OLIVIA
The rays of the morning sun flickered through the window of my hotel room as I rubbed my blurry eyes.
A new dawn arrived, promising new hopes and aspirations.
I woke up feeling like a baby again.
I woke up refreshed, wearing a long smile that spread across my chin.
I glanced at the wall clock and realized it was a few minutes past 9 AM.
I was stunned because I couldn’t recall the last time I slept for eight straight hours without being interrupted.
If given the opportunity, I would have wished for that to happen again. It made me witness a different version of myself.
I yawned in fatigue and spread my hands wide in the air, saying, “What a beautiful day to be alive. We hope for a better day.”
But the moment I realized that my scandal might still be trending on the internet, sadness found its way back onto my face.
I also imagined the number of trolls flooding my timeline already.
They were probably waiting for me to make a post so they could pounce on me at the slightest provocation.
Suddenly, a call came in. It was Adrian. That wasn’t his first call. It appeared he’d been trying to reach out to me for a while now.
I had every reason to ignore the call. My eyes were still dizzy.
I also thought it wasn’t the right time to speak to anyone, especially when my life was in shambles.
On second thought, I considered the pain Adrian must have gone through because of me.
For Adrian to have called me a thousand times showed that he had sleepless nights.
I quickly rushed to take a quick bath before returning the missed calls from Adrian.
Seconds after I was out of the bathroom, my phone rang again. It was none other than Adrian.
I didn’t rush to answer the phone to avoid sounding nervous.
I sighed and placed the phone on the right side of my ear. “Good morning, Adrian. I guess you had a wonderful night’s rest?”
“I wish I did. I lost sleep thinking about you. I was so worried about you. Where are you right now?” Adrian said a lot over the phone. I didn’t even know where to begin.
I took a deep breath to reflect on my response. “Adrian, I am fine. Kate and I are currently in the hotel we checked into last night, so you have nothing to worry about.”
There was a need for me to allay Adrian’s fears immediately.
The way he spoke, I could tell that he was battling anxiety.
“Thank goodness you’re safe. I was so worried about you. I thought you went back to your house. I was scared that Cyril might have done something nasty to you,” Adrian admitted.
He sounded more scared than I was, even though I was the one directly involved in the scandal.
“Can you text your live location? I want to come to see you. I’ve missed you so much. I also want to ensure your safety,” Adrian pleaded.
That was a brilliant suggestion from Adrian. If there was anything I needed to cool off from the drama, it would be good sex from Adrian.
However, I had my worries. Being seen with Adrian in public wasn’t what I wanted for myself, especially when he was already the subject of the scandal trending on the internet.
“What do you say? I am waiting for your response, Olivia. Please don’t say no,” Adrian reminded me just when I thought he had forgotten about it.
Suddenly, Kate walked inside my room unannounced.
When she saw that I was on a call, she turned around and was about to leave when I stopped her.
“Adrian, I’ve got to go now. Kate is here, and we need to work on something very important. I promise to call you back,” I ended the call politely to focus my attention on Kate.
“Good morning, ma’am. That was Adrian, right? What does he want?” Kate asked me.
She was smiling on my behalf because she thought I was excited that Adrian called me.
“He wants to visit me. Never mind. I turned down his request already,” I explained to Kate.
“You did what? How could you turn down such an amazing offer from Adrian? I mean, you could have considered his emotions,” Kate berated me for my decision.
I looked around and pointed to my chest. “Are you seriously talking to me?”
“I’m sorry, ma’am. I didn’t mean to speak to you in that tone of voice. I was just being concerned about you,” Kate apologized while facing the ground.
It didn’t take her too long to realize that she was wrong.
“That’s better. What’s the schedule for today?”
“A minute, please.” Kate went through her files and replied, “None for now. Remember you specifically instructed me to cancel all your appointments for today?”
“Oh, I did?” I racked my brain. I didn’t recall ever having that conversation with Kate.
“Oh, yes, you did. You told me you needed some time to rest and reflect on the recent development,” Kate explained.
Her explanation restored my memory and made me realize that she was right.
“Oh, I see.” I itched my hair, thinking about what to do next. Since I had no appointment for the day, the one person that crossed my mind was Adrian.
It dawned on me that it might be the perfect time to invite him over for some romance.
“Ma’am, in the absence of none, would I be fair enough to schedule a meeting with Cyril’s grandmother? I mean, because you both had a conversation over the phone last night?” Kate suggested.
“That would be great. Please do that immediately. Why didn’t I think of that before?” I endorsed Kate’s suggestion without a second thought.
I was done being used as the pillar holding everything together while being underappreciated.
I was willing to leave the situation and start my life all over again.
It might be the perfect opportunity for me to break free from their family bondage.