Olivia sat alone in the hospital bed long after Killian and his mother had gone, staring at the ceiling tiles until they blurred together. Her cheek still throbbed wqhere Miss Ashford had struck her, but that pain was nothing compared to the ache settling into her chest. She kept replaying the woman's words. Destroy that thing you're carrying in your womb. She pressed a hand flat against her stomach, and for the first time since seeing that test result, real fear crept in and made itself at home.
She reached for her phone on the bedside table and scrolled until she found David's name. Her thumb hovered over the call button for a long moment before she finally pressed it.
He picked up on the second ring. "Liv? It's late, is everything okay?"
"I need your help," she said, her voice smaller than she wanted it to be. "Can I come over?"
There was a pause on the other end, the kind that told her he already sensed something was wrong. "Yeah. Yeah, of course. I'll be here."
A few hours later, after convincing the nurses she felt well enough to be discharged, Olivia stood on David's front porch, hugging her arms around herself against the night air. He was already waiting for her, leaning against the doorframe like he'd been standing there since her call, and the second he saw her face, his easy smile faded into something more serious.
"What happened to your cheek?" he asked, stepping closer, his fingers hovering near her jaw without quite touching it.
"It's nothing. Long story." She swallowed hard. "David, I need you to do something for me, and I need you to not ask too many questions."
He crossed his arms, studying her with the kind of patience only an old friend could offer. "Okay. I'm listening."
She told him everything in a rush, the words tumbling out faster than she could organize them: the pregnancy, Miss Ashford's threat, the torn report, the slap. By the time she finished, David's jaw was tight, his hands curled into fists at his sides.
"She hit you," he said flatly, not really a question.
"That's not the point right now."
"It's a little bit the point, Liv."
"David." She grabbed his sleeve, forcing him to look at her instead of the direction of Killian's house, which she was fairly sure he was imagining storming toward. "I need a fake abortion slip. Something official looking, something his mother will believe."
David blinked at her like she'd started speaking another language. "You want me to what?"
"I don't want him to have it. Miss Ashford will make both our lives hell if she thinks this baby is real, and Killian, he's supposed to leave for college in a week. If he finds out I'm still pregnant, he won't go. He'll throw away everything he's worked for, and I can't be the reason he loses that." Her eyes were wet now, and she hated how her voice shook. "I have to run my mother's team. I can't do that and fight his family too."
David studied her for a long moment, and she watched something behind his eyes soften, the way it always did when she pushed him too hard and he gave in anyway.
"Are you really going to give him a fake abortion slip?" he asked, quieter now, like the weight of it had finally landed on him too.
"I don't have another choice, David."
"But Liv." He stepped closer, his voice dropping into something gentler. "After you have the baby. What then? He's going to find out eventually. And you know he really loves you. Anyone who watched that proposal could see it."
"I know." Her chin trembled. "I know he does. But I can't ruin his future. I can't be the reason Killian Ashford never becomes who he's supposed to be."
Before David could respond, her phone buzzed against her palm. Killian's name lit up the screen, and her stomach flipped.
She stepped a few feet away from David, clearing her throat before answering, forcing brightness into her voice she didn't feel. "Hello, Killian."
"Hey." His voice warmed instantly, and she could picture the way his whole face probably softened when he said it. "How are you feeling? I got something for you. Where should we meet?"
Her eyes flicked to David, who was watching her with his arms crossed and worry written all over his face.
"I'm not at home right now," she said carefully. "I'm at David's house. Can you come here?"
"Sure. I'm on my way." A short pause, and then, softer, "I love you."
Her throat closed up. "I love you too," she managed, and hung up before he could hear the crack in her voice.
She turned back to David, who hadn't moved. "He's coming," she said. "David, hurry, please, kiss me."
David went very still. "What?"
"He needs to see it. He needs to actually believe I chose someone else, or he'll never let this go. He'll keep digging, he'll keep asking questions, and eventually he'll find out the truth." Her eyes filled again, spilling over this time. "Please. I know how horrible this is. I know what I'm asking. But it's the only way to make him leave without looking back."
David shook his head slowly, his expression torn somewhere between disbelief and heartbreak on his best friend's behalf. "Olivia, this is insane. You're asking me to help you break his heart in the cruelest way possible."
"Please, David. That's the only way." Her voice cracked completely now, tears streaking down her face. "I can't do this without you."
He stared at her, and for a moment she thought he might actually refuse, might tell her she'd lost her mind and walk back inside and shut the door. But then his shoulders dropped, and he let out a breath that sounded like surrender.
That was when they heard footsteps coming up the walkway.
Killian appeared at the edge of the porch light, grinning ear to ear, two large shopping bags swinging from his hands, clearly full of something he'd picked out just for her. He hadn't seen them yet. He was still looking down, adjusting his grip on the bags, still wearing the face of a boy who had no idea his entire world was about to tilt sideways.
David's hand found Olivia's chin.
He hesitated for only a second, his eyes searching hers one last time like he was silently asking if she was sure, if there was any other way, and when she gave the smallest nod, he leaned in and kissed her.
Killian looked up right as their lips met.
The bags slipped from his hands, hitting the porch floor, their contents spilling out and rolling across the wood, a stuffed bear, a small bouquet, something wrapped in gold paper that Olivia would never get to open.
"What's going on here?" His voice came out low, disbelieving, like his brain was refusing to process what his eyes were showing him.
He crossed the porch in two strides and shoved David back by the shoulder, hard enough that David stumbled against the doorframe.
"Killian, I'm marrying David." The words tasted like poison coming out of her mouth. "That's what I wanted to tell you."
His lips quivered, and for a second he looked like a little boy instead of the star quarterback who'd just led his team to a championship. "Wait, what? I don't understand." He shook his head, like he could physically shake the sentence out of the air. "I said I'll take responsibility for the pregnancy. And what are you doing with our best friend? Of all people, David?"
Olivia's chest ached so badly she thought it might cave in right there on the porch, but she made herself roll her eyes anyway, made herself sound bored, cruel, unaffected.
"David is rich," she said. "Compared to him, you're nothing. And he's going to help me grow my mother's team."
"Olivia." Killian's voice broke on her name. "I promised you. When I finish college, I'll do just that. I'll support your mother's team, I'll support you, I'll support the baby, I just need time."
"No, Killian. I can't wait that long for you."
His eyes swung to David, silently begging his best friend to deny it, to say this was all some horrible misunderstanding. But David couldn't meet his gaze. He stared down at the scattered gifts on the porch floor instead, his jaw clenched so tight it looked painful.
"Olivia, you're carrying my baby." Killian dropped his voice, desperate now, like if he just said it quietly enough she'd remember herself. "We can figure this out. We don't have to do it this way."
"There's no baby, Killian."
She reached into her bag with hands that weren't quite steady and pulled out the folded paper David had helped her print an hour earlier. She held it out to him.
"I got rid of it."
Killian didn't take it right away. He just stared at the paper like it was something venomous, and when he finally unfolded it and read the words printed across the top, something in his face collapsed entirely.
He went down on his knees right there on the porch, heedless of the splinters, heedless of the neighbors who might be watching from their windows.
"Look at this." His fingers were shaking as he pulled at the leather bracelet on his wrist, the one he'd worn every single day since they were fifteen years old. "This was the symbol of our love. You gave me this."
He pressed it into her palm, his hand closing around hers for just a second, like he could will the last two years back into existence through touch alone.
She let it drop.
It hit the porch floor with a soft, terrible sound.
"Why don't you believe in me, Olivia?" His voice cracked wide open on her name, raw in a way she'd never heard from him before, not even when his father had died their freshman year.
She didn't answer. She couldn't, not without her own voice breaking apart completely. Instead she reached for David's hand, and after a beat, he took it, and together they turned and walked toward the driveway, leaving Killian kneeling among the scattered gifts and the abortion slip and the bracelet that had once meant everything.
"I'm going to prove you wrong, Olivia," Killian called after them, his voice carrying through the quiet street, steadier now, edged with something that sounded almost like a promise. "I swear it."
Olivia's steps faltered for half a second.
She didn't turn around. She couldn't let herself.
But somewhere deep downunderneath the guilt and the grief and the lie she'd just told the boy she loved more than anything in the world, a small, terrified voice whispered that Killian Ashford always kept his promises.