Chapter 43

In the morning, they arrived and went straight to Henry's house.

"Liz, welcome! I want you to feel right at home. This is your house now," Henry said warmly.

"The housekeeper has already come and set everything up for us. And my mom insisted we have breakfast with her. She's eager to see you. You can't imagine how happy she is about becoming a grandmother. Get ready; she'll probably want to start shopping for baby things right away. It's been her lifelong dream to see me married to you. She's always said you would be the perfect daughter-in-law."

"I feel a little embarrassed staying at your house. After all, we're not married yet," Liz responded, a bit shy.

"Don't worry about that. They'll love having you here. You won't be able to escape me anymore; I'll make sure the gates are always locked," Henry teased.

"Henry, you're silly. Who said I want to escape from you? On the contrary, I want to be close to you all the time."

She hugged him, and they kissed.

"Let's take a shower and change. Then we can go have breakfast."

Henry and Liz arrived at his parents' house. He opened the door, and they walked in together.

As soon as his parents heard that their son had arrived with his fiancée, they quickly came downstairs.

"We've been waiting for you," Henry's mother said excitedly.

"Your father didn't even go to work this morning; he was too eager to give our dear daughter-in-law a hug. Only she could make this miracle happen," Mrs. Carl said, already moving towards Liz to embrace her.

"Liz, it's so good to see you. We're so happy that you're finally getting married and giving us grandchildren."

"I'm really happy too, that everything is good between us again. And now with this surprise on the way..." Liz was interrupted.

"Now let's have breakfast. I asked them to prepare lots of delicious and healthy things for our beautiful future mom," Mrs. Carl said, holding Liz's hand and leading her to the dining room, where a beautifully set breakfast table awaited them.

Liz was amazed. "Wow, I'm so glad I'm starving. You really outdid yourselves with this table. Are you trying to make me gain weight?" she said, already heading for the carrot cake she loved and pouring herself some orange juice to go with it.

Henry commented, "She's anemic and low on some vitamins. We really need to take care of her diet."

"I'll take care of that personally," his mother said with a smile towards Liz.

"And how are you and your mom, my dear? When is she arriving?"

"Next week, the day before my birthday. Although, I'm not really in the mood to celebrate anything. I'm thinking of just having a dinner with our closest friends. Before they surprise me with a party, which I'm really not up for right now."

"Don't be sad, my dear," her future mother-in-law said, getting up from her chair to give Liz a hug. "You and your mom will be fine. We're here to help you with whatever you need. And you need to be well so that your pregnancy goes smoothly until the end."

"You're right," Liz replied, returning the hug.

"I've always considered you like a daughter. And now you truly will be, since you're going to be the mother of my long-awaited grandchild."

After breakfast, Liz and Henry went out to look at the house.

"It's beautiful, Henry! Do you think they'll finish it on time?"

"They said they would."

"Now we just need to pick out the furniture you like. I'll leave that to you."

"We'll figure that out later. Right now, I need to go see my friend and check on how things are at the company."

"Alright. I'll drop you off, then I'll check in at my office as well. I'll come back to pick you up later."

"Sounds good. Shall we go?"

"Of course."