Chapter 225 - Benefit of the Doubt (1/2)
Konstantin scoffed. ”Humor me, please, Olivia,” he said. The absurdity of the couple's request exponentially grew the longer he stayed in the same sphere as the two. He couldn't wait to leave and pop a bottle of aged whiskey.
If not for Chanel Greene's insistence to meet Olivia that morning, he would be snoring in his pad that very second.
It's not a joke running an underground bank. There would be nights he had to be up to watch the operations, especially last night, when some delegates of the conference got invited to the underground poker game.
Olivia saw it as her chance to demand something else on top of the list which Maxen was asking for. Scrunching her nose, she wiggled and peeled away from Maxen's caging side embrace. ”And I want Natalia. You will deliver her to me tomorrow night in this same room.”
”My sister is off-limits, Olivia,” Konstantin disagreed although he knew he was left with no choice but agree, yet again, to Olivia's demand. He cracked his neck to relieve the tension that stifled it. He thought, when would his siblings stop creating troubles for him to fix? Breaking him from his stupor was Olivia's jazzy voice.
”Too late. You should have told her not to start a fire she can't quench when she turned Xandra's painting into ashes.”
Seeing that Olivia wouldn't budge until she got what she wanted, Konstantin made himself clear. ”The last thing that I will ever do is send my one and only sister to a lion's den.”
”Okay then. I'm giving you the chance to surrender your sister in our hands peacefully, but it seems I have to use a little force and drag her out of The Ritz.”
”You don't have to use force, baby,” Maxen said. He c.a.r.e.s.sed Olivia's cheek with the back of his index finger. ”We can invite her for dinner, which she will gladly accept, and then accidentally drop a sleeping pill in her drink. After that, you can do whatever you like to her when she wakes up. How does that sound, Kostya?” Maxen jutted his chin towards Konstantin's way.
”Just let it go. What's thirty million to you, Maxen? All you wanted was revenge. And once you got yours, Natalia will retaliate. It will be a never-ending cycle.” Konstantin tried to sound as convincing as possible, even when he knew in his gut that the pair was hell-bent on getting payback on his sister.
”No, it won't. Everything between your sister and I would end after she gets a tickle of my anger. So, either we treat her like a princess: you let her walk the red carpet and drop her off properly. Or… I will drag her here, draining her energy even before she faces her nightmare, which is me, by the way.”
”Olivia.” Konstantin shook his head. He couldn't believe what he was hearing from her mouth. ”When have you become so violent? You weren't like this before.”
Olivia took a sharp inhale, exhaling through pursed lips. Her gaze locked on Konstantin as she spoke, ”I didn't want to offend people before, so they took advantage of me, used me and my silence to mooch off. At one point, I got tired. Why… Why do I let myself be passed around for others' personal gains? What you hear and what you see now is the real me—the one who embraced her flaws. I will get angry. I will get sad. I won't hold back my emotions just because I don't want to be seen as someone you can control.”
Maxen rubbed the pad of his thumb on Olivia's arm, and it soothed her from her trembling. While she was speaking, she saw past incidents flash before her, and a healed wound that she buried deep had sliced open. Those memories of betrayal and deceit brought back pain, but it felt good. It made her feel alive and human.
Glancing to her side, she mouthed, ”Thank you,” to Maxen.