LOGINLiv Mia jumped in, already climbing up on the bed like it was her couch at home, kicking her shoes off and flopping down next to me. “Exactly, screw that noise, this baby is a queen already and we’re gonna celebrate her, watch this.” Then they went full chaotic best-friend mode, Mia jumping up and down on the mattress making the whole bed bounce while I winced and laughed at the same time because ow but also hilarious, and Zoe grabbed the baby out again and started dancing her around the room like a ragdoll singing “your pumpum bring life…… your pumpum bring life, look at this tiny pumpum making mama fight!” in the dumbest off-key voice while Mia filmed the whole thing on her phone for TikTok, both of them yelling over each other “hashtag twin mom survivor, hashtag besties save the day, hashtag pumpum power!” I was cracking up so hard my scar pulled but I couldn’t stop because they looked ridiculous, Mia pretending to rock the baby like a microphone and Zoe doing these stupid hip th
LivI blinked awake and the first thing I saw was Kacy’s face right there like two inches from mine, all red-eyed and scruffy with that stupid half-beard he gets when he doesn’t sleep, and before I could even say hi or what the hell happened he just lunged forward and wrapped me up in this massive hug that squished the breath right out of me and made my fresh C-section scar scream like it was on fire. “Liv you cannot scare me like that ever again,” he said into my hair, voice all cracked and rough like he’d been yelling my name for hours, “I thought I was gonna lose you right there in that room, you went black on me and the machines went crazy and I was standing there begging them to save you and I swear if you pull that shit one more time I’m gonna lose my mind for real, don’t you ever do that to me again you hear me?” I tried to laugh but it came out more like a wheeze because everything hurt and my throat felt like sandpaper and I just grabbed the front of his shirt back because
Liv I held onto his shirt tight and I half laughed through the first real contraction that felt like my insides were twisting up. “They always do Kacy. Always pick her. But you know what. Screw them. You are carrying me like some hero from a movie and I am dripping everywhere. At least the universe gave me one good thing today.”He got me buckled in the car and started it up and we drove off while I could hear sirens somewhere far away for Ava happy ending. I kept talking the whole way words just spilling out between the breaths because the pain was getting stronger and I could not keep my mouth shut. “ I hate them I really do but I would never wish Cole gone or anything. That is Ava level crazy and I am not like her. I am just me. The one they always leave behind. Again. But you are here. You are always here.”Kacy squeezed my hand at every red light and he said and I am staying. “Breathe Liv. In and out. We are almost there.”The hospital turned into a blur after we got there. Nurs
LivI stood there in my doorway with my huge belly sticking out like it had a mind of its own and I just stared at the whole mess on my porch. Ava was shoving her way past me yelling about how I stole Cole and how it had to be payback for everything that happened before. Caleb kept yanking her arm back like he was the only one trying to keep things from blowing up completely. Then Mom and Dad pulled up in their car and jumped out looking all worried and ready to jump into the middle of it like they always did when Ava needed them. My twin, my ex and my parents who turned on me the second things got hard were right here now begging for help finding their son. I hated every single one of them deep down in my gut but I swear I would never wish anything bad on them, not even this kind of hurt.You stole him, Ava screamed right in my face with her eyes all red and swollen from all the crying. I know it is you Liv payback for what I did to you admit it right now.I put my hands on my hips
Joyce The lady picked up all professional and bored, “Crimestoppers hotline, what’s your tip?” and I jumped right in cutting her off because who has time for small talk, “Listen up, no names, no questions the baby boy kidnapped from the park earlier, the one everyone’s crying about on the news? He’s sitting in a carrier on the bench in the vacant lot behind the station on Fifth, go get him now before I change my mind and he’s gone forever.” She tried interrupting, all “Ma’am, can you stay on the line and give more details?” but I laughed right over her, rude as hell, “No details, lady, just send a car, and tell the parents it’s a free gift, no ransom needed anymore click.” Hung up before she could say another word, tossed the phone out the window into a dumpster because bye-bye evidence, and then I waited, engine off, slouched low in the seat watching the lot through the rearview like some paranoid ex-girlfriend which, okay, fair.Sirens started up quiet at first, no lights at first
Joyce I couldn’t stop grinning like an idiot even though my hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the phone twice, because after everything, after rotting in that cell for months thinking about Caleb every single damn day and how Ava stole him from me like she owned the world, I finally had the upper hand and nobody, not even that smug therapist version of me from before, saw this coming. I mean, I escaped that place by hiding in the laundry cart like some bad movie plot but guess what, those guards were too busy arguing about football scores to notice the extra bag rolling out the side gate, and once I was free I didn’t waste a second, I went straight for the park because I’d been watching them for weeks from my burner phone pictures, waiting for the exact moment Ava would turn her back like the careless idiot she is. One second, two seconds, that’s all it took I scooped up little Cole while she was digging in the diaper bag for some stupid toy and I was gone before she
~Liv~I didn’t look at my phone for forty-eight hours straight.Not once.I turned it off after that last text from Kacy, shoved it in the back of my sock drawer like it was radioactive, and pretended the world ended at the four walls of my apartment. I ordered pizza, watched three seasons of some
~Liv~The phone kept buzzing in my hand like it was personally offended I wasn’t answering fast enough, Ava’s name flashing over and over, and I swear I could already hear her voice in my head before I even hit accept. Rowan glanced over from the driver’s seat, jaw tight, eyes still red from all th
~Liv~I was still stuck there like my feet had grown roots into the damn grass, heart slamming so hard I could feel it in my teeth, watching Caleb haul Kacy up by the shirt again like he was gonna finish what he started, when headlights cut across the parking lot sharp enough to make me squint.Row
~Liv~My phone buzzed on the nightstand at like 2 a.m., and I almost ignored it because who texts at 2 a.m. unless it's an emergency or a drunk ex, but then I saw Kacy's name and my stupid heart did this dumb little flip like it forgot we were supposed to be playing it cool and I had a fake boyfrie







