Chapter 87: Kids Store

Chapter 87: Kids Store

Ivy

I didn’t know why I was crying. It was honestly very silly of me. Leo was giving me the space and freedom I had originally wanted when this whole thing started.

He wasn’t clinging. He wasn’t demanding. He wasn’t asking questions I couldn’t answer without lying. And yet the tears kept coming, steady and soaking into the pillow of Poppy’s bed while she sat cross-legged beside me and watched like she was trying to solve a math problem she hadn’t expected.

Maybe it was the guilt. Maybe it was because I knew things had changed between me and Andy, and the shift was so sharp I could still feel the edge of it every time I closed my eyes.

Or maybe it was simply that Leo had stopped looking at me the way he used to, and the absence of that look felt like someone had quietly removed a wall I hadn’t realized was holding me up.

Poppy stared at me blankly for a long moment. “You’re seriously crying because of Leo?” She sounded more surprised than judgmental.

I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand and stared at the ceiling. “Something is wrong,” I said. “I think he’s cheating on me with Maddie.”

The words tasted bitter coming out. Accusing my own sister felt wrong, but the alternative—sitting in this quiet and pretending everything was fine—felt worse.

Poppy’s eyebrows rose. “Are you sure? That seems very out of character for both of them. As much as Maddie is a little bit of a flirt, I don’t believe she’s the type to actually cheat on Andy.”

“Ever since he met up with her yesterday he’s been acting strange,” I complained. “He wouldn’t even kiss me, Pops. He turned his face. He pulled my hands off him like I was… like I was something he didn’t want to touch.”

She tapped her chin with one finger, thinking. “Scared he somehow figured out about you and Andy? That would explain the behaviour.”

I shook my head hard enough that the pillow shifted. “I think Leo isn’t the type to play dumb. If he knew, he would have confronted Andy and broken a few teeth. Not play quiet and distant. Not smile at me like that and walk away.”

Poppy nodded slowly. “That sounds a little like Leo,” she agreed. “So you really think he’s cheating?”

“Yes. With Maddie.” The certainty in my own voice surprised me. “I know something is going on between them. The way he said her name. The way he looked at me like I was already in the past.”

Poppy glanced toward the closed bedroom door, then leaned in closer. Her voice dropped. “Want to follow him? There’s still time to trail him. Find out what they do when they’re alone.”

I looked at her like she’d lost her mind.

“Follow him? Are you crazy? What if he finds out and gets mad?” The words came out faster than I meant them to. “I don’t want him to get mad at me. Please.”

She frowned, studying my face more carefully now.

“Why are you so afraid of him getting mad? What happens when Leo gets mad at you, Ivy?”

“Nothing,” I said quickly. “I just think his anger will worsen our situation. That’s all.”

She looked at me like she clearly hadn’t bought the flimsy lie. Thankfully, she didn’t press further on why the idea of Leo’s anger made my stomach drop. I was more than grateful for that.

“Get dressed,” she said finally, rising from the bed. “Leo’s still in the shower. We’ve got time to prepare. Get ready. We’re following him.”

My heart started hammering so hard I could feel it in my throat. “Are you sure about this? I don’t want him to get mad at me—”

“He’s not even going to see us.” Poppy’s voice was pure confidence. “I’ll drive and keep us discreet. He won’t suspect a thing. Unless he’s a wizard.” She added the last part with a short laugh that somehow made the whole idea feel less insane.

Reluctantly, I nodded.

\~~~~~

We parked on a side street just past Leo’s neighbourhood and waited. Poppy had insisted it was the smarter option.

Following him straight from the house the moment he left would have been too obvious. So we sat in her car with the engine off, the air conditioning already starting to lose the battle against the heat, and watched the road.

Not long after, his glossy black sports car sped past us. Poppy started the engine and pulled out smoothly, keeping a careful distance.

I grabbed the dashboard, heart in my mouth, leaning forward until my forehead nearly touched the windscreen. Every time another car slid between us I felt a fresh spike of panic that we would lose him.

I checked my phone. Nothing. No text saying he was leaving. No casual “heading out, back later.” No question about where I was or if I needed anything.

Just silence.

Poppy followed carefully, tucking behind another car at a red light so we wouldn’t be the only vehicle on his bumper.

I forced myself to breathe. If he didn’t suspect anything now, he would never figure us out. That was what I told myself. Over and over.

Fifteen minutes later Leo stopped in front of a café. But he didn’t get out. Instead the door of the café opened and Maddie walked out.

She waved at someone inside, then opened the passenger door of my boyfriend’s car and slid in with a huge, bright smile on her face.

They drove off together like it was the most natural thing in the world.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and tried to blink the tears away. Poppy trailed them in silence, one hand on the wheel, the other briefly squeezing my thigh in something meant to be comfort.

“Don’t worry,” she said softly. “We might have the wrong idea about them, you know? They might just be talking about something else and we’re out here misunderstanding everything.”

I didn’t reply. I couldn’t. Maybe I would have believed her if Leo hadn’t become so cold and distant since yesterday.

If he hadn’t left that careful space between us in the bed last night. If he hadn’t turned his face when I tried to kiss him this morning.

He hadn’t reached for me once.

After driving for some time they stopped in front of a block of modern apartments in a quiet, lavish neighbourhood. We parked far away from them.

Leo got out first and walked around to Maddie’s side, opening the door for her like it was automatic.

She said something to him as she stepped out. Whatever it was made him laugh—a real, genuine laugh that threw his head back right there on the sidewalk.

A formally dressed man approached them. An agent, clearly. They shook hands. Leo looked relaxed and interested in whatever Maddie was saying, nodding, occasionally adding something of his own.

I leaned closer to the window, watching the easy way they stood together.

“Hold up,” Poppy said, squinting. “That looks like an agent. Is Leo buying an apartment for your sister?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “I think so.”

“Damn.” She exhaled. “I wanna know what they have going on between them.”

He’s sleeping with her. That’s why he’s buying her an apartment. That's what I thought.

All those times he had jokingly talked about going after Maddie just to hurt Andy, maybe it hadn’t been a joke. Maybe curiosity had turned into something real.

Or maybe it had always been real and I had simply been too busy lying to myself to notice.

Forty-five minutes later the three of them exited the building. They shook hands once again. Maddie and Leo were still talking, still animated, still looking like two people who had just decided on something important together.

He opened the car door for her again before rounding to the driver’s side. Then they drove off.

“Why is he buying her an apartment though?” Poppy muttered as she pulled out after them. It was obvious they were going somewhere else, the direction had changed.

They eventually stopped in front of a store with a giant teddy bear standing outside like a cheerful sentinel.

The sign above the door made my heart slam so hard I briefly wondered if I was about to have an asthma attack.

“Kids store?” Poppy read the sign aloud. “What the fuck are they doing at a kids store?”

No. No. It couldn’t be.

But the tears were already falling. There was only one reason a man bought a woman an apartment and then took her shopping for baby things.

My boyfriend was having a baby with my sister.

I burst into tears so suddenly that Poppy flinched. “Take me back,” I managed to say. “Please. I’ve had enough. Take me back.”

Thankfully she didn’t argue or try to soothe me with more theories. She just turned the car around and drove.

I spent the entire ride back sobbing like a fool, forehead pressed to the window, watching the city blur past.

How could he do this to me? He used to tell me he loved me. That he wanted to marry me. That he would wait as long as it took for me to fall for him the same way.

Was that all a lie? A script delivered carefully enough to get me into his bed? To take the one thing I had never given anyone else?

Either way, I was the fool who had believed it. The fool who had started falling anyway.

The moment the car stopped in front of Leo’s house I scrambled out, desperate to get inside, cry myself empty, and then pack whatever I could carry.

I would leave. I would let him have Maddie and whatever future they were building. I didn’t want to be the girl who stayed after this.

I was looking down at the steps when I crashed straight into someone in the foyer.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, eyes still on the floor. “I didn’t mean to—” Strong hands caught my shoulders and steadied me.

“You’re crying.” Andy’s voice. “Ivy, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?”

I looked up at him. His face was close and he looked concerned.

I didn’t know what to say. Do I tell him the truth? Or do I let the truth find its own way to him eventually?

Leo was his stepbrother. Maddie was—had been—his fiancée. Telling him wouldn’t be so wrong, would it?

“Andy,” I whispered, the words breaking as they left me. “Maddie’s pregnant for Leo.”

His eyes widened.

For a full minute he just stood there, completely still, as if his body had stayed in the foyer while his mind went somewhere else entirely. I watched the information settle behind his expression.

Then, slowly, he pulled me closer. “I know,” he said quietly. “She told me. Didn’t know how to break it to you. I’m sorry, Ivy.”

The last of my composure shattered. Fresh tears spilled over. So he had known too. That was why the engagement was broken.

“Don’t cry.” Andy’s hand moved in slow circles on my back. “Leo’s not worth it. This is for the best.” He lifted my face with careful fingers, thumb brushing once under my eye.

The next moment he leaned in.

And kissed me.