THAT THING YOU'RE CARRYING IN YOUR WOMB

CHAPTER ONE

The stadium lights buzzed against the darkening sky, and every seat in the bleachers was packed with people screaming his name. Killian had the ball tucked against his ribs, dodging one linebacker, then another, cutting left with a burst of speed that made the crowd rise to their feet as one. He crossed into the end zone and the whole place exploded.

He ripped his helmet off and threw both arms into the air, sweat dripping down his jaw, chest heaving from the run. This was it. His last home game. His last touchdown as a Riverton Hawk, and it felt like flying.

Mara and Olivia were already screaming from the sideline, pom-poms shaking, but only one of those screams was for him. Killian's eyes found Olivia in the crowd of blue and gold, and nothing else in that stadium mattered anymore.

He ran to her, cleats tearing up the turf, and she met him halfway, throwing herself into his arms so hard he nearly stumbled backward. He caught her anyway. He always caught her. Their lips crashed together, and for a second the roaring stadium faded into something distant and unimportant, just background noise behind the sound of her breathing against his mouth.

When they finally broke apart, Olivia's eyes were shining, though not with the kind of happiness a person expects to see on a night like this.

"I'm so upset," she said, her fingers curling into the front of his jersey like she could hold on to this moment if she just gripped hard enough. "This is our last time together in high school, and I won't even get to see you. You'll be all the way in another country."

Killian pressed his forehead to hers, breathing hard, his hands framing her face like she was something fragile.

"I'll just be here," she went on, quieter now, "running my mother's team, while you're off becoming somebody's star recruit."

"Hey." He tilted her chin up so she had to look at him. "We're not breaking up. Why are you talking like we're breaking up?"

Olivia let out a small laugh that didn't quite reach her eyes. "I'm not. I just... I don't know. It feels like everything's about to change."

"It is going to change." He brushed a strand of hair off her damp forehead. "But not us. I'll call you every single day. I don't care what time zone I'm in, I don't care if I have practice at five in the morning, I will call you." He paused, and something teasing crept into his voice, though his eyes stayed serious. "Just promise me you won't go looking at any other guy while I'm gone. Especially not David."

Olivia's mouth curved into a smirk, the kind she only used on him. "Who knows, Killian. He is pretty cute. Maybe I'll fall for him while you're busy chasing touchdowns overseas."

He shook his head at her, but he was smiling now too, and for a second it looked like he might argue back. Instead he dropped down onto one knee right there on the field, right in front of half the town.

The noise around them seemed to shrink to nothing. Olivia's hand flew to her mouth.

"Killian, what are you doing?"

He pulled a small black box from where he'd hidden it inside his gear bag earlier that day, his fingers not quite steady as he opened it. Inside sat a slim gold ring, plain but real, the kind a seventeen-year-old boy saves every dollar of his allowance and birthday money to afford.

From a few feet away, Mara stood frozen, still holding her pom-poms, her smile from seconds ago gone like it had never existed. Her eyes locked on Olivia with something dark and burning behind the. It didn't belong on the face of a girl who was supposed to be cheering for her step sister.

"Oh my god," Olivia breathed, staring down at the ring like it might vanish if she blinked. "What is this?"

"When I come back," Killian said, his voice cracking slightly under the weight of what he was about to ask, "let's get married."

The stadium had gone quiet enough that his words carried all the way to the front row.

"Yes." Olivia was already crying, already nodding, her hands shaking as she reached for the box. "Yes, Killian, yes, I'll marry you."

He surged up to catch her again, laughing now, spinning her once before setting her back on her feet, and for one perfect second, Olivia Hart was the happiest girl in the entire state.

Then Mara moved.

She crossed the distance between them so fast that nobody had time to react, not even Killian, and she slammed into Olivia with her full weight, sending her backward. Olivia's head cracked against the turf with a sound that silenced the entire stadium.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Killian's voice tore out of him, raw and furious, as he dropped to his knees beside Olivia.

He tilted her chin toward him, and his stomach dropped. Her eyes had rolled back, unfocused, her lips slightly parted around nothing.

"Olivia?" He shook her gently, then less gently. "Olivia, hey, look at me."

He looked up at Mara, who was standing over both of them, breathing hard, a strange blankness settling over her face like she wasn't quite sure what she'd just done, or didn't care.

"Are you nuts?" he screamed at her, his voice cracking with panic now instead of rage. "She needs a doctor! Somebody help, please, somebody help her!"

The coaching staff, who had been frozen along the sideline in stunned silence, finally snapped into motion. They came running with a stretcher, and Killian moved aside just enough to let them work, his hand never leaving Olivia's.

As they lifted her, Mara stood there watching, an odd, empty little grin tugging at the corner of her mouth like she was watching a movie instead of the wreckage of what should have been the best night of her step sister's life.

*****

The steady, rhythmic beeping of a heart monitor pulled Olivia out of the dark.

She blinked against the harsh hospital light, her head throbbing, the smell of antiseptic thick in her throat. It took her a moment to remember where she was, and another moment to remember why, and then it all came flooding back. The field, the ring and Mara's face right before everything went black.

She pushed herself up slowly, wincing, and turned to find Killian sitting in the chair beside her bed, his eyes red-rimmed like he hadn't slept, his hand wrapped tightly around hers like he'd been holding it for hours. His mother stood a few feet away near the window, arms crossed, her expression unreadable. A petite nurse hovered near the foot of the bed, a folded piece of paper in her hand.

"What happened?" Olivia asked, her voice hoarse.

Killian's face softened the second he saw she was awake, and he leaned forward, taking the paper gently from the nurse before she could hand it over. "Here," he said, pressing it into Olivia's palm. "You should see this."

She unfolded it with fingers that still felt clumsy, and her eyes scanned the print until they landed on the words that mattered. Her breath caught somewhere in her chest.

"I'm pregnant?" she whispered, to no one in particular, like saying it out loud might make it more or less true.

Killian was already nodding, already gripping her hand tighter, his thumb sweeping back and forth over her knuckles.

"Hey, don't feel bad, okay? Don't feel scared. I'll take responsibility. I promise you are not doing this alone." He leaned closer, his forehead nearly touching hers, his voice dropping into something fierce and steady. "It's my baby too. I'm going to protect it. And I'm going to protect you."

Olivia's eyes flicked toward his mother, searching her face for any flicker of warmth, any sign that this news was welcome. Miss Ashford only pressed her lips into a thin line and said nothing at all, her silence somehow louder than words would have been.

Olivia looked back at Killian anyway, and despite everything, despite the fear knotting up in her stomach, she managed a small, trembling smile.

Killian squeezed her hand once more before rising to his feet. "Rest, okay? I'm going to go get you some coffee." He pressed a kiss to her temple, lingering there a second longer than necessary, then straightened and walked out, the door clicking shut behind him.

The moment he was gone, the air in the room changed.

Miss Ashford moved fast for a woman in heels, crossing the space between them and snatching the pregnancy report right out of Olivia's hand before she could even process what was happening. In one sharp motion, she tore it clean in half, then in half again.

"What are you doing?" Olivia's voice shot up, panic flooding through her. "Miss Ashford, don't, please, I'm keeping this baby."

"Are you." It wasn't a question. Miss Ashford's voice was ice, each word measured and cold. "You think my son is going to throw away his entire future for some girl who can't even control her own cheerleading squad?"

"It's not about the money." Olivia's voice cracked, tears already spilling down her cheeks. "I love Killian. I've loved him since we were fourteen. This isn't some scheme, this is his child, this is our child."

She forced herself up onto her feet, unsteady, one hand braced against the IV pole, ready to say more, ready to fight for the one thing in her life that finally felt certain.

She never got the chance.

Miss Ashford's palm connected with her cheek so hard the sound of it cracked through the room, snapping Olivia's head sideways.

"Leave my son alone," Miss Ashford hissed, leaning in close enough that Olivia could smell her expensive perfume beneath the fury. "Or I will not only destroy you and everything you think you have, I will destroy that thing you're carrying in your womb too."

Olivia's mouth opened, some broken protest rising in her throat, but before a single word could escape, Miss Ashford shoved her.

Olivia's legs buckled. The IV pole clattered to the floor beside her as she went down hard, and the last thing she saw before the room tilted sideways was Miss Ashford standing over her, perfectly composed, like nothing at all had happened.