Olivia woke up with a splitting headache, balls of perspiration trickled down from her forehead as she gently tried to get her breath under control. It had been ten years already, yet she was still haunted by the same nightmare. She had been to therapy countless times, and had bills to help her calm herself, yet the nightmares persisted. It had been a while since she got one, but it wasn't a new experience. Why now? Could it be because of the call she had gotten a few days ago? She said it wouldn't let it bother her, but apparently she hadn't told herself the truth. It had been a prank call, some stupid hoodlum who thought that pretending to be her ex would be funny. Olivia was already used to these types of calls. Noah Grant was a well known figure, and their relationship hadn't been a private affair. It might have been ten years ago, but people still asked her about him in interviews and press conferences. While she would love to avoid speaking about her ex as much as she could, i
Olivia froze in place, not sure of what she should do next. She didn't know if she should scream, or simply turn around and disappear from the office completely. However, one thing she knew not to do was act like a wimp she used to. "Liv, it's been a while—" "What are you doing here?" Olivia interjected sharply, her tone blunt and devoid of any sense of formality. Her arrogance only made Noah smile. Reaching into the depths of his pocket, he pulled out a badge and flashed it right at Olivia's face, "Noah Grant, CEO of Rock Enterprise, it's nice to meet you, Olivia Jones." Now Olivia was even more speechless, if that was even possible. She had heard that Rock Enterprise had been bought, but never in her life did she imagine that it was Noah who had bought it. What was he doing this for? To spite her? Hadn't he done enough already? "I want you out of here this instant. Leave while you still have the chance to avoid embarrassment." Olivia held her ground, her voice steady despite t
The interview had ended a lot faster than expected, and it was probably due to the fact that it wasn't even an interview. Olivia hadn't said much when Noah yielded and sealed the deal. He was here to impress her—to win her over, and not to listen to her beg for a partnership. "A moment, Liv—""Don't call me that! You don't get to call me that anymore!" Olivia snapped, her fingers pointed at Noah in a threatening manner. Noah raised his hand in submission, not wanting to anger her anymore than this. "I'm sorry, could you spare me a minute, Miss Jones? It's important for our partnership going forward, and I'd like to discuss it with you alone." His eyes slowly trailed towards Michael who had appeared right behind Olivia with a protective stance. Olivia knew very well that whatever Noah wanted to discuss had nothing to do with the just concluded interview, nor did it have anything to do with the partnership of the two companies. He probably wanted to discuss something different, one
Olivia did her best to remain calm, getting worked up wouldn't do her any good, and she definitely didn't want Noah Grant to be the reason for her foul mood that morning. She had better things to worry about, and Noah Grant was the least of them. So why then was she so invested in him? What exactly was his game? What could he be up to? Olivia needed to know. She knew Noah better than anyone, and she knew for certain that he hadn't just come around to play and have fun. He was definitely up to something, and she couldn't help but feel that she was at the epicenter of whatever master scheme he was cooking. She swallowed hard, trying to steer her thoughts away from Noah and focus them on the pile of paper before her. She had a lot of work to do, and thinking about her ex husband was not going to get the work done. Olivia hadn't finished with one of the documents when the door swung open to reveal her best and only friend, Lisa Brown. "You didn't tell me Noah is in town, what's going
It took Lisa a while but she finally managed to make it to Rock Enterprise. Without wasting any second, she hurried to the receptionist and immediately demanded for Noah's office floor. "Mr Grant is busy at the moment, I am unsure if he is willing to receive visitors." Those were the words the secretary blabbed to Lisa after she had gotten lost twice before finally making it here. She only needed one glance to tell that the lady behind the counter was threatened by her. She was likely infatuated with Noah as well, and clearly didn't want any competition."Noah is an acquaintance of mine, if you don't want to lose your job I'll suggest that you let me see him immediately!" Lisa fixed her gaze on the secretary, her voice cold and authoritative. The woman's initial confidence wavered a little, before she finally yielded."I—I need to call his office first," the secretary stammered, reaching for the phone. Her fingers trembled slightly as she dialed, her eyes darting nervously between Li
Only one out of the two things he had told Lisa was true, but Noah Grant couldn't care less. It was true, he hadn't signed the divorce papers from ten years, but Lisa wasn't the only person who knew of that. His lawyers did so as well, and the next person to find out would probably be Olivia. It didn't matter where she ran to, or whom she decided to be with, she was still legally his wife. "What? Why?!" Lisa inquired, pulling away from Noah's embrace. "You should have signed those papers years ago, what on earth are you waiting for?" "I got lazy, didn't really look at it until now." Noah replied with an air of nonchalance. It was definitely the truth. Olivia had left him after handing him the papers, and he never really bothered to even look at it after that day. He had tossed it into one of his drawers, and had only gone to pick it up a month ago, when he saw her on TV. "Sign them now!" Lisa thundered, angry and disappointed at the same time. "What do you even need them for?! She'
Olivia could sense that something was wrong the very moment she stopped in front of her apartment building. Something was different, the air seemed tensed, and every person around was staring at her as though she was a stranger. They knew who she was, she doubted anybody in the city was unaware of who she was. Yet, they glared at her with such an odd look on their faces. Her eyes scanned the surrounding, searching for something that could be the reason for the sudden attention. Her eyes fell on a few things she hadn't recognized, the most notable being a brand new sports car that rested by the far end of the building. The people who lived in this apartment weren't poor, so seeing a new sports cars wasn't exactly a big deal. Olivia only came to find out the reason why she had been getting those glares when she walked up the stairs and found Noah Grant standing in front of her door.Her heart had almost jumped out of her body, and she felt like turning around and leaving the moment he
A week had passed since Olivia encountered Noah in her apartment, and while they hadn't run into each other in a week now, she had managed to find out why exactly he had come back to taunt her after a whole decade.She hadn't really paid attention to his life after she had left him, but after a couple research, she finally fell upon Noah's problems. His half Brother, Damian Grant, was out to destroy his life. Olivia knew about Damian, the illegitimate son of the Grant family. He had been one of the few people who made life bearable for her while she had still been married to Noah. Since he hadn't been raised and spoiled as a child, Damian was a better human being than Noah, and while he had his own faults as well, he was a lot more tolerable than his half brother. From the article she had read online, she had come to know that Damian had contested Noah's ownership of the family's company. Ten years ago, Damian had been single, but had gotten married three years later, and had a daug
"Olivia?!" Damian exclaimed with relief, yet there was an underlying scolding tone in his voice. He wanted to scold her, but at the same time he was grateful that she had shown up when she had. If she had been here a second later, Noah might have actually killed him. "You're a stubborn lady, aren't you?" Damian said as his heartbeat began to slow down just a little. He had been scared to death by everything that had happened. But finally it was over. Noah was down, and almost all of his henchmen were either dead or being captured by the policemen that had just arrived. "Michael!" Olivia gasped at the sight of the man she loved. She could barely recognize him. He was covered in wounds and blood, and seeing him in such a sorry state made her break down in tears. "He's alive, just unconscious. He's going to be fine, I promise." Damian assured before yelling out for the paramedics. Olivia held onto Michael's bloodied body, her tears soaking him as she cried uncontrollably. Noah was go
Noah cracked the whip for the hundredth time that night before sending it at the tied up Michael. Each stroke tore a piece of the victims flesh, but even then Michael could scream no further. He had lost his voice, and at this point all his body felt numb. He just wanted to die at this point, but Noah was smart enough to never go overboard. Michael could already tell that Noah wanted to torture him for as long as possible, so death was very far from him at that moment.He did his best to take his mind off the pain and his environment as a whole. It was difficult, but he managed to pull his thoughts away. He thought of Olivia, how happy they would have been if Noah Grant hadn't come back into her life. He wished she never picked up that plan of hers, wished that they had just continued living their simple lives. But there was no time for regrets. There was no telling when these men would decide to kill him, and he couldn't afford to spend his final moments drowning in regret. "CRACK!"
Damian was disappointed when he heard the cause of all the problems they were facing at the moment, but he didn't openly blame Olivia for it. She was pregnant and was currently going through a lot mentally and emotionally, the last thing he wanted was to make her feel worse than she was already feeling at the moment. But even then, he felt that it was really a careless move on her end. Couldn't she have waited just a few more days before going to visit Michael? And why inform Noah that you were leaving the house to a friend's house, knowing very well that he knew every single one of your friends? "Don't worry about anything, Liv, just try to get some rest. I'll handle everything from here onwards." Damian consoled before ending the call. Picking up his jacket and gun, he raced towards his car and immediately made his way to Olivia's home. He needed to make sure that she wasn't harming herself or doing something detrimental to her health before he could really focus on anything else.
Noah waited anxiously in his room for a phone call from José. The sun had already gone down, and he had spent all day waiting anxiously to get the call. "Those bastards! Don't tell me they couldn't even get one man?!" Noah lamented as he glanced at the face of his watch for the thousandth time that night. On the thousand and oneth time, the vibration of his phone finally distracted him. Anxiously, he picked up the cellphone and a bright smile spread across his face the moment he caught sight of the caller's ID. It was José, and he couldn't be more happier than at that particular moment."Tell me what's up! Now!" Noah demanded desperately. "We have him here, he's unconscious but he'll come around soon. We're at the abandoned cottage you bought close to the outskirts of town. Is there anything you'd want me to do, boss?" José relayed sharply. "No, just stay there, you'll see me soon enough." Noah replied before picking up everything he needed. Without wasting a single second, he mar
Noah did his best to stay calm and think everything through. But the more he thought about the entire situation, the more infuriated he became. He needed to get all the rage out of his system somehow, and Olivia was not a choice. The only person he could think of at the moment was Michael Black, and every thought of Michael ended with him torturing and beating the living shit out of that man. His hands itched for blood, Michael's blood, and it wasn't long before his yearnings got the better of him. Grabbing his phone, Noah immediately put a call to José, the leader of his henchmen. He paced around the room as the phone rang, his rage rising by the second. He was going to teach Michael to continuously mess with him, and he was going to make sure he enjoyed every bit of his time torturing the bastard!. The phone rang for a while before a deep, gravelly voice answered. "Boss?"Noah didn't waste time with pleasantries, there was far too much to be done for him to waste any time on know
Majority of the drive home was spent in silence, only broken whenever Noah decided to mumble threats under his breath. Olivia didn't reply to any of his mumblings, and that had been for the best. The last thing she wanted was to start an argument in the middle of the road. Noah was already angry enough, and she didn't want to make things any worse, and also the fact that she didn't want other people in traffic to look at them like crazy couples. After twenty long minutes, the car finally came to a halt in front of Noah's mansion, but even then neither of the two wanted to step out. The tension in the air was palpable, and Olivia couldn't help but feel that a war might actually break out anytime soon. Tired of sitting in silence, she made the first move towards the door, and instantly regretted it."Right, walk away first! It's what you always do." Noah lamented the moment Olivia's hands came in contact with the door handle. Rolling her eyes inwardly, Olivia backed away from the doo
"Please give me a chance to explain myself—""Just get in the car, we're not doing this here!" Noah interjected before Olivia had the chance to finish her sentence. Olivia wanted to decline, she wanted to settle everything here before going home with Noah, but refusing to get into the car might just escalate matters even more. She turned towards Michael, and just as she suspected he was against her leaving with Noah, it was visible from the look on his face. Olivia perfectly understood Michael's concern, he didn't trust Noah, and feared that he might harm me in a fit of rage. But I knew Noah a lot better now than ever, and I knew for certain that he wasn't going to hurt me, at least not in the way Michael was envisioning it in his head.Taking in a deep breath, Olivia picked up her purse and immediately exited the house. She walked ahead of Noah who seemed to have some unfinished discussions with Michael. Michael was definitely strong enough to defend himself, so Olivia didn't bothe
With Noah gone, Olivia found the perfect opportunity to pay Michael a visit. They hadn't seen each other since she returned from visiting the Grants, and it was slowly getting to her. However, an opportunity had presented itself, and there was no way she was going to miss it. She picked up her phone and immediately texted Noah, informing him that she would be going to a friend's place. She could have left the house without informing him if she wanted, but had decided against that. She didn't want to get herself in any sticky situations with Noah, especially not at the moment. If he returned and found the house empty, he was definitely going to panic, and she didn't have the patience or strength to answer his litany of questions afterwards. Once she was done informing Noah about her plan to leave the house, Olivia quickly got prepared and immediately set off to Michael's place. She had missed him more than anything, and needed someone to distract her from the pregnancy stress and eve
Noah felt his blood run cold at the sight before him. Surely this was false, right? Dr Gregory was clearly lying to him, right? There was simply no way that Olivia could have lied to him about that. There was no way that baby wasn't his!"Are you playing with me?! Don't fucking play games with me!" Noah bellowed, rage welling up inside of him. This was some sort of joke, and he wasn't here for jokes. "I'm sorry, but these are the real results. Damian hired me to fabricate the results after the tests. Somehow he already knew that the baby wasn't yours, and he called ahead of your visit, giving me enough time to get everything done." Dr Gregory explained. He didn't really care about the family drama that these two were in, getting his money was all that mattered, and his loyalty lied with the highest bidder.Noah didn't want to believe it, but it seemed to make sense now. Perhaps that was what Olivia and Damian had been discussing back then. All of it had been an act, the drama, the t