“You think I care if those dumbasses want to see you? You’re supposed to be here! You’re supposed to be home, Brody!”
“I thought you were staying at your parents’ tonight.”
She paused for a few seconds before screaming, “What is that supposed to mean?! Do you just wait for me to leave, Brody? Is that what you want? For me to leave so you can go do whatever you want? You’re such a selfish bastard, Brody Saco!”
“Fuck, Olivia, stop yelling. I was just saying I don’t know why you always expect me to be home since you’re not there half the time.”
Suddenly, Liv’s anger was gone and was replaced by loud sobs. “I can’t do this anymore, Brody. I—I just can’t!”
A huge wave of relief and guilt for turning her into this person washed over me. I can’t keep doing this either. This is it. I just need to say the words. As I opened my mouth to tell her I wanted a divorce, she stunned me into silence.
“I need to be with Tate. I can’t keep living without him. I can’t keep living in the same house as a murderer. I need to be with him,” she mumbled the last sentence. “It’s time for me to go. Good-bye, Brody.”
“What? Olivia, no! No!” Before I even realized I was moving, I was off the bed and fumbling for my clothes.
“It’ll be better this way. I can be with my son, and I won’t have to live in fear of the day you kill me too.”
“Olivia!” I shouted, but my voice was strained. How can she say something like that to me? How can she put that on me like this? God, what the f**k have I done to make her into this depressed, paranoid, and suicidal woman? “Olivia, don’t! I’m on my way home. Don’t do anything, I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
There was no response, and I looked down at my phone to see she’d ended the call.
“Fuck!” I roared into the room as I pulled my shirt over my head. Grabbing my keys off the desk, I ran toward the door, and skidded to a stop when I heard a muffled sob. Turning, I saw Kamryn standing a dozen feet away from me. One hand clutching at her bare chest, the other covering her mouth. Shit, I’d forgotten why I was even away from my house.
“Don’t go,” she pleaded.
“I have to, Kamryn, I’m sorry!” I took long steps back to her and reached for her, but she pressed a hand to my chest to stop me from pulling her in.
“You don’t have to. We don’t have to do this, Brody!” Fat tears rolled quickly down her cheeks, and my heart broke at seeing her like this again. “Whatever she said to you, you don’t have to go back to her. If you’re so miserable, then stay with me. Don’t go to her.”
I squeezed my eyes shut tightly. Fuck, she hadn’t even heard what Olivia had been saying. Of course, she didn’t understand, but I couldn’t explain Tate to Kamryn right now. Not when Olivia was about to commit suicide. I needed to leave. I might not have loved Olivia, but I couldn’t let her kill herself. “I do, you don’t understand, but I have to go. I’m so f**king sorry. I hate that I’ve said that so much tonight, but I’m more sorry than you know. One day we won’t be doing this anymore. I swear one day it will only be you and me. We’ll be past all this and we’ll have our forever, but right now, I have to leave.” Kissing her quickly, I turned and bolted from the room and ran to the elevators.
I raced down the freeway and cursed the storm that had started sometime that night. The road was slick, and rain pelted down relentlessly as I wove in and out of cars on my way back to Jeston. I tried Olivia’s phone over and over again, but each time it went straight to voice mail.
Slamming on the brake in the driveway, I didn’t even shut the SUV off or close the door as I raced into the house, thankful the front door was unlocked.
“Olivia!” I yelled as I ran toward her side of the house. “Olivia!”
She didn’t respond, and I searched wildly through her bedroom and bathroom before backtracking. Her car had been out front. I knew she was here.
“Olivia! Answer me!”
I tore through the living room and grabbed the wall just as I entered the hallway to slow myself to a stop. With careful, slow steps back toward the kitchen, I turned and eyed Olivia sitting at the bar talking quietly on the house phone.
“Liv.”
She didn’t move or acknowledge me in any way.
“Olivia, look at me!”
Slowly lifting her head, with eyes wide, she pointed at the phone. “Can’t you see I’m on the phone, Brody? Jesus!”
“Get off the phone and f**king talk to me!”
“Daddy, do you hear him? He’s crazy. I don’t feel safe being in the house with him, all he does is yell at me. If I stay here I’ll end up in the hospital or worse. Can I come stay with you?”
My jaw dropped as I listened to her. “I’m crazy? I’m crazy? Olivia, you just told me you were about to kill yourself!”
She gave me a look like I was some ridiculous child. “Now he’s trying to make me believe I’m suicidal. I swear this house is bad for my health. Tell Mom I’ll be there as soon as I pack a bag. If I’m not there or you don’t hear from me within twenty minutes, call the cops. Brody’s a loose cannon these days.”
“Olivia, tell him! Tell him what you were just telling me.”
Rolling her eyes, she sighed dramatically and pinned me with a look. “My dad wants to know if you have the money to buy me a new phone.”