Olivia’s POV
My hand remained in Joshua’s grasp as he looked up at me pleadingly and requested me to stay with him that night. It was definitely not part of the plan I had constructed in my head when I first saw him on the sidewalk. We were not close, we were not lovers and we were barely friends, still, I couldn’t help but recall how he saved me and took care of me through the night. As a decent human being, I owed him to repay that favor and keep an eye on him through the night, but that was all.
My loud sigh echoed through his bedroom that I had grown familiar with. “Fine.”
“Thank you, Via.” His grip around my hand loosened and he patted the spot on the bed next to him.
Holding up my finger, I pulled a chair close to the bed just like he did when it was me on the bed. Before I could sit on it, Joshua pouted his lips at me.
Olivia’s POVMy eyes opened to see an unfamiliar ceiling again and I sat up straight on the bed as memories of last night flooded my mind. Looking down at my body, I found an oversized t-shirt over my dress and a blanket covering me, but there was no one next to me.Quickly getting up from the bed, I adjusted my hair and when I saw the bathroom empty, I freshened up before I stepped out of the bedroom with my clutch and coat. Just when I entered the living room, I saw the front door open and Joshua entered with two cups of coffee.“Hey, you,” he said with a small smile before removing his sunglasses.His eye was still dark purple, but his lip had healed nicely. Still, he looked disheveled and it made me feel like I was looking at a sad puppy. My lips pouted at him as I squeezed out a small smile.“I’m sorry, I must hav
Olivia’s POVWalking back to my apartment from the subway with a skip in my step, I inhaled the pleasant morning breeze and occasionally twirled around happily. Something about that morning felt freeing and I hadn’t felt that happy in a while. Humming to myself, I walked down my street as I began imagining myself getting under a warm shower and ordering some takeaway food. My weekend had turned out nothing like I thought it would be, but I was glad that I still had a day for myself. After a crazy week, it was much needed.As I headed down the final steps leading to my front door, I looked down into my clutch and noticed that my phone had run out of battery. In fact, I believe it ran out of battery sometime last night since the last time I saw it was to look up directions to Joshua’s apartment and it was already down to 5 percent then. Since I was almost home, it didn’t bother me, so instead,
Joshua’s POVA little over a week had passed since Olivia last woke up in my apartment. Nothing much had happened and we hadn’t seen each other, but we stayed in touch through calls and messages. As much as I wanted to spend every minute of my life with her, I knew I had to respect her space and give her enough time to make a decision. The last thing I wanted was to scare her away by being too forward and forcing her to like me.The sound of someone knocking on my apartment door snapped me out of my daze and I got up from my couch, wore my t-shirt, and opened the door to find Jenny at my door.“Jenny? What’s up?” I asked as I leaned on my door frame.She sighed and looked up at me with her tired eyes. “It’s about Mrs. Baxter.”“What?! What happened? Is she okay? Where is she?” I blasted at her a
Olivia’s POVCrashing on my bed, I let out a long sigh and groan. I was exhausted and my brain was starting to glitch after returning from university. My final year didn’t have any exams, but my lecturer liked to have quizzes every now and then to keep us on our toes. That explained why I looked like a zombie since I spent the last couple of days studying like a madman.Just as my eyelids started fluttering slowly as I drifted off to sleep, my phone rang loudly in my otherwise quiet room. Picking it up from the bed, I saw Joshua’s name flash on the screen.“Noooooo……I want to sleeppppp!” I shouted out to myself followed by a groan.When my phone just kept ringing non-stop, I knew that there was no escaping him. Reluctantly, I slid my finger over the screen and placed the phone to my ear. However, before I could even say anything, J
Joshua’s POVIt had undeniably been a hectic morning. From running some errands in the morning to decorating the backyard garden with Olivia, and most of all, trying to find an excuse to flirt with my girl.It had been a couple of days since we met with Mrs. Baxter and figured out her vision for the wedding. Since then, the last couple of days had brought us closer as we planned and prepared for Mrs. Baxter’s wedding. I was glad that we had clarified our past misunderstandings and decided to move forward. Personally, my relationship with Olivia had never been better. She was an amazing girl and deserved nothing but the best, which was what I strived to be.Since most of her wedding planning required her to be at my apartment building, Olivia began spending a lot of time in my apartment. Today was not an exception and when I walked into my apartment with bags of decorations, I found O
Olivia’s POV I stood there, absolutely stunned by the question that Joshua had just asked me. He had asked me to be his date for the wedding, totally out of the blue. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to suddenly throw you off like that. It just popped into my mind, and I just blurted it out,” he quickly continued as he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. Sighing deeply, I looked away. “Yeah, that sure came as a surprise.” Honestly, I wanted to say yes. I mean, thinking back to my teenage girl years, I had been waiting for this moment my entire life until Joshua started bullying me. All my favorable old feelings for him felt like it was bursting to come up again, but it was locked in with a big massive gate. The gate I built to avoid anything and everything to do with Joshua Taylor, because somehow, whenever I thought about him, what he did, and any
Olivia’s POVJoshua had just approached me with a serious look on his face and revealed that he had something to tell me. I felt like my heart was in my hands. I didn’t know what to expect as my ever-overthinking mind started coming up with all these negative reasons that he had to talk to me about. I started breathing heavily as I prepared myself for what was going to come next.He let out a sigh and stepped forward. “You see, Via—”Joshua had just started saying something, only to be cut short by my phone vibrating in my purse before it started to ring. I didn’t know whether to be relieved or frustrated that the moment of tension between us had been disrupted. I fumbled around in my purse to find my phone, grabbed it, and saw Nadia’s name flash on the screen. Slightly curious, I slid my finger over the screen to answer t
Olivia’s POVThe train chugged forward, filled to the brim with the working class of New Yorkers as we headed in to work on Monday morning. Drumming my fingers on the file on my lap, I groaned nervously as I looked forward to my presentation.I can do this…I can do this…I can do thisAfter the wedding, I declared to Joshua that I would take up his offer to go on a date, but it had to wait until the campaign launch was over. He was over the moon and was unwilling to let me leave his car, but I did anyway. Trust me, it was completely insane that I had agreed to go on a date with The Joshua Taylor after everything I had gone through. I knew that I agreed to push the past behind me and look forward to the future with the new Joshua, who was nothing like the one I used to know, nevertheless, work still came first.So, instead
Olivia’s POV About five years had passed, yet Westminster High School was still standing strong but the only difference was that it was now an elementary school. The place I used to call my own personal living hell was now about to have a new student, Nia Marie Jamerson-Taylor. “Mommy, will it be scary?” my Nia asked as her little hand held onto my hand as we got out of our car. Letting out an exhale, I knelt down and adjusted her brunette hair. “Yes, at first. But then you’ll start to enjoy it so much.” Despite having my own unpleasant experience, the last thing I wanted was to unload that burden on my daughter. So, the day I said ‘I do’ to Joshua Taylor, I buried all my bitter memories away and vowed to look forward. To be honest, it felt like just yesterday I agreed to marry him and then, six months later, I walked down the aisle with Nia to Joshua as our friends and family witnessed us. Adrina took some time to warm up to Joshua but she eventually did and stood as my maid of h
Olivia’s POV “You’re doing great, Olivia. Keep pushing for five seconds,” Dr. Kingsley instructed as Joshua held onto my hand tightly in the delivery room. Shaking my head, I leaned back against the head with a grunt. “No, I can’t. I can’t push anymore, I can’t.” “You’re going to have to if you want to see your baby girl. So, push for me, Olivia!” Dr. Kingsley ordered, patting my thighs. Joshua kissed my forehead and gripped my hand. “You are doing great, baby. Just a little while longer, okay?” “Okay, Olivia. I see her head. Now, you’re going to have to push even harder. Go! Push!” the doctor yelled, but I couldn’t take it anymore. Tears streamed down my face and sobs escaped my mouth at how guilty I was feeling that I was unable to push my own baby out easily. I felt useless and unfit to be a mother before my child even came out of me. “Via, no. I know that look. Listen to me, I know you can do this. You endured my bullying, you gave me the middle finger proudly, you moved t
Olivia’s POV I slowly opened my eyes to a blue hospital room and a pounding headache that echoed in my ears. I fluttered my eyelids as I desperately tried to remember what happened but I was so confused and I couldn’t remember how I got there. The last thing I remembered was being in the cab and the light changing green, and then, there I was, in horrifying pain as I lay motionless on the hospital bed. Then, I recalled why I was in the taxi in the first place and my hand immediately reached out to my belly as an indescribable feeling of fear paralyzed me. But, as soon as my palm touched my swollen belly and felt the faint movement inside, relief washed over me, making me finally release the breath I didn’t know I was holding in. Gently moving my neck to look around the room, I caught sight of a few flower bouquets, balloons, greeting cards, and finally, a head resting by my hand. At once I knew who the head belonged to, but just as I was about to lift my arm and touch the head, I f
Joshua’s POVEverything happened so fast that I couldn’t comprehend what had just happened. A couple of hours ago I was introducing Olivia as my girlfriend and the mother of my child, and everything felt fine, perfect even. Then, one minute I was looking around for Olivia who had suspiciously disappeared then, and the next minute the hospital was calling me.Am I dreaming?The minute the nurse’s words reached my ears about an accident, I felt a thundering echo within me. Part of me felt a gut-wrenching pain knowing exactly who she was calling me about, but another part of me refused to believe it.Terrified to hear her answer to my question, I stuttered out my question, “W…who is it?”“According to her ID in her purse, it’s Olivia Jamerson,” she answered.&nb
Joshua’s POVAdjusting my suit, I strolled into the hall majestically as the sound of my shoes tapping against the marble floor echoed through the noisy hall. From the corner of my eyes, I saw Olivia following me secretly, but I didn’t get a chance to call out to her when people started huddling around me.“Joshua Taylor, as I live and breathe! F*ck! Look at you, you beautiful b*stard! You cleaned up nicely, a*shole!” Will, one of my football team members exclaimed as he patted my back strongly.Were these really the kind of people I was friends with?Almost everyone in attendance approached me to hug me and shake my hand, which was expected given how popular I was back when we were in high school. But, as much as it was interesting to see how they had grown up in a matter of a few years, I quickly dismissed them and headed further into the h
Olivia’s POVMy hand glided across my lips as I appeared a layer of red lipstick on it before my lips chapped together. Letting out a long exhale, I looked at my reflection in the mirror and smiled. Joshua had bought me an off-shoulder red dress that curved around my pregnant bump perfectly and that had a mid-thigh slit, making me feel both comfortable and sexy at the same time.“Are you sure about this, Oli?” Luke asked as he leaned against my door frame.Turning to look at him, I nodded as my eyes scanned him dressed sharply in a blue suit. “Yes, Lukey. It’s going to be super awkward for sure, but I promised Joshua and myself that I would do this since I missed prom.”“Alright then. I and Raina will swing by after her friend’s engagement party. Will you be okay till then?” he questioned, adjusting my twisted earring.
Olivia’s POV A smile curved my lips as I watched the big and proud businessman, Mr. Joshua Taylor, pick up a pink strawberry onesie and place it in front of his chest as he stared at his reflection in the mirror. “So, what do you think? I can totally pull this look off, right?” he asked, turning towards me as he danced his eyebrows playfully. Narrowing my eyes at him as I scanned him from top to bottom, I nodded my head. “One size bigger and it would be perfect for you. Though you may have to fight with our daughter over it.” “That’s the plan,” he replied with a wink before turning towards the store employee. Folding the onesie carefully with his big brawny hands, he passed it to her. “Here, pack a set of this onesie in every single color available and send it to the car.” “Yes, Mr. Taylor,” she responded and disappeared to the back. After pushing me towards the exit of the store, Joshua walked beside me as I waddled slowly like a penguin. “You practically bought the whole stor
Olivia’s POV The air in my hospital room turned tense and Luke glared daggers at Joshua. His jaw locked and his palms balled into fists at the mere sight of my ex-bully in my hospital room, about to kiss me. All the sugar-coated story I had created about my pregnancy had been shattered in just a second and now I owed Luke an explanation. “What the f*ck, Olivia? Are you insane?” Luke shouted as he stormed towards me, reacting the same way Adrina did when she found out I was dating Joshua. Pulling myself up to sit upright, I reached out to Luke to calm him down. “Lukey, I can explain. Just calm down and listen, okay?” “What possible explanation can you possibly have, Oli? He’s the father, right? And don’t you dare lie to me again?” Luke snapped at me, gritting his teeth. But, instead of de-escalating the situation, his response made Joshua furious. “Hey! Don’t shout at her, Luke!” “You! Don’t you dare poke your nose in this. Haven’t you done enough to her already? Yet, you impregn
Olivia’s POV Two weeks had passed since I found out that my little bean was a girl, well technically ‘we’ found out, since Joshua had barged into my consultation room. To be honest, seeing him so upset and angry that I hid his child from him twisted my insides with guilt, making me realize that it was wrong on my part to do that to him after I realized that he didn’t leave me on purpose. Things between us were just borderline normal but, I was warming up to him. Annoyingly, I didn’t know if it was the after-effects of falling in love with another version of him, or if Joshua was indeed turning into the version of him that I loved, but there was something about him that I couldn’t hate. Although, I detested every time my office phone rang with instructions for me to see him in his office. “What now?” I blurted out as soon as I walked into his penthouse office. Joshua arched his eyebrow at me from behind his huge table. “Do I need a reason to see my two favorite girls?” “Yes, Joshu