Chapter 36: Chapter Thirty-Six: Olivia
For a moment, it felt like the sound in the background had reduced to nothing. The only thing I could focus my attention on was him.
I was eager but also scared to finally hear the answer to the question that has been haunting me for the past 6 years.
What if it was truly my sister? The prospect of the woman being Ava has been a recurring thought for a while, one I tried so hard to convince myself into believing was false, despite my mind being inclined towards thinking that it was her.
To be fair, it was a logical thought process. I find out he's cheating on me with a woman, and then suddenly after my "death" he gets married to my sister.
"What?"
He shot an incredulous look my way. "Cheating on you? What do you mean?"
The situation was too comical and I almost let out a laugh. "Come on, don't try to deny it. It's been 6 years, the list you can do is be honest."
My voice began to grow shaky as the hurt came resurfacing.
"I'm serious, I'm not trying to be funny, I don't know what you're talking about."
I twisted my body such that I was directly facing him. "That night, I came home and caught you in the act Aiden."
"Caught me in the act of what? I was working from home and then I eventually went to sleep, what are you even talking about?"
"Don't try to gaslight me, I know what I heard!"
The tension in the car heightened. It felt like there was a solid mass pressing against my chest. "What you heard? Tell me Olivia, what did you hear?"
In a flash of anger, I yelled. "What the heck did you think I heard? You were in our room, with another woman, making love! I heard it very loudly and clearly, it was unmistakable."
At first he didn't say anything, he was silent, as if trying to process everything I just said.
"Look, I don't know what you heard or what you think you heard-"
"What I think I heard?" I shot back, interjecting him. "So what? You're trying to make me sound crazy? Like I just imagined the sound of two people moaning?"
"I don't know. Maybe what you heard was the house staff."
If I didn't know any better, I may have foolishly believed this lie. "Don't try to feed me that crap, none of the house guards would dare enter our bedroom to make love, not while you were home!"
My eyes widened when the implications of my statement clicked in my mind. "Unless…" I trailed off.
"Unless what Olivia?" He questioned, leaning forward as if he was genuinely intrigued to hear what I had to say.
"You were cheating on me with the housemaid."
He raked his fingers through his hair, turning it into a hot mess. "I would never, I did not cheat on you Olivia. You have to believe me I am- I don't even know where you're getting this theory from. I was at home, I didn't hear any moaning sound, like I said, maybe it was the house staff messing around while I was asleep."
I snatched my gaze away from him, looking out through the window. The rain had begun to subside and the streets were clearing up.
"Just help me get to the junction so I can get a cab and go home."
He started the car. "No, I'm taking you home."
"You can't take me home, Liam-"
"Is he hurting you?" He asked, jumping straight into conclusions.
"Liam would never hurt me, so you don't need to worry about that. I just don't want him getting the wrong idea."
A sarcastic chuckle escaped from his lips. "Yes he would never hurt you, but that day I saw him clearly hurting you."
The ride was so smooth that I barely noticed when the car started to roll down the street. "Point of correction, he didn't hurt me. He just mistakenly held me too tight."
"That's how it starts Olivia."
Feeling fed up with the conversation, I stood my ground. "Alright that's enough, nothing there's nothing that Liam would do to me that would ever match up to the way you hurt me that night so please give it a rest."
I could see that he clearly opened his mouth to speak but closed it, resting his back against the seat.
The playlist continued with a random shuffle, helping us fill in for the awkwardness mixed with silence that hung in the air.
"You can drop me here, I'll walk home," I said when his car was close enough to my home.
"No Olivia, I won't. It's non negotiable, anything could happen to you between this distance and your house, it's late at night and it's really dark. I would rather your husband gets pissed off than for something worse to happen to you."
I folded my arms and reluctantly gave him directions. He pulled up on the street, directly opposite the main entrance.
"Thanks," I said and grabbed my hand bag, getting down from the car. Before I fully exited the car, I heard his voice.
"Olivia," I paused, turning to hear what he had to say. "I need you to believe me, I never cheated."
At this point, his words held little weight. "It doesn't matter Aiden, we've both moved on."
I shut the door behind me when I got down then took a deep breath. I raised my head to see a figure by the window, peering down at me. It quickly vanished before I could make out who it was, but I could deduce it was Liam because this was the master's bedroom window.
Aiden's eyes were practically glued to my back as I made my way into my house. The moment I stepped inside, the twins ran up to me.
Crouching down, I sweeped them into a huge hug but my eyes were fixed on Liam who was behind them. He seemed calm, unnecessarily calm.
I'd expect at least a frown on his face or something. "Where have you been?" He asked softly.
"I attended this business summit that I was invited to and on my way back my car broke down in the middle of nowhere. It was crazy, I tried calling your number but-"
"I know, I saw your missed calls. I was in a court hearing around the time you were calling so that's why I didn't respond."
Even though he hadn't made it seem like he was angry, I could still sense his rage. "Liam, I think we should talk," I offered, deciding to grab the bull by the horn.
After what happened in the station, it was quite clear that he felt insecure about my proximity to Aiden and I just wanted to straighten things out properly like we always did. Communication was always our stronghold as a couple.
He shrugged. "What's there to talk about? Your car broke down, you called your knight in shining armor, he dropped you off at home."
The irritation in his voice was evident. "Skye, Lorraine, please go to your rooms."
The kids exchanged a worried look before reluctantly complying. I was beginning to feel scared that the growing rift between Liam and I was spilling over and affecting the children.
When I was sure that they had reached upstairs, I stepped forward. "Liam it's not like that-"
"Really?!" He snapped, grabbing my arms. My eyes widened as he took me by surprise. Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine that Liam would grab me so aggressively.
"Out of everybody you could have called, you called him?"
"Oh don't give me that crap Liam! I called you! Severally!"
A smile formed on his lips. "And I'm sure you were more than glad when I didn't pick up, so you could have the perfect excuse to go running into his arms."
I was struggling to snatch my arms from his grip but he didn't let go until I exerted extra effort. "You're being so unreasonable and brash Liam, this isn't you."
He pulled me closer and our faces almost met. "Maybe when you stop flirting and shamelessly throwing yourself on your ex-husband then I'll stop being unreasonable!"
A loud smack resonated, that was the sound of me slapping him. "That's enough."
I saw fire in his eyes as he approached, and I could swear that he was going to punch me, but he simply brushed past me and headed upstairs.
From the corner of my eyes I saw him entering the spare bedroom and I let out a soft breath.
The bed felt extremely wide and empty and I found myself rolling from side to side. I wasn't used to his absence and it broke me that we were fighting like this.
In the morning I woke up with a new found sense of enthusiasm. Deciding that it was high time me and him had a proper talk, I got up and headed to the spare bedroom, but he wasn't there.
It wasn't until I went downstairs in search of him that I saw some bags. "What's going on here?" I asked him.
"What does it look like? The kids and I are going back to France."
My heart dropped.
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