Chapter Three
Olivia
It happens in slow motion. The man with the gun pointed at my face sneers when he hears Casey’s voice, and I want to yell for Casey to run away and let it be. But the words are stuck in my throat, and when the man turns around, I get one more glance of Casey. I think to myself he has to be the most beautiful man I’ve ever met, and I am thankful for having my time with him. Our eyes meet for one second before the sound of gunfire fills the room. Suddenly, all I feel is pain in my head, and I fade to black. I want to open my eyes and make sure Casey is okay, but the heaviness in them keeps them closed. My whole body feels so heavy I can’t even lift my arm.
Casey sounds like he’s right beside me as I float away. “Olivia!” He yells my name, and then I hear more noise, almost like a stampede of people coming up the stairs while I fade off. I think back to how this all started.
Watching the red elevator numbers go up one floor at a time, I felt my heart pounding in my chest. The brown box in my hand got heavier and heavier as the numbers got higher and higher. You can do this, I told myself, cheering myself on. It’s going to be fine. You need to just dump the box and go.
The elevator pinged, and it took me back to two weeks ago when I walked down this exact brown plush rug toward Dominic’s penthouse.
I tightened the strap on the trench coat that I was wearing over garters and a bra. My brand new Louboutins sank into the rug and pinched my feet as I licked my lips. Dominic had been gone all week, and he had just gotten back into town. He said he had a business meeting all night long with Chinese investors, but there I was, going to sneak into his penthouse and surprise him when he got back.
My key slid into the lock, and I pushed open the door, expecting the penthouse to be pitch black and quiet. Except it wasn’t. The lights were on, and the whole open-floor concept was bright. From the doorway, I saw the empty living room, and the five open bottles of champagne on the kitchen island with five glasses. I walked to the counter, then heard the soft music coming from the bedroom. I knew I shouldn’t go down there. I knew in my head it wasn’t a good idea. Fuck, my brain was even telling me to turn around and walk out, pretending I didn’t see anything, but my feet, those bitches had a mind of their own. I was halfway down the hall when I heard moaning, and my stomach flipped, nausea suddenly running through me. “So good.” I heard a soft moan, and I knew that I was going to be heartbroken. Standing in the doorway of the master suite, I finally saw with my own eyes what my fiancé was up to. And if my feet didn’t feel like they were glued to the floor, I would have stumbled back at the sight. Dominic had four women on the bed that we shared, the bed I slept in half the time.
He leaned over, snorting cocaine off a woman’s stomach, then moved over to a second woman to do another line. The other two ladies were straddling the women’s faces. He crawled over to one, grabbing her hair and pulling it back, then devoured her mouth, making her grind her hips even more. His cock was hard as a rock, and I had to wonder if he had taken anything since sex between us was usually a pitiful twenty minutes at best. “Who’s going to ride the cock first?”
“Me,” the girl with the only mouth free said. “Last time, I was last, so this time, I go first.”
“Last time?” I whispered, but my voice was a bit too loud because the girl who just spoke looked at me. She didn’t move or try to cover herself, though. Dominic, on the other hand, whipped his head to the door, his eyes going wide as he saw me standing there.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, all flustered as he got off the bed. “You weren’t supposed to be here.”
“I’m sorry,” I said to him. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your orgy!” I yelled at him. He walked toward me, but I held up my hand. “Please don’t come any closer to me.”
“I can explain,” he said, and I laughed. Looking over at the bed, I saw that all the women were sitting in the middle of the bed just watching.
“I think it’s pretty self-explanatory as to what is going on here. I don’t need you to explain it as well.” I pointed at the women and saw the drugs on the side table next to our engagement picture. The one he had taken when he got down on one knee in Hawaii in the middle of the beach with candles in the shape of a heart and rose petals.
“I have needs, Olivia,” he said. “And I was very stressed.”
“Oh,” I scoffed, “you look really stressed.” I turned to walk toward the door. “You looked so fucking stressed when you did those two lines of cocaine off those girls.” I shook my head. How the fuck didn’t I know he used cocaine? How the fuck was this right under my nose, and I never knew it? I’d been around this shit my whole life, so I knew all the signs. All of them.
“You can’t just leave!” he shouted when I got to the door. I turned around to face him as he stood there naked, and I looked at him. He wasn’t that attractive, if I was honest about it. His balding head showed that he’d had hair plugs. His nose had obviously been fixed. His teeth were all capped.
His body was mediocre, he rocked the dad bod like no one else I knew, and if I finally admitted it to myself, I was with him because he made me feel safe. He took care of me like no one else and made sure I was always okay. He put me first, and I put my head back. “We should discuss this.”
“How long?” I asked him the only question I really cared about. “How long were you faithful?”
“Olivia,” he said. “Baby face.” He called me by the stupid nickname I hated, making me cringe, but then the anger of what I just walked in on took over me. The little piece of sanity I had come undone.
“How fucking long?” I shouted at the top of my lungs. “How fucking long have you been fucking other people?” I waited for it, just standing there. He was naked, and he just … I loathed him. But that was what I was going to end up with. It was what I was going to end up with all along, and to me, it was what I deserved.
“That is not the point,” he said, and I shook my head and laughed out bitterly.
“We’ve had unprotected sex!” I shouted. “So I think the point is, how fucking long, Dominic?” And then it all clicked into place. The all-night meetings he used to have. “Jesus.” I laughed again. “I was so blind.”
“If it means anything…” He looked down. “They don’t mean anything.”
Putting my hand to my chest, I said sarcastically. “That means so much.” I turned around, opening the door. “Goodbye, Dominic.”
I walked down the hallway and waited for him to follow me, but he didn’t. I didn’t know why that hurt more than walking in on him, but it did. That night, I went back to my apartment, and I told Kallie it was over.
She took one look at me and walked to the freezer, grabbing the full-fat ice cream and two spoons. “What are we watching?” she asked, and I put my head on her shoulder and ate ice cream.
“We need to take her in.” I hear now, a groan comes out of me or at least I think I groan. I’m not even sure anymore. When I’m brought back down again into the blackness and the fog.