Page 29 of What We Got Wrong

Quinn stopped beside her, a confused expression overtaking her face. “I thought you were an only child?”

“No,” Liv breathed, bent over, feeling like she might be sick.

“Are you okay?” Quinn asked. Her face had shifted to concern by the time Liv lifted her head, and she reached out to steady her, squeezing her shoulder. “I don’t know what’s going on, but you’re safe. You don’t have to talk to me about anything you don’t want to talk about.”

Liv stared for a long time before replying, taking in Quinn’s worried eyes and mapping the smattering of freckles across her cheeks. “I think that’s why I want to tell you. Can we sit down?”

“Yeah,” Quinn agreed. “Do you want to go back to the room?”

“I think it’ll be better outside,” Liv said, and she started walking down the path, towards a bench that was set off from the trail. She gestured for Quinn to sit but started pacing in front of her. “You know that I don’t like to talk about my family.”

“I have picked up on that, yes,” Quinn agreed, eyeing her worriedly.

“My mom and dad, they’re busy with my dad’s company,” Liv continued. She took a deep breath and went on. “He works at J&P Industries…”

“The trucking company?” Quinn asked. Liv wasn’t surprised by the question. There was no reason for her to understand the scope of the company, outside of the giant trucks that drove around with the logo.

“It’s actually a massive global logistics company. Hundreds of thousands of employees all over the world,” Liv said, trying not to sound like she was quoting from a company presentation. “My dad, well. He’s the P in J&P…”

Quinn whistled. “Oh, so you’re like, rich rich.”

At that, Liv cracked a smile. “Something like that. My dad, he didn’t come from money. He went to college with Craig Jamison, the J, and they hit it off. The Jamisons are wealthy. Like, actually rich rich. He convinced his parents to give my dad a loan when they graduated college, and my dad started his little logistics company… Dad had this idea to make exclusivity deals with a few early internet retailers, and it just kind of exploded.”

“That’s incredible,” Quinn said thoughtfully. “I appreciate you telling me all of this. But I don’t think I understand what it has to do with birth order.”

“Well. Right,” Liv responded. Oh, now she was going to hesitate? After rambling about logistics strategy and internet stores? “My sister was eight years older than me. Her name was Ronnie.”

“You have a sister,” Quinn said reflectively, as if she were trying to wrap her head around the information.

“I had a sister,” Liv corrected. She was tearing up again, but she was going to get through this, despite the tenderness that washed over Quinn’s face as she silently mouthed ‘had.’ “She was not responsible, and I don’t know if she would have thrived in structure because they never gave her any. Ronnie was…amazing. She was my idol. But she was wild, like…truly uncontrollable. My parents just kind of stopped trying.”

“Can I ask what happened?” Quinn said quietly.

“She got drunk and drove her tiny car into a large SUV,” Liv answered, stopping her pacing. This she could talk about, for some reason, the most real part of it. It felt like the memories of her sister would fade, but the knowledge of how she died, that it was awful, would stay with her forever.

“Holy shit, I’m so sorry, Liv,” Quinn replied. “How old were you?”

“Almost thirteen,” Liv answered. The whole thing had been heartbreaking, but the memory of that birthday was one of Liv’s worst—the day it really hit her that her sister was never coming home.

“So young,” Quinn said, sounding far away, and Liv remembered that her brothers were around that same age.

“Yeah. It was hard,” Liv replied. “And it messed us all up pretty badly, honestly. We’re still learning to deal with it, or…we’re not, but we should be. We lost a huge piece of what made us us. She died and my family is a mess, I’m a mess.”

“Is that why you told me that you’re an only child?” Quinn asked.

“To be fair, I technically didn’t say that,” Liv said. “You asked me about siblings, and I said my parents get to focus all their attention on me. That part is true. They gave her too much freedom, I think, so…they’re trying the opposite with me, I guess. But then it was like… I couldn’t fix it, I couldn’t explain it to you.”

“Why not?”

“You have this perfect family…you’re so sweet with your sisters… It’s a lot for me. She was eight years older than me. It’s a similar age gap, but you’re so good with them…but I didn’t mean to lie. I fucked up. I’m fucked up. I’m sorry about that.”

“Liv, you don’t owe me anything,” Quinn replied. “I think you’re being a bit hard on yourself. You went through something terrible. It’s okay to talk about that in your own time.”

“It’s great that I got a psych student for a roommate,” Liv said, attempting to tease her.

“You’re so right about that,” Quinn replied. She shifted in the seat for a second, clearly uncomfortable about something.

“What’s wrong?” Liv asked. She had no idea what Quinn was going to say, but she hoped that she hadn’t ruined anything between them by disclosing so many of her secrets.