Chapter 5 - OLIVIA’S TRUTH
Nathan did not return to the bookstore.
He went back to the motel.
That mattered to Emma.
He had finally learned that emotional moments were not invitations.
Three days passed.
The press moved on from Newport after Nathan threatened legal action against anyone identifying Emma’s medical facility.
The bookstore reopened.
Emma returned upstairs.
Nathan remained seven minutes away.
Then Olivia came to Oregon.
Emma saw her through the bookstore window.
For one second, the world seemed to tilt.
Olivia wore a black coat.
No cameras followed her.
No entourage.
She entered alone.
Emma did not move.
Olivia stopped near the counter.
“I’m not here to fight you.”
Emma gave a humorless smile.
“That’s convenient.”
Olivia absorbed it.
“You’re right.”
“What do you want?”
“To apologize.”
Emma’s expression changed.
Olivia looked exhausted.
Not television exhausted.
Actually exhausted.
“I leaked the gala photograph.”
Emma’s hand tightened against the counter.
Olivia continued quickly.
“I did not leak your location.”
“I didn’t know you were here until reporters did.”
“But you leaked the picture.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Olivia stared at the floor.
“Because Nathan fired me.”
Emma almost laughed.
“And?”
“And I was angry.”
“You humiliated a pregnant woman because a married man you were emotionally involved with finally created a boundary?”
Olivia closed her eyes.
“When you say it like that—”
“That is what happened.”
“Yes.”
Silence.
Olivia looked at Emma.
“I thought he would choose me after you left.”
Emma felt the sentence strike deeper than she expected.
“Did he ever tell you that?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because I wanted to believe it.”
Olivia’s eyes filled.
“He called me when deals closed.”
“He told me when he was afraid.”
“He asked my opinion before board meetings.”
“He remembered how I took coffee.”
Emma looked away.
Those were not grand betrayals.
They were worse.
They were ordinary pieces of intimacy.
Things Emma had once possessed without needing to ask.
Olivia whispered, “I built a future out of crumbs.”
Emma looked back.
“And I built a marriage out of excuses.”
For the first time, neither woman saw the other as the entire problem.
Olivia reached into her bag.
She placed a flash drive on the counter.
“What is that?”
“Every message.”
“Every email.”
“Everything.”
Emma stiffened.
“I don’t want it.”
“You should have it.”
“Why?”
“Because Nathan told the truth publicly.”
Olivia swallowed.
“I didn’t expect him to.”
Emma said nothing.
“There’s nothing physical.”
“No hotel rooms.”
“No secret apartment.”
“No sex.”
“But there are things that will hurt you.”
Emma stared at the drive.
“Then why give it to me?”
“Because you deserve to decide based on reality.”
Olivia turned toward the door.
Emma stopped her.
“Who leaked my location?”
Olivia looked over her shoulder.
“I don’t know.”
Then her face changed.
“But the reporter who called me already knew your hospital.”
Emma’s stomach tightened.
“How?”
Olivia answered quietly.
“He said someone inside Whitmore Global confirmed it.”
Emma stared at her.
May you like
The problem was no longer only a marriage.
Someone inside Nathan’s company had used her pregnancy as ammunition.
