SURROGATE : Conception (+18) BOOK 1 (COMPLETE)

| 35 | The Land of Pain That We Share ||

An alarm startled her out of her daydream of recalling making love to Liam a couple days before. An alarm she set as a reminder of her deadline.

The previous day she exhausted all options with the banks. It would take too long to actually get the money in her hands. The check cashing places wouldn't give her the amount she needed.

She was back to staring at the clock again, only three minutes had passed but it felt like an eternity. An eternity and yet no time at all.

She started her period the day before too which brought about a whole bunch of other stress that she couldn't even begin to think about at the moment. She was feeling extra emotional, and hopeless, and tired.

"Mom," her voice shook when she released the word. "What am I going to do?" The question was a whisper that was followed by blurry vision and streams of tears. She let her head fall toward her chest. Was she giving up? Maybe. What other options did she have? She sure as hell couldn't think of any and she was exhausted. Was sleeping an option? She knew she didn't get much of it in the past couple days. In fact, if she wasn't mistaken, sleeping in Liam's arms in his office was probably the last real good night of sleep she got.

The ache in her lower abdomen made her sobs deeper. She was just failing at everything at the moment wasn't she? Couldn't save her brother, couldn't make this damn baby, couldn't think up any designs either. She was stuck, felt like and there was nowhere to go that she wanted to venture. Sleep sounded so good.

There was a soft knock on the doorframe starting her out of her downward spiralling thoughts.

"L-Liam." She tried to wipe the tears, but they were flowing faster than she could contain them. As quickly as his lean physique came into focus it blurred again. She felt like a leaking faucet and she didn't know how to turn herself off.

"Hey. You alright?" She heard the empathy in his voice, the concern.

She nodded. "Yeah, what's up?"

He hesitated, but decided to talk rather than pry.

Good.

"Just stopping by to let you know I'm about to head out to the airport."

She nodded again brushing some rogue tears. "That's right Sanfran,yeah?" She forced a smile but avoided his steady gaze. She could feel him looking at her, assessing, figuring out how he was going to get down to the bottom of her. Must have been a guy thing because her brother hated seeing her crying too.

"Mhm." A pause ensued, but he made no move to leave. "Guess it would be a good time to let you know that I got roped into a trip to Japan in a couple weeks." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Frida will be," a long exhale. "Unhappy, but I can't lose my client."

Someone else's problems, good. "I'm sure she'll understand."

He let out a tense laugh. "Then you don't know my Frida."

Penelope laughed a little bit feeling the joy under her distress. "Yeah you're probably right. She will eat you for dinner." She liked hearing his amusement.

There was a potent silence and she looked away trying to discreetly wipe her leaking eyes.

"Y-you sure you're okay?"

She nodded and looked down at her lap for a minute before catching crystal clear blue eyes from under her lashes. When she realized he wasn't buying her b.s. She cleared her throat. "I uh, I still get sad sometimes when I think of my mom. She died when I was a teen."

"Mmm, I'm sorry." He pushed off the door frame and made his way to perch on the edge of her bed. He was angled toward her, but her back was to him.