LIVELY POV

Dad approached me as he returned, carrying three coffees in a holder. I was sitting in the hallway on the bench across from Bubble's hospital room, alone in the silence. He smiled warmly to cheer my downcast mood, but I couldn't bring myself to return it. There is a crack in my heart.

"Here," He held out one, and I collected it, staring down at it.

"Thank you." My thumbs trailed the lid of the disposable cups.

Dad sighed and settled next to me.

"Mom doesn't like her coffee cold," I told him when I looked over at him, my voice hoarse, and his expression softened, if even possible. He brought a hand over my shoulder and pulled me to him. It was the first consolation hug I had since Aaron tried to hold me, and I pushed him away.

I took off the ring yesterday before appearing in front of my family, and I haven't looked at it since. No words will defend it, to begin with, and I can't bear any argument taking attention away from Bubble's health.

"She will come around. She just loves him for you, bug," Dad says.

"Maybe she's right. I can't give him what he deserves, so I don't deserve to see him. I can't even offer him health insurance. Maybe if I finished school and went to college, I would have gotten a better-paying job with health insurance. That's what all parents do—they care for their child. How can I pay $2 million for the lung transplant? All I have is $13,780." I can't breathe.

"Livy, do not think like that," he pulls me back to look at my face. "You had to be better, your wellness meant so much to us as Bubble's to you. And you are not alone in this. You've got me, you've got your mom, even if she's overprotective of Bubble. It's a good thing. It's because we love you so much."

Fresh sobs surge in my throat, I can't say anything, I just hug him.

"We will figure it out," he keeps saying, caressing my back.

A female clears her throat, causing us to turn instantly to see who was there.

Sadie was standing there in her casual outfit, with her backpack over her shoulder. She pouts and stoops, wrapping her arms around me.

"Mister Kelby, I am so sorry about Bubble. Hopefully, he's doing better," she tells Dad while squeezing me.
He smiles at her appreciatively. "He is. Thank you."

"Dad, this is Sadie, my coworker at the country club," I introduce.

"We are friends," she emphasizes, and I smile.

"I will leave you two to chat," Dad says as he gets up to leave.

Hopefully, Mom's coffee is still how she likes it.

Sadie takes Dad's spot and takes my hands in my laps. She had called me last night to check if I was coming to work today, and I told her about Bubble being admitted. I don't know if I still work there or if I want to. But I know I need to make money as much as I can to save the life of the only reason why I have a purpose.

"I woke up early to stop by, and if I stay a bit late, Carol will understand. I will tell her about Bubble," she says, and I smile. It really is early. It's not even yet seven; the wall clock behind Sadie reads. "You look tired. Did you get any sleep?" she asks, and I shake my head. "Oh, Lively. You need it. You should go home and change; maybe Aaron Wallace can take you, since he is here."

My heart skips a beat. Did she say, Aaron?

"Aaron?"

"Yes—" She confusingly nods at the surprise reaction on my face. She thought I knew. "He's outside with his butler, I guess. If he didn't sleep out there, then he must have come here upon getting out of a terrible nightmare. He looks opposing in the appearance of the typical Aaron Wallace. What did you do to the man?" she giggles.

He stayed!

Gasping at the news, I get up, my legs scurrying ahead to take me to him. Sadie is following behind, asking questions I'm not listening to. My heart is racing as my brain works through processing the thought of how possible Aaron would be outside after how I treated him yesterday.

I only come to a stop when I spot him through the see-through glass, leaning against the hood of his vehicle with Keenan next to him. The automatic sliding door opens in front of me, and my ragged breathing only worsens.

He's in the same tailored white shirt and blue trousers he had on since San Francisco, strands of hair curtaining his face as his head is lowered, watching the pavement with hands in the pockets. He looks younger and clueless, and the beautiful view I've ever seen. He finally looks up, then notices me, and his eyes widen as he takes in my presence. He straightens up but doesn't take any more forward steps, his face softened. There aren't words needed to be voiced by him; he just wants me to know he is here.

My heart stops at the full image of him. Sadie was right. This man looking back at me isn't Aaron Wallace. This is a worn, ardently loving man.

He waited hours outside despite having the option of sleeping on a king-size bed, I can bet he has.

Unlike him, I have something to say to him. Maybe even to hug him and just say 'thank you.'

I take the forward step through the door, and he swallows, hope flashes on his face. He assumes I hated him after how I reacted yesterday, and so seeing me gave him ease. I am not proud of it too.

A bright light flashes at me, and it keeps going on continuously.

"Aaron Wallace, is this young woman the mystery woman you were with yesterday?" "Aaron Wallace?"

Chatters, cameras, flashes, desperate people approaching Aaron, and below the steps toward me but being held back by the hospital guards, clearly.

Keenan gave Aaron sunglasses, his jaw clenches and he wore them while being escorted to the rear of his vehicle.

"Let's go," said a voice in the back of my head and felt an arm around me, guiding me back until the door closed, ending the erupted chaos. Through the glass wall, I saw the car taking off.

"We should go see how Bubble is doing," I heard Sadie's voice nearer, and I was a bit startled. Confused, I looked to my side at her and smiled tightly. She was holding me, it was supportive. I didn't know how much I needed it until she steered us, and we faced the reception. The stares I got from people reminded me of the judgments I feared the day I learned I was going to be a teen mom and my life was going to end.

So like always, I weighed the fight or flight option and resorted to a flight, I ran in speed through the reception to hide.

**

"I WILL noT eva go-in to skool," Bubble tells me while we snuggle on his bed.

After Bubble got discharged, Mom gave up the restricting order she had on me from seeing my son since Bubble and I shared a room, and her space with Dad could not accommodate the three of them. So I got back to having at least night custody of him.

"If you don't want to," I rub his nose with mine, and he smiles, excitedly nodding against my head. They had gotten him an oxygen tank, so he had his second nasal cannula fixed into his small precious nostrils.

I don't know how to make it possible to keep him around me through the day now that I need to work harder to raise money as soon as possible for his surgery, but I will figure it out. He needs to feel safer, and after what happened at the daycare, I don't think he's ready to go back.

A knock came up, and I hug Bubble closer as Mom appears by the door. Please, she can't possibly have found a solution to fit him near her. I just want to cuddle him.

"Mom, please," I begged, my vision drowning in tears.
Her brows hardened, and she widened the door, revealing the PJ Masks toys bunched up by the small corridor down to the living room.

Bubble pushes up, yelling in excitement, "Peejay Mas."
He crawls down the bed, running past Mom, forgetting the oxygen tank behind; luckily, the cord has quite a reasonable length for this purpose. I had to carry it with me and tail after him as he wows over the toys that wouldn't be able to fit into our house until we were in the living room.

Keenan and some men were coming in with everything ever made in the PJ Masks name. Now it all make sense.

Aaron!

I look at Mom and Dad holding each other behind me and a deliriously exhilarated Bubble. They both look equally stunned.

Down the steps from the open door, there is a giant trunk, and men are moving out child toys from it and into my small home.

Keenan had halted, carrying a red mini-truck, looking around the wall of toys they made all over the space for where to keep the truck.

"I do not think there is any more room," he said.

"I do not think there is enough room for us," I nervously chuckled.

"We do have over half of the trunk to unload," he informs us.

My eyes widen in panic.

"No way," Mom remarked. She surely was waiting for us to be alone so she could reprimand me for being the cause of her messed-up home.

"He didn't make you empty an entire store, did he?" I gasped as it dawned on me Aaron's habit of doing so.

Keenan smiles apologetically.

"Bubble, what do you say we share with the neighbors?" Dad went across the room, picking up Bubble into his arm as he had already reached up to Keenan's legs, looking into different items sitting in the area. "Sharing is caring, right?"

Bubble nodded at Dad, and Keenan smiled too.

"Please unload everything outside; the families here have children. I will have a sign for free toys by tomorrow," Dad tells the man, and Keenan nods compliantly, turning around and ordering the rest of the men to do the same thing.

I heard Mom sigh, and I swallowed, a sinking feeling settled in my stomach, wrestling with the little courage that wanted me to veer around and confront her.

When I did face her, I rushed out, "I will take out the things and make space."

"That boy is madly in love with you," Mom broke into a laugh, holding her stomach. She stumbled back, nearly falling to the dining chair, but it too was occupied. She noticed, and her laughter deepened.

She's not mad at me.

We ended up all laughing, even Bubble, who had no idea what it's about.

The worst thing about obliviousness is that it is like a blind man fighting for their life or a mouse taking shelter in a cobra's burrow at night. They'd take safety from their murder in cluelessness, or the mouse could take rest in the softness it felt beneath it. Mom and Dad never knew who impregnated me. I never told anyone, not even my journal. What my parents know is that I was the teenager they never wished for, the slut daughter who slept with different boys in freshman year and had trouble telling apart the father. So to them, Aaron Wallace was harmless, perfect, and the knight in shining armor rescuing me.

He wasn't. He was who shattered me, and in a disorderly world, I live in right now, I am falling in love with him again.