Summary: Olivia has a conversation with Nick's ex-wife.

All mistakes are my very own.

The Ultimatum

Olivia holds the warm cup of coffee sandwiched between her two cold hands. In an attempt to warm herself up, she opts to leave her heavy coat and scarf on but sets her knit hat to the side next to her gloves. It's freezing cold in DC this time of year and even in this café it still feels cold and oddly gusty. She guesses it has something to do with the fact that she's sitting right by the door but as she looks around the only other table available is the one next to the creepy looking guy who's been eyeing her since she first walked in. She doesn't even give a second thought to moving. The further away she is the better.

Out of boredom, Liv starts thumbing through some text messages in her phone in hopes of distracting herself from the situation at hand. As she flips through message after message, it quickly becomes apparent to her that none of the conversations are worth continuing, especially the one with Nick. If she even had half a mind to reply, she's sure she'd convince herself to leave it alone. He'd try to talk her out of it even though she's already in DC, at their agreed upon meeting place waiting to have a conversation with the woman. All he'd do is piss her off more.

And pissed doesn't even come close to what she's feeling at the moment. While she's calmed herself exponentially on the ride down, she still feels the lingering anger and pissed off-ness she felt when Maria stood Zara up a week ago. The little girl has been down in the dumps ever since. Olivia can admit, if this didn't happen almost every single time Maria promised the little girl something, she'd be a bit more understanding. But it's ridiculous. Furthermore, it kills her to see her usually happy and blissful daughter walking around with a frown on her face or red, puffy eyes from hours of crying and asking why her mother wants nothing to do with her. Olivia knows the feeling and she'll do everything in her power to stop one of her own from knowing that pain too.

Olivia looks up from her phone when she hears the scraping of the chair across from her against the floor. As if on cue, her phone starts to vibrate and she knows it's Nick. She presses ignore and stuffs it into the dark recesses of her purse; she'll talk to him later. Maria gives her a tight smile which Olivia returns impossible tenser than the one she received.

"How was your trip up here?" Maria asks quietly.

"Good," Liv answers tersely.

Maria can tell Liv's not too pleased with her and it kills her that it's come to this but her defenses are up and she's mentally readied herself for this fight. It's been years in the making.

"Did you want to get some coffee or something?" Liv asks casting a quick glance at the barista.

"No. I'm okay."

Liv quietly sighs. Her eyes are cast down at her cup and she's still trying to wrap her mind around this whole ordeal. On her drive down and even before that, she convinced herself that it was time for one of them—them being herself or Nick—to put an end to this mess. It's been years and she can't stand what it's doing to Zara. She's definitely let it go on for too long and, yes, she blames herself for some of it. Granted, she'd never really had to deal with this sort of situation in her personal life. Honestly, if it hadn't been for Nick, and even his mom, suggesting—strongly—that she leave it alone, she would've done it the moment they said 'I do'.

"This can't just be about Zara, Maria," she began.

She was tired of dancing around the issue and to have a woman to woman, wife to ex-wife, mother to mother conversation.

Maria's brown eyes lock with Liv's. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean."

"No, I don't."

Liv sighs again. She was going to make this difficult. "Please don't make this difficult. We need to have this conversation and clear the air before this really starts affecting Zara. I know you don't want that."

"Clear the air?" she asks incredulously. "What's to clear? You have my family . . ."

"Excuse me?"

She definitely wasn't expecting that response.

". . . Zara," she begins looking down at her hands, "she loves you. She calls you mom. She wanted to stay with you."

". . . You gave Nick sole custody. You gave up your rights," Liv answers carefully.

"And you just jumped right in and started playing mommy."

Olivia was taken aback. "Is that what this is all about? You're sorry you gave up your rights to your daughter so you're making her and Nick and my family suffer for it?"

"How are you suffering Olivia? You have my daught—"

"Giving up your rights doesn't automatically erase your daughter's feelings for you. She loves you Maria and Nick and I know that . . . We let you back into her life confident that you were going to actually be in her life. That you weren't going to waltz in and out whenever you pleased. You keep making her promises and getting her hopes up and then . . . tearing down her spirit when you break them. I won't let you do it anymore."

Maria shakes her head. "You can't stop me from seeing my daughter."

Seeing the pain in her eyes kills Olivia. She can't imagine someone telling her that she could no longer be a part of Stella, Zara, or Sammy's lives. She's sure she'd lose her mind.

". . . When we agreed to let you see Zara again we had an agreement. You made us a promise that you'd keep in touch and call and play a significant part in her life. We were willing to be her parents together. You don't see the hurt on her face when you don't show up for her dance recital, you're not there to console her or dry her eyes, to constantly reassure her that her mother—her real mother—loves her. She's 10 years old and she shouldn't know that type of pain."

"What are you saying?" Maria whispers.

". . . I'm giving you a choice . . . Zara has a school play coming up. She's really excited about it and she's been working so hard. It would mean the world to her if you'd come."

"When is it?"

"It's next Friday at her school. I'll text you the information . . . If you don't come—"

With tears in her eyes she replies, "I know."

To be continued . . .

Author's Note: I, in no way, want to make Liv out to be the bad guy . . . but it seems that way, huh? Let me know what you think, how you feel, if you hate it. I'm extra nervous about this one.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, but if I did I'd buy food and eat it all away.