Finding Out The Truth...

Olivia found herself staring blankly at the computer screen, the way she had for nearly the past fifteen minutes. With a shake of her head, she drew herself out of her thoughts and tried to focus on getting some work done. But no matter how she tried, the events that had happened downstairs continued to play out in her mind repeatedly.

That other woman, Amelia... The way she had acted with Michael spoke of a very long term relationship. She had introduced herself as his fiance, and the hesitation she had seen on Michael's face had been nearly enough to break her heart.

Michael had been something she had never thought she would meet after what she had endured with Noah. Noah had done terrible things to Olivia's mental and physical state. All the times he had treated her like she was worthless, and she had been unable to realize all the signals. But once she had, it had almost been too late. She had lost her child but she had been fortunate to come out with her life.

In the years after she had left Noah, it had been almost impossible for her to get herself to trust any other person. Back then, it had taken Michael a lot to make his way into her heart. But now it was beginning to look like he had turned out to be just like she had feared.

"No," Olivia whispered to herself as she placed a hand on her cheek and sighed tiredly. "Maybe I'm taking all of this a bit too far."

There was always the possibility that maybe Michael was not lying. He had told her that he had no intention of going along with the socalled engagement to Amelia. The thought was enough to lessen the unpleasant feelings that had been steadily rising within her. There was no way of being sure now, but Olivia still wanted to give Michael the benefit of the doubt. After all the help he had given her over the years they had known each other, she at least owed him the chance to explain himself and set things right.

"In the mean time," Olivia muttered, her eyes narrowing as she pulled up one of the headlines from a news report several days ago that showed Noah Grant's return to the city. "What could you possibly want after all this time, Noah?"

The return of her ex-husband to the city was something she had never even thought was possible. But not only had he done that, but he was now actively coming after her? Olivia knew a lot of things about Noah Grant, and one of them was that he never did anything without a very good reason.

So what exactly could have made him come back to a wife he had abused and disregarded for so long?

Taking a deep breath, she logged into the company's website and went through all the data they had on Noah Grant. It turned out that right up until he purchased Rock Enterprise, Noah had basically been making multiple major investment moves. Before he returned to the city, he had already bought up a couple of other minor corporations which he had added to his own, and had even gone on meetings with the leaders of several others.

While this would not be unusual in the business world, it did seem somewhat strange for him to be doing all of these so quickly. It was almost as if he was in a race of sorts. Olivia tapped a well manicured nail on her mousepad tentatively, her eyes searching the screen for any other piece of information she could find.

Her phone suddenly buzzed beside her, and she reached for it absentmindedly. Taking a glance at the screen, she saw that it was a text message from Lisa. Her friend was asking her out to a girls night, and the thought of it made Olivia smile a little. Lisa was probably still trying to make her feel better about the whole situation with Noah.

Unfortunately, Olivia was not really in the mood for that sort of thing at the moment. She quickly texted Lisa back, sending her a short apology and a promise to reschedule. That was when Olivia noticed that it was already late in the evening, and well past her time to go home. With a small sigh, she closed down the computer and picked up her purse and keys before heading for the door.

Most of the other people in the office had already left by the time she was out. As she passed Michael's office on her way out, she noticed that the light was still on beneath the door. Her steps slowed down a little as she considered going inside to see him, but she decided against that idea quickly enough. It was only to make things even more complicated if she tried to force the inevitable conversation between them to happen right now. Best to give the man some space to get himself in order.

The drive home was quick, considering that there was little traffic on the roads by this time. Olivia pulled into her driveway and into the garage before making her way to the front door. The memory of the other day when she had ran into Noah at her home made her feel a little uneasy. Taking a quick look around to make sure he was not about to repeat the action, Olivia let herself into her home and locked the door behind her.

Placing the bag of takeout she had gotten, having no desire to cook tonight, she went straight for her laptop on the table and popped it open. Her mind had been focused on Noah's intentions throughout the drive home and she felt that she might have figured out what he was doing. If Noah's actions seemed unusually rushed because he was under some sort of pressure, then it might have had something to do with his family.

And if it did, then it was most likely with his brother, Damien. The two of them had never really been too friendly during her time with Noah, even though Damien had not shown any negativity towards her.

If anyone was going to have answers for her, it would be him. She opened up her email and typed out a message to Damien, asking him to meet her the next day. Right before she could close the computer, a response came in just a few minutes after she had sent the message. Olivia raised an eyebrow in surprise at how quickly he had responded, and opened it to see that he had agreed to meet her.

"What is going on with those two brothers?" She murmured under her breath as she sent him a time and venue. "Whatever it is, I am definitely going to find out."