OLIVIA "What else did she tell you? I got closer to Adrian. I was scared that Kate might have said a lot in my absence. “Okay?” Adrian edged backward and avoided me like the plague. I felt so stupid in front of him. My level of confidence dropped drastically. “You know what? Let's forget about it and get back to business,” I told Adrian and changed the topic. I was becoming too desperate. It was obvious. Even the blind could see that. “You're freaking me out right now. Did I do anything wrong?” Adrian asked me. He was starting to feel guilty. “No, you didn't. Why would you say something like that?" I said, forcing a smile. I act like I'm fine, but deep down, I was desperate to know what was discussed in my absence. “Do you want me to leave? Is this a bad time to come?” Adrian stood up, wanting to leave. He had a feeling that I wasn't comfortable with his presence. “No, please stay.” I quickly held his hands to stop him from leaving. Accidentally, we made eye contact. I could
OLIVIAUntil Adrian walked away, I couldn't get my eyes off him. There's something special about him that makes me want to call him back. I never wanted him to leave. Just the few minutes I spent with him, I felt like a real woman again. He rejuvenated the sparkle in my life. He was the missing link I needed. “Is he gone?” Kate rushed to the living room and startled me. “What's wrong with you? How would you walk in like that?” I scolded Kate. I was so rooted in Adrian that I never saw her coming.“Yes, he is gone.Guess what? We just sealed the deal. He promised to send the contract to my mailbox,” I told Kate. Her joy knew no bounds. One would think she owned the company.“What are you going to do about him?” Kate asked me after the brief celebration. “What about whom?” I avoided her question like a plague and sauntered to the bar to grab a bottle of whiskey. I poured a small portion inside a glass. Before I could take a shot, Kate snatched the glass from me.“No alcohol.Remembe
OLIVIA “You must be excited about this, aren't you?” Kate teased me.“Am I?” I blushed and smoothened my skirt as though it were rumpled. I was acting like a child without actually knowing it. “Yes, you're. That's not bad If you ask me. I haven't seen you this excited before. If going out on a date with Adrian would restore your happiness, then I won't judge you,” Kate told me. That was the best thing I've heard in a long time. “Thank you so much for everything,” I rushed to hug Kate. I couldn't hide my excitement. Adrian may call it a dinner, but I don't see it that way. He wants to have a proper date with me. Calling it a dinner was the only way he could convince me to show up and it worked. I wouldn't have been comfortable dressing up to go have a date in another man's house while I got a man for myself.“Enough of the emotional talks. We got a date to plan,” Kate said excitedly as she opened my wardrobe searching for the perfect outfit for the night.“Dinner, Kate. It's not
OLIVIA I went down and shut my eyes to pray silently. I can't recall the last time I did that. My brain isn't functioning properly. It was the only thing I could think of. Cyril slowly drove past me and stopped. I'm pretty certain he was contemplating if I was the one inside the car.The windshield was tinted, so he couldn't see me. I patiently waited for him to leave and he did. “Gosh!That was close!” I did a cross sign. I was struggling to breathe. This was the reason I asked Kate to go home because I knew Cyril might show up. I had no idea that it would happen so fast.Without hesitation, I drove towards the main estate gate where I met the chief security. I had the urge to stop and confront him for telling Cyril that Adrian had stopped by the house. On second thought, I figured that he might want to call Cyril immediately and blow out my cover. It's quite obvious that he's on Cyril's payroll just to keep an eye on me. It wasn't difficult locating Adrian's estate. I was alre
OLIVIA I was praying that Adrian wouldn't find me in this pathetic situation. The dinner date that was supposed to lighten my mood has suddenly become my mourning ground.I tried calling Cyril over the phone, and he wasn't responding. I've never been this scared before since I got married to Cyril. I wasn't certain what the security at the estate must have told Cyril, but I'm pretty sure it has everything to do with him acting up this way. To think that avoiding security was going to save me from trouble, I had no idea that I was heading to my doom. “What did I ever do for security?” I asked myself rhetorically. I've been good to him. I can't recall offending him to be hated that way. I texted Cyril and he refused to respond. He read my texts and chose to ignore them. At that point, I wanted to go home. The dinner suddenly became meaningless to me. Staying out for too long would only worsen my situation. I know Cyril too well. It's challenging to influence his decision. I waited
OLIVIA “So what do we know? I am running out of options to decide. My head's blank right now. I don't want him to hurt you. Everything seems to be happening so fast. Do you want to go back home to your husband, or would you rather spend the night with me?” Adrian asked me. “I honestly can't answer that. It's rather complicated. What do you think? I want you to be honest with me. I would surely respect your decision regardless of how it turned out.” I asked Adrian in return and placed him in a difficult situation. Deep down, I know he was hoping I would stay behind. I could see it in his eyes. Adrian is scared to admit it to avoid sounding too selfish. He loved my company as much as I enjoyed his. Unfortunately for us, Cyril has proven to be the stumbling block.“I don't know what else to say. I am equally confused as you are. I just don't want to be the reason Cyril would be mad at you. My conscience would haunt me for the rest of my life. I do not want that to happen.” Adrian
OLIVIAMy home was nothing compared to Adrian's. If I wasn't there, I would have argued that the home belongs to the prince of England. “It's mine. How about you come down and have a tour? Seating back inside the car isn't going to provide the answers you seek. You know that right?” Adrian winked at me. Before I could speak further, he leaned forward and opened the door himself for me to step outside. He brought me into his Castle and opened the door for me to step out. The only thing missing is a red carpet that should be rolled out to complete my royal welcoming. I forgot what it felt like to be sad. Whenever I'm around Adrian, Cyril ceases to exist. I don't know how Adrian usually wipes Cyril's memory away from my head, but I'm glad he did. I might just be tempted to plead with him to keep doing it as long as it keeps me alive. “Shall we?” He held my hand and kissed it. I became cold. I felt a meltdown inside of me. It felt like I was in heaven already. I didn't want the f
OLIVIA “Just keep your fingers crossed. You may never know, it might stop raining soon. It's not that serious and you know that. Can you see that? I told you the rain wasn't serious.” Adrian assured me while pointing outside. I wasn't fascinated enough by his assurance knowing that he never meant it. He was just trying to act like a perfect gentleman, so I didn't get pissed off that he was taking advantage of me.“Like seriously? Does stuff like this still exist? Come on, you can do better. That trick is outdated. I am not falling for that shit. Please show me to the guest room. I need to be up very early tomorrow,” I requested. I stood in front, waiting for him to come lead the way.“Right away my lady. As her lordship pleases,” Adrian replied as he stepped forward and led me to the guest room. The room looked spacious and attractive with paintings on the wall. It could be mistaken for a master's bedroom.“Is this where I would be spending the night, or is this some sort of mistake
OLIVIAI called Cyril multiple times and he wasn't taking my calls. I was mad at myself for agreeing to call him, knowing that he was most likely not to respond.Despite the snub, I was excited that Adrian was there to witness everything, to avoid making it seem like I was telling a lie.“I do hope you can witness what's happening. I don't want to believe that I am seeing things that aren't real. This is the third time I am going to call him. If he refuses to take my call, I'm going to block him for good. He won't dare reach me on other social media platforms, too,” I told Adrian. I also warned him not to dare change my mind because I would never listen to him.“Take a chill pill. It's too early to conclude. Has it gotten to that extent? I don't know you to be this harsh. Perhaps, he wasn't next to his phone; hence he didn't pick up,”Adrian defended Cyril for the second time. I terminated the call to focus my attention on him.“What did you just say? Whose side are you on? Did Cyril
OLIVIA“So, what do you think? You haven't said anything to me. Wouldn't that be nice?” Adrian asked again after not getting a response the first time.“I honestly don’t know how I feel about this. Don’t you think it’s a bit of a rush? We should take it easy. I am still experiencing a difficult phase in life that’s taking almost an eternity for me to heal. Why do I have a feeling that talking about shopping is a bit frivolous?” I lamented.“Frivolous? What do you even mean by that? I don’t understand why you keep seeing this as a big deal. It’s just normal shopping. What’s the big deal here? You are going to love it too,” Adrian added, doing everything possible to make me come with him, yet I was proving too stubborn.“Ma’am, let’s do this. You don’t have to be worried about it. It might just turn out to be a relief from the stress you’ve been through lately. Think about it,” Kate chimed in. She made a good point, but regardless of what she said, I still didn’t see enough reason to ab
OLIVIAIt was me alone with Rene in a face-off that was most likely to shake the whole city.“So, it was you all along? I just knew that you had something to do with this,” Rene cried.“Yes, it was me. Now you found out. What are you going to do about it?” I folded my arms.“Why are you running away from me like a coward? I thought you were the smart money woman. Speaking about money, don't you think our agreement is long overdue?” She diverted the discourse to suit her purpose.I knew the next thing on her bucket list was to expose my dirty little marital secret. That was the moment I knew violence wasn't an option. To protect my integrity, I opted for peace instead.“Can we go talk about this in my office? I wouldn't want my staff prying in my affairs,” I whispered to her.The staff were starting to get nosy, too. Which equally means that my secret was on the verge of being exposed.“I didn't come here to dine with you. You should know better. You have sixty seconds to get this done
OLIVIAI didn’t make a move to approach Rene to avoid causing a scene that would affect the company. I wouldn’t want the staff to find out about my marriage scandals.It’s most likely to headline the front pages of every media outlet before the day runs out.Quietly, I sneaked outside to reach out to Kate over the phone. She’s in a better position to explain to me what Rene was doing in my company.“Pick up the damn phone, Kate. What are you doing? You should be next to your phone should any emergency arise.” I fumed. It was just a matter of time before I lost my temper and approached Rene violently.“Hello, ma’am. Good morning to you. Where are you now? Are you anywhere close to the company? I’m sorry I missed your call. I was in the restroom. I just got back and realized you’ve been calling me for so long now,” Kate finally answered the phone just when I was close to giving up.“Damn, your greetings. I should be asking you that question. What the heck is Rene doing in my company? I
OLIVIAI got to my car with a wounded soul. I was too heartbroken to drive.The hot tears gushing down my eyes succeeded in ruining my makeup. What was left of me was my natural face that had been dented.I tried to drive out but couldn't. I find myself being laid back a couple of times already.A voice said to me, “You're not going to sit back and watch your life get destroyed, would you? Call Cyril and put an end to this madness.” I wasn't sure what voice that was or if it meant well to me.Somehow, I was forced to believe the voice as I picked up my phone to call Cyril over the phone.Twice I called, and not for once did he respond. I didn't feel bad because I knew he wasn't going to answer the phone immediately after what had happened between us in recent times.Just when I thought he was going to snub me for eternity, my phone rang. Who else would it be if not Cyril?I took a deep breath to assure myself, “Olivia, you can do this. Don't give him the slightest idea that you're dow
OLIVIA“Kate, you evil bitch. How dare you hang up the phone on me?” I fumed.“Don't bother trying to reach out to me. I am not going to respond. We need you at the company. The other staff members won't stop asking me about you. I don't know what to say to them. I don't know how long I want to keep lying to them,” That was the text I received from Kate.“The staff can't wait to see me? What exactly is going on? Are they aware of what's going on in my marriage?” I thought to myself. There was nobody around to provide the answer. I was left alone to figure out a way out.I got fed up trying to reach out to her and decided to go take my bath.I got dressed up in my favorite blue suit and skirt. I had my bodily applied make-up to brighten up my face a bit. I would rather not attend to clients looking so depressed. I styled my hair to make it appear more attractive.It wasn't my birthday, neither was I going out for a date. Yet, I spent five minutes in front of the mirror stand, trying to
OLIVIAI woke up feeling so disorganized. I haven't felt that way before. I lost touch with reality. I could barely recognize myself anymore. It's as though a different spirit possessed my body.“Where the heck am I? And why does this place look so different? Something isn't right.” I asked myself and as I rubbed my blurry eyes and yawned.It was unclear to me how I slept on the sofa and woke up on the bed alone. I stretched my hands to the other side of the bed hoping to reach out to Cyril, but he wasn't there. It was just me alone in the room.“Cyril moved out already,” I said to myself the moment I couldn't find him. It took me a while to realize that Cyril was no more. It's barely a few hours since he moved out of the house, and it feels like my whole world is crumbling.“Don't worry about him. He's not worth it. You should be happy he's gone. You don't have to worry yourself about him,” I assured myself that his departure meant nothing to me, whereas, I care the most.My phone ra
OLIVIA “Did you see what just happened between me and Cyril?” I turned towards Kate's direction to ask her. I needed her opinion to judge if I was losing my mind.“I witnessed everything that happened. I am sorry to say this to you, Cyril is mother fucking player. He wasn't remorseful for his actions,” Kate responded as she walked towards the bar to go grab a bottle of vodka. I followed her immediately.“Oh, you saw it too? I was afraid I was imagining things that weren't well. You don't have to apologize for what you just said about Cyril. Everyone knows he's a pain in the ass. I still don't know why I got married to him when there were better options out of that,” I shed more light on what Kate said. There was no point defending someone who doesn't even give a fuck about me. After everything I've witnessed lately, I certainly needed a bit of liquor to cool off. I wasn't a staunch advocate for liquor consumption. Cyril made me do it. He has succeeded in making my life a joke.
CYRIL'S POVIt wasn't enough for Olivia to punch me in the eye, she still had the guts to ask me silly questions. I was this close to going blind. The fear of spending the rest of my life behind bars is the reason I didn't retaliate against the attack on my face. Aside from going to jail, I would rather not dent my name or tarnish my image and everything I've ever worked so hard to achieve. Just a brief moment of domestic violence and I'm already headlining the front page of every newspaper and media outlet tagging me as “Cyril, the wealthy beast that turned his wife into a punching bag,” None of them wouldn't even care to find out the real truth from me because society has made everyone believe that it's wrong to hit women regardless of who threw the first punch. “Where are you heading to? And why are you not speaking to me? Are you practically snubbing me now?” Olivia continued to ask me despite the snub. She wasn't just asking me, she also had the urge to move closer to me. “