Chapter 41 His Words in My Mind

Chapter 41 His Words in My Mind
The words cut cleanly through the air.
Olive froze.
The kitchen seemed to shrink around them. The soft sound of rain outside suddenly felt too loud, too far away. She stared at Leo, certain she had misheard him.
“What…?” she whispered.
Leo didn’t smile. Didn’t tease. Didn’t soften the moment.
He looked serious.
“Marry me,” he repeated, his voice calm, steady. “That’s how you pay me.”
Her breath caught painfully in her throat.
“This isn’t a joke,” he continued. “I’m not saying this because of the money. I’m saying it because I want you. I want to take responsibility—for you, for your family, for everything that comes with you.”
Olive shook her head slowly, disbelief and fear colliding in her chest. “Leo… you can’t just say something like that.”
“I can,” he replied quietly. “And I am.”
She let out a weak, breathless laugh. “You’re asking me to marry you like it’s a contract.”
“No,” he said, stepping a little closer. “I’m offering you a life where you don’t have to carry everything alone anymore.”
His words weren’t loud. They weren’t dramatic.
That was what made them terrifying.
Olive felt her heart race, her thoughts scrambling. Marriage. His world. His enemies. His power. Everything she had seen—and everything she hadn’t.
She pressed her palm against the counter behind her, grounding herself. “You don’t even know what you’re asking me to step into.”
Leo met her gaze without hesitation. “I do.”
“And you still want me?” she asked, her voice barely holding together.
“Yes. I already know the day you saved me, Liv. I really wanted to marry you.”
He stated, no doubt.
The certainty in his answer scared her more than the chaos outside ever had.
Olive closed her eyes for a moment, her chest rising and falling as she tried to steady herself.
“I can’t answer you right now,” she said honestly. “Not like this. Not after everything.”
Leo nodded. “I’m not asking for an answer tonight.”
She opened her eyes again, surprised.
“I’ll wait,” he added. “But I won’t take the offer back.”
The room fell quiet again.
Hours had passed.
Leo had already left—only after making sure everything with the bank was settled and Olive’s family was finally safe. The house, though still damp and disordered from the rain, felt quieter now. Too quiet. Like the walls themselves were exhausted.
Olive lay on her bed, half-sitting, half-slumped, her back pressed against the headboard. Her feet rested on the cold floor, toes curled slightly, as if she needed the chill to remind herself that she was awake. That this was real.
Her hands came up to cradle her face.
“Marry him?” she murmured to the empty room.
The words sounded strange out loud. Heavy. Unreal. Marriage—to Leo. To a man who had entered her life like a storm: sudden, powerful, dangerous, and impossible to ignore. A man who could stop banks, silence people with a single word, and still look at her like she was something fragile he needed to protect.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
She was grateful. Deeply. He had saved their house. He had protected her family when she was running out of strength. He had carried burdens she had been silently holding for years. No one—no one—had ever done that for her before.
Not without asking for something in return.
And that was what scared her the most.
Until when would he keep doing good for them? Until when would she feel safe leaning on someone like him?
What would happen when the kindness ended—or when the cost finally came due?
Olive let out a long, tired sigh. Her shoulders sagged as the weight of the day finally settled into her bones. Her body ached from exhaustion. Her head throbbed faintly. And her heart—her heart felt too full, stretched tight with fear, gratitude, confusion, and something dangerously close to hope.
“I can’t think about this tonight,” she whispered.
Tomorrow, she had duty. Tomorrow, she had to be strong again—focused, composed, dependable. The Olive everyone expected her to be. The Olive who didn’t fall apart.
For now, she just needed rest.
She slid down under the covers, pulled the blanket up to her chest, and turned off the light. The room fell into darkness, broken only by the soft sounds of the night outside.
As she closed her eyes, one thought lingered—quiet, persistent, impossible to ignore.
No matter how hard she tried to push it away… Leo was already part of her life.
Morning came too fast.
Olive was already at the hospital, moving from one ward to another with a stiff back and tired eyes. The fluorescent lights felt harsher than usual, the air colder. She had been called in earlier by management and warned about her sudden absence—no official leave filed, no explanation given. One more incident like that, and she knew exactly what it meant.
She couldn’t afford to lose this job.
So she tried—really tried—to be present.
She followed closely behind Dr. Mathilda as the doctor did her rounds, clipboard pressed to her chest, heels clicking sharply against the floor. Olive walked a step behind, pen ready, writing down instructions as they moved from bed to bed. She nodded when required, responded when asked.
But her mind refused to cooperate.
Her gaze drifted down to the tiles.
And her thoughts drifted with it— to Leo, to the way he had looked at her, to his voice, steady and serious, to the words that still echoed like a bruise she couldn’t stop touching.
Marry me.
“Miss Navarro.”
Olive stopped breathing.
Dr. Mathilda had already halted and turned around. Her sharp eyes landed on Olive like a blade.
“If you cannot focus,” the doctor said coldly, her voice loud enough to carry across the ward, “then maybe you should consider resigning.”