My stomach flips. The kind of flip that warns a crash is coming.
I blink at the screen, brain scrambling to remember—Oh God.I never called him back. Imeantto. I just—
I sit up fast, covers falling off me in a heap. My fingers fumble to unlock the phone as I hit the call button with a racing pulse.
He answers on the first ring.
“Olive.”
His voice is tight. Urgent. On edge.
“Liam, I’m so sorry,” I say instantly, already pacing the small space between bed and window. “I completely forgot to call you back last night. Things just—got crazy with the publisher and I—what’s going on? What’s happening? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he says, then immediately contradicts himself. “No, actually, I’mnotfine. I need you to listen to Ash’s voice message.”
“I—what voice message? He’s blocked—”
“Well, he left you a voice message,” Liam says, voice clipped. “And I need you to listen to it.”
The word hits like a cold splash of water.
I stop pacing. “What is the message about?”
There’s a pause on his end.
Then he says, carefully, “I think it’s better if you hear it from him.”
“Liam—”
“No. I mean it, Olive. I think you should hear it from Ash… that’s all I can say.”
Mybreath catches. A dozen possibilities slam through my brain like freight trains. Hope. Dread. Anger. All tangled together.
“Just—go listen,” Liam says, gentler now. “Then call me. Okay?”
I nod before I remember he can’t see me. “Okay,” I whisper. “I’ll call you back.”
He exhales like he’s been holding his breath since I called. “Good. Talk soon.”
I hang up and stare at my phone like it’s a grenade with the pin pulled.
Ash left a message.
I sit back down on the edge of the bed, knees bouncing.
Then I open my messages.
There it is.
1 Voicemail. 2:36 minutes.
I hesitate, thumb hovering over the play button.
What could he possibly say now that would change anything?
But I press play anyway.
His voice crackles softly through the speaker—slightly hoarse, slower than usual. It doesn’t sound like the Ash I know. Not the Ash with quick, clever comebacks or the flirtatious glint in his voice. This Ash sounds… raw.
