24

One month after Amy had sent the video to Chris, a man knocked on the door of the pool house, handed her an envelope, and told Olivia she’d been served. And so, two days after she’d finished writing her final exams, which would be her last at Georgetown thanks to the petition, Olivia found out she was being sued.

She’d been expecting something like that to happen, but she’d still felt too shocked to do more than nod and take the papers, her stomach tightening painfully before sinking with dread.

Her dad had led the man to her door, his expression unreadable. After the man had left, he’d sighed heavily and pulled Olivia into a hug.

“Let’s go inside and open that,” he’d said after pulling away.

Olivia hadn’t been able to read his expression well, but disappointment had definitely been present in the tightness of his lips. He hadn’t pressed her much about the accident, but he knew about the video. He and Olivia’s mom had tried to speak to her about it the day it had been released.

They’d told her they were worried about her and asked her about what had happened, but they’d also made it clear they were appalled by what she’d done.

Despite his shame at her actions, Olivia’s dad had sat with her at the dining table that day. She’d opened the envelope slowly, as though drawing it out would somehow make the papers disappear, but it didn’t work. The document was real, and there was no way for Olivia to make them disappear.

Paige had filed a civil suit against her.

Her mom had arrived soon after, and they’d all sat around the table to discuss what they would do next, but Olivia hadn’t said a word. She’d thanked her father when he’d found a lawyer for her and apologized to both of her parents for the financial burden it would place on them, but she said little else that day or in the weeks after.

She’d seen the media coverage about her. She’d heard all the names journalists had called her. She knew what Drew’s teammates thought about her and how much other Georgetown students hated her. She hadn’t kept herself blind to it, and when she watched the interviews and read the posts, Olivia couldn’t help but wonder if that’s what a trial would look like for her.

Would Paige’s attorney call her a selfish murderer who cared about nobody but herself? Would the jury shake their heads in disgust? Would everyone look at her the same way they’d looked at her at the trial Georgetown had set up to decide if she should be expelled after graciously allowing her to sit her finals? Would the people watching the proceedings hold signs calling her a murderous whore?

Olivia had gotten a new phone number after someone had leaked her old one online, but Brady was the only one she texted. Sometimes, Olivia looked through the messages she’d gotten before she’d switched numbers. Most of them called her a murderer and claimed she’d burn in hell. Other people had gone further and threatened her. Some had gone so far as to threaten her family.

Then there were the messages from Noah, Noah’s mom, Ella, and Riley. The ones on her old and new number. The ones asking her what was going on and the ones begging for her to talk to them. She hadn’t replied to any of them, and when Noah and Riley had gone to the pool house to try and speak with her, Olivia had asked them to leave or simply ignored their knocks.

Olivia didn’t leave the house at all during that time except to go to campus during her finals and to visit her attorney’s office. She barely left the pool house. She was too afraid and too numb to do much more than lie in bed, eat tiny portions of food when the gnawing in her stomach became unbearable, and listen to depressing music that only made her want to stay in bed more.

Eventually, she’d had to leave that safe haven, though. She was shocked that Paige had agreed to her attorney’s request for mediation before they went to trial, but the woman had.

So, Olivia met her attorney at the offices of Paige’s legal team. Her dad had offered to go in with her, but Olivia knew she needed to do it alone, so he’d stayed downstairs.

“How are you feeling?” her attorney asked in the elevator. Heather was a fierce brunette who Olivia had liked almost instantly.

“Terrified,” Olivia replied honestly, not seeing a reason to lie.

Heather nodded. “I know this is all overwhelming, but it’s going to be alright.”

It seemed one of them was okay with lying. Olivia knew it wasn’t going to be alright, but the elevator doors opened before she could respond. Her breath caught in her throat. Standing mere feet in front of her was Chris, and the muscle in his jaw feathered when his gaze met hers. She’d known he would be there, but her body still froze in his presence.

Heather stepped out of the elevator, and Olivia followed her after a missed beat, the floor underneath her loafers feeling unsteady.

“Olivia,” Chris said, bringing them both to a halt before they could walk past him.

Heather looked at Olivia and lifted her brows in question.

“It’s okay,” Olivia replied. “Just give us a minute.”

Her attorney nodded and gave them some space.

“I…” Chris ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. “Look, as much as I think you deserve everything that’s coming to you, I should warn you that Paige is trying to reach out to Drew’s parents.”

Olivia’s eyebrows drew together while her heart shriveled at his biting words. “What for?”

“She wants to encourage them to open their own case against you,” Chris explained. “She tried reaching out before she filed the suit to get them to file with her, but they didn’t return any of her messages.”

Olivia swallowed past the tight knot in her throat. “Why are you telling me this?”

“I don’t know.” He sighed. “I guess I owe it to Noah and your family. I know this is putting them through hell as well.”

Olivia couldn’t argue there. She’d never seen her parents so stressed, and she knew Noah and Riley must be struggling with how to feel, considering their friendship with Chris.

“Thank you,” she said, even though his warning hadn’t been for her benefit.

His eyes moved over her face as though searching for the clues nobody but him and his family had seen. The clues that pointed to her being a murderer.

“Whatever,” he muttered, his expression hardening. “I’ll see you in there.”

He strode away from her without looking back and entered the room Paige and his parents must have been waiting in.

“Everything okay?” Heather asked.

Olivia didn’t know how to respond to that, so she simply shook her head. “We should go in. I don’t want to be late.”

Heather placed her hand on Olivia’s shoulder and squeezed gently before nodding. The two of them walked into the conference room, and Olivia immediately felt the weight of several hate-filled stares. Introductions were made between the two attorneys and the lawyer who was acting as their mediator shook Olivia’s hand in greeting.

Olivia concentrated on slowing her breathing. She wiped her clammy palms on her pants as she took her seat next to Heather at the long glass table in the center of the gray and otherwise sparsely furnished room.

Paige’s attorney was a tall older man, but there had been no grandfatherly warmth in his greeting. He might have been a wonderful person when he wasn’t working, but all Olivia felt when she looked at him then was fear. Mr. Langley, the younger male attorney acting as the mediator, had smiled at her before shaking her hand, but she didn’t find much comfort in the gesture.

“Before we begin, my client has something she would like to discuss with Mrs. Hartley in private,” Heather said once they were all seated. “Paige Hartley, that is,” she clarified with a tight smile in Chris’s mother’s direction.

Olivia was looking at Chris while her attorney spoke, so she saw the way his eyes narrowed. She moved her gaze away from him and met Paige’s furious glare.

Her attorney sighed but looked at his client for her answer.

“If she has something to say, she can say it in front of all of us,” Paige said, her tone icy.

Olivia’s eyes closed in disappointment, though she’d half-expected an answer like that. “Please,” she said, her gaze darting nervously to Chris and his father. “I would prefer to speak with you alone.”

Paige scoffed. “You murdered my husband, and you have the audacity to sit there and demand I be alone in a room with you?”

Olivia winced.

“I know emotions are high,” the mediating attorney said from the head of the table. “But let’s try to keep things as civil as possible. Mrs. Hartley, if you feel uncomfortable being alone with Miss Warner, you are under no pressure to do so.”

“My client is obviously uncomfortable doing so,” her attorney said. “And I see no reason that Miss Warner can’t speak freely in front of all of us.”

Heather leaned close enough to whisper in her ear. “I know you’re scared, but if you want to avoid this going to trial, you might need to do this with everyone present.”

Olivia twisted her hands together and let her eyes shift between the people sitting across from her. She found nothing but hard and unsympathetic faces.

“Would you be willing to speak to Olivia with Mr. Langley present?” Heather asked Paige after several seconds had passed.

Olivia thought she could manage it if it was only the two of them and the mediator, but Paige looked hesitant to agree to even that. Before she could reply, Chris’s father spoke up.

“Our family has been put through enough because of her,” he said, his loud and angry words making Olivia flinch. “We encouraged Paige to agree to mediation because we don’t want a drawn-out trial, but I’m beginning to wonder if we made a mistake.”

“Mr. Hartley,” the mediator warned.

“He’s right,” Paige said, interrupting whatever the attorney would have said next to try and encourage more peaceful and productive dialogue. “I think we made a mistake agreeing to this.”

Lucas’s widow stood up, and Olivia started to panic.

“Wait,” she said, speaking over Mr. Langley and not caring. “Everyone can stay, but I need to speak to you.”

Paige paused, her handbag already on her shoulder.

“Please,” Olivia begged. “You need to listen to me.”

The uncertainty in the other woman’s posture evaporated, and Olivia knew she’d made a mistake in not choosing her words well enough.

“I don’t need to do anything,” she replied. She looked down at her attorney and shook her head. “I don’t see how we can reach a settlement agreement.”

Whatever hope Olivia had left crashed to the ground. You can’t do anything right, the critical voice in her head scolded her. That voice was right.

“Miss Warner, will you and your attorney please wait outside while I speak to Mrs. Hartley?” Mr. Langley said.

Olivia looked at Heather for direction, and her attorney nodded her head and stood from her chair. Olivia followed suit and followed the woman out of the conference room, her head down and her shoulders stooped.

She and Heather waited outside of the conference room for nearly half an hour before Mr. Langley opened the door and walked up to them. Olivia straightened and bit her lip to keep from asking him what was going on.

“Please tell me we can salvage this,” Heather said, but the man shook his head.

“I did what I could, but Mrs. Hartley is no longer willing to settle out of court.” He looked at Olivia. “I’m sorry.”

Olivia felt the burn of tears in her eyes, but she sent him a brittle smile that faltered within a second. “Thank you for trying.”

He nodded tightly and went back into the conference room.

“I’m sorry, Olivia,” Heather said once he was gone.

“It’s my own fault,” Olivia replied, her body feeling like it weighed far more than it did when she’d walked into the building as despair began crushing down on her chest.

Heather pursed her lips and shook her head. “It’s possible she wouldn’t have agreed to a settlement anyway.”

“What now?” Olivia asked

Her attorney sighed. “Our best line of defense is the 911 call you made at the gas station. Paige’s team won’t want to include it in their evidence, so you need to decide how we proceed.”

Olivia chewed on her bottom lip, unsure what to do now that their plan had failed. “I’ll let you know my decision by tomorrow,” she eventually said.

“Okay,” Heather replied. “Call me in the morning, and we’ll discuss what happens next.”

Olivia nodded, but before they could get in the elevator, the conference room door opened again and Chris walked out. He hesitated before approaching them, but his voice was firm when he spoke.

“What did you want to tell Paige?” he asked. “What couldn’t you say in front of the rest of us?”

Olivia shook her head in defeat. “It doesn’t matter now. Paige doesn’t want to hear it.”

“Tell me what it is, and maybe I can convince her to change her mind,” he argued.

The ache behind Olivia’s eyes grew, and the words sat heavily on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn’t quite get them out. Maybe she could have before, but not after he’d shown her how little she’d meant to him.

Chris let out an impatient sound and took a step forward. Olivia’s back pressed into the wall, and Heather stepped between them.

“I suggest you back off,” she warned him, her hand held out in front of his chest.

“If she has something to say about my brother’s death, I want to know,” Chris retorted, but he still backed away a few steps.

“Olivia?” Heather asked gently.

But Olivia couldn’t do it. She couldn’t tell Chris, not after everything. She couldn’t handle any more rejection from him.

She shook her head. “Send my regards to Kelce,” she said in goodbye. “Oh, and not that you even care, but I got the results back, and I’m clean.”

She and Heather walked to the elevator, and while they waited, she looked over her shoulder at Chris. He was looking at her, his eyebrows pinched together and his hands curled into fists. She couldn’t hold his gaze for long. Instead, she stared at her shoes until the elevator doors opened and she could escape.