“I have to run or I’m going to be late, but oh, my God, I can’t believe you’re here! Here’s my number. Call me anytime and we’ll get drinks!” She grabbed the pen and wrote it on the back of the receipt before doing another squeal-screech and grabbing her cupcakes and card.

“Olivia, please don’t tell anyone,” I begged when she hit the door.

She winked and pushed the door open with a hip. “Your secret’s safe with me.”

What the hell just happened?

Brody

July 5, 2015

I FELT LIKE I was losing my mind. After telling Liv I wouldn’t leave her last night, and not hearing from Kamryn after texting her that I was telling Olivia I wanted a divorce, my mind was going in a thousand different directions. I didn’t know how to explain to Kamryn about what had happened last night without her thinking I still wasn’t trying to end things with Olivia. It felt like someone was sticking thousands of knives in my body just thinking about not being with Kamryn. But she had to understand. She had to understand how Liv and her parents were. And even though I’d done everything I could to keep what had been happening away from Kamryn, I knew it was time to tell her about their lawyer, what he’d been threatening, what Liv and her parents had been doing to me, and Liv’s alleged suicide attempt.

She will understand, I told myself again.

“Bro.” Jace kicked at my foot, and I glanced up at him. “What’s up with you today?”

“Nothing.”

“Not nothing. I haven’t seen you look like this in months. What’s going on? Is it something with Olivia?” A pained laugh left me, and Jace actually muted the TV. “I thought things with her were getting better, you’ve been happy lately. Not that I want things with her to get better, don’t get me wrong. But hell, you’ve been around, and if you’re happy, that’s all we really want.”

I shook my head and rubbed my hands over my face. “Things aren’t better with Liv,” I groaned. “Jace, I . . .” What? I’m having an affair? Jace and Kinlee would never look at Kam the same way again. I couldn’t do that to her.

“What? Dude, I’m your brother. You can tell me anything.”

“I told Liv I want a divorce last night.”

His eyebrows shot up, and though I knew he was trying to hold it together, a smile was tugging at his lips. “Are you for real? Brody, I know that must have been hard for you, but I’m proud of you.”

I grimaced and had to swallow an imaginary lump in my throat. “We’re not getting a divorce.”

“What? And why the f**k not?!”

“She kept bringing up Tate. Saying I took everything from her and I couldn’t take our marriage too. I don’t know, Jace. I just . . . f**k! She was saying she would kill herself if I left her. What the hell was I supposed to do?”

“Are you shitting me? She’s such a bitch! You can’t let her keep doing this to you, Brody! She’s manipulating you!”

“I—no. I don’t know. I need to get her help, I know that. But it’s just been so f**king difficult trying to get her help with her family and her dad’s damn attorney trying to get me at every damn turn.”

Jace eyed me. “What are they doing?”

I waved him off. “It’s nothing.”

“Brody. Tell me. It can’t be nothing if you’re staying with her! Do you need an attorney? Do you need us to help you pay for one?”

“Jace, what? No . . . no, I don’t.” An attorney couldn’t help me. Not when J. Shepherd had them all watching for my name. “I can handle it, I just . . . it doesn’t even matter. I don’t know why I’m telling you any of this anyway. I’m not leaving Olivia. I need to get her help. I owe her at least that much.”

“You don’t need to do shit. None of it was your fault; it was an accident. And she’s fine! Olivia is fine, Brody. I know you only see her during her crazy rants at home, but you haven’t seen her in public. That girl hasn’t changed a bit, and she is still living it up off her parents’ money.”

“I do see her in public, Jace. She’s normal Liv in public, I know that.”

“But you don’t see her when she’s not with you,” Jace said, looking at me like I was missing something important.

“And how would you know what she’s like in public?”

Jace held my stare before admitting, “We’ve seen her out a few times. Followed her for a while after Tate died.”

“What the hell, Jace? Why would you follow her?”

“Because you can’t keep living like this! She was lying to you and ruining your life, and we wanted to prove it! The crazy shit you tell us about at home, there’s none of that when she’s with her parents or friends out in public. I’ve tried talking to you about this, but shit, other than the past two months, we were only seeing you maybe twice a year. And whenever we tried bringing up what she was doing to you, you just kept pushing away what we were saying because you thought we were making shit up so you would leave her. But she hasn’t changed. She’s not suffering—far f**king from it. She’s just normal bitchy Olivia,” Jace grunted. After a few silent minutes, he stood up. “Let me grab us some beers. I’ll tell you everything we’ve seen, and we’ll talk this out.”

My phone vibrated, and I slid it out of my pocket.