Looking at the beautiful woman sitting beside him, Noah could not help but wonder how exactly he had let her slip out of his grasp in the first place. In the dim lighting of the opera house, Olivia's pale skin made her all the more noticeable and the light makeup she had on practically turned her into a vision of beauty. Her dress was a deep maroon red and only came halfway down her thigh, leaving her perfect long legs free for his viewing pleasure. The show that was being put on obviously held her attention, her eyes following the performance with interest. Noah's eyes were full of interest too, although he had a different subject in mind. Besides, he had already seen this show half a dozen times already, though he was almost certain she had not. Which was exactly why he had brought her here on this date. If Olivia was pleased with the performance, Noah would be furthering their renewed relationship successfully. It had not been easy getting her to agree to come out for this. For d
The black limousine that streaked along the streets from the airport drew the eyes of several people all along the way. Within the vehicle, Damian Grant sat with his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped together beneath his chin. His mind was lost in turmoil and his brow was set in furrows. He looked out the window at the passing scenery, feeling nothing but a rising sense of resentment within him. He had not expected to have returned to this city so soon, especially after what happened last time. But unfortunately, his presence here was prompted by something that was beyond his ability to influence. A few days ago, just as he had been making preparations on how he would take over the family company, the members of the Grant family had received a very shocking news. Their eldest son, and his older brother Noah had announced to the family that he had now acquired a wife. That essentially put him back in the running for inheriting the empire. And for Damian, that was unacceptable
Olivia all but slammed the front door of her house shut behind her as soon as she arrived home late in the evening. Outside the house, the sky had turned a lovely shade of purple, with a few splashes of orange left at the horizon to show the trail of the receding sun. Having just come from her meeting with Noah's brother Damian, it was clear that she was still very much pissed off at how the event had gone down. Olivia knew already that Noah was a bastard, but now she was starting to think that being an asshole must be a family thing for them. Although she had never particularly disliked or even liked Damian in the first place, she had expected him to be a bit more level headed since he did not have any personal stakes in this. But she had been very wrong about that. From what she could tell, her decision to agree to Noah's proposal, even though it was only a ruse, had had cascading effects on Damian's own plans. Noah was now put in a suitable position to compete for the Grant famil
By the time the sun was breaking through the clouds on the east sky, Michael was already on his way out of his house. He had been unable to get much sleep throughout the night due to his subconscious constantly reminding him of all the troubles plaguing his life at the moment. First, there was the situation with Amelia, which he had yet to come to a decisive point on. His mother's visit some days ago had not really helped much, as the woman's advice had only served to further his confusion. There was no doubt that Amelia was a very attractive woman, but then so was Olivia. Asking him to pick one of the two based on pure looks alone was like trying to decide which was better between a chocolate flavored cake and a strawberry flavored one. Not that he was going to judge them based on that anyway. There was once a time when he had loved Amelia, or at least Michael thought he had. He had been immature then, naive almost and he did not have much in way of emotional intelligence. Amelia h
It took a long time for Michael's mind to stop wandering to places that involved actions that would almost certainly get him locked up for life or even worse. His hands are still a bit unsteady when he left Olivia's house in his car, forcing him to pull the vehicle over to a stop at the side of the road after some minutes. With the way he was feeling right then, there was a very good chance of him getting caught up in something terrible.Staring at the black dashboard, Michael had a brief moment of stillness before he slammed his fists on the dashboard in anger."That fucking bastard..." He all but snarled, his mind focused on the intense hatred and anger he was currently feeling for Noah Grant. Even though Michael had made it a point of his not to get involved in Olivia's poorly thought out plan to get revenge, he had at least expected Olivia to have some boundaries in place so as to avoid everything getting out of hand. Now though, Michael was just realizing how wrong he had been.
Stricken with sadness and guilt, Olivia remained frozen in Michael's office even after he had left the room. She was yet to get over the rage she had seen in his eyes, and at that moment she couldn't help but feel that might have just lost the man she genuinely loved. "Miss Jones—""Not now please." Olivia rebuked whoever it was that had just called out to her. She didn't bother looking to find out who it was, nothing mattered to her more than the tight pain she felt in her chest at that moment. Slowly, she raised her head to face the ceiling, hoping to push back the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes, or at least hold them back until she was back in the safety of her own office. She had just arrived at the office not less than twenty minutes ago, if her employees should spot her crying it would definitely spoil the atmosphere for a healthy working environment. With a practiced smile spread across her face, Olivia walked out of Michael's office and headed straight for her
The moment Olivia heard the words Noah Grant, her head snapped up fast enough that she nearly gave herself whiplash. At first, all she felt was an indescribable feeling of rage. The anger cut through her grief like a hot knife through butter, reminding her of the person primarily responsible for what had happened this morning with Michael. Olivia had no illusions that she herself was not at fault since all of this was her plan to begin with, but knowing Noah like she did, there was no way he would not have taken the chance to antagonize Michael when the latter had come to her house. Maybe if she had gotten the chance to speak to Michael then, she might have been able to actually explain the situation. Instead Noah had most likely set off the man she really loved and now she was the one suffering from his actions once again. Wiping away the last of her tears, Olivia straightened up and turned to the door. "Bring it in, Lisa," she requested. The other woman glanced at her for a m
Michael remained in his car for a while, the rage within him still refusing to simmer down. He had been in the vehicle since he left the office, and that has been a while now. He was still contemplating, whether he had been too harsh with his words, with Olivia. He hadn't even given her a chance to explain, but then again, what exactly would she have said? That it was good? That Noah was better than he was? His blood already boiled from thinking about it, if he actually had to hear Olivia say those words, then he might genuinely lose his mind. Frustrated, Michael slammed his fists repeatedly into the steering wheel until they threatened to bleed. He was visibly shaking from rage, and it only seemed to get worse as the seconds ticked by. He couldn't be with Olivia, and he couldn't even go home and be at peace. Everything just seemed to be getting worse, and it had all started when that bastard, Noah Grant, came back into town. Finally relaxing his white knuckles, Michael took a d
From the corner of her eyes Lisa could see that it was Michael who Olivia had just finished speaking with. Though she still planned to ask her friend who the person was, it was nice to make quick observations. With Michael here, their plan was certain to fail. Olivia had probably told him about everything, and Lisa feared that she would not be able to fully convince anybody that Olivia's kidnapping and death would be an accident. Why would only Olivia be taken anyway?With a sigh she rolled her eyes and waited patiently for her friend to come back. "Who was that?" Lisa asked the moment Olivia was within earshot. She raised a curious brow, feigning ignorance to the fact that she already knew it was Michael."Michael, it seems he's not a fan of the restaurant." Olivia lied, a perfect excuse for her to completely avoid entering the place."I'm not feeling it anymore, I think I might have lost my appetite." Lisa replied with a nervous chuckle. "We should just go home."Olivia’s brow furr
"I know a perfect spot just around the corner, they're good, I'm sure you'll love it!" Lisa cried out just before Olivia had the chance to drive towards the route that led to one of her favorite restaurants. She had been here a couple of times before, and she hadn't heard of another restaurants around the corner."Another restaurant? I haven't heard about it—""They're new, so you wouldn't know about them. They're literally perfect, I swear." Lisa urged without letting Olivia finish with her words. Olivia let a weary smile light up her face before turning the car around. She doubted that there was any new restaurants around the area, but then again she had no reason not to believe her best friend. Lisa had no reason to lie to her, especially not about something as silly as a restaurant. "They better live up to your hype, because now I've gotten excited." Olivia remarked as she pressed down on the acceleration pedal. Lisa on the other hand kept a very convincing smile on her face, o
"You did not just ask me that question Olivia," Michael said with a shake of his head, as he pushed his way into his office.The woman followed right behind him, closing the door behind her as her smile fell a little. She knew that Michael only used her full name when he was very serious about something. "Talk to me Michael," she pleaded as she stepped closer to him. "What's wrong?""I told you before that I did not trust Lisa," Michael reminded her."She's my best friend.""And she might also be working with Noah," he countered with a voice that was deceptively calm, a sharp contrast to the turmoil present within him at the moment. "I know it sounds absurd, but remember that we can't exactly trust anyone at this point. You remember what happened with Damian, don't you?"Olivia's body slowly went still as flashes of memories streaked through her mind of the time she had been held captive all those weeks ago. Those memories were ones that she had subconsciously tried to repress, so th
He sighed but still went on to tell her anyway. "It's just that ever since we got those pictures, I decided to keep a closer eye on Amelia. Even though I actually don't think she was the one who followed us and did all of that, I still had a gut feeling that there was something up with her." "And? Did you find anything?" Olivia asked. "I can't really tell..." He replied. "I mean, yesterday, she just left the house for no reason. I decided to go after her to see what she was up to. At first I thought she was headed to the airport, which was weird because she never said anything about leaving. Then she suddenly changed directions and went to the old warehouse district at the edge of town." Olivia frowned a little at that point. "What could she be looking for there? That place has been abandoned for years." "I thought the same thing," said Michael. "I lost sight of her for a bit, then I saw her walk into one of the warehouses. A few minutes later, she left the place but before I can
After their explosive fallout yesterday, Michael was not surprised in the least when he failed to find Amelia outside her room the next morning. That was her only move whenever the two of them would have an argument; to simply shut herself away from everyone and everything until she felt otherwise. Michael did not really care though. As far as he was concerned, she could do whatever she wanted as long as it did not involve him or Olivia. Besides, Amelia was still the source of the unrelenting headache that had plagued him throughout the night until he finally found solace in sleep. Michael decided to take a couple of minutes to make a quick breakfast, making sure to leave something out for Amelia. That did not mean that he had forgiven her though. It was simply a spur of the moment decision, or at least that was what he was willing to tell himself. Traffic in the city was abhorrent, as was normal for commuters trying to get around on the middle hours of the morning. But still, Micha
Throughout his drive home, Michael continued to replay the events he had witnessed just some minutes ago. And no matter how much he tried, he still could not make much sense out of it. Amelia's actions were undoubtedly suspicious, but he just could not find a connection. First it looked as if she was heading towards the airport, then suddenly she seemingly changed her mind and drove all the way to some abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere. To do what? Meet with a couple of nobodies? It just did not make sense. But still Michael could not shake the gut feeling he was having that these things were more than they seemed. It was giving him a hard time already, having to divide his attention between his thoughts and keeping his car on the road. Deciding to focus on the one that would not get him killed or seriously injured, Michael tried to shelf the numerous thoughts running wild in his head until he finally got to his house. The first thing he noticed was the absence of Amelia'
It did not get any easier to live in the same house as Michael while contemplating the plans on her mind, no matter what Amelia told herself. After their disastrous encounter in the kitchen the other day, Amelia had barely spoken to Michael. That was not just because she did not want to talk to him, although that was also a factor, but it was mainly because she took to spending most of her time locked away in her room. As mad and terribly pissed off at Michael as she was, Amelia also knew that once the heat of everything died down enough, Michael was bound to start asking her some difficult questions that she was sure she would have the guts to answer. She knew that Lisa had most probably sent this pictures, the same ones that Amelia herself had received from the woman, to Noah. Knowing the rich bastard, he would have definitely made a big deal out of it. If Michael and Olivia were still seeing each other, then she would have told him about it too. So there was no doubt on Amelia's m
Michael found Amelia in the kitchen when he came down from his room. It was still relatively early, the yellow rays of the morning sun filling the house with a light ambience. Unfortunately, that did not do much to relieve the tension that was still pressing down on the two cohabitants of the house. The man paused at the staircase for a moment, just a few steps above the floor as he leaned on the railing to think. After what had happened between him and Amelia a couple of days ago, his first thought had been that she was the one who had followed him and taken those pictures. But Michael had discarded that idea after a period of consideration. The reason was simple; such a thing just was not Amelia's style. Even though there was no doubt that the young woman had changed incredibly after her time overseas, Michael still knew a great deal about the way Amelia reasoned. The woman was not a person that would be willing to get down and dirty in order to get something. Amelia had never been
Olivia hadn't been able to sleep properly ever since Noah confronted her with images and a video of her cheating with Michael. Even though they had reconciled over the weekend, she was still very curious and paranoid about everything. How on earth did Noah get those pictures? She had tried asking him, but he wouldn't tell her no matter how much she begged. She tried taking his phone and searching through it while he was asleep, but still found nothing. Not knowing where those pictures and video had come from was slowly driving Olivia crazy even though she did her best to hide it. She pulled up into the driveway of her company, and even after being several miles away from Noah, she just couldn't help but feel his eyes staring over her shoulder. She turned around quickly, hoping to catch sight of any secret spy he might have hired, but found nothing. With frowned brows and a paranoid mind, Olivia walked into the building and headed straight for her office. She should be safe in her of