Chapter 8: Olivia's Shock and Initial Refusal

There was a soft, gentle bing-ding of the elevator doors behind Olivia, but in her ears, it went off like a sudden peal of thunder. Olivia stared at her reflection in the shiny metal, hardly able to recognize herself: ashen, shaken, with eyes that seemed already to hold within them the weight of the whole world. "A contract," she whispered again, the words bitter on her tongue. "He wanted me to sign a contract." The absurdity hit her right then, and a laugh bubbled up from her chest. It was hollow and broken, bouncing off the walls of the elevator with a suddenness that made her flinch. As fast as it came, the laughter turned to tears—hot and angry, streaming down her cheeks. The elevator hit the ground floor, but Olivia didn't make any moves to get out. She jabbed at Nathan's floor button again. With every second, her resolve hardened. No, she wouldn't let it go down that way. Not with some paper and cold, legal words. Not when she had come to him with her heart shattering and her world falling apart. As the elevator climbed upward, her shock turned to anger. How dare he? How dare Nathan try to reduce what they had to a business deal? That their love, their connection, could be dissolved with a signature and a handshake?. The doors slid open, and Olivia strode down the corridor. In practically a war cadence, her heels clicked against the marble floor. She reached Nathan's door and began pounding on it, not caring who heard. Nathan flung open the door, his face wide with surprise. "Olivia? I thought you had—" She weaved around him into the apartment, her eyes flashing. "A contract, Nathan? Really? Is that all I am to you? A liability to be managed?" Nathan closed the door behind her. His face turned from guilt to confusion. "Liv, please, let me explain." "Explain what?" Olivia whirled at him, her voice rising. "Explain how you thought you could hand me a document and want my signature just to sign away everything we are and everything we've been." She snatched up the contract, lying on top of the coffee table, and crumbled it under his nose. "Did you even read that? 'Party A agrees to cease all contact with Party B. ''Any breach of this agreement will result in legal action.' Is that what I am to you, Nathan? Just 'Party B'?" Nathan lurched to his feet, his eyes begging as much as his voice did. "Olivia, please. I never meant to hurt you. I thought. I thought this would make things easier." "Easier?" Olivia laughed. The laugh was raw and sharp, and both of them winced at its sound. "Oh, I'm sure that would be easier for you, wouldn't it? You could just go back home to your perfect life with your perfect family, and I would then... what? Just disappear?" She began pacing across the floor and couldn't hold anything within her. "Do you have any idea what I've been through today? Do you know why I came here?" Nathan shook his head, so lost. "You were upset. I could see that. And I wanted to ask, but then." "But then you decided to ambush me with this instead," Olivia finished for him, her voice full of dripping sarcasm. She stopped her pacing, then turned back on him fully. "I got some news. today, Nathan. The kind of news that changes everything. And you know what my first thought was? I need to tell Nathan. I need him to hold me and tell me everything will be okay." She watched the impact dawn in Nathan's eyes as the color drained from his face. "Olivia," he said softly, "what do you mean? What news?" But Olivia would make no deals. Her anguish and fear about her diagnosis, coupled with shock at Nathan's contract, whipped up such a hellish maelstrom of emotion as she couldn't contain. "I love you," she said, her words trembling. "God help me, I do love you more than I've ever loved anyone before. And I thought. I really thought you felt the same." Nathan stepped toward her, his hands outstretched. "I do, Liv. I do love you too. That's what makes this so hard." "No!" Olivia stepped back, her outflung hand an instinctive warding gesture. "You don't get to say that. Not now. Not after this." She bunched the contract up in her fist, hurling it to the floor. "If you loved me, really loved me, you'd never have even considered this. this travesty." She could feel the pain in Nathan's eyes and see the regret etched into his face. Not enough anymore. "Olivia, please," Nathan begged, his voice rough with emotion. "Tell me what's going on. You said you finally got some news... Are you okay?" For a moment, Olivia entertained the idea of telling him everything—from the tumor to its prognosis and her living in fear—which drove her to his doorstep. But the hurt was too raw, and the betrayal was too fresh. "It doesn't matter," she burst out, her voice now calm. "None of it matters anymore." She half-turned toward the door, hesitating with her hand on the knob. "You know, I came here thinking you were the one person who could make this better. The one person who would stand by me no matter what. I guess I was wrong." Nathan made one last, desperate attempt to get to her. "Liv, wait. Please. We can talk about this. We can figure this out together." Olivia turned to him one last time, impressing upon her memory the lines of his face and the warmth in his eyes. Despite everything, she still loved him. And that made this hurt all the more. She whispered back, "Good-bye, Nathan. I hope it's worth your perfect life." And with that, she left the room, shutting the door tight behind her. But as she walked down to the elevators, a part of Olivia splintered. The dream of Nathan, the life they would fashion together, the very strand of hope that got her through the days of stinging shock after her diagnosis, suddenly disintegrated into dust. Olivia saw her reflection again in the elevator mirror. The woman staring back at her was not the same anymore—once hurting, now hardened. A single tear slid down her cheek as she watched, and she staved it off resolutely. "No more," she whispered to the reflection. "No more tears for him." As the elevator worked its way down, deeper and deeper, the further from Nathan and the shattered remains of their love, Olivia made a vow. Whatever lay ahead—pain and uncertainty—she would face it on her own terms. And she would face it without Nathan at her side. The elevator doors slid open, and Olivia stepped into the night, aahead—treatment the man she loved and the life she had always envisioned. Before her, there was an uncertain future, but for the first time since being diagnosed, in Olivia, there sputtered to life a spark of determination. She would get through this. With or without Nathan by her side, she would find a way to live whatever life she had left to the fullest. And maybe, just maybe, along the way, she could find a way to forgive Nathan and herself, too.