Married to the loveless CEO-Chapter 81: I remember you now [Flashback]

Olivia and Helen Yul were on their way to Mrs Helen’s friend’s bookstore, they were seated at the back seat of the SUV. They soon arrived at the place and parked at the parking lot.

The bookstore occupied an one storey building in the busy business complex. They got out of the car, Olivia’s eyes glanced briefly at the name of the bookstore imprinted at the top of the first floor building.

"Laura Jean’s bookstore," she read under her breath before they walked in. The bell at the door that indicates when someone walks into the store, jingled.

It was as if they had been expecting them, which they were. A woman about Mrs Helen’s age and a younger woman, two to three years younger than Olivia, welcomed them.

"And this must be your daughter in law, Olivia," the older woman acknowledged.

"Yes, she is," Helen replied.

"Nice to meet you Olivia, I’m Laura Jean and this is my daughter, Claire Jean. Sorry for missing the wedding, we were out of town," Laura said the last part more to Helen.

"Not a problem, Laura," Helen responded.

"Yes, Mrs Laura. Nice to miss you too and you too Ms. Claire," Olivia uttered.

"Just Claire would do," Claire smiled at her.

"I like her already," Laura stated and they all shared a small laugh.

"Thank you very much, Mrs Laura," Olivia appreciated.

"Well with the pleasantaries out of the way, how about some tea?" Laura suggested and they all agreed.

They discussed further about Olivia’s apprenticeship as they enjoyed their tea. In between the discussions, Olivia acknowledged the beauty and brilliance of the bookstore.

It was spacious and filled with books arranged in tall racks and shelves, there was even a tall movable bookstore ladder at a shelf, which was used in collecting books at greater heights.

Laura had her own office while her daughter was usually at the counter but there was a round table with chairs at the center of the bookstore and that was where they were having the tea.

"...And she can decide to be independent whenever she is ready," Laura concluded. Olivia and Helen nodded in agreement to all Laura had elaborated on.

"Lovely. So when are you starting Olivia?" Laura asked.

"As soon as possible, even tomorrow maybe," Olivia answered.

"Okay."

They left after concluding, Olivia wanted to take a taxi home as she didn’t want to bother Mrs Helen but Helen insisted on dropping her off at the villa.

"I’d have loved to come in if Leonard was home," Helen told, when they got to the villa.

"I’ll have a word with him to start coming home on time for you and the baby. This isn’t fair of him," she added.

"It’s okay," Olivia replied. She has gotten used to it, besides she didn’t know if she preferred the loneliness more to his toxicating presence.

She bid Helen goodbye and walked into the house. She encountered the butler and housekeeper at some points, they greeted her and she returned the greetings but didn’t bother to ask if Leo was home.

She went upstairs to their room. She dropped her purse when she got there and released her long jet black hair from the ponytail she had packed it into. It fell downwards to her shoulders towards her back.

She opened the door feeling like taking a stroll around the villa. She walked around within the house, she hasn’t gotten tired yet of savouring the beauty of the house.

She walked towards the sliding doors of the house that leads to the swimming pool. She could already see the glimpse of the pool the closer she got.

She hasn’t had a swim in the pool since she got married to Leo and moved into the villa. She has only sat there one day, with her legs in the pool.

She got there and stood just few meters close to the pool. Her eyes narrowed a little as she discovered that someone was swimming in the pool.

’Wait...is that...’ she trails in her thoughts as Leo got out of the pool. He soon stood before her as he wiped himself with a towel.

It was as if Olivia became rooted to the ground at the sight of him. Her heart skipped a beat as her eyes moved away from his face towards his wet body.

They really barely saw each other that this was the first time she was seeing his wet body. His damp black hair made him more hot and sexy as the beads of water walked majestically down his fit and masculine body.

She shook her head and fixated her eyes back to his eyes. Her heart started racing as he walked closer to her. Why was he having this kind of effect on her?

"Olivia!" she heard him call. He has been talking to her for some while now.

"Huh?" she voiced.

Her face was red as she blushed, he noticed. The corner of his lips pulled up in a brief smirk which vanished the same moment it came. Why was she still so embarrassed seeing him half naked? They have already made love, was she for real?

"Uh Uhm...You are home early today, you are usually home early these days," she noticed.

"Yes. I’ve been less busy these days, it’s not because I want to see you," well being always busy was his tactic to avoid her.

"I never asked for you to see me often," she responded.

"Well, I went with your mother today to see her friend who owns a bookstore-"

"Mrs Laura?"

"Yes. I would like to open my own bookstore so I’m going to do a period of apprenticeship with her, starting from tomorrow," she continued.

He just nodded and brushed passed her as he went inside. She sighed, was it always going to be like this between them? Was he always going to be this cold towards her? She know he was still mad at her but they were married now and she will like for them to get along even though they might never love each other.

On the other hand, Sentencia sat on a swing at a playground close to the hospital. The playground was empty and so she sat on the swing and moved to and fro as she waited for Fi.

She had called him up and told him to meet her here. What Silvia had disclosed to her days ago still lingered in her mind?

"Sentencia?" she heard his voice, her head moved upwards to see him. She stood up almost immediately.

"Are you okay?" he asked. She looked troubled, it has been days since he last saw her. He had respected her privacy and didn’t spy on her anymore.

"Yes," she replied. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

He held her hand and planted a light kiss on it. She felt her heart skip a beat when his soft lips brush on her fingers.

"I missed you," he said, he was more than happy when he received her call.

"Fi, please don’t lie to me anymore. I already confirmed the truth of my speculations, I just want to confirm it from you," she began. His heart started racing as if he already knew where this was heading.

He had wanted to become cold towards her to keep her away from him, because he was getting her deeper into his world than he had wanted, but that was until his father found out about her and before Logan Preston showed interest in using her to get back at him.

"You are part of a syndicate group, right? You are the heir of a mafia family, am I wrong?," she asked but he was silent. Now that she has found out the truth about him, he was afraid to lose her.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me the truth, Fi," she added and he bowed his head a little.

"Yes," he finally answered. But does it changes anything?

He was taken aback when Sentencia got him into a warm embrace. He was even too shock to hug her back, he was expecting her to yell at him and tell him she never wants to see him again.

She glanced up at him with teary eyes; "You did knew me, who I was, from the start right?"

He nodded.

"Miss crybaby," he humored and she laughed as their minds drifted off to the memories.

...[Flashback]

At first they were kept in separate rooms when they were kidnapped. The rooms were guarded even though the girls were tied and blindfolded.

Sentencia was crying when she heard the door open. She was so afraid, she has never been in this kind of situation before and not being close to her friends made her worry even more.

"This is the last of them, boss," she heard a man say.

At the age of nineteen, Mr. Lee made sure his heir and only child, Finland Lee, was involved in all of their operations. Finland walked closer to the girl, he could see how she moved away the closer she heard him walk towards her.

He squatted when he got to her, "Hey, I’m not going to hurt you," he never cared about his dad’s kidnapped victims, he was groomed and trained to be that ruthless.

But something about this girl in front of him just made his cold heart to take an immediate liking towards her without his approval.

Sentencia stopped moving, she frozed but the tears didn’t. What now?

"I’m going to remove the blindfold, okay?" Fi informed.

"What boss? You can’t do that, she’ll know how you look like then," the other man stated but Fi ignored him as his hands reached for her.

...