Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
CALLUM/CASH
Now
Ghosts On Quartz & Three Brutal Kicks
Sometimes the hardest truths are tests you’re not expecting.
“Lily, I’m not hiding things from you. I’m just trying to listen to the doctor’s orders.” My insides wrench down.
I have no idea how to navigate this situation in a way that honors her well-being and is honest.
Jaxon may be the man I owe my current life to, but I don’t want him around Livianna right now. Not when she’s in a delicate place.
“Darling.” Her mom shifts closer to her. “Please, try to calm down.”
“I will once someone tells me about how I got here.” Livianna fakes a laugh. “And how did you get Jaxon Crowne to help me? He’s rude and thinks I’m some silly—”
“Livianna, that’s not the case anymore.” Greg squeezes her covered knee.
I find it interesting that Livianna seems to hold bitterness about Jaxon. It cuts through the room and carves trenches into the silence that follows. Her family stands frozen, unsure how to navigate this minefield without setting off another explosion.
And me? My lungs refuse to expand properly. Every breath I force in presses against my ribs because I know something they don’t.
The man she thinks can’t stand her? He’s in love with her and is the father of the baby she just lost. My insides empty. I’m a complete dick for keeping this from her.
Livianna’s heart monitor betrays her accelerating pulse. The beeping climbs faster with each passing second. Her chest rises and falls too quickly. Panic is building again, and if I don’t redirect this conversation right now, she’s gonna spiral.
They’ll knock her out with a sedative again. And I’d rather have her awake, calm, and speaking to me.
“Lily.” I push off from the door frame and position myself closer to her bedside without crowding her. “Your business isn’t going anywhere. We don’t need to figure everything out today.”
Her blue eyes snap to mine, something desperate flickering behind them. “But how am I supposed to just accept that I don’t recognize my own life?”
“You take it one day at a time.” I keep my tone steady even though everything in me wants to punch through a wall. “Focus on getting out of this hospital first. Everything else can wait.”
“Cash is right, darling.” Lorna wrings her hands together. “You need to heal before we overwhelm you with business details.”
“I’m already overwhelmed.” Livianna throws her head back and glares at the ceiling. “Five years are just gone. How do I get them back?”
Greg exchanges a weighted glance with Lorna. “The doctor said your memories might return gradually, or they might not return at all. We have to prepare for both possibilities.”
“That’s not helpful, Daddy.” Livianna’s voice cracks, and she brings her sad gaze to her pops. “I need answers, not possibilities.”
Bren uncrosses his arms. “What you need is rest, Livianna. You’ve been awake for less than an hour and you’re already pushing yourself too hard.”
“Because everyone keeps talking around me instead of to me.” A tear slides down her cheek, and she bats it away. “I’m not a child. Stop treating me like I’m going to break.”
But the actual truth of her statement twists like a knife in my chest. She’s exactly as breakable as we fear. One wrong word, one misplaced truth, and she could shatter.
“Nobody thinks you’re a child.” I slide my palm into hers. “We’re just trying to protect you from information overload while your brain heals.”
“Then tell me one thing.” She locks her gaze on mine. “Just one honest answer. Can you do that for me, Callum?”
I swallow hard. “Depends on the question.”
“Are you hiding something from me?” She searches my face like she’s trying to find the lie I’m burying. “Because it feels like everyone in this room knows something I don’t.”
Fuck.
Five Days Later
Now
After convincing Livianna we all have her best interests at heart, she relaxed, but that doesn’t mean she’s fine with the situation.
That’s just another thing I’ll handle once she’s discharged. Until then, things need to be in place that support her well-being. That’s why Jaxon and I are gonna make sure there’s nothing at her new place that could trigger her.
I punch in the numbers to her gate. The wrought iron swings open, revealing Livianna’s driveway. Jaxon’s black sedan idles behind my rental car, waiting.
We agreed to do this together, clearing her house of anything that might bring forward memories she’s not ready to handle. Photos with him. His clothes. Anything that doesn’t fit the narrative of eighteen-year-old Livianna who thinks I’m still her boyfriend.
I park and Jaxon pulls up beside me. When he steps out, exhaustion hangs off him like a weight he can’t shed.
Dark circles shadow his eyes. His usually immaculate appearance is frayed at the edges—overgrown beard, messy hair, and wrinkled shirt and jeans.
“Thanks for doing this with me.” I wave for him to follow me.
He glances at the house and falls in behind me. “She’s coming home today. This needs to be done.”
We go inside. Her warm, spicy perfume that clings to everything she touches floats around us. It’s a knife to the throat for both of us.
“I’ll take the main level.” Jaxon motions around us. “You should check the area upstairs.”
“Yeah, right.” I trudge up her staircase.
With each step I take, I dread it more than the last. I work my way through all the extra bedrooms and finally make myself go into her bedroom.
How many times I wished I could fall asleep with her is beyond comprehension, but being in here today feels like a betrayal on some level. I wasn’t invited, and that’s eating me to the core.
This room has been untouched since the accident. Her bed is unmade and clothes are draped over a chair. There’s a coffee mug on the nightstand.
The en suite bathroom door is open. That’s when I see them.
Three packages on the counter. The pregnancy tests are laid out. I don’t wanna look and face reality. It’s too hard to take.
“Fucking hell.”
“Cash? Did you find something?” Jaxon appears in the room.
I can’t answer. I just stare at those tests like they’re the destruction of my relationship with her.
“What are you doing?” His gaze finds mine first, then tracks to the counter. “Are those…?”
“Yeah.”
We both inch forward until we’re in direct sight. Three white sticks are lined up on the counter. Two pink lines on one, a digital display that has the word pregnant on display, and another with a plus sign.
All three are positive. All three scream the truth she never got to tell him.
The sound that rips from his throat is inhuman and full of grief, rage, and agony compressed into one broken exhale. He staggers back against the doorframe, hand pressed to his chest like he’s trying to hold his heart inside his body.
“This is confirmation. She knew.” He sucks in a breath. “She knew about the baby and was on her way to tell me.”
I force myself to move, to step between him and those tests. “Jaxon—”
“Don’t.” He holds up a hand. “Don’t try to make this better.”
“That’s not what I’m doing. I know it’ll never be better.” I show him a respectful dip of my chin. “Jaxon, I’ve been where you are. I know what it feels like to lose a child with her.”
His eyes meet mine, and for the second time since this nightmare started, I see the man beneath the billionaire mask.
Raw. Shattered. Devastated.
“She was going to tell me.” He repeats it like a prayer. “We had a chance. She wanted our child.”
“Yeah, I’m sure she did.” My heart squeezes. “And I’m sorry, Jaxon. Trust me, I’m sorry you’re going through this. It’s something… Let’s just say, I have empathy for you right now.”
And I mean it because I remember the heartache of losing our kid. I remember standing by as Livianna broke apart and being powerless to stop it.
“I love her.” His admission comes out quietly. “I know you do, too. But…”
“Then you should understand—” I step closer to him, determined. “—I’m not walking away. Not this time. I lost her once, and it nearly destroyed me. I won’t lose her again.”
Jaxon ignores me as if he’s lost in a trance. He reaches for one of the sticks with a trembling hand.
He lifts it, staring at the plus sign like he’s trying to memorize something he’ll never get back. His jaw works, but no sound comes out.
I turn away, knowing how much that hurts. I run my hand over my neck as my own memories slam into me. Pain and agony slice through my soul.
I was seventeen, and she was just fifteen. The picture of Livianna after my uncle beat her burns in the forefront of my mind. The baby we’d made was gone the next day.
“I need to get out of here.” Jaxon sets the test down, still shaking.
He rushes past me. His shoulders rigid with the effort of keeping himself together. I follow him downstairs, where he paces the length of her living room, huffing and groaning as if he’s about to die.
“She should’ve called me. I would’ve met her here.” He drags both hands through his hair. “If she had, we wouldn’t be here now.”
Oh, I guess he’s in the bargaining stage of grief. Too bad it won’t help. Too bad nothing will.
“We can’t rewind time, Jaxon.” I lean against the wall, arms crossed. “And she was likely scared.”
“Scared of what? Me?” He stops and glares at me as if he’s looking for a fight. “Did she think I wouldn’t want our child?”
I don’t know how to answer that, so I shrug and shake my head. I understand his need to go after something or someone. It makes sense to me because I was the same way. But this… This is a damn mind-fuck of an ordeal.
I’m indebted to this man.
He helped me start my label, Riot King Records, when I had nowhere else to turn. He made way for my second chance at life.
But he also had Livianna for over two years while I was fighting through hell to become someone worthy of her. And now he’s grieving a baby, and I hate that for him.
Fucking hell. I hate it for all of us.