Chapter 5 Unexpected encounter
Olivia started chatting with her friends the second she got to her room.
‘You said you would throw a party after your dad got discharged, remember?’ One of her friends reminded her.
‘Yes, yes… we want a party…’
‘Party, party, party…’
Others also started to demand it.
“Okay. See you in the pub tonight.’ With that, Olivia ended the chat and tossed her phone aside.
She lay flat on the bed with her eyes on the round medallion at the center of the white crown molding ceiling. Her mind was inundated with anticipation of meeting Vincent. Who knew what she thought a blush crept on her cheeks when she smiled bashfully?
She rolled to the other side, covering her face with her hands.
On the other end, Natalia’s expression turned somber when she noticed an obnoxious man in her cabin sipping coffee sitting in the chair opposite hers.
The man turned to her as she approached her desk. “Hello, cousin. Finally, you are here. I have been waiting for you for so long.”
"What brings you here, Elias?" Natalia kept her bag in the cabinet and sat in her seat, casting a cold stare at him.
“Why? Am I not welcome here?” Elias frowned. Then he laughed as he said, “How is uncle?”
“Do you care about him?” Natalia chuckled significantly.
“What do you mean?”
"I mean, you have not visited the hospital once. And today he got discharged. But you didn’t show up at home either.” She cocked her head to look at him.
“Huh…” Elias stretched his body and let out an exaggerated sigh. “I'm a little occupied with my work these days. You know, I just got home, and there's a lot of work to be done. You already know how much I dislike being in that house after Ethan."
He sounded pretty serious when he said the last sentence.
Natalia’s face turned cold. She switched on her computer and began to work, showing her unwillingness to speak further.
Elias kept staring at her with a squint, stunned. At last, he grunted unable to stay silent, “I am still here. Don’t you think that you should talk to me for a while?”
“Are you free today?” She retorted.
“Huh…” Elias flailed his arms in the air. "Not at all. But I still come here to see how you're doing."
“Thank you very much. You can leave now.”
“Natalia…” He roared. Elias wanted to rebuke her, but couldn’t utter a word after noticing her cold, lethal gaze.
“Fine… Don’t call me if you need help.” He rose from the chair and stormed out.
Natalia glared at his departing silhouette as she picked up her phone and dialed a number.
“In my cabin right now,” she commanded fiercely as soon as the call logged in.
Then she slammed the phone on the table with her eyes on the door.
Within a few minutes, a young man in a gray suit came in.
“Yes, ma’am. How can I help you?”
“I asked you to find out if Elias was involved in the attack or not. You have not updated me on this until now. What happened, Joseph?” Natalia snarled.
Joseph lowered his head as he responded, “I have checked, ma’am. However, I found no connection to Sir Elias.”
"Do you mean that he is smarter than you and leaves no evidence behind him?” She inquired even more fiercely.
“I mean that he is not associated with the attack. It is someone else. The cops had already been annihilated the group of ruffians, but they still have no clue who hired them."
Natalia grew pensive to hear it. She assumed Elias was the perpetrator of the incident. Who else could it be if it wasn't him?
A name emerged in her mind at that moment, making her restless.
She looked up at Joseph and asked, “What do you think about Gerald?”
Joseph also raised his eyes to her. Incredulity spread across his face.
“Are you suspecting him?”
"If it's not Elias, he is the only one who could try to harm my family."
"I disagree," Joseph denied it right away. “This attack has been methodically planned to the point where even the police have been unable to identify the mastermind. Mr. Hill can’t do it. Anyway, I will check on him too.”
His words made Natalia think twice. Gerald was an impulsive, violent man. He was not that clever as to plot such a precise attack strategy.
Then who tried to kill Oscar Griffin?
The question remained unsolved. Natalia believed that the police or Joseph would soon find the mastermind.
She motioned him to leave, refocusing her attention on the work.
Joseph went out the moment he was ordered.
************************************************************************
Later that evening, Olivia came to the finest pub in town with her friends. Since it was a Friday night, she planned to party till the dawn break.
However, her steps suddenly stopped while her eyes landed on the bouncer outside the bar. The tall, handsome muscular man in a black t-shirt and black jeans made her jaw drop.
Olivia had been to this pub many times before, but she had never seen this attractive bouncer. She couldn't take her gaze away from him.
His imperial aquiline nose complemented his mountain peak cheekbones which were carved down to the angular jaw. ‘Handsome’ would be an understatement for him. He seemed to be molded from a different cast that made him stand out uncommon from the others.
He possessed a latent leonine power, radiating energy and brio. His somewhat curly hair was not neatly combed, giving him a bad boy image. Those keen black eyes were icy cold yet spellbinding, capable of bewitching anyone who came under his gaze.
Olivia expected to meet her savior since that incident, but who knew she would meet him here? She would have been here a long time ago if she had known he worked at this pub.
“Olivia…”
A violent shake on her shoulder jolted her out of her trance. When she turned to face the person who was shaking her, she saw her best friend, Willa.
"Where on earth are you?" Willa exclaimed, seemingly annoyed. “We have been calling you for such a long time, but you have become deaf. Everybody has gone in. It's just you and me left here. What happened to you?”
“Willa… Olivia muttered in a trance, "I found him."