Chapter 174: OLIVIA LEARNED THE TRUTH
"Did you ignore your father’s calls?" Hazel stared at her phone, reading the message that Denzel sent to her. It was short and concise, informing her that Ranon had ignored his calls.
Ranon was having breakfast with Hazel; he looked so sharp and sophisticated in his grey suit. He had an important meeting this morning.
Meanwhile, Hazel was still in his shirt. Because she had the habit of not wearing anything when she slept, she would get whatever she could wear when she woke up. Ranon’s clothes were the comfortable ones for her.
Because of this, Ranon also gave a stern warning not to let all the bodyguards enter the house early in the morning without permission from Renna. For whatever reason.
"No."
Hazel showed him the message, but Ranon didn’t even glance at it and continued to eat. "You are lying with a straight face."
"I told him not to call me." So, if Denzel ignored that, it was not his problem; he had warned him.
"Why was he adamant about seeing you?" Hazel retracted her phone because Ranon was not even interested in reading the message.
"Not interested." More or less, Ranon could tell what his father wanted to say to him, but he had zero interest in having that conversation with him. "What about the meeting you will attend?" Ranon changed the topic, reminding Hazel about the meeting with all the shareholders in the Rose Company.
"I will borrow Lucian later." The meeting would take place in a few days.
Hearing that, Ranon raised his brows. "You can borrow me, instead."
Hazel chuckled. "I don’t need an axe to cut a chicken." She then added cheekily. "I will borrow you later for something bigger." She ate her food happily.
"I have never seen someone so blunt when they are going to use me." Ranon wiped the sauce from the corner of Hazel’s lips.
***
"Have you seen yourself in the mirror?" Lyle squinted his eyes in disapproval upon seeing his sister’s appearance.
"Why are you here?" Oliva didn’t want to meet with anyone, but against her better judgment, she opened the door for Lyle.
Their last meeting didn’t end well, and they had not yet talked for a few weeks when suddenly her younger brother appeared on her doorstep.
"I only want to check on you," Lyle said dismissively. He looked around the house, and Olivia knew right away who he was looking for.
"He is not here," she said curtly as she walked back inside, and Lyle closed the door behind him.
Of course, he knew Marcus was not here. After he overheard his father’s conversation with Nelson, he confronted him, and their father didn’t even bother to deny it.
In a way, Lyle understood why their father did what he had done, but if Olivia knew about it, she would never forgive him, and the chance for her to return would be none.
Now Lyle didn’t even know why he was here.
"Is it because of him again that you look like this?" Lyle went to the kitchen and looked for something to drink, while Olivia sat down in the living room, watching a movie. He was sure she didn’t even know what the movie was about.
Olivia didn’t answer him.
"When was the last time you ate?" Lyle asked as he plopped down next to her. "You are going to die if you keep being like this."
Still, there was no answer from Olivia.
Lyle sighed. He placed his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer. "You need to stop thinking about him. You really need to let him go and forget about him. He brought nothing but misery for you."
Tears streamed down Olivia’s cheeks. She would love to forget everything about him if she could. If only it were so easy to tune out her feelings, she wouldn’t be this miserable and endure this agony.
"I know," she whispered between her tears. "But, even after everything, I still love him..."
"You are so stupid."
And Lyle was not the first person who told her that.
She wondered if this was really the end.
Marcus had gone for so long without any news. Olivia didn’t know his whereabouts, and now her anger turned into worry.
"Lyle, please help me... Could you please find him? I only want to see him once. For one last time." Olivia lifted her head and looked at her brother. "I promise. It will be the last."
Something was not right, and she needed to be sure that he was fine. If he was, then she could close this Chapter.
There was a complicated look in Lyle’s eyes.
***
The divorce proceeding moved rather fast with the help of Ezra. He was quite ruthless in the court. The man was young, but he was very skilled with what he was doing.
With the evidence of James’s adultery and the emotional distress he caused during the process, it helped with Laurel’s case.
Not to mention the behind-the-scenes warfare, when James tried to pull the strings to get the judge on his side.
But thankfully, Ezra had expected this.
"I am rather confused here..." Hazel lamented as she talked on the phone with Laurel. "Why do you have to report all of these to me?"
Laurel called her very often nowadays, only to report everything that had been going on with her divorce proceeding.
The information that Hazel didn’t need at all. She couldn’t care less about what was going on with Laurel’s life, and more importantly, she was not interested to know.
However, Laurel gave her a constant update.
"I need someone to talk to, or else I will be stressed out." She was not allowed to leak any information, just in case James learned about their next move, but Hazel was different; she didn’t have anything to do with James.
"Yeah, but you stress me out instead," Hazel grumbled. "I am pregnant, remember? I should be happy, and hearing your complaint makes me feel a contraction. Even my baby is upset."
Laurel was about to retort when suddenly the line was cut off. She stared at her phone, blinking her eyes in confusion. "Did she just hang up on me?"
Actually, it was not Hazel who hung up the phone, but Ranon.
"What did you do?" Hazel caught her phone when Ranon tossed it back after he ended the call.
"If she stresses you out, you don’t need to pick up her call," he said simply. That was what he did to his father. He didn’t pick up his call when he became a nuisance.
He would meet Denzel when it was necessary.
"Well..." Hazel shrugged her shoulders. She didn’t have any justification for why she kept picking up Laurel’s calls.
They were on their way to the Rose Company; today was the meeting, and as someone who held one of the biggest shares in the company, it was necessary for her to come.
Moreover, she needed to make them aware of her involvement now.
"Are you sure?" Ranon asked, and he parked the car. Today, he personally drove Hazel here, while Lucian had arrived an hour ago.
"I am sure," Hazel said. She leaned over to kiss his cheek; it became a habit of hers. Ugh. She hoped it was only her pregnancy hormone that drove her craving for physical touch.
Ranon tilted his head and kissed the corner of her lips. "I will wait here," he said.
"You don’t have to." Hazel raised her brows, surprised. "Don’t you have anything to do at the office?" Ares would complain if she took both Ranon and Lucian. "I will go now."
Ranon didn’t say anything; he stayed there until Hazel met with Lucian in the parking lot and the two of them entered the building. But he didn’t drive away; instead, he came out of the car and lit up a cigarette.
It had been a while since he last smoked because it wouldn’t be good for her.
However, Ranon had a lot of things to think about...
On the other hand, when Hazel was about to enter the building, her phone rang. She saw the caller, and it was Olivia.
"New phone?" Lucian noticed the phone she was holding was different from the one Hazel owned.
Hazel was startled; she had pulled out the second phone that she used to call Olivia under River’s name.
"Yeah..." She didn’t give him a definite answer and urged him to hurry.
Hazel didn’t think Olivia had an important thing to say to River, and even if she did, she could call her later, because right now, there was something important she needed to face.
Little did she know, Olivia was in dire need of help...
She was staring at the man who had broken into her apartment from the crack of her door, which was slightly ajar.
Olivia tried to call Lyle, but he didn’t pick up his phone. Thus, her only hope was River, but she rejected her call.
"Damn it." Olivia hissed as she went to her cabinet and hid there. "Pick up the phone," she hissed to herself and then sent River a text.
Olivia then tried to call Lyle again, but he didn’t pick up.
After what Lyle told her a few days ago, Olivia couldn’t hold back her anger and kicked Lyle out of her apartment, even though she was well aware that he had nothing to do with what their father had done to Marcus.
Lyle was right; after learning that, there was no coming back for her. She hated her family with passion.