Fated To Not Just One, But Three-Chapter 640: Questions

Olivia’s POV

Liam tore off sheets of paper and handed them out with the gravity of a professor. My three men sat in a row on the edge of the picnic blanket, looking like they were about to take the most important exam of their lives.

"Okay! No peeking!" Liam commanded, sitting cross-legged in front of them while his brothers giggled beside him, clearly excited; if only they had any idea how disastrous this was.

Question 1: Mom’s favorite color!

They all scribbled quickly. I held up my own small slip of paper where I’d written the answer.

"On the count of three, show her! One, two, three!"

All three boards flipped around. Red.

"Correct!" Liam cheered. I gave a small, genuine smile. It was an easy start. Red was the color of my favorite dress, the color of the roses they used to bring me. For a second, the tension eased.

Question 2: If Mom could have any pet in the world, what would it be?

Levi and Louis didn’t even hesitate. They wrote down their answers with confidence. Lennox, however, took a moment, his pen tapping against his chin before he wrote a single word.

"Flip them!"

Levi and Louis both held up: Dog.

Lennox held up: Rabbit.

Louis scoffed, a bit of his old confidence returning. "Lennox, she grew up with Golden Retrievers. She talks about getting a lab all the time."

"She talks about a dog because she thinks that’s what a ’family’ is supposed to have," Lennox said, his voice calm, eyes never leaving mine. "But when she’s stressed, she watches videos of long-eared rabbits. She told me once, years ago, that she loved how quiet they were. That they didn’t ask for anything but a bit of clover and a safe place to hide."

I felt the air leave my lungs. I turned in my paper. Rabbit.

"How..." Levi whispered, looking at the paper as if it were written in a foreign language.

"I listen, Levi," Lennox said simply.

Question 3: Mom’s exact shoe size!

Louis and Levi both wrote down 7. It was what I usually bought. It was what was in the closet. Lennox wrote 7.5.

"Mom is a seven, Father Lennox!" Liam giggled.

"No," Lennox said, his gaze intense. "She buys a seven because she doesn’t want her feet to look big in heels, but by the end of every gala, she’s limping. Her running shoes and her ’comfort’ boots? Those are seven and a half."

I looked down at the paper in my hand. 7.5.

The silence that followed was suffocating. Louis looked like he’d been punched in the gut. He stared at his paper—the 7 that he thought was a sure bet—and then at me. I couldn’t meet his eyes. It was becoming painfully clear: Louis and Levi knew the version of me that I presented to the world. Lennox knew the woman who lived behind my ribcage.

The game continued, and it only got more awkward.

Favorite midnight snack? Levi wrote Salad. Louis wrote Chocolate. Lennox wrote Cold leftovers straight from the pot, specifically the spicy pasta he caught me eating at 2 a.m. years ago.

The place she wants to visit most? Levi wrote Paris. Lennox wrote A small cabin in the mountains with no cell service.

By the tenth question, the kids stopped cheering. Even a child could feel the shift. Lennox hadn’t missed a single one. He sat there, relaxed, almost bored, while Louis and Levi looked increasingly like strangers at their own table.

Liam swallowed and looked down at his papers, suddenly less excited.

"Okay..." Liam said slowly, clearing his throat. "Next question."

He looked up at them again, trying to smile.

"Mom’s favorite subject in school."

Levi and Louis relaxed a little this time. Finally, something solid.

They wrote quickly.

Biology.

Both of them.

Lennox paused.

Not long—but long enough.

His pen hovered over the paper, his brows drawing together as if he was sorting through layers of memories instead of facts. Then he wrote.

"Flip them!"

Levi and Louis turned theirs around with confidence.

Biology.

Liam nodded eagerly and turned to Lennox.

Lennox flipped his paper.

Literature.

Levi frowned. "No, that’s wrong."

Louis shook his head. "She loved biology. She talked about it all the time."

I felt my chest tighten.

Lennox didn’t argue. He just looked at me.

"She chose biology because she was good at it," he said calmly. "Because everyone told her it was ’practical.’ But literature was where she disappeared. Where she felt things without needing to explain them."

My fingers trembled as I unfolded my paper.

Literature.

Silence.

Levi stared at the word like it had betrayed him.

"But you dropped it," he said quietly, almost hurt. "You stopped reading as much."

"I stopped having time," I whispered before I could stop myself.

Lennox’s gaze softened—not victorious, not proud. Just sad.

Liam shuffled the papers again, his excitement now careful, like he was walking on thin ice.

"Okay... um... next one."

"Mom’s favorite place to think."

Levi wrote The garden.

Louis wrote The bedroom balcony.

Lennox didn’t write right away.

When he finally did, he folded the paper once—like he didn’t want to show it too easily.

"Show!"

Levi and Louis flipped theirs.

Lennox unfolded his slowly.

The bathroom floor, back against the tub.

I sucked in a sharp breath.

That one hurt.

I opened my paper.

It matched.

Liam looked confused. "Why there?"

Lennox answered before I could.

"In there, there will be no disturbance."

I swallowed hard. Lennox knew because on several occasions he had met me there, thinking, and I never knew he would remember it.

Levi’s jaw clenched.

Louis looked away.

The game didn’t stop—but it changed.

Some questions, Levi and Louis got right.

Favorite fruit? Mango. All three.

Favorite season? Autumn. All three.

Favorite childhood food? Fried plantains. All three.

But every time the question went deeper—every time it stopped being about what I liked and became about why I was the way I was—only Lennox answered.

And every time Levi or Louis got one right...

Lennox had it too.

By the fifteenth question, Liam’s voice was small.

"What is Mom’s favorite physical feature on herself?"

Levi and Louis swapped a look. They both wrote quickly, smiles returning to their faces for a fleeting second. They both held up their papers: Her eyes.

"Everyone says it," Levi added, his voice warm with a memory. "The way they change color in the sun. You’ve always said you liked that you got them from your grandmother."

Lennox didn’t even smile. He held up his paper: Her face.

I swallowed hard.

I didn’t even open my paper.

I didn’t need to.

The silence wasn’t awkward anymore.

It was devastating.

Liam sensed the shift and tried to lighten the mood, flipping his notebook page. "Okay! Let’s do a lightning round! Quick answers only!"

Question 17: Mom’s favorite movie!

Levi and Louis didn’t hesitate. They both wrote: The Notebook.

"You cry every time it’s on cable!" Louis said, a bit of desperate hope returning to his eyes.

I bit my lip and showed my paper: Pan’s Labyrinth.

Lennox flipped his paper: Pan’s Labyrinth.

He didn’t explain. He just looked at me, then at the lake, his expression unreadable.

Question 18: Favorite song!

Levi wrote: Something by Adele.

Louis wrote: Speechless by Michael Jackson.

Lennox wrote: "A Thousand "Years"—Christina Perri.

I held up my paper. It was "A Thousand Years."

Lennox didn’t say a word about why. He just sat there, the victor of a game that was starting to feel like an execution.

Question 19: Favorite holiday!

Levi and Louis both scribbled :Christmas "The decorations, the cookies... you love the family being together," Levi said confidently.

I turned my paper around: Halloween.

Lennox flipped his: Halloween.

Question 22: What is Mom’s favorite scent?

Levi wrote: Lavender.

Louis wrote: Vanilla.

Lennox wrote: The smell of the woods.

I flipped my paper. The smell of the forest.

Lennox didn’t say a word. He just tapped his pen against his knee, looking out at the water as if he hadn’t just exposed another layer of my soul.

Question 23: What is the first thing Mom does when she wakes up?

Levi: Checks her phone.

Louis: Prays.

Lennox: Stares at the ceiling for a few minutes in silence.

I swallowed hard and showed my paper. Silence / The ceiling.

I needed those five minutes to build the mask before I had to face the world. I didn’t think anyone noticed. I thought they all believed I was just slow to wake up.

Question 27: What is Mom’s favorite "guilty pleasure" TV show?

Levi: The news.

Louis: Medical dramas.

Lennox: Bad 90s sitcoms.

I flipped my paper. 90s sitcoms. He didn’t mention the hours we spent watching reruns while the others were at the gym or in meetings. He just wrote it down, his expression stone-cold.

Liam looked at the score, his face falling. "Father Lennox got... every single one right. Father Levi and Louis... you guys only got three."

"I think we get the point, Liam," Louis said, his frown deepening. He looked at me, his eyes full of a pain so deep it made me look away.

Liam folded the papers carefully, his little face sad. I believed he thought this was going to be fun.

"I think..." he said softly, "...the game is over."

No one argued.

And for the first time, I understood something I hadn’t wanted to face:

Levi and Louis loved me deeply.

But Lennox knew me.

And the scary part is that he has been away for four years and still knows me better.

Louis dropped his pen, the plastic clattering against the tray. He looked at the pile of papers—a mountain of evidence that he was living with a woman he didn’t truly know. The heartbreak on his face was raw, but beneath it, there was a new, dangerous layer of resentment. Not just for Lennox, but for the fact that I had let Lennox in that deep while keeping him at arm’s length.

"I think I’ve had enough," Louis said, his voice a jagged edge. He stood up abruptly, his face deathly pale. He didn’t wait for a response, turning on his heel and heading toward the lake’s edge.

Levi didn’t follow him this time. He just sat there, staring at Lennox. "You make us look like fools, Lennox," he whispered. "Is that the goal? To prove we don’t deserve her?"

Lennox finally lowered his guard, his expression softening into something like pity.

"No, Levi. The goal was for you to realize how much you don’t know her."