Chapter 51 Olivia
OLIVIA
My hands are shaking as I pull up at the manor.
The wedding planner meeting was a blur. I barely remember what Erica Renee looked like, what she said, what I may or may not have agreed to.
The whole time, all I could think about was Natalia’s face.
How her chignon will look when it’s soaked with blood.
Stefan is going to kill Mikayla. That’s what she said. Insisted, really. She squeezed my wrist and said it with stone-cold eyes so I would know, so I would feel it in the marrow of my bones, that Mikayla is going to die brutally if I don’t do something to stop it.
I park and sit in the car for a minute, gripping the steering wheel for dear life. I need to get myself together. Stefan can read me too easily. If I walk in there looking like I’m about to fall apart, he’ll know something’s wrong.
I take a breath. Then another. Then, when I’m ready, I grab my purse and head inside.
The house is still. Stefan’s car isn’t in the drive, so he must still be out. Good. That gives me time.
I head straight to his office. The door is unlocked.
I slip inside and close it behind me. The room smells like him.
Citrus and smoke, same as always. I stand there guiltily for a moment, feeling like an intruder, probably because that’s exactly what I am.
This is his space. His sanctuary. I shouldn’t be here.
But I need to know.
I walk to his desk and start opening drawers. The first one is full of papers. Contracts. Invoices. Nothing interesting. The second one has pens and paper clips and other office supplies.
The third one is locked.
I stare at it for a moment. Then I remember the key ring he keeps in the top drawer. I pull it out and try each key until one clicks.
The drawer opens.
Inside is a small metal box. I lift it out and set it on the desk. It’s not locked. I flip it open.
Keys. Lots of them. Each one labeled with a small tag. Warehouse 3. Storage Unit B. Basement. Storage Unit—
Wait. Basement. My heart freezes in place.
I pull out the basement key and pocket it. Then I close the box and put everything back the way I found it.
I leave the office and stride down the hall to the door that leads to the basement. The guards aren’t here right now. Maybe they’re on a break, maybe Stefan sent them elsewhere, maybe the Rapture came and sucked them all up to heaven or booted them down to hell. I don’t know and I don’t care.
I unlock the door and step inside.
The staircase is narrow and steep. The walls are concrete. The air smells damp and stale. I take the stairs slowly, one at a time, my hand clutching the railing.
At the bottom, there’s a hallway. More concrete. More locked doors. I walk to the end and find the one marked with a number. I unlock it and push it open.
Mikayla is sitting on the bed, staring at the wall. She turns when she hears the door, and when she sees who it is, her eyes go wide.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
I step inside and close the door behind me. “I came to check on you.”
She cackles right in my face. “Have you been under a fucking rock? I’ve been here for weeks. Did you suddenly wake up with a conscience this morning, love?”
“I’m sorry. I should have come sooner.”
“Let me guess: you were too busy fucking Stefan?”
I feel my face heat up. “That’s not fair.”
“How fucking dare you?” She stands and stalks toward me. “You want to talk about fair? I’ve been locked in this box for weeks. And you’ve been upstairs, sleeping in his bed, wearing his ring, pretending like none of this is happening.”
“I’m here now,” I say weakly.
“Oh, yes, I can see that very well. Do you expect me to thank you?”
“No. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
She laughs again. I like the sound of it less and less every time. “Do I look okay to you?”
I look at her. She’s thinner than I remember. Her hair is lank and unwashed. Her skin is pale. But she’s not bruised. Not bleeding. Not broken.
“You look fine,” I say. “Stefan’s not hurting you. You’re alive. You’re fed. You have clothes and a bed.”
“And a locked door. Don’t forget the locked door.”
“You betrayed him. What did you expect?”
Her eyes narrow. “You little bitch. Don’t you dare fucking lecture me.”
“You hate me because he loves me,” I blurt suddenly. I regret it for a moment, but screw it; I’ve come this far. The time has come for me to take a stand. “A better woman would accept that fact and walk away.”
Mikayla squints at me for a long moment. Then she smiles. It’s a slow, cruel smirk that makes me sick to my stomach.
“I’d love to walk away,” she agrees. “But as you can see, I’m a prisoner here. All the better for Stefan to visit me at night after you’ve gone to sleep. He likes fucking me in this glorified cell. It’s a bit of a fetish with him.”
My breath catches. “You’re lying.”
“Am I?”
“He’d never cheat on me.”
“You’re assuming a lot. You’re assuming he really loves you. I’ll let you in on a little secret: Men like Stefan don’t know how to love. They only know how to use. Which is fine with me. I’m happy to let him use me anytime he wants.”
I feel hot, shameful tears prick my eyes. “You’re just jealous.”
“Maybe. But at least I know what I am to him. You, on the other hand… willfully ignorant.”
“Shut up.”
“You think he loves you? You think he wants to marry you because of some grand romantic gesture? He wants your company, Olivia. He wants your clinic. And he wants his heir. That’s all you are to him. A means to an end.”
“That’s not true.”
“Prove me wrong then. I’ve seen the planning documents. Haven’t you?”
I turn toward the door. “I’m done here.”
“Oh, you poor, delusional little girl. You really believe he loves you?”
I stop. My hand is on the doorknob.
“I have proof,” Mikayla says.
I turn back slowly. “What?”
She reaches under the mattress and pulls out a small, black recording device. She presses play.
Stefan’s voice fills the room. “That’s the only reason I want her back. I don’t care about her, but I do care about the baby in her belly. I care about my heir.”
I’m suddenly unsteady on my feet. “No,” I whisper.
Mikayla stops the recording there and tucks it back under the mattress. “He said that to me. Right here in this room. When he was trying to get me to tell him where Natalia was hiding.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not. And deep down, you know it.”
I shake my head. “He loves me. He proposed to me.”
“Because he needs you,” she corrects. “Not because he loves you.”
The tears spill over. I wipe them away angrily. “You’re just trying to hurt me.”
“I’m trying to wake you up. Before it’s too late.”
I stare at Mikayla. It feels like my ribcage is collapsing in on itself. My hands are trembling so violently I have to clench them into fists just to keep them from betraying me completely.
“He loves me,” I say again, but this time, it sounds even less convincing than before.
Mikayla just watches me with those dark eyes.
My mind drifts back to Stefan’s cold-blooded notes about me. The Assets and Liabilities list. I think about the contracts and the clauses, the shooting range, the night at the gala when my world crashed into his and exploded on impact.
“He told you he loves you,” Mikayla says quietly as my thoughts churn and churn. “But did he show you? Or did he just say the pretty lies you needed to hear?”
“You don’t know him like I do,” I whisper.
“You’re right—I don’t know the version of him that he shows you. I know the real one. The one who breaks people. Are you one of those people, Olivia?”
This is poison in my ears. These are the pretty lies, right? Right? Right?!
But what if they aren’t? What if I’ve been fooling myself this entire time? What if Stefan never loved me at all?
I press a hand to my stomach where our daughter is growing. What kind of world am I bringing her into? What kind of father will she have?
Mikayla sees the horror growing on my face and nods slowly. “You’re starting to understand.” She walks to the small window near the ceiling. The bars cast pinstriped shadows across her face. “I want out of this cell, Olivia. Can you help me?”
I shut my eyes. The walls feel like they’re closing in. Everything feels wrong. The recording, Mikayla’s words, the cold concrete, the locked door.
“I can’t,” I whisper.
“You can.”
“No. I won’t betray Stefan like that.”
Mikayla takes a step closer. “He’s already betrayed you. That recording proves it.”
“That recording proves nothing. You could have faked it.”
“We both know I didn’t.”
I open my eyes and look at her. She’s desperate. Broken. Scared.
Just.
Like.
Me.
“If I help you,” I say slowly, “what happens then? You disappear? You leave us alone?”
“Yes.”
“And Natalia? Will she leave us alone, too?”
Mikayla hesitates. “I don’t know.”
“That’s not good enough.”
“It’s all I have.”
I wait. I wait and wait and wait, but the only answers are the ones I choose for myself. No one else is coming to save me.
And in the end, I make a choice.
I pull out my phone and dial.