Chapter 43
Cleo
One week, four days, three hours, and twenty-seven minutes. That’s how long Cleo’s heart had been shattered for the second time in her life. This time, though, was so much worse. Because this time, it was her own fault.
Cleo had tried everything at the start. She left the building they had been there to view and drove to Ivy’s apartment first. She either wasn’t there or wasn’t answering the door.
Cleo tried calling, leaving messages. Nothing.
She went to the shop and Toni said she hadn’t seen Ivy since the day before, and Cleo left before Toni could ask what was wrong.
Finally, she tried Lucas and Gabby’s house. Gabby answered the door and the look on her face told Cleo everything she needed to know. Cleo pleaded with her to let her in, let her see Ivy, let her explain what had happened. Gabby closed the door.
Before Cleo had made it to her car, the door opened, and Lucas closed it behind him as he came down the front steps to meet Cleo.
He told her that Ivy was there, and that she wasn’t in a good place which he assumed she knew about.
He asked her to give Ivy space, and not to go to the coffee shop for a while. It wouldn’t be fair on Ivy.
Reluctantly, Cleo agreed, got in her car, and drove home.
The days that followed passed by in a blur. Cleo had taken the car to and from work every day to avoid the torture of walking past the coffee shop. She couldn’t put herself, or Ivy through that.
Thankfully, it was the weekend, and Evan was off work, so she didn’t have Sophie.
She glanced at the clock in her bedroom from under her duvet and noticed it was after 2 p.m. She burrowed into her pillow and shut her eyes.
She hadn’t slept much since it happened.
She couldn’t close her eyes without seeing the look of hurt on Ivy’s face.
Cleo’s mom had been calling every other day, knowing that Cleo wasn’t OK, and not expecting her to be, but needing to know that she was at least able to answer a call.
Jade had tried to visit, tried video calling, but Cleo wasn’t able for those. She messaged a few times at the most, then avoided her phone for the rest of the day.
Her dad had even sent a couple of messages. Most likely at her mom’s insistence.
Lana had fended off the majority or work queries from Cleo’s phone and inbox. She could see her friend was struggling more than she was letting on.
At least the new door release function for their office had helped stop the impromptu visits from him while Cleo sorted through what to do about her work with him now that she knew who he was in relation to.
.. she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t even think her name.
Cleo’s heart was beyond broken. It was truly shattered.
Her phone rang on the small table beside her bed, but she didn’t reach to get it.
She couldn’t deal with the world today. Not after everything she’d lost. The phone stopped and she let out a small sigh of relief at the silence that filled her bedroom once again. Then the phone rang for a second time.
She stretched her arm out of the cover and leaned over, the cold air in the room causing a chill on her skin as she finally reached her phone.
Evan. She knew it would have been her twin.
He’d called at least three times every day since she arrived at his door, broken and in tears, when she left Lucas and Gabby’s house that fateful day.
She connected the call. “I love you but, please, go away. I can’t do this right now.” Cleo said, her voice dry and cracking from dehydration. Crying herself to sleep multiple times every night was taking its toll on her body.
“Let me in, Cleo, I’m at your door with food from Mom,” He said, then hung up and she heard a distant banging on her front door.
She got out of bed, pulling an oversized hoody that still faintly smelled like Ivy, and padded downstairs in her bare feet. The banging on the door remained constant until she turned the handle. She opened the door and walked away without looking back.
“We need to talk, Cleo, and you need to listen,” Evan said, shutting the door behind himself.
Cleo grabbed a blanket and lay down on one of her couches, pulling the blanket over herself. She watched as Evan walked to the other couch and placed a large bag of food on the coffee table in front of them, sat down, and sighed.
“I know you’re hurting, but if I don’t say this now, I’ll never be able to live with myself knowing I could have helped you but didn’t,” he said, getting up and moving to sit on the edge of the couch beside Cleo. He looked down at her with a look in his eyes she hadn’t seen in a long time.
He reached for her hand, and took a few long, slow breaths before speaking again.
“When Taylor’s water broke, we had been in the kitchen. There wasn’t much, it wasn’t a huge gush like in the movies, so we just laughed it off as her peeing her pants. It wasn’t the first time in the pregnancy that it’d happened, so we thought nothing of it.” He paused.
Cleo could see the pain on his face and didn’t want him to have to relive this again.
As far as she knew, he’d never spoken about it before to any of them.
At the time they had tried to get him to open up about it, but he always refused.
As she went to speak, he held up his hand to stop her. “I have to get this out.”
She nodded quietly and let him continue.
“She didn’t have any contractions, so we didn’t know she was in any stage of labor.
It wasn’t until four days later, when she woke in the night letting out the type of scream that only belongs in nightmares, that we knew something was wrong.
She was suddenly in so much pain. By the time we got to the hospital, and the doctor had checked her over, the infection had already set in.
That’s when we found out, that it was her waters breaking the few days prior.
” He took another pause, this time Cleo let him, tears filling both their eyes.
“She deteriorated quickly, and they rushed her to surgery to save her and Sophie. They got antibiotics going in Soph straight away, but Taylor didn’t make it to that stage.
She was gone as soon as Sophie came out of her belly.
” Tears ran down his face, and they sat together, holding each other's hands for comfort.
“Evan...” Cleo tried, but she didn’t know what to say.
“I know,” he replied.
They sat in silence for a few minutes. She spent the time processing what Evan had finally been able to tell her all these years later.
He wiped his face with the sleeve of his hoody and looked down at their hands, not yet able to look at Cleo.
“I didn’t get to tell her I loved her one last time.
I didn’t get to tell her to fight, to hang on, for me, for Sophie.
I didn’t get to fight for her.” His gaze lifted and she could feel the strength it had taken him to say this.
“I look at Sophie every day and I see her there. Every day I have a constant reminder of the regret that we didn’t go and get checked as soon as her waters broke, whether we thought it was that or not.
I would give anything to not have to live with that regret.
To be able to hold her again. Tell her I love her again.
Have her by my side as we watch Sophie grow.
Together.” He wiped another tear from his face and his eyes softened as he looked at Cleo.
“I’ve seen you and Ivy together. I’ve seen how good you are for each other.
If there is even the smallest of chances, that you could get through to her, explain what happened, and get back together?
Take it! Don’t spend your life living with a daily regret because you were too scared to fight for what your heart wanted.
” His eyes bore into Cleo’s, where tears had started flowing down her cheeks.
“You know her, you know why she’s hurt. It’s up to you now to fix it. Cleo, please, do whatever it takes.”