Chapter 20
580words
"Let's go," I said, parking the car. "Olivia deserves to hear the truth from you directly."
---
Olivia was awake when we entered her room, her eyes immediately narrowing at the sight of Rebecca. The security guards I'd posted nodded respectfully as we passed.
"What is she doing here?" Olivia asked, her voice cold.
I moved to her bedside. "She has something important to tell you."
Rebecca stepped forward, visibly trembling. "Liv, I need to tell you the truth. I'm not pregnant. I never was."
"What?" The word came out as barely a whisper, her voice strangled with emotion.
"There is no baby. I lied to you." Rebecca's voice broke. "Your father-in-law—Victor—he paid me to say I was pregnant with Nathan's child. He wanted to make sure you two would never reconcile."
Silence filled the room. I watched Olivia carefully, trying to gauge her reaction. Her face remained impassive, but her eyes—those expressive eyes I'd fallen in love with years ago—betrayed a storm of emotions: shock, confusion, relief, and then, slowly, anger.
"You lied?" Olivia's voice rose, cracking with emotion. "You told me you were carrying his child while I was lying here, having just learned I can never have children of my own?" Her breathing became ragged, tears filling her eyes. "How could you do that to me? I'm your sister!"
Rebecca's composure crumbled completely. "I was in financial trouble. Bad investments, debts... Victor offered to make it all go away if I helped separate you two permanently. He said you were getting too close again, that Nathan was considering reconciliation."
"So you told me you were carrying my husband's child," Olivia said flatly. "While I was lying in a hospital bed, having just learned I can never have children of my own."
The cruelty of it, laid bare like that, made me wince. Rebecca looked physically ill.
"I didn't know about the hysterectomy when I told you," she whispered. "But that doesn't excuse what I did. It was unforgivable."
"Yes," Olivia agreed quietly. "It was."
I stepped closer to Olivia's bed. "There's more. Rebecca says she found me drugged that night—the night you miscarried. Someone called her specifically to come help me."
Olivia's eyes snapped to mine, searching my face with desperate intensity. "Drugged?" Her voice caught on the word.
The hope and pain mingled in her question broke my heart. For eight months, she had believed I had simply abandoned her in her moment of greatest need.
"I would never have left you alone if I'd had any choice," I said, my voice thick with emotion. "I tried to get to you. I remember getting your call, heading to the elevator, and then... nothing clear until I woke up on Rebecca's couch the next morning."
Olivia closed her eyes, more tears escaping. "I waited for you," she whispered. "I kept telling the doctors to wait, that my husband was coming. But you never came."
"I'm so sorry, Liv," I said, bringing her hand to my lips. "I failed you that night, even if it wasn't by choice."
She opened her eyes, looking between Rebecca and me. "But why? Why would your father go to such lengths?"
Before I could answer, the door opened. Dr. Reynolds entered, stopping short when he saw us all gathered there.
"I need to check Dr. Carter's vitals," he said smoothly, though his eyes darted nervously between us.
