Page 82 of Living Hell

“No.”

Olivia jumped up and stepped in my path before I could get to my office door. “Wait a second, Tyler. There has to be a reason why she hasn’t told you yet. Maybe she wanted it to be a surprise?” she said in a way that I knew she didn’t believe it, either.

“Well, it worked. I’m going to go outside and scream at the top of my lungs until I’m arrested for disturbing the peace because I’m so fucking surprised.” I waited for Olivia to move but she stood there.

She was an attractive blond wall in the way of my meltdown.

“Please move.”

“Where are you going? You have patients to see.” Her voice was soft, and I worried I was scaring her.

I took a step back and leaned against my desk. “I don’t know. Home, maybe, to talk to Iona or just for a walk until I calm down. All I know is I can’t be standing still right now.” I shoved my hand into my pocket and felt the Hello Kitty key chain.

The hard metal dug into my skin as I clenched my fist around it. Why did I keep this thing for all these years? To remind myself what a mistake Iona was? Every time I gave her my heart, she threw it away as if it was nothing. As if I was nothing.

That’s what she’d been keeping from me, her pregnancy. It was another thing to use me for—fame. She didn’t care about the baby. She certainly never cared about me. We were merely stepping-stones to money, fame, and power. That’s all she ever cared about.

And I was the fool who fell for her, a second time. She even said when we were young that was what she wanted in life—to be so powerful that no one would ever hurt her or her mom again.

At the time, I agreed with her. I dreamed of a day where I could whisk her away and keep her safe from the people who hurt her. People like Keaghan and my parents. They treated us like dirt.

When the world saw you as nothing, then you had nothing to lose taking a risk to be something more. I did what my parents never could—I had a well-paying, stable job, and owned a home. Iona made more money than both of our families combined.

We made it. Yet, we had trouble making it together. Maybe that was the answer. We were better off as friends but could never be more.

“Take a minute and breathe, Tyler. Do you want to talk about this? Because I’m really good at talking.”

That was for sure. When she first started here this past spring, I wondered how Carter tolerated her. Not that she annoyed me, but Carter rarely spoke. They seemed like opposites and I had a hard time grasping what she saw in him.

“Fine. I’ll talk but then you’re taking over for the day so I can go get the truth from Iona.”

She nodded. We sat in silence for a minute as I gathered my thoughts.

“Why would a woman not tell the man she was with that she’s pregnant?”

That bothered me the most. I’d been her best friend since we were fifteen. She could tell me anything. But she told the world about our baby before me.

“I think the question you should be asking is why would Iona think you wouldn’t want to know she was pregnant?”

A million thoughts came to me at once.

“Because the first time she was pregnant, she couldn’t reach me.”

“Iona was pregnant before?”

I forgot Olivia didn’t know.

“Yes. When we were eighteen.”

I took a moment and explained it to Olivia.

Her eyes widened and she smiled up at me. “Then that’s it.”

“But that was a mistake. Iona can reach me now. We are living under the same roof.”

“But don’t you see, Tyler? She’s scared. She’s afraid of reliving the past all over again. I’ve been studying animal psychology at school and a traumatic event can cause anxiety in an animal. So, when they hear certain sounds or smells or in a certain environment, it can make it seem like they are reliving that event.”

“But Iona isn’t an animal.”

Olivia held up her finger. “Technically, she is. We all are but the same applies to humans. Just her being pregnant might be causing her anxiety—fear of losing the baby all over again. She’s acting irrationally. Don’t take it personally.”

I stood from the desk. “Then what should I do? Act as if nothing happened? Because everyone has seen that article. She’s not stupid. Iona will know that I’ve seen the article.”

Olivia stood from her chair and put her hand on my shoulder. “I’m going to tell you what to do but you have to promise me you’ll do it exactly as I say. One wrong word and it might spook her.”

Who knew having a fake relationship would be this complicated?

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