Confessions and Olivia (Olivia #2) (24 page)

"I’m sorry Hazel, I just haven
’t got an appetite this morning. Do you mind?" I feel terrible.

She looks at me with her worried eyes and frowns not liking my answer, but being polite. She doesn’t prod. I no
she is dying to tell me to eat regardless.

"You must eat something, Olivia." Oh now Calvin has said it for her as he walks into the kitchen placing his cell into his pocket.

"Who you been speaking to?" I ask taking a sip of the fresh orange juice. This is all I can manage.

"Gran, Olivia will have some breakfast." He says firmly, dodging my question.

"I agree Calvin, but Olivia doesn’t want anything. You can’t force her to eat." She scolds him, as I return a smile warmly at Hazel and thank her. I no she agrees with Calvin but she won’t push me. I poke my tongue out at Calvin because he hasn’t got his own way. He raises his eyebrow at me before giving in and smirking in his sexy way. God I always want him so much, so much more each and every day. As Calvin sits his cell phone rings but he ignores it and groans indicating to me that this isn’t the first time it's rang.

“Where's Ashton?” I ask fidgeting with my glass trying to ignore the fact he didn’t answer his phone for some strange reason. “He's gone to the city to pick up a few things.”
He answers me drinking down his own orange juice avoiding my quizzing eyes.

"Go keep your granddad company.
He’s out in the barn, no doubt talking to the horses. He has more conversations with them than he does me."

"I’d like that." I admit. I haven’t seen much of Gerald since we arrived yesterday. I’m beginning to think that he’s really not well with the little sighs I’ve noticed and things that have been said. I really hope it’s nothing serious.

"Come on then, I’ll take you to granddad if you’re not going to eat." Calvin mumbles gruffly. I finish my orange juice, and follow Calvin into the barn.

Chapter Twenty One*

"Hey granddad, you need any help?" Calvin offers when we reach Gerald up at the stables. He stirs
looking at us startled. "Uh no, I’m good, all done here. Just making sure my girls are warm." He smiles, patting one of the horses fondly, but he seems a bit off. I can’t put my finger on why.

Calvin
’s taken back a little as well. “O.K, you sure?"

"I said so
didn’t I?" Gerald snaps back taking us both by surprise. Calvin frowns concerned and walks over to him.

He speaks to him in a low voice.
"You sure you’re alright granddad?" Gerald pinch’s his nose closing his eyes. "I’m fine, just a bit of a head ache. You both go inside, it’s chilly today." Calvin looks over to me at a loss. I shrug clueless. It’s so out of character for Gerald. But we leave him be just as he wishes.

We
go back inside as its freezing and spend most of the day watching old films in the living room. Hazel busies herself with knitting. Gerald’s fast asleep in his rocking chair and Calvin watches the film, while playing with my hair as lay in his lap. I’m not watching the TV. My mind is a million miles away. I bite my nails out of nerves, having Calvin swipe my hand away from my mouth every so often. When I do peek up at him he’s staring at me. “Stop staring.” I pout.

“What, I’m not allowed to stare at my girlfriend now?”

“It just makes me feel uncomfortable.” I shift out of his eye sight but he pulls me back.

“I like staring at you.” He kisses my temple.

“Why?” I whisper, at a loss.

“Because you’re a beautiful thing to look at.” He shrugs adorably and I can’t argue with that rare expression. Maybe I will always have a small doubt
about ever being good enough for him.

When the films finished I turn to Calvin and ask him if we can go upstairs alone. There’s so much I want to say.

“Sure. Whatever you want.”

I get a warm smile from Hazel as we pass and a loud snorting nose from Gerald as w
e stir him a little. But he falls straight back to sleep.

I climb straight into the middle of the bed, crossing my legs and his cell rings again. Calvin curses this time taking it out of his pocket t
o end the call. I frown annoyed this time. “Who is that?”

“No one.” He answers clipped and irritated.

“Can I use your phone?” I ask him and get an uneasy response from him, “Why?”

“I want to call home. I’m so stupid for breaking mine.”

“If your mom is not answering calls, then how can you call her?”

“I can try. I
can’t sit here not knowing. Not knowing what he’s doing to my mom, to Sophia. What if something bad has happened?”

“Olivia, stop worrying.”

I shoot him a look of disbelief, feeling affronted. “Stop worrying! Calvin, my mom is in a house with a fucking murderer, she isn’t answering her phone, the door; and you want me to stop worrying?”

“Olivia, keep your voice down.” His tone is warning and harsh. I don’t like it.

“Why?” I retort. “Why don’t you go tell your gran that you know who killed her daughter Calvin? Don’t you think she would like to know? Its closure.” Isn’t it? The look he gives me is haunting, like he feels disgusted by me. “You would want to put that to her? An old lady who has been through enough? My granddad is still suffering from his loss and you think it would be a good idea to tell them?” He’s starting to get turbulent. So am I.

“It will put their mind at ease wouldn’t it?” I yell back.

“And what do you supposed I tell her? That the man that murdered their daughter, my father, is my girlfriends fucking step dad?”

I wince at his choice of words staring into his suddenly wrathful eyes, then brake down. Sobbing until my chest hurts.
Why am I always crying?

“I don’t k
now what to do, Calvin,” I cry. “I just don’t know.”

Of course he shouldn’t tell them. What am I thinking? How could I suggest such a thing? My mind is all over the place. I
have no rational explanations that’s the truth.

“I’m sorry
.” I whimper as Calvin deflates holding me against his chest.

“Don’t be.
Baby, don’t cry. I want you safe Olivia, that’s my main priority now. You.”

“But I still have to think about my family Calvin. Please.”

He groans grudgingly giving in. He removes his cell from his pocket, pissed, but he’s allowing me to spare my feelings.

“You know the number?” he asks with his finger hovering over the keys.

“I know Tyler’s, and my moms. I’ll call them both.”

“What’s your mom’s?” he asks clipped, briefly closing his eyes. Why doesn’t he want me to call her?

I give him the number so he punches it in.

I hear it ring and my ears prick up. My heart stops while I wait for her to answer.

Finally the ringing stops, someone’s answered but no one speaks. I go to speak, but Calvin raises his hand for me to be quiet. I watch his eyes carefully as he shakes he head at me to stay silent. He’s listening intently to the call.

It’s silent from our end and theirs. My heart
is pounding against my chest. I know who it is. And I know Calvin knows it too. Suddenly the line goes dead and Calvin makes sure the call has ended before I speak.

“Mauricio?” My voi
ce is hoarse. I stare wide eyed waiting for Calvin’s answer.

“Shit…” he stands furious, something suddenly coming to him.

“What?” I whimper getting frightened by what he might say next.

“Get your things Olivia. We need to go. Right now!”

He doesn’t explain why. He leaves the room, slamming the door behind him. Leaving me siting there rooted to the spot. Scared to death.

We need to go? Why?

I come back to earth and reach for my suitcase. I haven’t unpacked much so I throw back in what I have unpacked, do the same for Calvin and sit back onto the bed. Waiting. Waiting for anything. Waiting for his next decision.

Chapter Twenty Two*

Mauricio had called Leroy to his house. He rocked back
and forth in his office chair, with Veronica’s cell in his hand. Leroy suddenly claimed to have information on the Blake’s, something Mauricio had been waiting for since they came on the scene.

Leroy walked through the door lookin
g as happy as Larry until he spotted the avidity on Mauricio’s face.

"Took you long enough." He growled.

"Like I told you, they covered their tracks perfectly Fahoney. I been told a few things, and after that I dug deep and found a lot of shit on them. I think you’ll be surprised."

Fahoney’s brows lifted as he stared back at Leroy impassively
. "Do I look like someone who likes to be surprised?"

Leroy stood
saying nothing. "AND?" Mauricio shouted impatiently.

Leroy was a big, rough thug but against Fahoney he always felt trivial.

"And ... you were right. They have been fucking up your accounts, clubs, and your drug orders. It was them who blew up your fucking warehouse."

Fahoney looked on
without an element of surprise, but inside he was reeling. He clenched his fists around the cell phone.

“My step daughter has run off with that mother-fucker! Why wasn’t I
made aware of this soon?”

“I
just met with that women Mauricio, she called us, spilled her guts.”

“What fucking women?”
He blinked intolerant.

Leroy cleared his throat, hating that he was about to speak out of turn.

“That women you spent the night with in New York. She had something to do with Calvin, she came to you that same night your New York club broke out in mayhem. She’s the one who bugged your cell. She said you told her things while you were drunk.”

“Fucking bitch. I didn’t tell her anything!” Mauricio knew full well he had, but wasn’t going to admit it. Truth was, once you got Mauricio Fahoney drunk, he sung like a bird. That was the main factor to why he tried to steer clear of alcohol.

“Why Leroy? What the fuck has made them motherfuckers do this? I want to find out who they worked with. They must have had accomplices. They wouldn’t have done all this shit alone. Mark my fucking words, they are currently breathing their last few breathes.”

Leroy shifted not knowing how Fahoney would react w
hen he spilled the news he had. It made him feel edgy because he would evidently take the brunt whatever the outcome.

"Spit it out.
I haven’t got all fucking day. What the fuck do them bastards have on me? Why has Olivia been telling me she knows something? What does she know? I want to know what the fuck they know that I don’t. I don’t like being kept in the dark Leroy!" Mauricio stood from his chair in rage so Leroy quickly spat it out. "You killed their parents Fahoney, and burnt their bodies. Brooklyn 198..."

Fahoney turned pale before Leroy had even finished. He remembered that day crystal clear.

"How the fuck could I forget,” he sagged back down into his chair. “The mother was pregnant an all poor bitch, but it had to be done. Fuck it. So, they were them two little boys that we couldn’t find. That’s who the Blake brothers are." He spoke in wonder and for a moment Leroy thought he saw a little compassion in Fahoney’s eyes. But that was soon banished.

"Poor, poor, fucking boys." He roared
, now exploding with anger from the news.

"
Don’t just stand there, I want them found!” He yelled. “No one messes with me, not even my own family. They answered a call to me. You can track them right?” Mauricio threw Veronica's cell phone towards Leroy which he caught.

“I can find them yes. And then what
Fahoney?” Leroy asked carefully. “You want me to kill them?" He was backing out of Fahoney’s office.

Fahoney turn
ed to Leroy calmly and breathed. “All of them."

Leroy bowed his hea
d, taking his orders opening the door.

As soon as he did, Fahoney saw his wife in the corner of his eye, backing away from the door way out of sight.

"Shit!" He cursed when he saw her.

"Veronica." He bellowed out to her quickly, but she had heard enough. She knew that the blissful ignorance she had kept all that time needed to stop. Did the man that she loved and married, the one that had saved her and her d
aughter from a life of poverty really want to kill her own flesh and blood? Was he really a murderer?

Fahoney reached her in the dining room looking anxious, of course it was all an act.

"Let me explain." He pleaded of her, his hands praying.

"I
heard enough! You told me all those years ago you had nothing to do with that family who were murdered." Veronica’s face had paled. Her whole body shaking out of fear and dread. She remembered that night clearly. It was such a terrible shock to everyone. Especially because no one knew who had been guilty of it.

She walked back and forth the dining room with her arms wrapped around he
rself to save her vulnerability. She was in shock and utter despair.

"I didn’t want to worry you Ron. It s
cared me enough, never mind you. I was protecting you."

"You were protecting yourself.”
She screamed at him holding nothing back.

"No, I was protecting my family. You didn’t want to be dragged into my busines
s, into what I did. You’ve been completely fine with it so far, choosing to ignore what goes on. You chose this life. You came into this marriage with your eyes wide open."

Veronica turned
gob smacked at Mauricio’s claims.

"Don’t you dare turn this round on me!" She warned him. “I came into this marriage knowing about the life you lead, not you being a murderer.” She suddenly became more fearless of him. She knew what he did, but murdering a family so brutally? She never knew he was capable of such cruel things. It suddenly dawned on her the urgency of Olivia’s plead to
get her to go with her and god, did it hurt.

"Wait a minute," she pointed,
narrowing her eyes at Mauricio. “Olivia knew? She knew this whole time? That’s why she wanted me to leave with her. What the fuck have I done?" The realization of it made Veronica feel sick to her stomach. She pulled out one of the dining table chairs for her to sit before her legs deceived her.

"Did you know who Calvin was?
From the start? Well did you?" She demanded he tell her the truth. She was in no mood for bullshit.

"Of course I didn’t!" Mauricio hit back, clutching at his hair in despair. Only because he thought he was going to lose his wife. Not from any remorse he felt from what he’d done.

"Then why give him a hard time? Why did you poison me against him? You made me feel like Calvin was corrupting my daughter, when this whole time...” she screeched as she got up from the dining chair so fast she knocked it backwards. She walked up to Mauricio, her face inches away from his, forcing him to take a small step back, not quite believing Veronica’s bite but he tried to keep his cool, holding his hands up in defense.

"
I didn’t know Ron, all I was sure of was since he came on the scene, things were fucking up for me. I couldn’t prove it was down to him, but it was too much of a coincidence and my gut feeling wasn’t wrong, it’s never wrong. Besides, he was corrupting Olivia, making her turn against all my decisions I set for her. Disrupting our lives."

Veronica closed her eyes for a brief second and tried to calculate all the information.

"I should have gone with my daughter. That poor girl was too scared to tell her own mother what was going on. How dare you do that to her. How dare you make her feel that way, make her feel this was all her fault, force her out of her own home. How could you!"

“I seem to remember Veronica, you played a part in all this just as much as me. Your daughter tried to confide in you, talk to you, and what did you do? Pushed her away and treated her like dirt. Just because I convinced you her boyfriend was scum? What mother does that?”

She turned to look at Fahoney in disgust, pointing her finger in his face.

"This is all because of you, you bastard. Not me. You put things into my head, making me think everything yo
u said made sense. Well no more. What kind of women am I to put an animal like you before my own daughter?" Her eyes roamed over the sight of him in detestation. 

Fahoney new the look in Veronica’s eyes
wasn’t one he was familiar with. She was slipping away from him too, but he wasn’t about to let it happen. That's why he bolted the door's, took her cell away and was about to send Sophia to Italy so she was safe from influence. How could he loose his trophy wife as well as his step daughter all for the same reason? He was too proud a man to take any blame or sympathy. If you wasn’t with him then you were against him, and he’d make pretty damn sure his wife was with him. In any way he deemed fit.

He straightened himself out, acting the cold hearted monster he was, of course he loved his wife but she knew too
much to leave now.

"There’s nothing I can do to help them now. They won’t get away with it," He told Veronica bitterly. His eyes turned dark and calculated. Veronica didn’t know the man who stood before her anymore. He wasn’t her husband. He was a
vicious murderer who even turned on his own family.

"What do you mean they won’t get away with it?" She breathed fearing the worst.

"You know damn well what I mean."

She shook her head in despair.
"Why are you still looking for them, just leave them both be Mercy. Don’t you think you done enough to that poor boys life? To my daughter’s life?" Veronica’s voice softened trying to plead with him. She was trying to change his mind with tactics. She didn’t want anything happening to Olivia but she knew he couldn’t promise her that, not now. She was desperate, but what could she do?

He smiled at her, arrogance
engraved over his face. He was thinking how unbelievably naive his wife was to think they would be another outcome to this, another way. He didn’t think so.

"Don’t you get it? He’s made a mockery out of me, him and that brother of his. He’s made a joke out of my business, my allies, and my fucking family. And you think, just because I killed his parents all those years ago, I should set him free?" He walked a little closer to Veronica who was trying her best to keep h
er face straight, standing tall. Even with her insides curling over, she wouldn’t be intimidated by him.

He pursed his lips like he was thinking, then shot back with brutal honesty
. Pointing his finger into Veronica’s shoulder. "You think I should let him go?" he turned on his heel and laughed to himself. "Oh, no, no, no. You see, I’m going after this son-of-a-bitch and anyone else who tries to stand in my way. They will learn that no one ever disrespects me. They will face the consequences for trying."

Veronica’s face scrunched up, running her hands through her hair and down her face as she had to listen to the cruel remarks that were coming out of his mouth. All she wanted to do was scream some
reasoning into him. But there was no reasoning with Mauricio Fahoney.

"What the fuck is wrong with y
ou? Going around thinking your God! Thinking you can do what you want with people, like they’re your puppets on a string. Going around killing people, ruining innocent lives. Have you gone insane? How the fuck do you sleep at night?"

"I sleep
next to you Veronica,” he spat. Then his eyes softened of a sudden. “Oh, common Ron, you married into this. You knew about it then, about how our lives would be. So the best thing for you to do now is…deal with it."

She glared at him tears forming in her pain stricken eyes as she stood
hunched over the dining table holding on for support. Mauricio walked towards her with his arms wide open. Veronica looked up to see her husband’s gesture and smacked his hands away. “Don’t you dare touch me. You have blood on them hands. Your pure evil.”

Mauricio grimaced. “Watch
your mouth Veronica. I’m still your husband and you’ll do as I say.”

“To hell I will.
” She pushed past him furiously wanting to get him out of her sight. He caught her by her wrist as she passed. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“I’m leaving.”

Mauricio abruptly pulled Veronica into him so they were face to face. He was calm, collected and smirking. While Veronica’s eyes were wide with fury.

"You want o
ut?" it was a trace of humor. “Oh no, you and I both no that’s not going to happen," he sighed shaking his head, tutting with his mouth like Veronica was some petulant child who needed to be taught a lesson. "With how much you know? You have no fucking choice but to stay. Otherwise..." He trailed off.

She knew the consequences. He wasn’t going to let her leave. Knowing what she did, what he was capable of. He knew that one word from his wife could ruin everything he’s ever built up, he couldn’t let that happen. And that’s the only way he k
new how to deal with things. The only way he could retain control was to hurt people. Mauricio loved his wife and family dearly but he loved himself and what he was about that touch more.