Chapter Twenty-Three: Olivia

"You're just because you're bitter," Ava accused me as the men exited the station.

I straightened my back. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Come on Olivia we can all see it, I get that you're angry that Aiden and I are married but that's not an excuse to falsely accuse us. You try so hard to implicate us in this case for what? Because you're jealous?"

My face twisted and the small smile I was keeping on my face dropped. "How dare you even say something like that to me."

I closed the space between us. "How dare you, after everything the two of you have done to me?!"

"We thought you were dead and we moved on, it's not our fault. You need to let it go. You have a husband now don't you? Or are you still missing Aiden that badly?"

I didn't even realize when my palms connected with her cheeks as I slapped her impulsive. "You stole my husband, almost ruined my life when you have the nerve-"

She returned the slap, causing my face to twist in the other direction. Without thinking I grabbed a fistful of her hair and we began to fight.

We pulled each other back and forth hitting and kicking whenever we could. She quickly took the upper hand and pinned me against the wall, choking me as she grabbed my neck.

The shuffling of feet met my ears as officers in the station were rushing towards us with the intent of breaking up the fight.

My airflow was restricted and I could tell my face was turning bright red. I pushed her hands away from my throat and took a deep breath.

"Get off me!" I yelled and shoved her backwards, just enough to create some space between us.

However she seemed to make the situation more dramatic and practically leaped backwards, intentionally ramming her body against the wall.

The back of her head collided with the wall and she dropped to the ground seemingly unconscious.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Aiden screamed at the top of his voice.

I was startled by his outburst, he was never one to get violent or aggressive. Why was he even shouting at me? His crazy wife was trying to choke me.

From the corner of my eyes I noticed Ava's eyes fluttered open for a quick second as Aiden was trying to carry her up from the floor.

"Ava? Are you okay sweetheart?" He turned to face me. "If anything happens to her going to be your fault."

I opened my mouth to speak but I couldn't find the right words. "She- she's lying," I said.

He clenched his teeth and flared at me. "You better pray that nothing is wrong with her in the hospital if not I'm going to sue you and make sure you spend some nights behind bars."

His shoulders brushed against mine as he carried her out of the station. Liam squeezed my shoulders and pulled me into a hug.

"Mrs Bianca, I understand that you desperately want to uncover the truth and so do I. But if you continue to display this unruly behaviour, especially in my station, I'll have no choice but to have you arrested, understood?"

Liam stepped forward, "it's okay, we're leaving," he said to her and then spun around.

"I wasn't talking to you Mr Black, I was talking to your wife. I haven't gotten a response from her, or does she want me to make this an official case, there's plenty of handcuffs and plenty of space in the cells tonight. So I asked again Mrs Bianca Black, do you understand me?"

I took a slow shaky breath to calm my nerves. "Yes, I understand."

We made our way towards the car and then immediately we got in, Liam closed the door and faced me. "Why did you get into a first with her?"

"Can we just go home? I'm not in the mood for a lecture right now." I fastened my seatbelt and we drove home.

We didn't say much to each other that night and we went to sleep facing different sides of the bed. The next morning I woke up and got ready for work.

"Mhm. Aren't you having breakfast?" Liam asked inbetween swallowing chunks of his food.

I peeped at my wrist watch. "I'll be back soon, I just have to oversee what's going on so I'll be able to give Miranda a status report that's all."

After planting a kiss on my children's cheeks I turn around to leave when I heard his voice. "What? No kiss for me?"

I smiled and then moved towards him and kissed him. At least I knew that he was no longer angry with me.

When I got to the site the beeping of machines filled the air. Cranes and large construction machines we're moving about to place carrying steel pipes, sand, blocks, stones and other materials needed to build.

It was a bit windy today so my hair was scattered. Aiden and I made eye contact and I exhaled, swallowing my pride and walking up to him.

"Hi, good morning. I just wanted to ask how Ava is doing."

I could see his shoulders tighten but he didn't say a word to me. Instead he just adjusted his construction helmet and walked past me like I was a ghost.

I bit my lower lip and slowly nodded my head. So that's how it's gonna be?

For some reason his action reawaked the rage within me. I grabbed my notepad and began to move around, taking all the necessary notes.

Has it begun to near afternoon, the sun peaked and I felt myself breaking a sweat. Maybe that's enough for one morning. I took a break and walked towards a shaded area.

One of the men who I had seen using the drilling machine earlier came to sit down near me. He was soaked in sweat and looked tired.

"Hey, good afternoon, nice work you guys are doing," I started.

"Thank you."

I tucked some of my hair behind my ears. "So um… if you don't mind my asking, I'm not really an engineer or anything I just want to know what you guys are doing today, what stage of construction is this?"

The man took a swig of water from his bottle to quench his thirst and wiped his mouth sit his sleeves. "I don't know ma'am, you'll have to ask the boss, he's the engineer."

He pointed with his bottle at Aiden. I instantly felt like rolling my eyes. "okay thank you," I whispered and got up.

The sooner I got this over with, the sooner I will get home. With a defeated sigh I trudged towards him. "Good afternoon, I need you to explain some things to me so I can put it in my report for Miranda," I said, going straight to the point.

He placed his hand on his waist and looked outwards. It was quite obvious that he was doing this to intentionally piss me off, but I kept my cool.

What set me on edge however, was when he walked away without responding. I clenched my fists by my side and stomped after him.

"Look I don't carr of you're angry with me or don't want to talk to me because quite frankly I'm not interested in talking to you too. But I need you to open your mouth and communicate with me so that I can give my report to Miranda."

He halted briefly, making me almost crash against his muscular frame. "What?"

"What state of construction is this, I need an overview of everything that's happening here today so I can report it."

"Can't you see, they're laying the foundation, you don't need to be an engineer to know that." His tone took me aback. "Oh and over there that machine is mixing cement, over there that machine is lifting heavy steel pipes. Over there those men are resting, do you need any other information?"

I turned around and headed towards my car. "What a brute," I muttered loudly such that I was sure he heard me.

My phone began to ring in my bag and I stopped struggling to bring it out. It seemed like I dipped my hand in a black hole because I kept searching but I couldn't find it.

I raised my knee and propped my bag against it so I could rummage through properly. When I finally found the phone, I realized it was an unknown number.

With raised eyebrows, I picked the call. "Hello?"

The sound of sniffling from the other line met my ears. "Hello? Is this Bianca?" Her voice sounded shaky.

"Yes it is why?" My heart spiked.

"It's Regina calling, Grace's sister. I need your help, some people… there's some men after me and they're trying to kill me."

I felt my blood run dry as coloured drained from my face. "Tell me where you are right now, I'm on my way," I said in an urgent tone as I opened the door and hopped into the driver seat.