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“Olivia! Stop!”
I could hear a voice behind me but the amount of ringing in my ears and the shards of pain in my gut were making it too hard to concentrate. I tripped over my feet as I tried to speed down the gravel driveway.
“He is not engaged! It is not what you think!”
The words caused me to freeze and try to catch my breath. I leaned my hands on the stone wall that curved down the driveway with the folder still in my hand. The folder. My entire life rolled into a bound file. Every important milestone and achievement. Personal information about me and my family. Even Millie was in there. And of course, the tragic event that haunts me even today. He had gone behind my back and found it all. But that isn’t what hurt the most. It was the fact he lied. He pretended he didn’t know. He let me believe that I was confiding in him when he knew all along. Thinking back to the moments when he suddenly changed around me. He stopped trying to sleep with me using his arrogant charms. It wasn’t because he genuinely realised I meant more to him than just a hook-up, it was because he read about my past. He knew what he needed to do to get me in his bed. He changed his tactics because he knew they wouldn’t work. I have never felt so betrayed in all my life.
I felt a presence next to me as I stood up straight. “It doesn’t matter,” I growled at Cecilia. She knew all of this! “Why? Why did you allow me to be with him in France knowing he had a fiancé back home?”
“She is not his fiancé Olivia. It is a misunderstanding. It’s a business arrangement between his uncle and her father. Gio had no say in it and is trying to find a way out of it. You must believe me,” she pleaded, her big brown eyes looked terrified as I glared at her.
“Even if that is true and he doesn’t want to marry her, that doesn’t change the fact that he kept this from me. Another huge part of his life. What else is he hiding from me? He slept with me and made me believe it was me he wanted to be with when she was always there in the background. Why is she here, Cecilia?”
She sighed and looked around the lawns. “She lives here. But it is not permanent. She will be gone as soon as we can figure this out. It is more complicated than you can imagine Olivia and Gio wants you! Not her.”
I scoffed, feeling the anger rising in me. “I just can’t…I can’t deal with this. My life is a fucking disaster as it is! I don’t need this either.” I started to storm away from her again, but she followed me, not backing down.
“So that’s it? You are going to walk away from the man you love?” She yelled, her tone dominating.
“I didn’t fall in love with that man! I fell in love with his words. Unfortunately, he was a good liar!”
“Olivia! Will you stop and think rationally for a moment? He should have told you, yes. He should have handled all of this better. I don't deny that. But he has never felt this way before, he is bound to fuck up when he is dealing with so much shit that is out of his control. Everything he has done has been to protect you. He never wanted to hurt you!”
I spun around in my converse high tops at her final words. “Well, I know that is a lie! This!” I held up the folder and shook it in front of her. “This proves that he went behind my back, invaded my privacy, found out my weaknesses and insecurities and used them against me just so he could do whatever it is that he has been doing with me! At any point, he could have revealed what he knew about me but he didn’t. He let me sit there and pour my heart out to him and he pretended he didn’t know a thing! How can I ever trust a man like that?”
Her face paled and she stood motionless as she looked from the file to me. She didn’t know. She had no idea he had done that. Ha. She doesn’t know her son as well as she thinks she does. “You once said to me that as long as trust was there, then we could overcome anything!”
Her eyes held her sorrow as she realised I was done. Nothing she could say would make me want to go back to that house. “I’m sorry Cecilia. I can’t work for you anymore. I hope you understand. If I must serve out my last two weeks’ notice, I will, but only if Giovanni is not in the house.”
She shook her head slowly. “If this is truly what you want, Olivia. You do not need to come back at all. I will get Elle to meet you with Sani and Raya to say goodbye tomorrow.”
I nodded once as I swallowed the lump that was lodged in my throat. I was not going to cry in front of her. I was not going to shed one more tear over that man. I turned on my feet as the gate opened to the Buccini estate and I walked out of it for the last time. I stopped on the road and glanced back up at the long, winding driveway.
He was never mine in the first place but losing him still broke my heart into a million pieces.
Maze Of Secrets
Camilla
Ihad no idea what was going on.
Ten minutes ago, I had come out of my room and made my way down to the kitchen to grab something to eat and to hopefully bump into Max when that slimy right-hand man to Salvatore showed up. I hated the way he looked at me. The way his beady eyes raked my body and he licked his lips. I was just a piece of meat to him, and I was sure that if I didn’t have the protection of being engaged to Giovanni, he would have tried something. Men like him always do.
“Buongiorno Camilla,” his cold tone was masked with a fake smile, and I returned it without holding his gaze.
“Ciao.”
“Is everything to your satisfaction?” His eyes sparkled with desire, and I gulped. “Living here, I mean?”
“Si. Everyone has been very welcoming,” I lied. No one wanted me here. I wasn’t a fool. Giovanni’s mother hasn’t said a word to me, leaves the room anytime I enter it and the staff look right through me as if I don’t even exist. And Giovanni… Well, he is the worst.
“Bravo. Where is your fiancé? I need a word,” he looked around the lobby with slow, calculated precision and my stomach dropped. If I was to play this part like Max said, I should act as if I actually know Giovanni in some form.
“He has been working. I expect he is in his office,” I replied in what I hoped was a confident manner. The truth was, I had no idea where he was. I rarely saw him. His eyes fell on me again, lingering on my boobs before he gave me a small smile.
“Would you be so kind as to walk me up?” He asked. I nodded once and turned to climb the stairs again. He hovered behind me just so he could gawk at my ass. I knew men like him like the back of my hand. I also knew that this was possibly a test. He wanted to see Giovanni and I together and report back to his Boss.
When we reached the office door, I knocked once. There was no answer, but I could hear movement inside. Faking my boldness and familiarity, I decided to open the door anyway and prayed that Giovanni wouldn’t bite my head off for it.
