“I would never do that,” I snap.
“Deep down, I knew you wouldn’t, but he caught me off guard so I confirmed it—”
“He knows?”
Her face tightens. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have let him trick me like that, but—”
“Don’t,” I order, pulling her in for a hug. “You didn’t do anything wrong. He’s a sneaky, malevolent asshole who’s exceptionally good at mindfuckery like that.”
“But I did,” she replies, speaking into my chest. “Davis, I really did do something wrong.”
Dread hits me like a ton of bricks. I release her from my embrace so I can look at her, and to my dismay I see that her face still looks pained. “What happened?”
“He offered me a hundred thousand dollars to break things off with you. I didn’t say yes, but I didn’t say no either.”
My pulse spikes in that moment, shooting off the top of any cardiac scale. “He did what?” I practically growl out the question.
“He told me that I was no good for you, and everyone would know that I’m a whore. He said that I would create a PR risk, and that if I cared about you at all I would end things. When I said no, he offered me the money.”
I slam my hand on the table, which makes the plates and silverware clatter and stings the shit out of my palm, but I barely notice the pain. “Olivia, I’ll kill him for you. I don’t care if he’s my brother. I’ll literally decimate him off of the face of the earth. Fratricide—that’s the word for it, right? Hold my wine; I’m going to go commit fratricide.”
“Wait,” she insists as she puts a hand on my shoulder and squeezes. “Look, what he did was abhorrent, but what I did was almost as bad.”
“What did you do?”
“I thought about taking the money,” she admits, blinking out another tear. “I should have said no right off the bat, but I considered it.”
“Don’t beat yourself up. It’s a lot of money.”
“No it’s not. Not to you and Kieran, at least. You two could throw money around like that anytime you want.”
I stay silent because it’s true, but also because I can tell that there’s more on her mind.
“So then I thought about you and me,” Olivia continues. “I thought about all of the money I’ve taken from you, and I thought about all of the times I’ve let my mind get carried away thinking about what it would be like to be with you. Davis, I’m so…” Her attention falls to her lap.
“You’re mine.”
“And I shouldn’t be.” She looks up at me and shakes her head. “For years, I watched my mother put on makeup and a pushup bra every day for a man who abused Charlie and me. For a man who had his way with her in the next room, even when I could hear her crying. For a man who blamed her for all of his broken dreams and lost opportunities. But she could never leave him because despite how much he gave up for her, she gave up more and she had nothing to go back to.”
The visuals are a gut punch, but I brush off my discomfort. “That’s not us. That would never be us.”
“But it could be if you wanted. You have the upper hand in every way in this relationship. You’re older. Wealthier. More successful. I’m not even a full person yet. I have nothing to my name but debt. Regrets. Dreams that I don’t even know if I can achieve. Davis, you make it so hard to focus on that.”
Her inability to understand her worth usually grates at me, but this time it leaves me feeling remorseful. I had all summer to make her feel treasured and wanted, and I clearly failed royally when she needed me. “If you think I have the upper hand in this relationship, you have no idea how much I care about you,” I respond. “I’m still baffled that you’re interested in me for anything other than my money. You’re gorgeous, you’re fiery, you’re smart, you’re ambitious. Olivia, there has never been a moment when I haven’t looked at you and marveled at you. Even when I was furious with you, I had to begrudgingly admit how lucky I would be to have you in my life.”
She places her hand on top of mind, the gesture reassuring. “You’re so sweet. You’ve always been sweet, Davis. But the things that you’re saying still don’t prove me wrong. I can’t always bank on you believing that I’m pretty and smart and ambitious. I need to do more. I need to make something of myself. Without you. Without your money. Without the expectation of you.”
“But—”
“I want you,” she continues, speaking with her eyes locked on mine. “So much. I want to be with you, but there’s too much anxiety at the back of my mind. My survival instincts are telling me—screaming at me—to prepare for the worst. I can’t do that with you in my life.
“Plus, there’s the issue of your job. What would people do if they found out about us? What if Kieran told your father or your friends that you bought me for a summer? An intern? Your career would be over.”
“I don’t give a shit,” I answer on instinct.
Olivia stares at me blankly. “I could ruin your life and you would just let me,” she realizes aloud after a beat. “And don’t tell me I’m worth that. Nobody is worth that.”
I exhale slowly like I’m standing on the edge of a precipice and it’s crumbling beneath my feet. “So what do you want? You want to end this here? You want to end a relationship that we both need and we both agree that we want?”
“We have to break things off. It’s the only way I can feel right about this.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know. Once I’m successful and further along in my career, maybe you won’t have to worry about my past mistakes tarnishing your reputation.”
I start to shake my head and I don’t stop; I can’t stop. “Olivia, please don’t do this. Please don’t—”
“I need this,” she repeats. “And deep down, you know you need it too. You’ve worked too hard to give up your career for me.”
I exhale through my nostrils and finally fall back from my kneeling position so that I’m sitting on the floor of my kitchen. “I feel numb,” I mutter. “I’m going to murder Kieran.”
“It wasn’t his fault. If anything, he forced me to reckon with a reality I’ve been avoiding for so long.”
“What the hell is that, exactly?”
“That I changed you. That I had the power to change you, even though I had no right to. Eight years ago, I turned you into a completely different person.”
“You don’t think I’ve changed for the better?”