Chapter 19: Chapter 19

It was almost midnight and Celeste was resting her head on Liam's bare chest while listening to his steady heartbeat peacefully. They hadn’t slept yet after the passionate love making. They had been making love the whole afternoon and then just had dinner and spent some time with their family and returning to their room again to engage in their pending work. Liam had his one arms around Celeste while his other hand was busy caressing her hair. Celeste had her eyes closed as she silently laid on his arms. All of sudden Liam stopped caressing her hair and leaned backwards. Celeste opened her eyes and took a glimpse at what he was doing. She found him taking out something from his drawers and went back to her previous position. She wanted to sleep as she was already very exhausted. She even lost the track of time.

Celeste was slowly drifting away to sleep when all of sudden she felt something cold touching her neck and at the same time her phone beeped for a while. She opened her eyes and was about to turn look at her neck when suddenly Liam placed a soft kiss on her forehead before softly whispering,

"Happy Birthday, Celeste!" Celeste closed her eyes for a moment and then looked at Liam with a surprise expression on her face. She then touched her neck and found a pendant adoring her neck. She looked down at the pendant and found a beautiful pendant carved with rubies. It was indeed really beautiful and complimented her golden skin.

She looked up at Liam with tearful eyes and leaned forward to place a kiss on his lips. She then hugged him tightly before whispering a soft thank you. Liam hugged her back and rubbed her back slowly.

"Do you like it?" Liam asked with a smile. Celeste nodded while still hugging him.

"I love it. It's so beautiful. Thank you." She thanked him while burying her head on his neck. She didn’t expect he would still wish her at 12:00 am despite not remembering her birthday. He even brought her such a beautiful gift. She felt really touched and loved by his kind gesture. At that moment she wanted to say to him loudly that she loved him but she didn’t cause she knew it still wasn’t the right time yet.

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The next morning Celeste got up a bit late and Liam wasn’t present in the room. Celeste smiled remembering last night's events. Liam was always a morning person but she wasn’t. Celeste slowly got up and went straight to the washroom to freshen up. She then got dressed and went downstairs.

When she was walking down the stairs she heard a really familiar voice talking in the living room. She frowned and thought she might be mistaken. That person couldn’t be here.

But she got the biggest surprise when she finally went downstairs. She blinked a few times to get her vision cleared but she was still there talking to Andrew happily. She then let out a surprised call before running towards the old woman who was chatting with Andrew.

"Grandma! I can't believe you are here. I'm so happy!" She shouted happily before running directly in Marielle's arms. Marielle let out a small chuckle before hugging her back and kissing her head.

"Oh sweety! How can I not be here? It's your birthday after all. How can I miss it? Happy birthday,my darling." Marielle said and then greeted her affectionately after breaking the hug. She then kissed Celeste's forehead. Celeste started sobbing while kissing her grandma's both hands.

"Thank you grandma. I love you so much. I'm so happy that you are here with me. I'm not letting you go so easily." Celeste said while sobbing and then hugging her grandma tightly. Marielle laughed and comforted her.

"Don't worry, darling. I love you more. You are my little sweetheart. I can't believe you have turned 24 and become such a beautiful young woman. Your parents and grandpa must be so proud of you" Marielle

said emotionally while rubbing Celeste back. Celeste didn’t say anything more just nodded with a happy yet sad smile. Meanwhile Andrew cleared his throat to get their attention. Finally remembering he was also there Celeste became a bit embarrassed. She blushed and hid her face behind her loose hair.

"Dad!" She whispered softly in an embarrassed voice. Andrew laughed out loud noticing her embarrassment.

"Happy birthday, dear. May God always bless you and keeps you happy." Andrew greeted her with his kind words. Celeste got up from her seat smiling and went to hug Andrew.

"Thank you, dad." She thanked him while breaking the hug. Andrew smiled and caressed her head affectionately.

"But grandma, how did you come here? I mean who brought you here? Don't tell me you came here all alone." Celeste asked and then said the last part with a frown. Before her grandma could answer her she heard Liam who she didn’t know was also standing there reply to her question.

"I went to pick up grandma in the morning." Liam replied from behind making Celeste turn around in shock. She looked at Liam who was standing near the big flower vase wearing a pair of jeans, full sleeve sweater with an overcoat on, looking really handsome. His nose was a bit red indicating that he had just returned from outside. When Celeste realised she was staring at him for too long she averted her eyes and smiled at him with eyes full of gratitude.

"Thank you." She said.

"You don't need to thank me. We are a family." He replied. And at that moment her heart finally burst open with happiness. She felt warm because of happiness.She looked at him with those puppy lovesick eyes which were filled with love only for him. Liam smiled and was about to go upstairs when Marielle called him. He nodded and went to sit beside her and started to chat with her with a beautiful smile adoring his face making him look divine. Celeste smiled looking at the scene.

Then suddenly Rihanna came and hugged her from behind before shouting

"Happy Birthday, Celeste." She greeted Celeste enthusiastically. Celeste hugged her back.

"Thank you, Rih." She replied, breaking the hug. Then again she was pulled in another hug by Rafael.

"Happy Birthday, Cel." Rafael greeted him with his sweet smile which melted her heart instantly.

"Thank you, Rafi. So Where's my special gift from the Philippines huh?" She thanked him happily then teased him a bit. He laughed and ruffled her hair.

"You will get it soon. Don't worry." He said with a smirke making Celeste stick her tongue out at him. Then one by one everyone greeted her including Carissa and Amy. Amy didn’t hug her just said a plain happy birthday which Celeste didn’t mind and thanked her wholeheartedly. Celeste didn’t realise her birthday could be such a happy occasion until now. She was never this happy on her birthday ever. She thanked God wholeheartedly for giving her such a loving in laws. She looked at everyone who was chatting happily. Her eyes then stopped on the pair of grey eyes which were already on her, gazing at her intensely and for the time being she couldn’t look away as if she became trapped in those pair of smokey grey eyes.