Chapter 12 OLIVIA'S PAST

To lighten the mood, when things got a little peaceful in the car and his forehead furrows cleared, pulling the collar of my dress, I joked, “Isn’t it getting too hot out here?”

The smirk on his face made me smile, and then I started to laugh as I said, “Where is the document that gives me 50 per cent stake in the museum? I want to sign it.”

I was only having some fun to make him smile, but his expression was confusing me as he was lost watching me laugh. He wasn’t expressionless because he had a subtle smile on his very handsome face, but his eyes were fixed on mine. It appeared to me as if he was just going to say something to me from his heart and as if something was stopping him.

Such an expression often protects oneself from being emotionally naked and laying our emotions bare in front of someone. In a relationship, people should not be able to only strip down clothes from their bodies, but they should also feel safe in stripping down their emotions in front of their partners. At the moment when someone is capable and confident enough to do that without being attacked or having felt vulnerable, only then is it real love.

Seeing that expression on Charles made me feel as if he wanted to get closer to me than he already was but still had doubts about whether he should. I felt good then knowing that he at least was wishing for it from within. In so much time I was able to achieve that level in his mind without even trying to make him feel like that.

Our friendship was very different from the usual bond between friends which normally included teasing each other and pulling their legs. Whereas, Charles and I would also protect one another from being exposed to anything that would harm the other person, but we were not in a relationship; we were only friends.

When I felt comfortable asking him why he said all that in front of everybody at the museum, as I initiated the talk, his phone started to ring. And as I had that in my mind, my phone started to ring as well, bringing me back to the present. I feel very happy to read the caller’s name as Mr. Nathan Alberto.

Nathan sir was my warden at the orphanage that I grew up in. I have never known who my parents were and why I was left at the orphanage. From the time that I opened my eyes, I have been raised by Mr. Alberto who is an amazing caretaker. He is always on duty because he stays in the orphanage itself and takes care of every child as if they were his own.

He has been the proof in my life of the fact that God provides you with something better if he takes anything from you. Being without parents hasn’t been easy for me in the outside world. When I was at the orphanage, living and studying weren’t impacted that much because every child living there was on the same boat.

Problems arose when I ran from there to live on my own because of a guy who had given me the impression of loving me when in reality all he wanted was the good out of me. I was very young and things drastically changed for me when I stepped out in the real world all by myself. It is then that I realized how much I was protected at the orphanage and was never made to feel bad about not having parents and being raised in an orphanage.

In a few months of living together with the guy who I had escaped from the walls of my home, he decided to ask me to leave his house because his wife agreed to come back to him. I did not know that the guy I was living with was already married.

I was only a mistress to him who he just wanted while his wife was away because of a major disagreement that both of them had, and he wanted me to be on my own now that his wife had agreed to come back home. He didn’t want to be alone and didn’t want his “action” to stop during the fight that his wife was having with him.

It made me feel as if I was used because had I at least known that he was married, and if I still chose to sleep with him, that would have been by my choice. But I did not know about him being married, in fact, I didn’t even have the slightest idea of it. At that point, not being chosen made me feel as if I was being played for a sucker.

But because I was so naïve to know how I must fight back, I chose to pack my clothes and leave his house. The same night that he told him his deal, I was gone the next morning. I left without a note, without a talk, without any kind of deal because I didn’t feel the need to let him know. I at least had that much self-respect despite being played.

Never did I ever want to get in touch with him ever again, nor did he also try to know about me after I left his house without intimating him. Honestly, it didn’t bother me at all. My feelings being used for pleasure hurt me a lot, but that was the day that I decided that I didn’t need anyone in my life.

One fine day Charles walked into my life and effortlessly everything panned out so well. It was after getting married to him I realized love isn’t work at all; it is the most uncomplicated thing to happen to anyone in this life. If it seems like a lot of work to do which is not only time-consuming, but is also difficult, I can assure you that it may be one-sided, but it isn’t love.

I immediately answer Nathan sir’s call to know if any other unacceptable thing has happened at the orphanage that I need to take care of, or if he has called me only to check up on me knowing the thing I had talked to him about.