Chapter 7

Olivia ~•~ My best friend woke me up the next morning. I was even surprised at how I slept peacefully the whole night. “Are you ready to go back home?” She asked and I sighed when I realized what I was going to face when I returned. “Just a minute,” I said and she nodded before making her way out of the room. I switched on my phone and the first thing I did was to call Amanda because she left me a text and asked me to call her immediately after I saw it. “Hey.” She said in a slightly groggy voice as she picked up the call. “Did I wake you up?” I asked when I heard how sleepy her voice sounded. “You asked me to call you and it looked urgent.” “Yeah yeah, I wanted to talk to you about Alex.” I sat upright on the bed. “What about Alex?” I braced myself for what she was about to say. It was probably about the mess I caused after leaving the party. “I think he was telling the truth about Tricia.” She said and my face scrunched up in disgust. She was my sister and she was meant to be on my side yet she was trying to support Alex, the man who hurt me. “Why?” “He was surprised when I told him the reason you left the party was because his ex-girlfriend was in town. He looked like he had no idea about it.” I was silent for a few seconds. I didn’t know what to believe. As far as I knew, Alex could be lying about not knowing she was in town. “I honestly do not know what to say, Amanda,” I said, running my hands through my hair. “I just wanted to let you know and I’m sorry about the divorce.” She sympathized with me. “Thank you but please don’t tell anyone about it.” By anyone, I meant the other members of our family, especially my mother. I trusted Amanda, so I could talk to her about it, but my mother was going to blame me and talk about how I had ruined my life. I wasn’t ready to face her so I didn’t want her to know about it. “My mouth is sealed,” Amanda responded and I laughed. “I’ll talk to you later,” I said and hung up the call. I changed into a more decent outfit before going to meet Sandra in the living room. “Thank you for everything,” I said as I walked towards her. “I’m ready to leave.” She turned off the TV and stood up from the couch. After grabbing her car key from the table, we both made our way out of the house. On the ride back home, I told Sandra about Amanda’s call. It was a short ride because Sandra didn’t live far away from me, so we didn’t have much time to talk. “Make sure you listen to Alex first before making any other decision,” Sandra spoke up as I was about to open the door and I narrowed my eyes. “Promise me you’ll hear what he has to say first.” She stretched out her hands for a pinky promise. “I’m not doing this shit with you anymore,” I let out a playful scoff. We always did pinky promises while growing up but I felt I had outgrown it. “I’ll listen to him first.” With that, I got out of the car and closed the door behind me. “Call me!” Sandra yelled as I went to the gate and I nodded. When I got inside, I saw Alexander’s car parked outside so it meant he was around. I took a deep breath as I walked into the front door because I knew I was about to get into an argument with him. Before I could take another step as I walked inside, I heard Alexander’s voice from the living room. “Where did you spend the night?” He couldn’t even wait for me to get inside properly before interrogating me. I didn’t respond, I just went to meet him in the living room because he also had some kind of explaining to do. “We both know I spent the night at Sandra’s, so what’s the point of asking me where I spent the night?” I asked with a furrowed brow. Alexander had a stern and serious face. I could tell he was very angry but tried his best to stay calm. “Why did you leave the party?”. “I’m sure Amanda already filled you in,” I spoke, rolling my eyes at him. Alexander let out a heavy sigh and stood up from the couch. “Olivia.” He cleared his throat before he continued. “I honestly had no idea that she was in town.” I didn’t know if I was meant to believe him or not. It was too clear to just dismiss it as a coincidence. He gave me divorce papers at the same time his ex returned to the city. “You have to believe me, Olivia.” He added when he saw I was quiet. We were still getting a divorce so it didn’t matter if he was telling the truth or not. “Now I know the actual person you got the necklace for.” I dropped my bag on the couch and swallowed hard. “Look, Alex, there’s no use arguing about it anymore. We are getting divorced so it doesn’t matter if you are lying about it or not.” His face hardened and he started pacing back and forth in the living room. “You want to get divorced? You want to throw five years of our marriage down the drain?” His shrill voice sounded through the room. I paused for a second because I was confused. He was the one who wanted to get divorced and now he was blaming me for agreeing to it?