Blake
Right after Olivia took off with Karen and her family, I got ready and headed to my office.
John was already there waiting for me. He greeted me and I asked about my schedule today. “You are going to be free until lunch and at 2 PM you are going to attend a meeting with a potential client who has been bugging you for a couple of months.”
“Oh, that guy?”
“Yes, that guy. And you are going to be free again right after. If you like to finish the remaining reports which I had arranged at your table already, I will be so grateful. And that is all.”
“I see. Well, thanks, John. Just work inside my office. It’ll be easier if I want to call you,” I entered my office and sat on the chair.
John soon followed with his laptop and sat on the chair across me. “So, today is the day Olivia goes to Malibu?
“Yeah.”
“Are you worried, sir? Especially after you found out that she’s texting with somebody which your presumed…it was a guy,” John asked. He was clearly enjoying this.
I directed my eyes to him and he was looking at me while smiling. He must be holding back his laugh. Asshole.
“I interrogated her a bit this morning before she took off. And yes, it is a boy and he is a model from Karen’s agency.”
“Really? Is he attractive enough for her to fall for him?”
I glared at him. “My daughter isn’t in love with the bastard. And attractive or not, that guy should be meeting me face to face. Man to man to talk about this.”
“And why you should talk with him?”
“I need to see if he’s a good guy or not. If he’s just another asshole, he could kiss his ass goodbye.”
“Well, Josh is a good kid.” John’s words stopped me dead. “If he’s serious he could make Olivia happy. That’s what you want, right? A good man for your daughter.” John was right. I couldn’t let some bastard touched my daughter. I always made sure of that.
And this Josh kid. I knew he was a good man. It was just me who was being paranoid after what happened to Olivia. I even had to make sure that Karen was a good kid and she approved just that to me. I still had to make sure about Josh because…he was a guy. And when a guy and a girl were alone together, nothing good will came.
That was what happened to Chloe because she got herself drunk with Taylor.
“Blake, a word from a friend, Olivia will not face the same fate as Chloe. She could take care of herself and for the past five years living with you, she had proven herself of being a good daughter, a good student, and a good kid. She will probably have to think twice if she wanted to smoke.”
“Olivia doesn’t smoke!”
“That was just an example! God, this is why you should stop being so paranoid about her,” he said and rolled his eyes. He was just fucking rolling his eyes on me. On his Boss. “Anyways, just give her a little freedom. That girl is sixteen already, almost seventeen. Just let her be. And for your information, I’m tired of cleaning up your mess. Including that stalker kid.”
I smirked at his statement. “You love watching it.”
“Watching it, sir. Not cleaning up,” he smiled twistedly on me. I knew John. He was just the same as me. The same dark and cruel as me. He had tasted darkness before and he knew how that world worked.
But he left it already and for a better life. Although he always helped me. Doing my other business regarding my daughter.
Including that stalker kid.
I walked slowly to the kid who was tied up on the chair. The motherfucker who was stalking Olivia. I stopped in front of him and slapped his face a bit. “Wake up.” My voice sounded dark and brutal. Let’s just hope that I didn’t something regretful to this poor kid. I didn’t know what would happen if I went too far on someone.
The kid looked up to me slowly as his eyes were open wide. “Mi—Mr. Morgan! No, I’m sorry, sir! I didn’t mean that! Please, let me go. I won’t tell anyone. Have mercy.”
“Shut the fuck up!” The kid immediately shut his mouth. I thought my ears were going explode hearing his pitiful begging on me. If he didn’t want anything to happen to him, he should think twice about his act. Stalking on my daughter only led him to the devil. To me.
“Why did you do it, kid?”
“I swear to you, sir. I didn’t mean it. I was in the hospital when a lovely lady came to me and said that she could set me free.” Cindy. She was the one who released him. “She said that she could let me leave in one condition.”
“And what is that?”
“Just spying on Olivia.”
“For what?”
“Just to see what of her. Some of the boys in the school were suspecting she has slept with you. We all know that you and Olivia are not a real family.”
“But you intended to rape her with your friends before. By waiting in front of his house,” John added.
“We were just going to scare her and recorded her calling out her father.” Fuck, I really wanted to kill this kid. Has he thought it was funny recording my Olivia begging for mercy? Well, that should be my collection. Not his and his friends.
Anyways, I was not going to end his life here. I didn’t do that.
“Did you do anything else?”
“N-No, sir. I was just following her,” he replied. Somehow, I didn’t believe him. He was still hiding something from me. I continued glaring at him. Making him confess something he had hidden deep inside. “I…I entered her room. Her window was slightly opened and I went inside.” How dare he!
“What were you doing in her room?”
“I was just looking around and left something for her.”
“What is that?”
The kid scoffed at me. “Why don’t you ask her yourself, Mr. Morgan?” I snapped and grabbed his collar. Raising him so his face was only a few inches close to me.
“Blake!” John called but I stopped him. He should not worry. I won’t do anything to the poor kid.
“Go ahead, sir. Kill me. That’s what you want to do, right? Since the day you had me and my guys.”
“Why should I kill you?”
“So, you will have a broken family just like me.”
I glared at him. A broken family? Was he?
“Whatever you’re thinking right now, sir. It’s true. My parents never showed up after what you did to me and my friends. Not even visiting the hospital. I have nothing left. It’s better if I just died because no one needs me. Not even my family.”
I remained calm. I didn’t want the kid to affect me. I could see from his eyes that he was serious. He didn’t lie about his family. But that didn’t mean that he could harm Olivia so she would suffer the same as he did. And the other thing I could conclude about the kid.
“You like my daughter, don’t you?”
The kid’s eyes changed. Rather watery. “I do,” he confessed while trembling. He was so ready to fucking cry. “I envy her because she lost her parents but she had you who love her like his own daughter. I thought that I could get the same attention I wanted through her.”
He was jealous but at the same time loved Olivia.
I pitied him but… “I believe you. I’m sorry that you were born to a family that doesn’t want you. To the family who is easily abandoned their child.” For a glimpse, I could see the piece of my past.
I don’t need you! You’re not supposed to be born! You are a mistake!
That’s what my mother told me. Telling me that I was a mistake. I was not supposed to be here. Indirectly telling me that I ruined her life.
“I won’t grant your wish by killing you. I am not a murderer and I won’t let you leave this world that easily. You still have a lot to do after you get out of this house.” The kid was only looking at me. Trying to find something through my eyes. But he won’t get anything and when he thought I was done with him.
I grabbed his neck tight as he choked. Desperately looking for air.
“It fucking pissed me off. How dare you disturb Olivia by stalking her. Do you have any fucking idea of how she scared to death because of what you did? You were not protecting her. You were scaring her.”
“Mi—Mr…Morgan. P—Please.”
“You better damn grateful because I’m not going to kill you.” I punched him hard as the blood poured down from his nose. He breathed through his mouth. I punched his stomach two times and this time he choked out blood from his mouth. Some of it was splashed into my shirts. Ah, fuck! How am I going to explain to Olivia if she saw this?
Whatever. I should finish my business first with this kid.
“Don’t you dare come near my daughter again, or next time,” I gripped his neck tighter. “I will come for you myself when you are about to begin to enjoy your life.” And I punched him hard in the face. Knocked him out and he fell to the floor unconscious.
“Clean this mess, John. Take him back to the hospital,” I ordered John and he asked the other men to picked him up and walked out of the house.
I pulled out my handkerchief and wiped the blood from my hands. “No one touches my daughter.”
I remembered the kid said that his family was broken. I ran an investigation on his family and he was not lying at all. His father was a drunkard while his mother was a prostitute. His father rarely came home while his mother always brought home different men every night. Fucking for the entire night without bothering to remember that her son was on the same roof as she was. He had to listen to his mother’s moaning over someone else while his father was out there drinking his ass off.
Both of them didn’t show up to his son saying that he was just going to be disposed of. They were just waiting for the right time. What a bunch of psychos.
“You were really nice for paying all of his treatments and promising a better future for him. He should know what you have done to him.”
“It’s better if he doesn’t. He should remember me as the man who hired gangsters to beat him up and almost got himself killed by me. Not a savior.”
John scoffed and began typing something on his laptop again. “So, only Olivia could consider you as her savior?”
“Yes,” I replied without hesitation. I didn’t care what people were going to talk about me. At least they left Olivia alone. I wanted to be a better person for her. Someone who she could trust. Someone she could rely on.
Speaking of Olivia, I checked on my phone. “That’s the fourth time you’re checking your phone after you arrived,” John commented. I was really glad to have him as my secretary. He worked well. He was accurate. He was excellent. But sometimes…
I hated having him as my secretary because he loved to tease me, especially about my daughter.
“Olivia promised me to call when she arrived. The distance from Los Angeles to Malibu isn’t so far and she should be there by now,” I informed, and when I looked at my watch and it was already eleven o’clock. Olivia should be there by now.
“Maybe she got too excited and forgot.”
“Or maybe someone took her over,” I added.
John let out a long sigh and turned his grey eyes back on me. “Don’t get too paranoid, Boss. Olivia is alright and if you’re worried, why don’t you call her first?” Good idea.
I stood up and walked far away from John. I searched for her number and immediately called her.
She should be alright. She had to be alright. Even from my sight. For my sanity. And when she picked it up and I listened to her voice…
“Hello?”
I was so fucking relieved.