Chapter 13
Things didn’t become easy just because we chose each other.
If anything, life got louder.
People talked.
Nate posted vague, ugly things online, calling Olivia too masculine, too feminine, too strange, too damaged from her years abroad, like he could insult her into shrinking.
She did not shrink.
She had him beaten once.
Then she made sure the internship he cared so much about quietly vanished from under him.
Some people came to me with pity in their eyes.
They assumed I was settling because I couldn’t “get a man.”
Olivia and I both hated that.
So I made a public account and started posting our life together openly.
Not to perform for anyone.
To stop hiding.
Olivia looked so confident all the time, but when she realized I was willing to acknowledge her publicly, she actually got emotional. That proud, untouchable girl had insecurity too.
Once, she dragged me to a lawyer’s office, shoved a contract in front of me, and made me sign for three properties and several profitable storefronts.
“What are you doing?” I asked, stunned.
She held my hand tightly and said, “Emma, I dragged you into a harder road. This isn’t compensation. It’s protection.”
I tried to tell her I didn’t need any of it.
She just shook her head.
The truth was, for all her boldness, Olivia was scared too.
Scared I’d eventually cave under social pressure. Scared I’d leave. Scared the world would wear me down.
So she poured everything she had into loving me.
Not just emotionally.
Practically.
She helped me start a small clothing brand through the account I’d created. She backed me financially, strategically, emotionally. She kept lifting me until I could stand on my own.
Little by little, I changed.
I got stronger.
Louder.
More certain.
I no longer felt like someone living at the mercy of other people’s choices.
And every step of the way, Olivia was there.
Not dragging me.
Not controlling me.
Just holding a light high enough for me to see my own path.