Chapter 21: Chapter 21

That morning, Olivia woke up to the chirping of birds on her window. She sat upright with the duvet over her to block out the cold. She saw two doves sitting beside each other in the window frame with the cloud filled sky and trees with orange leaves in the background. It was the buzzing sound of her phone that disturbed the picturesque scene.

Olivia looked everywhere for the phone and eventually found it under loads of clothes on her bed. There were several missed calls from Kate. Luckily, she had put her phone on silent the previous night and it hadn’t woken anybody. It must’ve been urgent, considering the many voice notes Kate had left, thought Olivia.

“Ugh, time difference! Olivia, call me,” the first message said.

A few more messages were the same, but each got more urgent than the previous.

In one Kate had said, “You’re probably in Tyler’s arms, but…just call me.”

Olivia was amused by the urgency in Kate’s voice. Admittedly, she got more afraid of what the news might be, especially when she heard Kate’s second to last message.

“Please, please, please. I promise it won’t mess up your time.”

Kate had finally given up keeping it a secret, “I give up. Blanca and Smith got paid the exact same amounts of money on every Monday and Friday. Probably saw or found something or rather saw someone take the money. Got told to keep their mouth shut.”

Olivia ended the call before Kate could say “please call me” again. She opened her bedroom door and her body instinctively marched down the hall to Tyler’s room. She didn’t even knock, just swung open the door.

There was no one in the room. She only saw Tyler’s surfboard at the side of his bed, while his bed and the floor were strewn with photos of sailboats and buildings from all over the world. France, Italy and Greece were just some of the many countries she could make out. Her curiosity got the better of her and she walked in, looking at every photo.

Why does he look at buildings and skyscrapers from all over the world when he’s having money problems, she asked herself. Is it some kind of escape?

When she quickly walked down the hall again, Tristan turned into the hall with all his luggage, looking even more frustrated than he did two days ago when she caught the brothers fighting. He continued walking down the hall with speed, not even noticing Olivia. For a few seconds she stopped in her step, watching how his bag’s wheels barely touched the ground as he pulled so hard on the bag. Suddenly, he stopped in front of an open door, Tyler’s office, and turned to talk to someone in the room from outside the hall.

“You’ve stopped caring about our legacy. I can’t do anything! I don’t even have a choice in this, do I,” Tristan yelled, his teeth biting so hard on each other that his jaw muscles were showing. “That girl is going to walk straight out the back door, when she hears you’ve sold everything.”

Olivia got frustrated. She nearly interfered in the tense conversation, just barely holding herself back.

I can’t believe that’s what he thinks of me, she thought as she listened closely for Tyler’s response to his brother who thought so badly of her. A few seconds went by and Tyler still had said nothing.

“Who said I don’t have more money somewhere,” Tyler eventually responded. It sounded like a boast through clenched teeth.

Tristan turned around again and continued walking down the hall, soon disappearing around the corner.

Suddenly, all the puzzle pieces started to fit together. She never felt more used or emptier. She felt she had no purpose in all of this. What even was this?

But before she too left France, she wanted to get rid of the anger that had been building up since the previous night. I must be the first person to confront Tyler Brown, she thought as she stormed into his office and closed the door behind her. Before he even got to look up, Olivia had already noticed how his tanned skin and hair attractively contrasted his light blue shirt. Don’t get distracted, she told herself.

“Fun to have someone extra to just, you know, use as an ATM machine? Give and take as much as you like?”

“What?”

“Don’t play stupid. I’m not your dumb side chick. I know you stole money and brought down Golden Holdings to cover your own debt. Hundreds of people lost their job, but, no, Tyler Brown wanted to get away from it all. Why? Because he wanted to cover his tracks by using Mr Smith and Blanca,” Olivia said, spitting out Blanca’s name. As she walked up and down the room, she continued, “Just one question. Where did you learn to fake cry?”

“Oliv…,” Tyler started.

He was quickly interrupted by Olivia who screamed, “Don’t”. She knew she could not look into his green eyes. Her anger turned into frustrated tears which rolled down her cheeks. “You, Tyler Brown, have lost the privilege of calling me by my name. You disgust me! I would never have come if I had known I would only be your teddy bear to cry on,” Olivia said, sweeping away one of her tears and walking towards the door.

“Wait! Just give me a chance to explain,” Tyler jumped up from his chair.

“Enough! I don’t want to fall into one of your blindsiding traps again! I’m going to see my family, who actually cares about me. Tell your fancy pilot to pick me up; I think you have enough money to fly me home. At least I would get to say that I got something good out of this trip,” said Olivia, slamming the door behind her and feeling like one of those gold diggers in the movies.

She felt great to have released some of her raw emotions. She could hear him talking loudly to himself. Probably confessing, she thought. A part of her wanted to listen and felt bad for him. She would just have to accept that he will always have a part of her heart. “That always happens with your first true love, I guess,” she told herself.

She quickly packed her bags and texted Kate on the way out of the chateau.

- Tyler Brown. Always been the one. You have my permission to check him out. Will explain later. Going home to my family. Funeral in 3 days. Thanks for being there for me, Kate xx -

She climbed on the plane. The pilot looked at her strangely. He surely never flew a plane without his boss before. Nonetheless, she greeted him with a smile and closed her eyes.

“I am a strong, independent woman from Montana and nothing…or rather no one will take that from me,” she started to truly complement herself for the first time. And most important of all, she believed what she was saying. She had a whole new perspective. She now believed that everything happens for a reason, even if it wasn’t meant to last long.