The Billionaire Playboy's Regret (Lark and Max)

Lark was lying on her bed in her childhood bedroom and staring at the ceiling, contemplating whether or not she was ready to talk to Ollie yet. Her phone rang and she lifted it, checked the number, ignored it, and then let the phone fall to her chest. Nope. She wasn't ready.

"Told you she was ignoring us."

She turned her head to her window and saw two faces leaning in. She sat up in her bed.

"Seriously. You climbed the drainpipe." She couldn't believe her eyes. She grimaced at Max. "Should you be exerting yourself?"

Ollie sneered, "do you actually care?"

Max elbowed his sister but then responded to Lark, "I'm supposed to be remaining stress free but you're being an asshole and making my blood pressure increase.

"I'm being an asshole? What do you call a man who repeatedly ignores a woman's request to be left alone?" she called him out refusing to get up for them. She lay ack down.

"But I know you don't mean it," he grinned at her, both dimples on full display. "You miss me as much as I've missed you. Ollie told me. You don't want to elevate my blood pressure arguing with me, do you?"

She shot Ollie an annoyed look before turning her attention back to him, "You survived all this time without me. I'm certain I am not the cause of your ailments now."

"You are." Ollie climbed through the window and landed with a thud on the floor.

Instinctively, Lark looked to the door as if worried her parents would hear and then threw her hands up. "Why are you here? You're mad at me, I'm mad at both of you and you," she grimaced at Max, "are not anyone I want to be around."

"Well, Max and I talked. In fact, we even went to talk to a counsellor together. We decided we love you too much to let you

go."

Lark frowned at Ollie's comment. "You went to a counsellor?"

"Yes. Mom sat us down on Monday, all of us, all six of us, and called us assholes. I mean, she usually sits us down like this quarterly but this time she meant business. She told us point blank she was tired of our bullshit. Then on Wednesday she called me and Max in after she apparently worked with you on Margot's file and said you were perhaps the most professional person she ever met and your ability to put your work and personal feelings aside to help the mother and sister of the biggest pair of assholes who have ever hurt her in her life might be your biggest character flaw." Ollie perched on the edge of the bed and squeezed her leg.

"Character flaw?" Lark frowned at Bobbie's assessment rolling to her side.

"Mm. She seems to think you'll be too soft on us and take us back too easily and we'll hurt you again. She said since she knows you have weak spots for both of us, she's going to be your backbone if you can't be. She said she's going to kick our asses if we keep hurting the one person who ever loved us as unconditionally as she does. Mom said she was really ashamed of how we've behaved with you. I mean she's said it before but this time she was really frustrated and pointed out we were going to lose you forever if we didn't straighten up. She suggested we go to counselling as individuals and as siblings and even family counseling, to deal with our resentment over the fact she was a shitty mom who raised such self-absorbed assholes."

"Your mother was not a shitty mom!" Lark defended Bobbie furiously.

"We know, chère," Max held up his hands defensively. "We made sure she knows she has done nothing wrong. We were spoiled selfish little pricks and it's not her fault. Dad overcompensated for missing eight years of our life by never disciplining us and we took advantage like the monsters we were. We were a bad example for our younger siblings to follow and they're following with gusto. The woman is a saint. If I had to deal with six mini versions of Olivier Villeneuve, I would have divorced him, given him full custody, and hidden somewhere in the French countryside where nobody would ever find me again." "Ain't that the truth," Lark grumbled.

"Regardless," Ollie sighed loudly, "we love you. We love our Mom and so for you both, all six of us are attending counseling at her urging. Max and I are going together and individually but we both agree nothing is more important to either of us than repairing the friendship we have with you."

"Why?" she questioned quietly. "Max, you, and I haven't held any kind of relationship in twelve years. Ollie, you, and I are always hit and miss. You strike out at me all the time and then I walk away and then you worm your way back in. It's not healthy."

"No. It isn't." Ollie nodded her agreement. "You were right on Sunday when you said I use you as an emotional punching bag. I am going through things I'm not ready to talk about, but I had no right, none, to come at you the way I did. I also," she took a breath and exhaled, "have no right to interfere in your relationship with Max. Just because he's my twin doesn't mean I get to excuse his behavior." "Thank you," Lark gave her a tentative smile.

"Also," Ollie spoke quietly, "I said some things about you running away on Sunday and while I don't want to say too much because there are things, you're not ready and may never be ready to share with Max, I don't blame you for not going through legal channels to deal with what you dealt with. I was upset because I asked Riggs about it. He told me you asked them to simply make it go away and not want to deal with it, legally or otherwise and I felt it was the coward's way out," as Lark huffed, she held her hand up, "but I know it wasn't. You simply wanted to move forward with your life and not deal with the fallout and I get it. I was angry because I really want to do damage to someone after what you told me. Riggs told me I wasn't allowed, and I so I lashed out and it was wrong, and I won't do it again. I promise.' "What situation with Riggs?" Max asked shrewdly.

"None of your business," Lark and Ollie spoke in unison and then both giggled.

Lark looked to Ollie, "you can't keep punishing me because you have no control over your emotions." "I know, Lark. I am sorry. I'll get help. Just don't cut me out. I love you. You're my best friend. I love you more than Max." "Hey," he shoved her playfully almost knocking her atop Lark. He looked to Lark, "and I am sorry for never realizing how much I hurt you in high school. I always believed I was steering the uncomfortable conversations away from you because when everyone at school suggested we were a couple it made you embarrassed because you only thought of me as a brother. I told Johan last weekend I thought everyone made those jokes all the time because they knew how I felt about you back then." When her eyes widened, he shrugged, "I thought I was transparent."

"You were not transparent," she gritted through her teeth.

"I know that now," he made wide eyes. "I am sorry Lark. I never meant to hurt you. Not ever. I love you. Always have and always will. If all you can ever offer me in the future is friendship, I'll take it and never abuse it again. I didn't realize I was being a narcissistic prick thinking it was all about me and how I felt back then but it is apparent, after this past week, my behaviors hurt you so much. I never want to be the reason you cry, Lark and having Johan tell me I made you cry all the time back then was eye opening to me. I didn't know. I wish I had. I can't go back in time and fix it but I'm hoping to earn your forgiveness." She felt her stomach flip flop at his quietly worded apology. Ollie's eyes were flicking back and forth between them, and her friend reached out and grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

"Don't give up on us, Lark. Please. Max and I are going to put in the work. You are my sister even more than Mori or Margot are. I need you in my life and this week has been a huge wake up call to us both. For Max he's realized twelve years was too long to go without sorting out what was happening and for me," she paused shaking her head as she brushed a tear off her cheek, "I don't want to be his shoes. I don't want to wake up twelve years from now and realize the person I love most in the world hates me because I was too selfish to change and put the effort in. I like to think I'm all grown up but where you're concerned, I still act like an eight-year-old kid with a bad temper. I'll get help. I want to get help. We will fix this. We will."

"Ollie is right, Lark. We took you for granted and we let childish emotions rule. We will do better."

"I don't know. It's been too long." She whispered at the way her heart ached with the desperation of wanting what they told her to be true.

"For now, I will work hard at being a better friend first and then eventually I am hoping to move towards something more with you but for now, you, me and Ollie and even Johan, are going to work to fix our friendships."

"The first part of being good friends," Ollie continued where Max trailed off, "is being here to help you drown your sorrows over your broken heart."

"What if it's not what I want?"