Chapter 71
CHAPTER 71
OLIVIA
F or the next few days, I dodged every call that came to my phone. Unless it was my mom, Dad, or Abi, who already knew the truth, I didn’t want to talk to anyone.
This was my lowest point and I desperately didn’t want anybody around. I had never been this sad or this uncertain, with absolutely no idea what to believe. Dad was convinced Scarlett was lying and I wanted to think that everything she’d said had been bullshit, but she’d had the ring.
She’d shown me the text. She’d known so many things about us.
How could she have made that much up if it wasn’t all true?
I’d been going around and around on that very question, and I just couldn’t come up with any answers, but Charlie’s face when I’d told him what she’d said was haunting me. He hadn’t looked like someone who had been caught in a lie. In fact, he’d looked like someone who was genuinely shocked by what was being said because it was all a lie.
At the same time, however, there weren’t many logical explanations for what Scarlett had shown me that didn’t feel like a stretch.
Loud banging at my door snapped me out of my latest reverie and I looked up from where I was sitting on my couch. Groaning, I set aside my tea. I’d showered earlier, but I’d changed right back into clean pajamas and I was planning on having another early night.
Outside, the sun was starting to dip low in the sky and I wondered when it’d gotten so late. It suddenly felt like I’d missed the whole day and that sent another stab of profound sadness through me. Another day without him was gone and I still wasn’t seeing any light at the end of this tunnel.
“Liv!” London called from outside, reminding me of the banging when it started up again. “We know you’re in there. Lacey and I have given you time to process whatever the hell this is, but we brought dinner and we’re not leaving! It’s been long enough.”
Another groan escaped me, but I knew my sister. She would break down the door if she had to. It was a miracle that she’d even waited this long to drop in on me.
“Fine! I’m coming.” I heaved myself up from the couch with way more effort than it should’ve required, but I honestly felt like I’d aged twenty years since the weekend.
Nothing felt right these days. Not even my limbs.
With my heart and my stomach still aching, I had to resist the urge to walk all bent over as I made my way to the front door, pulling it open before turning and going back to the couch. When I reached it, I collapsed onto it again and pulled my blanket over my legs.
“I’m in here if you need me.”
Lacey and London shut the door behind them, bringing the delicious scent of Thai food into the house with them. I loved Thai, but not even that smell could make me hungry. Instead of getting up and gorging myself on one of my favorite treats, I stared at nothing in the distance between my living room and my foyer, waiting for the inevitable inquisition to begin.
At least someone stuck a glass of wine in my hand before they started demanding answers. Lacey set a bowl full of food down in front of me as well, her eyebrows arching when I glanced up at her. “Eat, girl. You look like hell.”
“I feel like hell.” I sniffed and wiped at the sore skin under my eyes when tears started wetting them again. “Do we really need to talk about it?”
“Yep.” London lifted my feet so she could sit in the spot they had occupied, but thankfully brought them back to her lap once she’d sat down. “Tell us everything and we’ll decide how long we’re going to torture him before we hide the body.”
A humorless chuckle slipped out of me. “Neither of you are going to prison because of Charlie. He’s not worth it. He’s just a big, fat liar. Exactly like Todd was.”
Lacey shook her head. “You were back at the office the day after you broke up with Todd. Quite obviously, that makes Charlie worse than he was, but London is right. Let us be the judge of whether we’re willing to risk prison.”
“I appreciate the ride-or-die vibes you guys are giving off right now, but seriously. Let it go. I never should’ve gotten involved with him to begin with. When I came here, I was dead set against starting a new relationship and I should’ve trusted that instinct.”
Despite my protests, both girls kept pressing me until I started telling them the whole sordid story, but London suddenly stopped me when I was talking about him doing all the same things with me as he’d done with her.
“Wait, this all sounds super familiar.” She frowned. “Why does it sound so familiar?”
“Because I told you guys we did all that?” I suggested dryly.
“No. No, that’s not it.” She shook her head. “Like, I saw all that stuff happening.”
Her eyes glazed over before she shot up, nearly dumping her food all over the floor in her haste to grab her phone. “It’s the video, Liv. The video!”
She unlocked the device and clicked into one of her social media apps, scrolling until she found whatever video it was she had been looking for. A few seconds later, she thrust the phone toward me.
“Look! All the things you just said he did with her as well are in the video of y’all on the ranch. The Twenty-four Hours on a Ranch footage. What if she made it all up after seeing this to make you think he did the same things with her?”
My entire body went ice cold as I stared at myself and Charlie on the screen that night the goat had been born. Of us literally riding off into the sunset on horseback. Of us really doing exactly all the things that Scarlett had mentioned.
It was even in the same order. For just a moment, I was speechless, hope burrowing into my chest like an aggressive mole, but then I remembered the ring and texts, and I sighed, my head shaking as I passed the phone back to her.
“Fine, maybe she exaggerated a little bit about him just recycling all his old moves, but what about the other stuff?”
“What about it?” Lacey said. “The ring could be a phony. It might not have been his grandmother’s actual ring and did you see when the texts were sent? Maybe they’re from way back in the day. Maybe it’s photoshop.”
“Yeah, maybe.” I actually hadn’t seen any dates which, now that I thought about it, was odd, but it didn’t necessarily mean anything. “Or maybe he’s just a total liar. Like Todd. Let’s not forget that’s a possibility too.”
The girls exchanged a glance, both of them radiating doubt but neither of them arguing the point any longer. They went back to their food and I managed a few bites before we all snuggled up and watched chick flicks for the rest of the night.
I knew they meant well and that they were just trying to make me feel better, but if I allowed that hope I’d felt earlier to take hold, I’d probably only wind up getting hurt again and I couldn’t handle that. My heart couldn’t withstand another blow like this.
After the last movie ended, the girls hugged me goodbye and left, and I was walking back into my living room to tidy up when I got a call from my dad. I smiled through the tears blurring my vision all over again now that I was alone.
“I’m still fine, Daddy,” I said softly. “Nothing has changed in the few hours since your last call. You can go to sleep without worrying about me.”
He chuckled. “It’s my job to worry about you, darling. I’ve been doing it since you were born and I ain’t going to stop now, but that’s not why I’m calling.”
“Oh.” I frowned. “Is everything okay? It’s pretty late.”
“It’s not that late.” He let out a bark of laughter. “How the times have changed, huh? Here I am, telling you it’s not so late instead of the other way around. It feels like just yesterday when all of you were teenagers trying to convince me that it wasn’t so late.”
“This is a conversation you should be having with London,” I teased lightly, glad for the distraction, but my heart just wasn’t quite in it. “Anyway. What’s up? If you weren’t calling to check on me again, then what’s going on?”
“I talked to Jack,” he said, continuing so fast that I didn’t even have an opportunity to tell him that I didn’t want to hear it. “Scarlett was escorted off their property by security after you left. She stole the ring from Charlie’s dresser while you were all at the fair. They’re pressing charges.”
My eyelids went haywire, blinking so many times that I even stopped walking as shock barreled into me. “What?”
“I think you should hear Charlie out, Livvy. The truth isn’t lining up with what Scarlett said and he’s a good kid. I really think you should talk to him.”
I honestly didn’t know what to say. They had her escorted off the property? She stole the ring? What the heck?
“Think about it,” my dad said gently. “Good night, darling.”
“Good night, Daddy.” I hung up the phone, thoughts racing to try to catch up to what I now knew.
Jack wouldn’t lie about something like that, but before I could even begin to get a grip on any of it, my phone rang again and I glanced at the screen. Ms. Burl? Oh, no. I hope she’s okay.
The older lady I’d met that night at the grocery store had been texting with me on and off since that night. She called sometimes just to chat, but she’d never done it at this time of night.
“Hi, Ms. Burl,” I said when I picked up, clearing my throat in an effort to sound less strained. “Are you alright?”
“Oh, I’m fine, dear,” she said cheerfully. “I wanted to invite you over for supper tomorrow night and I didn’t want to leave it until the morning. I know how fast you young people fill up your evenings.”
I chuckled. “Thanks so much for the invitation. I really appreciate it, but I’m afraid I don’t feel up to going out at the moment. My evenings are wide open though, so perhaps a raincheck? Next week, maybe?”
“Nah, let’s do it tomorrow. I need some company,” she said. “I’ll see you at six. Keep an eye on your messages for my address.”
Despite how much I really didn’t want to go anywhere or see anyone, I couldn’t help but smile at the sassy old lady who wouldn’t take no for an answer. “Alright, Ms. Burl. I’ll see you then.”
“Good night, my dear.”
Once she’d hung up, I set my phone to silent mode and went to bed. I couldn’t take another phone call after those two. As I got under my covers though, I also couldn’t shut out what I’d learned during the call with my father.
I closed my eyes, willing sleep to come to me, but instead, my brain was in overdrive thinking through everything that had happened. Did Scarlett really steal the ring?
It was odd that what she’d used as her story with Charlie was all in the video we’d made, but I still wasn’t sure. Please don’t let any of it be true.
Moonlight illuminated my room enough that as I rolled over in an effort to get comfortable, I caught a glimpse of the photo booth pictures of us. I’d stuck them in my dresser mirror and fresh tears welled in my eyes before I deliberately closed them. If he was actually out of my life, if all of it was really true, this would be the worst heartbreak I’d ever felt—and I had a feeling that the pain I’d felt so far would only be the beginning of it.