19. CRAZY EX.
“Damien”
She paced towards his office door, before pushing it open. He stood above his desk with a loose silk shirt over his shoulders, and a young man next to him. He scanned through a document in his hands and Liv quieted, on sensing the silence she’d interrupted.
“Have you seen what you’ve done?” He looked up at her, with anger in his eyes and Liv stepped back. “It’s not that bad. It’s not the worst thi—“
“It’s not bad” His husky voice echoed as he drew close to her. “Trust me it’s going to all everyone talks about for a day or two and they’re going to move on. It’s how it always is, they find something to obsess over for a day but they’re going to move on to the next big news” There was a crack in her voice. “I know that because i’m them. I used to be like them” She continued.
And Damien tossed the clipboard to the table. “Sign this” He croaked and her eyes darted back and forth. “What is that?” She asked, looking back at him. “A simple nda, and a legal document to ensure this does never repeat itself again” He gritted through his teeth, and she shook her head. “I’m not signing that” She said and his hands fell to his hips. “I don’t think you know this, Olivia—but you don’t exactly have a choice” He raised his voice.
“Look the mess you put us both in. Over something that wouldn’t last” She looked to him. “I’m sick of that. I’m sick of you having an opinion over every single thing i do” They locked eyes, in front of the PR agent who wanted nothing to do with this.
“Just sign the goddamn papers, Olivia” Damien urged.
“Why are you this way?” She whispered after a brief pause between them. “So unpredictable, it’s consuming. It’s aggravating ugh” She exclaimed. “You’re nice one second and then you’re back to being an asshole” She yelled at him.
He bit into his teeth, holding his pen to her face. “Sign this, Olivia. I won’t say this a second time” She snatched it from his hands and faced the table. It was then Amanda walked in, having settled already in her room. “Have you devised a plan yet?” She turned to the suited man next to her son’s desk.
“I mean we have to issue a statement to the public.”
“We don’t have to” He broke into her her words and Damien looked back to him. “She’s right. The worst thing we can do is admit to anything, for what i know, it’s still an argument amongst the people whether or not it was the Olivia Sanders” He added.
“It was only a blurry shot of someone with red hair, and that could have been every other person in Vienna. So we don’t say a word until it all settles down. Everyone’s going to be talking about a different story soon”
“But what about my image?” Damien deepened his tone. “I have never been this humiliated before” He eyed his fiancé on his left and she cupped her chin to the document before her. “We control the damage that we can” Toni said, the PR executive.
“And does that include whatever the fuck we’re going to have to say to Raznak?” He asked, being his usual impatient self. His voice was quivering, not of fear but of rage. And Liv pend down her signature in the only open slot at the end of the page. She let go of it and it fell to the table.
“We can only wait till the gala tomorrow night” Amanda seethed as Liv brushed past his shoulders, rubbing her hungover eyes. “Olivia” He called her to a halt and she tossed her head upon her shoulders. “I’d have Marisol keep an eye on you. We leave early tomorrow” Her eyes fell to his wound she’d wrapped for him and she nodded with frailty. “Okay” She moistened her dry lips.
And he watched her walk away, stinging himself with anything other than the guilt in his veins. She was right, about him being unpredictable but it was something he couldn’t control. Especially when things spiraled out of control. This was one of those things.
-
Alli jolted up from his bed, seeing the sun that poured in from his windows. “Shit” He cussed, realizing he might have been late to see Aaliyah on her big day—
—it wasn’t her wedding, but rather only an introduction. A day, he’d taken off work for this. He heard the low music coming from the parlor as he sneaked past the corridor. There was a multitude hanging around the kitchen, most of whom he assumed were far relatives of both his dad and his uncle.
Aaliyah wasn’t their biological daughter, but ever since her dad died, it felt like she was. She was taken in since she was eight, and raised like their own—like Alli’s very own sister. It was why on a day like this, they were to stand in as her parents.
And Alli, an older brother. To whoever the gentleman was.
She clutched her chest as she turned around, startled. “What are you doing here?” Aal sauntered to close the doors behind him and Alli let out a chuckle. “I didn’t know night had already passed” He whispered, as she walked back to the mirror.
Applying color to her cheeks, Aali quickly stepped into her silver sandals that gave way for her maroon-colored toe nails, bright enough to match her well embroidered sari. It had gold at it’s edges and shapes of heart scattered lackadaisically around it. In that moment, he had halted for a minute to take a good look at his cousin who was all grown up.
“You’re so beautiful” He told no lies as she paused, a smile invading her lips. Now up until that moment, her heart was racing and Aal began to have second thoughts—this gut feeling she couldn’t quite shake off, that something was going to go wrongly. “Thank you” She heaved a deep breath.
“You’re going to do amazing” His hands reached for her shoulders and she stared at it, and then back at him. There was a horn coming from outside the windows, that rang in her chest, like he was here already. Her soon-to-be husband was.
“And i’m going to be right beside you every step of the way” He whispered and there was a knock on her door. Alli stepped aside just as Mohammed walked in. She had jewelry hanging his nose, and around his wrists, her waist—the little skin on her stomach that showed through the dress. She had an anklet as well, in what was considered tradition.
The woman before him, was gold
And seeing the pride in his eyes was more than enough for her. Grabbing her dress, she walked up the steps. “He’s here” Alli’s mother was behind him and they looked down at her. He was able to sneak a picture, sending it to Olivia, as a way of saying she wasn’t the only one having the time of her life.
But if only he knew.
“I’m ready” Aaliyah’s whisper shot through his ears as they looked back up. “Come on” He whispered but when he was by the door, his father held him back. “You go wear something nice and then you join us in the parlor” Alli bore his eyes into his father’s before he was let go.
And then he scrambled to his room.
-
“Vienna”
“Ma’am we’re closed. We advise that you leave the library between now and the next fifteen minutes” Amelia ravaged through the million papers that were on her desk before she threw her head back at the elderly librarian.
This was her sanctuary, where she came to write some of the most atrocious, morally revolting articles she was known for. She was fearless under that name she’d created for herself, having written some of the criminal exposés that had been adapted into film. To say Amelia was brilliant would be a very huge understatement—it was what Damien Archer saw in her.
That boldness, fearlessness and the courage that upheld her aura, but while she was falling for him, he made the decision for the both of them that they were never going to last. Now, with a motive for revenge, she swore to get to the root of whatever the fuck he was up to with the woman that once wanted nothing to do with him.
She struck the keyboards with her fingers, as she searched the web for the most she could find on what was happening in Vienna. And then she came across an exclusive invitation, to a ball that for that night. She’d spent the previous days in this same spot but right then and there had she reached a head.
There was Raznak.
She would know him, because she’d written about him once, and his shady dealings with a persecuted billionaire. And he was also a friend of Archer’s—with one picture from the 90’s of the both of them. Resting back in her chair, she stroked her chin. She was smart, you could give it to her. But she had no idea what to do with information like that.
It wasn’t what she was after, nor what she had expected. But it was something, something she could very much leech unto. She scrapped the table of her files and stuffed them in her bag before running out of the doors. And before the woman got back, Amelia was done, leaving spare change flying in the air.
One thing about her was she would always figure shit out.
And she was Amelia Jacobson, she had the will and word, now she sought a way. A way to make it Vienna before tonight.
-
Olivia toyed with the ring around her finger, shimmering in the rising sun. She was convinced it rose with intensity from the city of Vienna.
And she sat against her headstand, convincing herself that it was going to be a good day, even with the ball that night. Little did she know she was going to have a visitor, scratch that, more than a few. Her phone lit up next to her, with a message from both Agatha and Alli.
Agatha: How are you doing?
Technically she couldn’t answer that, she wasn’t sure how she was doing, or how she was going to get through the night, especially with Damien hating her all of a sudden last minute.
Swiping it away, she saw Alli’s text but before she could open it. Her door immediately barged open and in came he, in the most ridiculous outfit she’d seen, comprising a black blazer to match his boots and white fitting pants. He had on a hat as well, which he tilted slightly to the left.
“What?” Liv arched her brows, confirming his unpredictability.
“Damien”
She struck the bed with the crop in his hands. “Toni thought this was a better idea” He smirked. “So get up, i’ll take you somewhere” A smirk morphed on the side of her lips as well as she tossed her duvet to the side. “Meet me down in five?”
-
His hands gripped the railings as he jumped the steps.
Taking a quick look in the corridor mirror, Alli adjusted his cream caftan and was headed to the parlor. “Alli. Could you grab a plate from the kitchen?” His mother suddenly said as he came a halt in front of the empty chair.
“Where is—“ He pointed to where her suitor was supposed to be sat and Aal pointed to the bathroom. Alli knew he had to be quick, so he rushed towards the kitchen, grabbing the closest ceramic he could find and rubbing it underneath the water.
And then suddenly a door closed behind him.
He rushed from the kitchen, and towards the aisle that led back outside but he bumped into someone. “Sh—“ He muttered, looking up at the man before him. And horror filled his eyes, he instantly let go of the glass plate and it shattered into a thousand small pieces on the ground.
His lips couldn’t move.
And he stared in utter disbelief, he should have known. He could have known from the familiar scent. Stepping backwards into the shards of glass, he raised a finger at him.
“Omar?”
Came a shockingly dim whisper—the person that was to marry his was Omar, the same person he’d been with.
“Alli” Came a reply, and in that moment, he understood when Omar said it was all complicated. Truth be told, it was worse.
To be continued…