“Olivia,” Jennifer said. “I love you dearly, but we need to talk.”

She’d been back home in Texas for just over a week. It had been long enough to disrupt her sister’s schedule—increasingly packed, as Jennifer was healthier and more active than she had been in years—but short enough that Olivia hadn’t yet developed a healthy routine for herself. She spent most of her time on the couch watching TV. She’d taken to channel surfing, flicking between shows in the hope of finding something comforting.

At first, she’d found comfort in the arms of her sister, who had welcomed her with open arms. But as the days went on, Olivia didn’t feel better and could feel that her sister’s patience was waning. She knew that she needed to focus on something productive, but as of that moment, she just wanted to wallow.

“How long is the appropriate time to wallow?” Olivia asked.

“I wouldn’t say more than 24 hours,” Jennifer replied, holding out a spoon. She stuck the spoon in the pint of ice cream that Olivia was clutching.

“Hey,” Olivia said. “I’m eating for two.”

Jennifer scoffed. “Doctors proved that saying to be false, you know. You don’t have to double your caloric intake to—”

“Don’t be a Debbie Downer,” Olivia said.

“Good thing my name is Jennifer, then,” she said, her voice snarky. She took a spoonful of ice cream and stuck it in her mouth.

“Jenny Downer,” Olivia amended, pouting.

Jennifer rolled her eyes. “So, tell me,” she said. “Has Yasin called since you’ve been here?”

Olivia nodded. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and flipped to the call list. Yasin’s number was the only one to show up—his name filled the screen. Next, she pulled up her text messages and showed them to Jennifer. He had been texting her nonstop as well.

“I think he misses you,” Jennifer said.

Without saying anything, Olivia put the phone back into her pocket.

“Oh, Liv,” Jennifer said. “Don’t be like this.”

Olivia shrugged. “I just don’t feel like talking to him just yet,” she said. “I’m still mad at what he did.”

Jennifer nodded. “Yes, I can imagine how difficult that was to go through. Seeing him sitting there, not defending you.”

“I was being attacked and he just threw me under the bus. Over his big fancy plan, too. I was just going along with it, like he told me to. I was just following the contract.”

Olivia had spoken these exact words a number of times in the past few days. Jennifer knew them by heart.

“You know,” Jennifer said. “Maybe he did end up telling his family the truth, after all.”

Olivia rolled her eyes. “I don’t care. It’s too little, too late,” she said. She stuffed a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth, hoping that the lie wouldn’t crawl back into her mouth if it was full of chocolate cherry vanilla ice cream.

As she contemplated on whether or not she should put on real clothes to go out and get a pint of chocolate, the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it,” Jennifer said, getting up from the couch. She set her spoon in the pint of ice cream before leaving to answer the door.

Olivia used the opportunity to fully recline on the couch and rest the pint on her now enormous belly. From her position, she could just barely see the TV past her belly so, instead, her gaze fell upon the design on her shirt: a cup of coffee with captions surrounding it, announcing her love for her favorite morning beverage. Of course, at this part of her pregnancy, she had cut out caffeine, so the shirt only served to remind her of how miserable she was.

“Olivia?” Jennifer called from the other room. “Did you read any of those text messages from Yasin?”

“No,” she said, not bothering to raise her voice too much. “Why?”

Jennifer poked her head into the living room. “Because,” she said. “You might want to dust yourself off a bit. You have a visitor.”

Olivia raised an eyebrow at her sister. “What?”

From behind her, Yasin peered around the corner of the wall, into the living room where Olivia sat with the ice cream sitting on her belly. Olivia bolted straight up, dropping the ice cream on the ground.

“Oh!” she yelped, staring at Yasin. Her gaze fell on the floor, and the pint of ice cream that was now sitting there. “Oh.” She tried to bend over to pick it up, but her belly was starting to impede her everyday motions.

“I got it,” Jennifer said. She picked the pint up from the ground, along with the two spoons.

“Why don’t you take that into the kitchen?” Olivia said, shooing her sister.

Jennifer snickered as her sister pushed her toward the kitchen. Jennifer eyed Yasin and smiled. “Good luck,” she whispered.

He nodded and mouthed the words, “Thank you.”

Olivia dusted herself off and tried to move some of the clothes from the couch so Yasin could have a seat. “Sorry for the mess,” she said. “It’s been a little rough since I’m getting so big.” She motioned for him to sit down.

He did as he was told and Olivia followed him to the couch, sitting next to him.

“Listen,” she said. “I’m sorry. About leaving like that. I’ve always hated the idea of leaving someone with just a letter. It seems so cliché, but I really did feel like that was the best thing to do.”

“I agree,” he said.

“What?”

He took a deep breath. “I mean, I’m not glad that you left. I missed you so much. But at the same time, you leaving made me realize just how much you meant to me. Not only that, I worked up the nerve to talk to my family. I cleared your name. I told my family everything: from the job interview all the way to the baby. I mended that family bond. My siblings and I are now closer than ever before.”

“Oh,” was all she could manage to say in her shock.

“I can’t tell you how sorry I am,” he said. “Because of what I did—or rather, what I didn’t do—you felt like you lost your trust in me.” Tears welled in his eyes. “You left.”

The realization suddenly dawned on Olivia. She had left. Just like his mother and stepmother had. This was what he was talking about. He didn’t want his children to have to deal with their mother leaving. She had done exactly what he had been afraid she was going to do.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m sorry, too. I did leave you, and I know how much that hurt.”

“It’s what I needed,” he said. “It was the push that I needed to realize how I really feel about all of this.”

“But what about your father? And Rashad? They’re furious with me.”

“I told you, I cleared everything up with them. I swear. They’re sorry about their behavior. Rashad is desperate to apologize in person.”

“Wow,” Olivia said. “I don’t even think he said hello to me when I was there. But if I go back, I’ll get an apology?” She crossed her arms and looked away.

Yasin smiled. “That’s how sorry they are.”

“But what they said…it didn’t affect you at all? You still want me to be your wife, even after all of the things Rashad said? He didn’t take your resolve?”

Yasin cleared his throat. “That’s not his for the taking; my heart belongs to you, Olivia.” He paused dramatically, just as the actor did in her favorite movie. “And I’ll deliver that myself, thank you.” He dropped down on a bended knee.

Olivia’s eyes widened. “What are you doing?”

“I’m doing this right, for once,” he said. He took a deep breath. “Throughout this whole process, I’ve seen your strength, your intelligence, your beauty, and your bravery. I’ve seen the best sides of you and some of the more awkward sides and it’s made me realize that I love you. I’ve fallen in love with you. Head over heels.”

It was Olivia’s turn to have her eyes well with tears.

“I know that we both took our previous arrangement to heart, but…I’d like to propose to you, for real. No contract. No conditions. I want you as my wife and as the mother of my child. Will you stay with me as my wife? Will you help me raise our baby?”

The tears broke through the dam, spilling down Olivia’s cheeks. She nodded enthusiastically.

“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, I’d love to.” Tears streamed down her face. “I’ve fallen in love with you too, you know.”

He shook his head. “I didn’t want to believe it when we were together before. I thought it would make everything too complicated if we both loved each other. But, as it turns out, it just made everything easier.”

“I want to be with you more than anything. Ever since my first night in Rebayah, when we watched movies together and talked for hours, I felt like we had this deep connection.”

“And that connection has become even deeper these past few months,” he said.

“Yeah,” she said. She wrapped her arms around him. He held her in his arms and rested his head on her shoulder. “This is where I belong,” he said. “In your arms.”

Jennifer burst in through the kitchen door, surprising both Yasin and Olivia. “Oh, you two,” she gushed as she ran over to give both of them a hug.

Olivia laughed and embraced the group hug. “This is what you’re getting,” she said to Yasin. “When we’re in a relationship together, there’s going to be a lot of this.”

“Group hugs?” he asked.

She nodded.

“I think I’ll be okay with that.”