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"Why haven’t you returned er in my voice

She doesn’t answer es, builds hot, and fans into fury "For fuck’s sake, Olivia What the hell is going on with you? Everything seemed perfect, then you just drop off the radar"

"I know," she says in a quavering voice

"What is it?" I pro wrong?"

"No," she gushes into the phone "No, of course not You do everything right I just…I just…"

Her voice trails off, leavingmy voice level…my tone patient

For Christ’s sake, just tell me, I scream on the inside

Olivia takes a deep breath and lets it out on a soft whisper of sadness "I overheard you talking to Stevie"

My brain starts spinning…trying to reme was said that would piss her off I come up empty

"Overheard what?" I pro the deliveries and you and Stevie were talking at Fleurish"

"Okay," I drawl, because I don’t think we talked about anything that would ry

"I heard you tell him how devastated you’d be if I died Hoful it was for you to watch Zack and what he’s going through"

"That’s right," I acknowledge, because again, I’m not sure why this would cause her to withdraw from me I would be devastated, but surely that’s not national news to her

"I can’t be responsible for that," Olivia says, her voice sounding brittle, yet the weight of her words slams into me hard

"Responsible?" I ask, duain, silence, but I know Olivia is gathering her thoughts, so I patiently wait for her When she finally speaks, there is such finality to her tone my stomach bottoms out "I’m a bad risk for you, Garrett There is too much unknown, and you deserve to have someone in your life who is whole Someone you can be assured will be by your side forever It was selfish ofto cut you loose…getting in deeper with you…that just made me even more selfish"

"I don’t understand," I croak, because fuck if any of this makes sense

"It’s really siure the pain of a breakup is going to be far easier for you to overco me die one day Trust me, it’s better this way"

Chapter 28

Olivia