She was a ball of nerves as she wrung her hands together. "I don't want to be here."

"Want to tell me why you're here then?"

Olivia let out a breath. "I think I'm spiraling and I can't. I can't lose my mind right now."

"Take a seat Olivia. Let's back up a bit. Explain how you're spiraling."

Olivia ran her hands over her thighs, "You knew my mother."

"I'm sorry?"

"My mother was Maya Pope. You used to be her psychiatrist right?"

The older woman cleared her throat, "Yes, I knew Maya. Olivia, if you're only here because—"

"That's not wh. I just…I have a hard time trusting people. If my mother could trust you, then I'll try to do the same."

The older smiled. "Okay. Let's get started."

Olivia felt the tears well up, "Just about every man I've ever had in my life has hurt me. I don't want to let them win. I want to be there—fully present—for my daughter. I've spent my whole adult life fixing problems but I don't know how to fix this. I don't know what to do."

"What do you want to fix exactly?"

"My heart. It was broken from the beginning by my father. I have two men in my life that are in love with me."

"Are you in love with them?"

A tear rolled down her cheek, "I don't think I know how to be in love with anyone. The only person I know how to love is my daughter."

"Does your daughter care for either of these men?"

"There's one who she doesn't really know and she likes the other one. I just don't want her to think that having multiple men around is normal."

"Are either of these men her father?"

Olivia furiously shook her head. "No. That's another problem. My ex is a threat to the both of us and he won't leave me alone."

"Olivia, do you think that you want to truly be in love with someone?"

"I don't know. I've never seen a healthy relationship." Olivia wiped her face. "I'm terrified."

"Of relationships?"

"Of failing my daughter. I don't want her to grow up the way I did. I don't want her to feel like she isn't worthy of being loved. She deserves the world."

"I'm not sure how you feel about this but would you like to try medication?"

Olivia shook her head no. "I don't want to feel numb."

The older woman gave her a small packet of medication. "These are just samples. You're not obligated to take them if you don't want to. If you feel overwhelmed and on the verge of a panic attack, then take one of these pills. Do you want to continue seeing me?"

Olivia shrugged, "I don't know yet." Olivia felt slightly better after the psychiatry appointment. She pulled out her phone and called Nyla. "I think we need to pull back a bit. Because—I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Look Nyla, I know there's a lot of moving parts but I can't spiral. I have ivy to think about. Even if it means that I won't get full answers on some things, then so be it. Ivy matters way more than anything else."

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

"We need to put out some of these fires before they destroy Liv." Huck said with finality in his tone.

Quinn looked up at him, "I agree with Huck."

"Well I sure as hell don't." Abby said defiantly. She waved her hands about, "None of this can be ignored. For crying out loud, Sally Langston sent David to do Edison's dirty work! Cyrus sent Charlie after Ivy! There is no way that we can just walk away from this!"

"We have to put Liv first" Harrison said loudly. "We have to put her first because she won't do it herself. I vote that we try and handle this as much on the down low as we can—to keep Liv and Ivy safe. We do everything we can to not involve Liv."

"There's no way to do that. She's Liv." Quinn pointed out.

Abby had a slow smile gracing her face. "Ivy likes you and Liv trusts you with her. If you keep Liv out of the way and focused on Ivy, then we can keep doing our thing behind the scenes."

"She's gonna hate that we're keeping secrets from her."

"I don't care" Huck said suddenly. "I promised Liv that I would look out for her like a father or a brother and I mean that. I agree with Abby. We need to gladiate for Liv."

Quinn gave up arguing, "Where do we start?"

"Verna" Harrison said. "We get to the bottom of that and everything else may unravel."

He picked up the ringing cellphone as fast as he could, "Livvie?"

There was a long pause before she spoke in a soft voice, "I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what sweet baby?" Fitz pleaded

"I'm sorry that I don't know how to be in love. I'm sorry that I'm so hard to love."

Fitz felt his heart breaking, "You're not hard to love. I'm sorry for not being more patient. I rushed you when you weren't ready. I put too much pressure on you because I was so unhappy in my marriage. I'm sorry for not proving to you how deserving you are to be loved."

"What's wrong with me Fitz? I'm so fucking damaged."

"You're wounded because you've spent your whole life in survival mode. Livvie, I will always love you even if I'm not the person you want to spend your life with."

Olivia sniffled, "I love you Fitz, I do. I just…don't trust you anymore. I don't know how to make peace with not being able to trust the man that I love as much as I do."

"Livvie"

"You would choose Gerry and Karen over me right?"

Fitz didn't hesitate. "Yes."

She sniffled, "Then you have to know that I'll choose my daughter over everyone."

"I know that" he said. "Livvie, I'm sorry about what Cyrus did. I had nothing to do it. Please tell me you believe that."

Olivia had a question that she couldn't let go of. "How exactly do you plan to spend getting divorced while being President?"

"I don't care about any of that. I want my children and Mellie out of my life."

"Mellie's not your only problem."

"You mean Cyrus?"

Olivia sighed, "No. I mean repairing your relationship with Gerry and Karen. Take it from a kid who was shipped away in a boarding school, you build resentment against your parents and feel unwanted. Seems like both of our priorities have to be on our kids right now."

"Livvie, is there hope for us?"

"I don't know. I really don't know Fitz."

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%5

Mellie called Rip. "Mr. Cartwright, how are you?"

Rip looked at his desk phone. "I'm fine Mrs. Grant. What can I do for you?"

Mellie rolled her eyes, "Fitz and I wanted to have a meeting with you and Ms. Lodge…without other ears."

"Not even Mr. Cyrus Beene? Must be important?"

"It's about the campaign."

"Which would involve Cyrus being your husband's—"

"My husband needs to make decisions without his cues coming from Cyrus" Mellie snapped.

Rip smirked to himself, "I'll see if JoJo and Ican squeeze you in tomorrow afternoon." He hung up and looked across his office at JoJo. "First Lady wants to sit down with us and her husband."

"Soon-to-be ex-husband," JoJo replied.

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

JoJo chuckled, "The lawyer handling the 'discreet' divorce asked a colleague for hypothetical advice. The colleague he asked was one of the lawyers my mom has on retainer. Looks like the President's balls have finally dropped."

Rip raised his eyebrows and cleared his throat. "Let's just get this over with alright. You got anything else on our side project?"

JoJo blew out a breath and skimmed through some papers. "The thing that Hollis had on Verna was that he tied her directly to the murder of her ex-husband's mistress. Verna knew how to hide her damn secrets. Verna got married back in the 80s and got the quietest divorce known to man 6 years later—after her husband's mistress 'died'. Verna was never an official person of interest because she paid the lead detective to bury the evidence. Hollis, somehow, had an interest and checked into it. He paid the detective double what Verna did—probably to tell the truth—and got this info a year before that cop died. Why any of this is Hollis' business is your best guess."

Rip leaned back in his chair, "How was the mistress killed?"

"Damn near OJ style. She was shot in the throat 3 times—almost decapitated by those bullets—and once in the mouth. The caliber was a small caliber like a .22 maybe. Only gun registered in that house, with that caliber, is Verna's personal gun. That doesn't mean that illegal guns or guns registered in other states weren't in the house. I assume that would been the exact route Verna's lawyer would've gone if it went to trial."

"Where's the ex-husband?"

JoJo shrugged, "I don't know Rip. I'm not McGruff the crime dog."

"If we find the husband—"

"Ripley stop it!" JoJo said with a raised hand. "Digging into the secrets of D.C. puts a bigger target on her back."

"She already has a big one." He said.

"We don't know what's going to come out of all this. Some secrets are meant to stay secret."

"Are you nuts JoJo? There is a target on our friend! Our friend's daughter! You want to hide the secrets of a dead woman?"

JoJo threw her hands up. "This isn't just about Liv and Ivy. #1 You're in love with her so you have straight tunnel vision. #2 Verna's marriage doesn't directly affect Liv and Ivy. #3 Verna's children do not deserve to be added into the line of fire, just to get one over on Hollis. The same way Ivy is innocent, Verna's kids and grandkids are innocent too!" JoJo sighed. "Look Rip. I want to get Olivia some peace away from all of this…but not at the cost of other innocent people. Yes, Verna was a problem. However, the biggest problems are Mellie Grant and Cyrus Beene. At least we already know what Hollis is. Those two are conniving snakes that need to be watched nonstop."

Rip thought about what she was saying and realized that she was right. "Any ideas Sensei?"

JoJo nodded, "Mellie is going out of her way to keep Cyrus out of this meeting. We should plant the seed in her head that Cyrus is hanging her out to dry. Whichever one of them turns on each other face helps figure out just who the weaker link is."

Rip agreed, "We'll try your plan. If she doubles down, then I'll just keep looking. Your objections about that are noted."