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[color=4040bf][h1]Richard Davis[/h1][/color][/center][hr]
It had been the middle of December when the mysterious package had arrived.

Olivia Carrington had been standing in the middle of her child's nursery, carefully assessing how the work was coming along. She had decided to hire a prestigious interior designer that specialized in children's rooms and nurseries to help her bring her ideas to reality. All throughout the week, the designer and her team had been working nonstop to tend to Liv's ideas, and the result had been highly satisfactory. Liv couldn't wait until the day she'd show Rich the nursery.

"Miss Carrington?" Her housekeeper Mina had asked timidly from the door frame. Olivia had been staring at the empty crib, imagining warmly what her sleeping child would look like. She turned to look at Mina with an eyebrow raised in a silent question. "A package has just arrived for you."

Liv's eyes fell to Mina's outstretched arms, where she was holding a mid-sized box. Liv's perfectly plucked eyebrows furrowed, but her face quickly changed to an excited expression after she quickly remember about all the crazy shopping she'd done after learning her baby's sex. She assumed this was the first package of many to come. She took the box from Mina's hands with a ‘Thank You’, sat down on the rocking chair located in a nearby corner of the room and placed the box on top of her lap. When she removed the tape that kept the box sealed and opened it, Liv's excitement turned into stress. Right on top of the box's contents, Liv found herself staring at the back of an envelope sealed with the Carrington family crest. She placed the letter aside, deciding to read whatever was in the envelope after seeing what was inside the box.

To her surprise, Liv found herself looking into the eyes of her four favorite stuffed animals as a child: Elsie the dark gray elephant, Daisy the brown dog, Lily the fluffy white lamb and Theresa the teddy bear. A nostalgic smile crept up on her lips as she remembered how she would sleep with all of these for as long as she would remember. Every night at bedtime after reading her a story, Gabe or Rowan would place two animals on either side of Liv, tuck them all in and kiss her good night. If one of them went missing, it was an assured fit and she'd get everyone to search around the house until they found the animal in question. She carefully took each one out of the box and gave them a hug, feeling instantly comforted. Under the stuffed animals were the pair of knitted white baby booties she'd worn as a newborn the day she was discharged from the hospital. Everything was in a perfectly preserved state, which showed that maybe her parents did have emotions after all. It was a beautiful gift, and Liv was excited that she would get to pass on her favorite friends and shoes on to her baby.

The hesitation and worry that had evaporated from Liv when she'd seen the gifts was now back as she removed the seal and opened the envelope. The first paper talked about how her parents wanted to reunite with all their children in an all expenses paid trip to Europe (the details of said trip were to be found on the following page, and the tickets were in a smaller envelope inside the big one), and find an heir for Trium-Veritas. Upon closer inspection of said smaller envelope, she found two airplane tickets, which obviously meant she was allowed to bring a plus-one. There was no question to the fact that she would be attending the trip, and no doubts on who exactly was going to be her plus-one. Without any hesitation, Olivia took her cellphone from her pocket and called her boyfriend and father of her baby: Richard Davis.

"Hey, honey. Do you think we could go out to dinner tonight? There's something I'd like to discuss with you."

“Yeah, I’ll see about making reservations. Anything in particular?”

"Italian food!" Liv instantly blurted without a second thought. "I've been having a major craving for some pasta and garlic bread like you can't even imagine!" So far her cravings hadn't been that bad; except for that one time early in her pregnancy when she'd woken up in the middle of the night to eat pickles dipped in strawberry yogurt. Liv hated pickles.

“Alright, I’ll make the call.”

"Thanks, baby! Love you!"

Liv spent the few hours until seven thinking about the letter's mention of an heir, and how she felt she could do a great job if she were to be in charge of her parents' company. Though her fields of study had been marketing and public relations, she could easily expand her business knowledge with a second master's degree or a PhD in whatever she would need to take whichever position her parents left. If she was named heir, her and Rich would be the heads of two of the biggest companies in the world. They could not just build a family together, but a business empire; all the while Liv made sure that Triv-V stayed as a Carrington business and not fall into enemy or the wrong hands. There was a lot to think about and a lot to discuss during dinner that night. She kept her fingers crossed in hopes that Rich would see eye to eye with her in this aspect.

At exactly Seven o’clock, Liv and Rich were escorted to their reserved table at Luciano's; the best Italian restaurant in the Manhattan area. Once they were seated and their order had been taken, Olivia spoke. "So, today I got a package from my parents, and inside it was an envelope with two tickets for an all expenses paid trip to Europe, scheduled to depart on Christmas Day. I wanted to see if you, as my boyfriend and father of my child, would come with me." She took a sip of water from her glass, waiting patiently for Rich's response before moving onto the business part of the news.

“This is a trick right? There is no way I am allowed to say no.” Rich joked, as he paused briefly to consider his thoughts.

Liv smiled at him. "Well, you won't say no after I tell you about the rest of the letter."

“Yeah?”

Liv took a moment to gather her thoughts before she began with what was the serious part of this dinner. "There's a very specific reason why my parents have decided to reunite their ten children besides the whole 'getting together as a family' charade. They want to find an heir to take over their company when they decide to retire or, God forbid, are unable to manage it for whatever reason. I never really thought of what would happen to the company after they're gone, and judging from this I'm pretty sure they didn't either. None of my siblings chose business as a career or even worked for the company, since all of them were so eager to leave the house. But..." she took a deep breath. [i]Here goes nothing...[/i] "I think I'm up to the challenge of taking over. I know I have to get the proper academical and professional preparation, but I believe that I can take the reigns over Triv-V one day."

“That’s a lot of responsibility. But from what you’ve told me about your family you’re the only one with the tenacity and interest. I think you’d do well in corporate. Plus, if there’s any issues I can give some solid help there. Might be tough juggling raising our child, our personal lives, and our professional lives though. Eh, I'm sure we'd handle it fine.”

Liv was slightly shocked. She hadn't thought Rich would be against her idea, but wouldn't have thought that he'd be so supportive right off the bat. With a beaming smile, she placed a hand on top of his. "Do you really think that, love?"

“No, I’m just saying that to make you feel better.” Rich smirked widely with an abundant sarcastic tone. “Yeah, of course I mean it.”

Liv rolled her eyes teasingly at him. Leave it to Rich to be such a sarcastic clown. "Well then, now that that's settled, I had actually been thinking of something else..." Again, she debated for a moment whenever to suggest the idea to Rich or not, but since they were already talking about it, why the hell not? "What do you think about having Triv-V and Davis Enterprises as sister companies? I personally don't like the idea of fusioning them, even if they would be much more profitable that way. But we could have them join forces to cover more ground and hopefully double their success in the business world."

“Look out, world! She’s got ideas!” Rich teased. “A merger would be meticulous and there’d be a lot of work to go into the prospect. I think we’d have to talk it over with company lawyers as well as draw up pros and cons. I’m not sure about the idea too much since you pretty much came out of nowhere with it; but bigger companies have merged with great success. It’s a long conversation.”

Just then, their food arrived, so Liv took the distraction to mull over her idea again between bites of mushroom chicken carbonara and fettuccine pasta. Rich was right, and he was the businessman in the relationship. There was plenty of time to talk to the pros about all of this, but for the moment it was nice to know that her idea wasn't complete nonsense, and that her boyfriend valued, respected and supported her decisions. When she was done with her food (rather quicker than the normal person, given her hungry, pregnant state and all), Liv looked at Rich with a mischievous smile. "This night went rather well, don't you think? But there is [i]something[/i] I can think of to make it better..." She wiggled her eyebrows at him suggestively.

“Dessert?”

Liv smirked in satisfaction. "And that, Rich, is exactly why I love you."

[hr][center][img]http://www.pretapregnant.com/filelib/s11/cache/news/253_auto_retain_width/465475460instagram-jessie-james-decker-baking-pretapregnant-ov.jpg[/img][/center]

Early morning of Christmas Day, Olivia was awoken from her deep slumber by her baby's kicks, an almost uncontrollable desire to pee and an overwhelming craving for strawberry Nutella pancakes. Rich was still sound asleep next to her, his toned, naked chest rising and falling. Even when she felt she was about to piss on herself, Liv still took a moment to stare at Rich. You know how mothers say jokingly that they love their children best when they were asleep? Liv often thought that she loved Rich best when he was peacefully asleep in their bed: not arguing, being an condescending asshole or spending the night out with random women. Sure, the man could be quite the handful, but didn't they say good things don't always come easily? Beneath all those layers of difficulty there was a charming, caring version of Rich that not many people got to experience, and Liv was lucky enough to be one of those select few. When he slept next to her, Liv's life was perfect.

She kissed him lightly on the lips. "I love you, you selfish arse. Do you know that?" she whispered to him, placing a hand on her quivering abdomen. "And I'm sure this baby is going to love you even more than I do." She stared at him lovingly for a few more seconds before the pressure in her bladder was unbearable and she had to run to the bathroom in order to avoid any accident. Oh, the joys of impending motherhood.

"Merry Christmas, love! I made pancakes!" she announced cheerfully as Rich made his way sleepily into the kitchen.  Her brown hair was up in a messy bun, and the black shorts and gray T-shirt that she was starting to grow out of (made obvious because of the way the lower part of her belly was visible) were lightly stained with the white pancake mixture, as were her nose and cheeks. She took long strides in his direction with her arms outstretched, gave him a kiss and a hug, and giggled when her huge belly made the simple, loving action nearly impossible. "I seem to be getting bigger and bigger by the second," she declared while she served them both a succulent plate of pancakes with a glass of milk and took a seat in the chair opposite Rich.

“Right.” Richard replied afterward as he took a seat at the table in the Penthouse. 

He had only just turned twenty-nine weeks ago and it seemed that this whole pregnancy situation was coming to a heading. He had been upfront with Olivia about his concerns from the start, deciding not to blatantly lie or hide from the fact. Hell, had he not cared he wouldn’t have spent a lot of money and called in big favors to make Olivia’s life paparazzi free; something like that wasn’t something someone did idly, though he would be lying to himself if he said he did it all for the sake of Olivia. There were factors about his public relationship with Olivia that would gain him and by product his “new” company for his careless sexual activities with not only Olivia but also his other female friends. So it was sort of a dual priority thing. 

Still, with the onset of birth coming very soon he knew he would have to commit or at least sign a contract. It had been something that had been on his mind for two months. 

“I’ve been thinking about what you said in November. About priorities.” He said as he placed a fork between his middle and index fingers on his right hand.

Olivia shot him a questioning look, but quickly returned it to her pancakes. "Really?" she asked as nonchalantly as she could while chewing on a bite of food. "Is it because there's only five more days left of this year?"

The week before Thanksgiving, Liv had gone through one of her hormonal rages and had lashed out at Rich after he came home late one night smelling of female perfume that wasn't hers when he'd told her he was at a 'work meeting'. Between furious tears, she'd given him a piece of her mind: he was a grown man close to his thirties, so he should stop messing around like the teenager he no longer was; that he should grow some balls for once and get committed to something serious besides his job, and that if he didn't get his priorities straight by the end of the year, she'd be out the door and out of his life for good.

“Yeah, which is why. I’ve decided to offer an answer to said questions of priorities.” 

The comment was made after he took a bite of the food in front of him; thinking on what the right way to approach the conversation would be. Admittedly, Rich hadn’t really been slopping around just for sex but Olivia always had issues with Rich’s outlook on relationships; almost to the point of misconception. But if anything Rich was direct— feeling little need for lying in general. If he was out with another female friend he’d be direct about the situation… though he would twist his words enough to where he wasn’t lying and to the point the occurrence was supposedly harmless. Rich did have a large group of female friends and co-workers, after all. Though the way Rich could do that probably made Olivia uncomfortable. In fact, he knew it did; he just didn’t care all too much.

Rich retrieved a beige folder which he had put aside and slid it across the table.

Liv furrowed her eyebrows, first at the folder and then at Rich; her common gesture to anything that seemed suspicious. "What's this?" she asked him, taking the folder from the table and opening it. 

“Imagine this isn’t exactly the most cinematic way of doing things.”

Liv read the first words of the folder's first page, and her brown eyes widened in stunned surprise. Inside the folder was a proposal as well as papers detailing how he felt and how he thought they should approach things; both romantically and professionally. There were of course terms that concerned their personal safety, success, guardianship, and so forth. [i]'No way...'[/i] she kept thinking over and over again with every sentence and document that she read. Rich was never one to be melodramatic over things, and so he'd found the perfect way to express his feelings without losing the qualities that made him who he was.

There was also the small box of jewelry in his pocket, a fact that was clear when he removed himself from his seat. He had spent a lot of money (not that price was much of an object) on the engagement ring that was inside. Perfectly cut, expensive branding, pretty much the whole nine yards. He had discussed this in depth with his sisters Rebecca and Nicole; one of which had been in the married boat for a few years now. He also consulted with a lawyer experienced in the matter named Patrick Watterson who was also a childhood friend. 

Liv was reading the last sentence of the last page in the folder when she heard Rich clearing his throat. She looked up to watch him kneeling down in front of her chair, holding a small, velvet box that contained the most stunningly beautiful [url=https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/7b/5d/d2/7b5dd2c8722087f6932bce5cbe5062fe.jpg]engagement ring[/url] she had ever seen. It was made out of white gold and adorned with an elegant cushion-cut diamond, two smaller square diamonds on each side of the bigger one and a halo of smaller diamonds surrounding the main diamond and the circumference of the ring; something so perfect it was beyond anything she'd ever imagined.

Rich cleared his throat as he knelt down, though it was clear his discomfort with the formalities. “Olivia Elizabeth Carrington, would you care to enter 2016 as my wife?”

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed, covering her mouth with both hands and jumping up from her seat. He was really doing it: he was actually proposing and wanted to marry her. Today, on Christmas Day. Her eyes filled with happy tears. "Oh my God, Rich! Are you serious about this?! Because if you are, then you know what my answer is!"

“I’m not hearing a no.” He remarked with a smirk.

"Oh my God!" she squealed for a third time, while the tears came rolling down her cheeks. With a beaming smile, e extended her left hand to Rich. Thank goodness she always kept her nails neatly manicured, because with the amount of times she would be flashing her ring, it would be a shame not to keep them pretty. "Well, in that case... Yes. I would love nothing more than to enter 2016 as the wife of Richard Alexander Davis."

As he placed the ring on her person a sigh of relief left him for a moment; he never thought that something so archaic could be so stressful. “Well that’s good, because it’d be really awkward if you went into 2016 as my [i]husband[/i]. The media would have a field day. To be fair, you would look [i]fetching[/i] in a suit.”

Liv let out a bright laugh and wiped off her tear-stained face. "You ridiculous goofball," she teased, waiting for him to stand up. "I look good in almost anything." When he did, she once again threw her arms around him and kissed him deeply, trying to pour all of her feelings into the kiss. When she finally separated her lips from his, she gave him a bright, excited smile. "Now that you've basically given me my Christmas surprise, how about I give you yours?"

“Be my guest.”

"Remember how I've told you I still didn't know the baby's sex? I lied," she told him cheekily. 

“Heh, can’t imagine you lying often.” 

Olivia laughed again, her eyes sparkling with joy. "I sometimes do, but it's only for good causes like this one. Why else do you think you've been banned from going into the nursery? So..." Liv trailed off, unwrapping her arms from Rich, taking his hand and guiding him to the white door. Rich chuckled as he followed her lead.

"Close your eyes," she instructed, opening the door and ushering him inside. When he was standing right in the middle of the room, she told him, "Open them now."

The nursery walls were painted a light pink except for the one directly across from the door, which was painted gold with a light pink damask pattern. The crib was a beautiful bone white with gold accent and adorned with soft pink bows and white and soft pink bed sheets. Liv's old stuffed animals sat inside, as if waiting expectantly for the baby's arrival. A gold and crystal chandelier hung from the middle of the room, a fluffy soft pink couch sat next to the window and the rest of the room had various decorations that included frames, mirrors, crystal vases with flowers, small tables, lamps, etc. in the light pink, gold or bone white colors. All that was missing was Richard and Olivia's little bundle of joy, and the scene would be complete.

While he stared around [url=https://33.media.tumblr.com/793552235c194d408119866fcc5daa51/tumblr_inline_mxkg18BUGE1riow95.jpg]the room[/url], Olivia was looking straight at Richard with the brightest smile of her life, holding her belly. "Congratulations, Richard Davis. You are going to be the father of the most precious little [i]girl[/i] in this world."

Richard didn’t have much words for the reveal; then again, Liv knew he was a man of few words. He hadn’t really been thinking about the baby’s gender, so whilst he was surprised he was fairly neutral about the whole thing. He knew he should be happy to birth another Davis to the world and he knew his eldest sister would be ecstatic about the news. But he wasn’t sure how to react. He didn’t want to phone in something for Olivia, but he didn’t want to show no reaction at all. After a few moments of speculation he smirked as he nodded his head.

“We’re going to need a bigger place.”

[hr]
They spent the whole trip to the airport in silence. Liv wasn't really feeling up to her usual fashionista look (this seemed to be a trend growing stronger with every passing week), so she settled for something comfortable to wear all throughout their 12-hour flight: denim skinny jeans, a light brown tank top, an army-green jacket and some light brown, low-heeled boots. She'd decided to let her hair down in its usual layered waves style, a natural makeup that accentuated her eyes and a bold, dark red lipstick. For accessories, she'd chosen a golden necklace with a mermaid pendant that had been a gift from Gabe on her tenth birthday, a dark brown and gold watch (another gift, but this one from Oliver), gold stud earrings (yet [i]another[/i] gift that had appeared on her doorstep on her last birthday, but that had no details about the sender), a light brown handbag and, of course, the stunning engagement ring that let the world know she was soon to be Mrs. Richard Davis.

"Forget about catching up with family... I swear to God, I'll spend the whole flight sleeping," Liv said to Rich as they made their way to the airport wing where the Carrington Jet was supposed to be awaiting them. She held his arm not just in an affectionate way, but more as a way of comfort and protection from the upcoming situation ahead.

“And leave me alone with your family? When you wake up, I’ll be [i]dead[/i].”

Liv thought about that for a minute. Knowing how Rich and some of her family member were, that scenario wouldn't be too far off from reality. "Just... Do try to be on your best behavior, okay, love?" she suggested, looking at him with a serious expression. "I love you just the way you are, even if you do get on my nerves sometimes. But some of my family members aren't as [i]forgiving[/i], if you could call it that."

“I won’t go out of my way to antagonize them, we’ve discussed that like twice on the way here; and five times yesterday. You’re more tense than I am; and I’m afraid your dad is going to throw me out of his plane in midair.” Rich chuckled as he buried his hands in his coat pockets; thinking on how he should approach the whole ‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but hey, I’m engaged to your pregnant daughter! Whoops.’ issue.

"Okay, okay... I'll try to stop worrying so much then."

“You can’t help it. Victoria is nervous, too, or something.”

It was true. As they got even closer to the private terminal, the baby began to kick, as if sensing her mother's rising nervousness. "There, there, little Tori," Liv whispered to her bump, rubbing it gently with circular motions. "Everything's okay. Mommy's just a little nervous about how all of this is going to turn out, but you don't have to worry about anything besides staying inside until you're due, okay?" Getting her mind off the impending situation ahead by talking to her daughter and Rich eased some Liv's tension.

“Already throwing around nicknames?” Rich laughed before continuing his comment. “And Tori? Why not Vicki? or Vi?” He wasn’t sure why the thought had crossed his mind, but it was likely the idle chat was a tension reducer; or at least it was subconsciously. 

Liv shot Rich an amused look. "It's never too early to start. Vi's just too plain, and Vicki sounds like a mean, grumpy old lady. Tori just sounds [i]cool[/i], very much like how Liv's the cooler version of a plain name like Olivia. Victoria's a great name in itself, but Tori's going to be like her alter ego."

“If you say so. Victoria will suit me just fine. Maybe Victory if I’m feeling ‘father-like’.”

"You're always sooooooooo humble..." Liv remarked, rolling her brown eyes at him. "Anyway, she [i]is[/i] named after two queens of England, so I'm safe in assuming she'll be royalty." She finished proudly. For a moment, Liv was quietly lost in thought, but then suddenly burst out, "We should name her Victoria Elizabeth [i]Diana Catherine[/i] Carringon-Davis. How's that for a royally-sounding name?" she said with a laugh at how ridiculous such a long name sounded.

“Three middle names is really pushing it. You’re just being silly, now!” Rich nearly laughed at the prospect of it. 

"You're right... We can leave the whole Diana Catherine part and use it for our second baby girl!" Liv said excitedly, knowing Rich would flip at the thought of another baby when the first one wasn't even born yet.

“Not a bad idea.” Rich commented as he looked to her for a moment. “Funny you mention that, though. My eldest sister is named Catherine.” 

"Too bad we're not having twins then... Or are we?" Liv teased, winking at Rich. 

“If we are, then I really should be looking at buying a house over in Long Island or something.”

Liv began to laugh, but the laughter faded away as the Carrington Jet came into view. She noticed her parents standing on top with their usual icy expressions, and unconsciously held onto Rich's arm a little tighter. Here it was, the moment of truth: her family would finally know she was expecting what would be Cassiopeia's and Reginald's first grandchild, her siblings' first niece, and the first Carrington baby born in seventeen years. 

They carefully exited the town car and made sure their luggage was tended to before walking their way up the jet's stairs until they stood face to face with Olivia's parents. Reginald and Cassiopeia had obviously aged since the last time she'd seen them eleven years prior, but they had done so gracefully, like a fine wine would. Olivia gave them both a shy smile. "Hello, Mother and Father, and Merry Christmas. I'm happy to say that the [i]three[/i] of us could make it," Olivia told them, resting her head on Rich's shoulder and placing her left hand on top of her belly. Her engagement ring sparkled brightly against the dark fabric of her top.