Chapter 26 #2
She shakes her head repeatedly against my chest. “Or… I could keep quiet and say it was you. Say the man I loved… the boy I grew up with…did it.” I can feel the heaviness in the sentence she’s just said. “And they’d help her; they’d send her to one of the best doctors in the country.”
I stare at her, unable to speak. It’s more fucked up than I imagined. I mean I knew it had to be something big for her to betray me the way she did. Rage simmers in my chest, but beneath it, there’s heartbreak. Through all this, she had no one to fight for her because she couldn’t tell me anything.
“You could’ve told me,” I murmur.
“How was I supposed to face you?” she breathes. “I still can’t. Because of me… because of what I said… you went through hell.”
I sit there for a moment not sure what to say to her, I have no idea if anything I say will be good or bad.
I close my eyes, taking in a deep breath. “Come on,” I say quietly. “Mom cooked dinner.”
“What? No… I can’t…”
“You’ve told me everything. That’s a lot. I need time to… process all of it.” It’s the only thing I can think of saying.
I know my family won’t welcome her with open arms until they know I can move on from everything. But I also know my family well enough to know they won’t say anything to her. Because right now she is going through so much with her parents.
She stares at me, and I can see the guilt devouring her, but I stand anyway, holding my hand out. “Come inside, Olivia.” She hesitates, then slowly takes my hand with her very shaky one.
Walking into the house, everyone is talking about something, but the moment we come into view, silence falls.
Everyone stands in the kitchen watching her, watching us.
Olivia takes a small step closer to me; her shoulders hunched like she’s unsure if she should be here.
At the moment I’m not sure she should be here, but yet I can’t leave her alone at this time.
I step forward. “Mom, dinner ready?” I ask, as I watch her watching Olivia.
And just like that, there's movement in the house again, no one says anything to her, no one even looks her way. Everyone heads over to the sitting area with their plates. I walk into the kitchen and grab a plate from Mom, who hands it to me with a warm smile as I pass it to Olivia.
“Thank you,” she whispers, barely audible. I don’t even think my mom hears it. Then she walks off and finds a spot on the floor near the group but still slightly away from us all. It feels strange because in this house she used to be so comfortable, but now she feels like a stranger.
The TV plays in the background, Autumn talks about the flower shop being swamped. “I barely even see Cain anymore. The club’s one thing, but with him back in the other place—” she doesn’t finish. Everyone knows she’s talking about the Pit, but Olivia doesn’t.
“Who wants to be around him all the time anyway,” Mason jokes, and Autumn tells him to stop, and Cain isn't as bad as we all think.
Declan and Miles bicker as usual, and it’s always about the same thing. Miles is trying hard to learn ASL, and Declan hates it. “She’s pissed at you,” Miles grins.
“I know. Fuck off and go to hell.” Miles laughs.
I let their conversation fade into the background as my thoughts drift.
Her words in the treehouse still play over and over in my head.
Would I have done the same? Maybe not. But I’ve always had everything, money, a family that would tear the world apart for me.
She had no one. She was pushed into a corner. A corner with no way out of it.
“Hayden!” My mom lightly slaps my arm, snapping me out of it. “Your phone is ringing.” I look down at it, see the screen, and hand it to Olivia without thinking.
“It’s the hospital.”
She’s up instantly, clutching the phone like a lifeline. Without a word, she walks into the garden, and I stay still for a moment before turning to my family. They all need to know about what she said to me.
Without me having to say anything they all know what I’m about to tell them.
Once I finish, no one says a word. But I see it in their eyes, the recognition, understanding, maybe even a little regret. It’s messed up, all of it. No one knows what the fuck to say, I still don’t know.
I move to the patio doors and stare at her silhouette through the glass, and I feel Mom joining me. Her voice is soft but firm. “You still love her. We all know you never stopped.”
I don’t answer because we all know it’s true. Even after everything that happened, I still loved her more than I should.
“This family, we stay together. If you forgive her, and you want her in your life, every single one of us will welcome her with open arms and not once mention what happened.”
The words settle in me like a weight I didn’t know I was carrying. Maybe I was thinking about my family, maybe that was going to be my reason to walk away and find the easy way out. Because the easy way was easier than just walking away from her.
Cain appears beside us, sipping from his whiskey. “You can blame her, sure. But you also have to remember, when you have to choose between feeding your family and saving someone you love, things get hard. Every penny she made went to her mother, to save her.”
I don’t speak, but I feel the truth in his words. The hit makes more sense now. The target. The reason.
“She’s a pretty girl,” Cain continues. “You thought you lost your first love, but she’s right there. Second chances with your first love don’t come around often.” He pats my back and walks away. And if anyone knows about first love and how losing them hurts, it’s him.
Through the glass, I watch Olivia, her body is tight, rigid. Whatever she’s hearing on the phone, it isn’t good.
I stay there, silently watching the girl I once would’ve died for, the same girl I’m now trying to figure out how to love again.