Chapter 97 I Love You, Leo

Chapter 97 I Love You, Leo
Chapter 97: I Love You, Leo 

Ivy 

“You don’t need to. I can do it on my own.”

Leo’s voice was rough, quieter than I remembered, but still stubborn. He tried to pull the towel from Maddie’s hands. But she wouldn’t let him. 

She kept wiping carefully along his collarbone and down his arms like this was the most natural thing in the world.

My boyfriend was awake.

He was sitting up against a mound of pillows, bare from the waist up except for the white hospital blanket pooled around his hips. 

The machines beside the bed beeped steadily. His skin looked paler than usual. There were dark circles under his eyes, but he was alive. Breathing. Looking at my sister while she cleaned him.

“Leo?” The whisper left my mouth before I could stop it.

Both of them turned.

I stepped inside and closed the door behind me. Leo’s entire body shifted the moment he saw me. He sat up straighter. Something raw and hungry and even almost painful flashed across his face.

“Ivy.” He said. Just my name. Like it still meant something.

Maddie didn’t speak to me. She didn’t even look at me for more than a second. She simply set the bowl of water and the wet towel on the side table, wiped her hands on her jeans, and said, “I’ll give you two a moment.”

Then she walked out and shut the door.

Silence dropped over the room like a heavy curtain.

I stood near the foot of the bed, suddenly unsure what to do with my hands or my face or the fact that my heart was trying to climb out of my throat. I twisted my fingers together. Leo just watched me. 

The longing in his eyes made my chest ache.

“Gonna stand there all day?” he asked eventually. He leaned back against the pillows. One hand came up and pressed flat against the left side of his chest. His breathing turned shallow and careful through his nose.

I moved without thinking. I was at his side in three steps, fingers hovering over his arm.

“What’s wrong? Does it hurt? Should I call the doctor?”

He shook his head and gave me a small, tired smile. He adjusted his position against the pillows, searching for something less painful.

“No need. Just side effects. The doctors said it’ll get better with time.”

I stared at the place where his hand still rested over his heart. “I’m so sorry.” The words tumbled out of me in a rush. “I kissed Andy. I’m so sorry, Leo. This is all my fault.”

“What are you sorry about, Ivy?”

I couldn’t look at him. Shame sat heavy on the back of my neck. I kept my eyes on the blanket near his hip.

“You have every right not to want to see me. Not to want to be with me. To hate me—”

“I don’t hate you.” His voice was calm. Almost gentle. “I don’t possess the ability to hate someone who gave me one of the best moments of my life.”

Something inside me gave in. Tears spilled before I could stop them. I reached for his hand and held on like it might keep me from falling apart completely.

“I wish I could erase it—what I did.” My voice broke on a sob. “Andy manipulated me. He told me about Estella’s death—”

“Anderson and his friends killed her.” He said it so quietly, so evenly, that for a second I thought I had misheard.

I stared at him.

“I don’t know what he told you,” Leo continued. “What version he fed you so he could get you to turn on me. Anderson knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s manipulative, Ivy.”

I didn’t know which part hit harder—the claim itself or the fact that Leo could say it without raising his voice. Maybe he didn’t have the strength to raise it. Maybe the calm was all he could afford right now.

“Andy… killed Estella?” My mouth felt dry. “But your mom is married to—”

“Shocking, isn’t it?” He let out a short, humorless chuckle. “She married the man whose son had a hand in the death of her daughter. She’s got a really good heart, doesn’t she?”

The sarcasm in his voice was clear and sharp.

I swallowed hard. My mind was spinning too fast to catch every thought. “How?” I asked. “How did Andy kill Estella? He said she went camping—”

“That’s a bloody lie.” Something darker flashed in Leo’s eyes. “They beat her. Stripped her. Then tied her to a tree in the freezing winter.” He paused, breathing carefully through the memory. “Anderson watched everything. He saw every single thing his friends did. He was there. He never denied it.”

I pulled my hand away from his like I’d been burned. “No.” I shook my head hard. “I don’t believe that. Andy can’t be that cruel.”

Leo’s expression cooled several degrees.

“You can believe what you want. I don’t care anymore.” His voice had gone flat. “He’s the hero in this story anyway. I’m the bad guy. Correct?”

I wanted to believe Leo. Part of me already did. But the pieces didn’t fit the version of Andy I had carried for years. 

The Teagues were wealthy. In every high school I had ever known, people fought to be close to money and status. 

And Andy—unstable, possessive, sometimes cruel with his words—still didn’t feel capable of standing by while a girl was left to freeze to death.

Maybe this was another misunderstanding. Maybe there was more to the story than either of them was telling.

“Maybe you’re wrong,” I said, desperate. “Maybe there’s more to this than we know—”

“Why are you here?” Leo cut me off. The warmth that had been in his eyes when I first walked in was gone. “Why did you come here to plead Anderson’s case? If that’s what this is, forget it. I don’t have any forgiveness left for him.”

“That’s not what I’m here for.” I stepped closer again. “I wanted to clear things up, Leo. I wanted to explain. I didn’t sleep with Andy. Nothing like that happened.”

The look he gave me made it clear he didn’t believe a single word.

“I know what I saw, Ivy. Don’t try to make me look stupid. If that’s all you came to say, I’d advise you to go.”

The rejection landed harder than I expected. I had walked in here hoping—stupidly, desperately—that he would at least address the rest of it. 

Maddie. The pregnancy. The apartment hunting. The way everyone in this town seemed to already know things I was only just learning.

He didn’t.

He simply turned his face toward the window and stared at the pale afternoon light. “Anything else?” he asked.

My throat tightened until it hurt.

“I love you, Leo.”

The confession came out raw and shaky. I kept going before I lost the courage.

“I’m sorry it took me so long to realize it. I’m sorry I was a coward and couldn’t come to terms with what I felt for you earlier, but—”

“Let’s break up.”

Just those three words. They stopped everything. My voice. My breath. The hopeful little script I had been writing in my head on the way here.

“You’re… breaking up with me?”

“Yes.” He still wouldn’t look at me. “That’s what’s best for both of us.”

Maybe he was too disgusted to meet my eyes. Maybe he simply couldn’t bring himself to watch what those words did to my face. Either way, it hurt more than I knew how to name.

I shook my head.

“No. That’s a lie. Breaking up can’t be what’s best for us, Leo.” Tears were already spilling again. “Leo, I love you. Didn’t you hear what I said—”

He finally turned.

The look in his eyes was so full of old, exhausted pain that it stole whatever else I had been about to say.

“Don’t talk to me about love, Ivy.” His voice was low and steady and devastating. “I loved you before I even knew your name. I fell in love with you from the sound of your voice that day at the airport.”

I pressed a hand over my mouth. A broken sound escaped anyway.

“When you did nothing but fear me,” he continued, “I fell harder for you. When you did nothing but use me to make Anderson jealous, I loved you. When you trembled and froze in front of me every single time, I still fucking loved you.”

He tilted his head slightly, studying me the way someone studies a wound they already know won’t heal cleanly without leaving ugly scars. 

“So tell me exactly what I’m supposed to do with your love now, Ivy?”