heard her and couldn't find why she looked so tense. Not comfortable with the situation, I walked toward her and tapped on her shoulder.

"What happened?" I asked. Anthony walked towards us and a few steps approached behind him. I looked at the silhouettes walking toward us and then stared at Dima. Her complexion was pale, and sweat formed on her creased forehead. Emma watched her expression too and raised an eyebrow at me, to which I had no answer.

"Dima, you are worrying me," I whispered to her. Despite that, her eyes stared at the two boys who made their way toward us.

"Anthony, who are they?" I asked, pointing at the two boys. Anthony shook his head, and the boys had their heads hung low.

"They are with me." From my line of sight, I saw the two boys parting ways and Zearo entered my vision carrying a small girl.

"You've got to be kidding me?" Emma gritted her teeth and took a step forwards but I held her back and shook my head, gesturing to her to keep her composure. I was not worried about her being angry with him, but my focus was on Dima. She stood there as if she saw a ghost.

"Hi!" My head turned towards the squeaky voice of a little girl who broke free from Zearo's hold and ran towards me.

"Hi," I said. Her eyes are so bright blue and her face glee like butter gliding on a plain surface. Her charms mesmerized me, and I smiled at her.

"You must be Miss D'Waners. I'm Lilly." She introduced herself with the cutest voice she had.

"Hi, Lilly, it's so nice to meet you," I said, shaking her tiny hands. Of course, bending over to reach her height made me winch with pain, and just in a second, I felt a touch I craved and loathed. Jerking him aside, I smiled once again at the little girl, but then I felt a heaviness in the air in the same way it feels before a storm.

"Um, what is all this? Is she your-" I wanted to ask, but he cut me and said, "I adopted them." I stood frozen on the ground and there was pin-drop silence in the room.

"Them?" Emma asked. I looked at her and then at Zearo, who kept on staring at me, contemplating my reaction. I raised my eyebrows at him, but he stood there unmoving, unsure how to answer.

"Okay, let's go to the living room. Miss Lily must be hungry. And yeah, I'm so sorry I couldn't get to know you two." I said and turned my attention towards the boys who stood far away from us. Furrowing my brows, I walked towards them, but they took a step back. For every step I took, they took a step back.

"I will not harm you. We can talk later." I suggested, and they nodded their head still gazing at the ground.

"Dima, we have guests to attend," I said to Dima, and she then snapped from her daze, still looking at the boys now and then.

"I swear if you utter a single word before him, I'm going to tell Anthony that you have a huge crush on him," I warned Emma, and she gasped at my sudden words.

"You are so cruel." She said through gritted teeth and walked away from us towards the kitchen, gesturing to me with two fingers and then pointing them to her eyes, saying I'm watching you.

"I will go see if Aria needs anything," Anthony said and walked towards the hallway where Aria was working. I was glad that he understood I needed time and left me alone.

"Please have a seat," I said to the three kids adopted by my so-called husband. I knew he adopted some kids but couldn't find out who they were. Their records couldn't be found anywhere.

Walking towards the boys, I studied their appearance and the way they sat, one looked confident but the other one was shy. They hung their heads low so I couldn't see their faces.

"We need to talk." I heard Zearo, and I hummed to him. Folding my hands on my waist, I studied the three kids and served them fruits. While handing the fruit to the twin, I noticed a tattoo on his wrist. He tried covering it but couldn't. My mind threw unclear pictures which I couldn't sort out. I looked at them once again and spotted a mark on the blonde guy's face. In a flash, I remembered something that still gave me goosebumps.

The thought of it had my legs weak and sweat formed on my forehead. I wiped it soon as blood pumped faster when the horrific night came into my vision.

"You... You brought criminals to my house?" I asked Zearo through gritted teeth. My blood boiled and my heart beat too fast as I saw the boys lifting their heads when they heard me, too.

"You two.!." I gripped my hold on my shirt to strengthen myself. Dima, Emma, Anthony, and Aria were at home. They shouldn't see me like this. I had to hold myself. Zearo slowly moved toward me, but I pushed him back. His nerves were to bring the culprits who injured me severely to my house.

"Give me five minutes. I need to talk to you." He said, desperately gesturing at my room. I took a deep breath and walked away from him towards my room when I saw Dima and Emma walking toward us through my peripheral vision. This was not the place to talk. I needed space, and I needed to hear him out. Of course, my anger wouldn't subside, but I can't act out in front of my family.

"Spit the whole damn truth before I call the cops and arrest those two," I said, pointing out of my room as Zearo shut the door gently behind him.

"Look, I know what they did to you was wrong, but just hear me out." He gestured to me to calm down.

"To hell with your reasoning," I said and tapped the phone number of the police in charge. But then halted. "Oh great, the police in charge are your men. He wouldn't do anything that will be against you." My hands shook and my body took with the intensity of my anger.

"Just hear me out, please." He whispered, holding my hands. I removed my hands from his clutch as it prickled me like a thorn.

"You were behind the attack. That's the reason you adopted them and now brought them to my fucking house." I said. My voice is growing louder every second. I had to turn my fingers into a fist to hold myself up.

"No, I knew nothing about the attack. It was Samira." He said, and I sat on my bed, checking if he was serious.

"I was waiting for you to confront it, but didn't know you would bring the killers to my house." My anger is taking over. I knew Samira was behind this, obviously because she was there and hurt me.

"They just fell into her trap because they had a little girl to feed." He said, and I looked at him to speak whatever he wanted too fast before I lost my shit.

"Samira tricked them into giving more money so they could live a happy life and rescue Lilly." He said, sitting beside me. I stood up as I felt his manly scent close to me.

"What does any of this have to do with you?" I asked, tapping my leg in frustration.

"I saw myself in them. Fifteen years ago, I fell into a trap and couldn't walk out. I don't want them to suffer the way I did." He said, his voice growing lower and lower.

"Why bring them here? To show me I'm weaker than you expected? To torture me?" I asked.

"To give them safe shelter." He said. I paused for a minute and then asked, "is my house a charity case for you?"

"No, but Sams Charity campaign is. The two boys used to live there. They ran away as they needed money and ended up doing bad things." He explained. I stopped for a second and studied his face. He looked at me as if requesting me to help him.

"I don't know how that is even related to me, but I'm not giving shelter to criminals." My family is at risk because I put them at risk. I repeated, shaking my head having too many painful memories playing in my head. I walked out of my room.

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