22. Olivia
CHAPTER 22
OLIVIA
S he couldn’t quite believe she’d said it, and as the words left her mouth, she lowered her head, unable to bring herself to look at any of the others.
Nobody spoke.
Charlie was the only one whose reaction really concerned her — everybody else could think what they liked. As a matter of fact, she wished the others would just go away.
They wouldn’t, of course. When had they ever?
“Is this true?” Rogan asked.
“I’ve got a note from my doctor if you need to see it.” She wouldn’t have put it past any of them to insist on that.
“Well, no, I don’t think we need to do that,” Rogan said. “Pregnant! Well, this certainly changes things, doesn’t it?”
“I guess it does,” Scott said, and for a wonder, he sounded as if he meant it. “I guess this was a real marriage after all.”
“Yeah, I guess it was,” John agreed. He hesitated. “We owe you an apology, I think, Olivia.”
“You don’t owe me anything.” Of course they did, but she didn’t know whether she was ready to accept their apology. She didn’t know if she wanted to speak to them at all. The only person she wanted to talk to right now was Charlie.
He still hadn’t said anything. She couldn’t even pick up on any vibes coming from him. Looking at him might have helped, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. If he wasn’t happy about this, if she read disappointment or anger on his face, it would shatter her. She couldn’t afford to have that happen in front of his family. At the very least, she needed to get away from them before she had whatever reaction to this she would end up having. She needed space.
Cait spoke, and her voice sounded — strangely — thick with emotion. “You’re pregnant?” she repeated.
“Yes,” Olivia said quietly.
“You mean… you and Charlie are going to have a baby?”
In another moment, Olivia might have mocked Cait, might have said something like yes, that’s what pregnant means! But right now, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She had never seen Cait like this. She had thought of the other woman as barbed wire, incapable of empathy or feeling. But right now, Cait sounded as though she might be about to burst into tears.
“That’s right,” Olivia said. “We’re having a baby.”
“I can’t believe this,” Cait breathed.
“It’s true,” Olivia said, feeling as though she was having an out-of-body experience. Everyone seemed very far away all of a sudden. “I can prove it. I have the medical records, like I told you…
“No, no,” Cait said quickly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean— You don’t have to show me your medical records, Olivia. I didn’t mean that I don’t believe you. I meant… I’m stunned. This is amazing. You’re pregnant. Charlie, you’re going to be a father.”
And she stepped forward and threw her arms around Charlie.
It was the last thing Olivia had expected to see happen, and the first genuine thing she thought she’d ever witnessed from Cait. Had this been in there all along — wholehearted love for Charlie? She had never thought she would see such a thing.
Cait stepped back, and to Olivia’s further shock, there were tears in her eyes. “I know I’ve been awful,” she said. “You have to understand — he’s my little brother, Olivia. I don’t want to see him messed with.”
“You also wanted the house,” John said. “You know you did.”
“Well, of course I did,” Cait said. “I still do. But… oh, you two know. We all talked about it, how many times? We did want the house, but we also wanted to see Charlie happy. I think we wanted that more than anything. And now… well, you’re going to be a family, and we know that that the love between you is real. It’s enough. It’s more than enough. Olivia…”
Olivia swallowed hard. They were going to try to be her friends now? She didn’t know if she wanted that. She didn’t know if she could look beyond everything that had happened to get them to this point.
And Charlie still hadn’t spoken.
“Well, this changes matters,” Rogan said. “I can invoke the final stipulation in Marge’s will.”
“What final stipulation?” Charlie asked. His voice was hoarse, as if some emotion had choked him. Olivia wanted to reach out to him, to yell, talk to me , not just the lawyer! But she couldn’t force him to do that. He would acknowledge her when he was ready — or he wouldn’t. Either way, she was just going to have to deal with it.
“The final stipulation,” Rogan said. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you the details of it unless it was put into effect, because Marge didn’t want you trying to maneuver around it. It left things up to my jurisdiction. If I saw what I determined to be incontrovertible proof of the reality of your marriage, I was to sign the house over to you at once. This supersedes all other requirements. You can do whatever you’d like from this moment on.”
“Meaning that we could just go home and start the divorce process tonight and it wouldn’t impact anything about the house,” Olivia said.
Rogan laughed. “Technically, you could. Of course, I’m fully convinced now that you have no intention of doing that — I trust your motives, and I’m just so sorry that it took so long to see what was right in front of me! But the good news is that we can be done with all this now. You won’t have to come and meet with me again, and you can move on with your lives.” He smiled. “There’s a document for me to file saying that I’ve officially been convinced of the veracity of this relationship, and that doesn’t even require your involvement, so you’re free to go.”
“Can we take the two of you out to celebrate?” John asked.
“I think we should go home,” Olivia said. “I’m really not feeling well.”
“Oh — of course you’re not,” John said, and it was clear that he was filled with regret for having even asked them to come out. “We’ll celebrate another time. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. But congratulations to both of you. You must have been on the edge of your seats to tell us this news.”
They don’t realize that Charlie didn’t know , Olivia thought. They think we decided to tell them together.
And still, Charlie hadn’t spoken.
The others went off to their own vehicles, and a moment later, Olivia and Charlie were left alone in the parking lot.
Olivia looked at him. “Are you all right?” she asked quietly.
“I’m fine.” His voice was slightly higher pitched than it usually was.
“Charlie, I didn’t mean to tell you like that,” she said.
He looked at her. “You didn’t? How the hell did you mean to tell me?”
“Excuse me?”
“Because dropping it on me in front of my entire family like that — not to mention Rogan — is just about the worst plan I can think of.”
“Okay, hang on,” she objected. “You can say that now, but you do realize this is the first time in weeks that I’ve even had the opportunity for a conversation with you, right?”
“So how long have you been sitting on this?”
“I haven’t been sitting on anything! I called you, Charlie. I tried to talk to you. You’re the one who’s been ignoring me .” She sighed and raked her fingers through her hair. “God. We already did this. We already had this conversation, and you didn’t listen to me then, so I don’t know why I’m fooling myself into thinking that you would listen to me now. All you can think about is how things are inconvenient for you. I just threw up in Rogan’s office, and you’re yelling at me for not telling you I was pregnant sooner.”
“I tried to take you to the hospital. Don’t act like I’m not making an effort.”
Olivia laughed bitterly. “Do you think that counts as making an effort?” she asked him. “You don’t get to just decide what you think needs to be done and then do it with no input from me. That’s what you did after we slept together, and it’s the reason we haven’t spoken since then. And how’s that decision working out for you? You didn’t even know you were going to be a father. I don’t know if you ever would have found out about this if you weren’t required to come back here for this meeting. Would you ever have talked to me again? Or would I have just been some mistake that you didn’t bother to check in with to see why it was that I had called you?”
Charlie’s jaw worked. He said nothing.
Maybe she had silenced him. Maybe she had found the right thing to say to shut him up.
On one hand, she hoped she had — she loved the idea that he might have finally been put in his place. But on the other hand, her heart was left aching. She wanted him to feel the intensity of what he had put her through, but she didn’t want to push him away.
What if she had done that?
Suddenly, she couldn’t face him. She got out of his car. “I’m going to drive myself,” she told him. “I’ll see you back at the house.”
“I might be a while,” he said, his voice tight.
“Going back to Boston?” She couldn’t keep the acid out of her tone.
“I’ll be there later tonight,” he told her. “I’m not leaving town. I just— I need some time.”
It was a fair thing to ask for, Olivia supposed. She had certainly had plenty of time to deal with this news.
Even so, though, she couldn’t help feeling troubled by the fact that he had chosen to walk away. He had said he would be home tonight — but after the way he’d left her and gone off to Boston for all that time, could she trust that?
What if he didn’t come back? What if he left her on her own again?
He hadn’t said a word about the pregnancy, and Olivia didn’t know quite what to make of that — but she knew that it wasn’t a good thing. If he had been excited, as a part of her had hoped he would be, surely he wouldn’t have been able to hold back. He would have said something to her. He would have let her see the way he was feeling about it.
That hadn’t happened, and she could only assume it was because his feelings on the subject were something he knew would bother her. That was the only reason for him to keep things a secret.
She didn’t want to cry, but she couldn’t help herself. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she got into her own car and pulled out of the parking lot.
It felt wrong to be heading back to Coldwell estate right now. A significant part of her wanted to blow off this whole messy business, go back to her own little apartment, and never speak to Charlie again.
Well, who knows , she thought bitterly. Maybe today will be the last time we ever speak. Maybe after today, I’ll be free to do exactly that.