Episode 2

Oliver stared blankly over the stage where the master of the ceremony who so happened to be his father’s secretary stood elegantly in his finely ironed and tailored dark blue suit addressing the important members of the events being held in one of the many hotels his father owns.

Oliver hated every single minute he sat listening to the boring talk around his table, most of the people gracing the events were board members of his father's multi-billion dollar company, all of who came to witness the company’s 30th anniversary. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat which the event planner had specially arranged since he was sitting at the round table with his father and sister who was smiling all through the evening, and Oliver knew…when his sister had that creepy smile on her face she had something up her sleeve again, he just couldn’t guess what she was playing at.

Oliver knew his sister Laura Harrison wasn’t someone who would be smiling at such an event, knowing she would be relinquishing her position as the vice president of the company to him while she assumed the CEO position of the company.

Laura wasn’t so nice, ever since his return to New Orleans, she had shown him nothing but hate and distaste, parading his front with veiled insult and obvious sarcasm. Oliver knew his older sister was a competitor and would try to compete with him at every chance she gets because she was a woman who needed to prove herself more if she wanted acknowledgment from their father, and she had decided to process all those disappointments and prejudice she received from their father into hate for him like he had a choice in the matter.

Oliver later figured out what she planned for the event, as the MC announced to the important guests, board members, families, foes, and friends alike who sat at their well-decorated table, leaning back eagerly in their plastic chairs while anxiously expecting the event special, the announcement of the heir to Boris enterprises.

“I present to you the heir of Boris Enterprises…Mr. Oliver Harrison” The MC pointed in his direction and the spotlight was immediately on him as he stood and fix the button of his favourite two-piece suit. He immediately adorned his face with a practiced, business casual smile which he would usually wear on such occasions, smiling and waving, and suddenly what looks like a billboard behind the MC started playing a footage, Oliver furrowed, his brows creasing after he caught at the corner of his eye, his sister smiling. Then he turned back to the footage and gulped, it was a footage of him losing control, it was a footage of Rio rather than him.

Oliver Harrison is the second child of Barry Harrison, a divorced and broken billionaire who hides behind his business casual smile, a wound he was afraid of mending, he was a man of few secrets and one of those secrets include his medical condition, he had a split personality disorder, a condition his father and him had spent years hiding from the public, it was even kept from his sister but how? How did she find out? That room where they locked him the moment he switched, had no camera…it was the freaking basement how, how did Laura know? His heart raced in his chest as he watched himself screaming and yelling like an animal, hitting the bars that had restricted him, his mouth run dry as he saw himself struggling with the manacles that had limited his movement.

“Turn that thing off this instant!” Oliver heard his father bark at his secretary but just like everyone else watching in astonishment, he was wearing a look of shock and disbelief because when his personality splits, he doesn’t exactly remember what happens to him, other than the bruises on his body and the aching of his joints, a proof that he wasn’t himself again, he had no idea what his counterpart had to go through.

Oliver stood frozen in shock which amazes people more than the video because just like them he had a curious glim in his eyes like he had no idea what was going on which was true, the person in the footage might look like him but he knows damn well it wasn’t him.

Eventually, the footage of him thrashing stuff while acting like a madman was stopped, but something else came to life, it was then Oliver gave his sister an annoyed look.

It occurred to Oliver that his sister was trying to expose his condition to the board members to prove he was unworthy of being his father’s heir and vice president of their company, but that video can be displaced, their father was rich enough to cover the whole thing up and made it seem like a perfectly edited video, but what if she could show them the real thing? The other part of him Oliver had tried to much to suppress. Oliver almost realised too late that she planned on bringing Rio to the surface, she had found his trigger.

Oliver jumped as the sound of rain and thunderstorms filled the hotel hall shocking everyone seated at the tables, he held his ear as the death of his mother flashed before his eyes, he’d witnessed it happen. He’d watched his mother crushed to death on a rainy day filled with sounds of splattering rain and thunderstorms. Oliver felt his chest tighten, it was almost getting harder to breathe.

“You!” He gritted as he met his sister’s eyes but quickly as he saw her smirk, then darted his gaze as he found his view getting blurry. I need to get out of here, he thought quickly moving past the arranged chairs and table, the spotlight was still on him, his sister did plan to reveal his beast till the end doesn’t she? He thought, but the sound of thunderstorms got louder and he froze, he was trying his best to remain in control but he almost couldn’t, nevertheless he still pushed past the guards who were trying to stop him from leaving.

“Let me go!” He growled at them, his voice echoing as Rio took control of him. Oliver was used to being polite, respected, and loved by many but Rio…his counterpart, however, doesn’t really care about maintaining his image, he was a symbol of freedom and he acts as he sees fit. The guards tried to return him back to the hall which had now become chaotic as a result of the unfolding events.

“What are you doing to him, let him go!” A strange woman in her late 20's walking briskly down the hotel hallway saw the guards trying to restrain him and came to his defence, she probably thought he was being kidnapped judging from the panic on her face. The four bodyguards clad in black suits trying to return him inside the hall looked taken aback by her interference but they weren’t just going to listen to her. “Hey!” The woman throws them a haughty look. “Kidnapping is illegal you know” She eyed them warily while the boys…since Rio could hardly call them men, stared at the woman in confusion. The lady did something totally unexpected but admirable, she stomped one of the guards' feet and grab his hand leading him away from them in a hurry while they all tried to rid themselves of the shock of what just fucking happened.

It took them a couple of minutes though, since they didn’t run after them immediately, but once they were rid of the shock, they were hot on their trail in an attempt to catch him.

Rio had never seen someone show him such kindness, he looked surprised that anyone would go out of their way to help him. Him? The abomination, no one had ever treated him like that, he’d been shunned, treated like nothing but a terrible plague, an illness they call him but here this woman was, holding his hand with no care of the world while many referred him as a terrible beast that needed to be caged, this woman had taken his hand and led him away from people who were going to throw him back into a cage.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” The lady asked in a low breathy voice that could barely pass for a whisper, they’d been running for a while now and they seem to have lost the bodyguards on their tail. Rio knew they will soon catch up so he draw the girl into the hotel emergency staircase and hid her there while the hurried footsteps of their chasers past by their door. “That’s pretty smart, I needed that run” The woman sniffled, her face was red and puffy like she’d cried or about to cry but surprisingly to Rio… “You’re not hurt are you?” She seems more concerned about him.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Are you alright?” Rio does not remember the last time he’d properly had a conversation with someone but it felt strangely nice to him conversing with the unfamiliar lady that had saved him from being thrown into a cage and being restrained like an animal.

“Yeah, I’m fine” Although the woman was telling him that, he could sense it from her voice that she wasn’t feeling so well but she seems to be emotionally incapacitated rather than physically and Rio find himself curious about the strange woman. Her cinnamon wavy mid-back-length hair which she had styled and the front strands of it which seems to be sticking to the side of her head with the sweat she had managed to produce from the short run they just had, something in her amber eyes draw him in a way he couldn’t explain.

“You should leave now before those men come back…I’m gonna get going” Rio find himself holding back the woman as she tried to leave. “Excuse me? Is something wrong?” The woman arched a brow at him in question staring down at her hands that had wrapped around her warm wrist.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that” Rio quickly let go, cursing himself inwardly for acting rudely to the woman who had merely helped him, but he was in a rather tight situation. He knew the moment he go back to his father’s house he would be thrown right back into the cage until his personality shifted back and his father see Oliver again…Rio didn’t want that.

“I don’t have anywhere to go,” He said pitifully while the woman blinked in surprise as her eyes moved over him quickly. She has a reason to be wary though, he was clad in designer suits and leather shoes, several thousand Rolex, a golden tie clip, and cuffs. She had a right to give him a sarcastic look at his claim.

“Now that I see it, you look like a young master running away from his bodyguards-

“Yeah but…can…can I stay with you, please for a day, I promise not to trouble you. I can pay you if you want…I just...I don’t wanna go back there” Rio cut in desperately. He felt scared, he doesn’t wanna be locked up and caged anymore, and that fear, the woman seems to be able to see right through it.

“What!? No way!”

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