Part 17

"Dad."

"Olivia."

The whole room is engulfed in silence. The atmosphere between father and daughter is so thick and so palpable it makes those partied to it extremely uncomfortable.

"I have your stuff in the back of the car…"Eli tells her stoically, "Although, if you choose to be honest with me, and give up this charade then maybe I can take them back home…"

Her expression goes from one of anger to mortification. "Dad, please not here…" she pleads, becoming increasingly distressed by his flippant behaviour; not seeming to care who hears or knows- or worse, unwilling to see his own faults in the way he has handled this situation, and is still handling it.

"Mr Pope, Liv's right…" Quinn wisely intervenes, as much as she would like to know what was going on with Liv, finding out publicly and at her emotional expensive was not right. Abby was in agreement too… "Please, why don't you two take this somewhere private?" She points towards the interview room, encouraging them to go in there.

Olivia looks at both of them gratefully, and whispers thanks… "Excuse us."

As soon as she closes the door behind them, she lets rip… "What the hell was that, must you come to my place of work and embarrass me, haven't you done enough?!"

"That's rich coming from you?" he retorts… "Or have you forgotten you're the one who is sleeping with a married man!"

"I realise that what I'm doing is deemed immoral, but throwing me out the house the way you did… Leaving me with nothing but the clothes on my back, that was plain cruel… You hurt me…"

He can't help but feel a tad bit remorseful. "Look, maybe I handled it wrongly, but I was angry and you needed to be taught a lesson…"

"A lesson in what exactly? How to survive a night on the streets!"

Guiltily, he replies… "What else was I supposed to do Liv? Tell you everything will be fine, that all will be forgiven- When you're not even willing to let this man go- He's not yours Liv, he belongs to someone else… Don't you see that?"

She shakes her head… "I love him, I wish I could give him up- but I can't. If you can't accept that and that makes me, as you so eloquently put it the other night, a "whore" then so be it… And if I can't live under your roof because of that, then I guess I have no other choice but to find somewhere else to lay my head."

"So you're determined to go through this! You're willing to allow this worthless excuse of a man to drive a wedge between us, and destroy our family…"

"No daddy, you did that when you stopped treating me like your daughter."

Her comment strikes him hard. "Liv…"

"Forget it, don't… Let's just agree to disagree, okay? You've said your piece, and so have I… So why don't you just let me grab get my stuff, and then you can be on your way."

He reaches out, stopping her from walking past him… "I know I'm not perfect Liv, but let's get one thing straight, I will always be your father. Granted, I might go about it the wrong way from time to time, but no father wants to see his daughter get hurt… And I hope you can believe me when I say it wasn't my intention to hurt you; which I know I did and I'm sorry- but Liv your stubbornness is preventing you from seeing the bigger picture here, because believe me, allowing this affair to continue will be the ruin of you…"

She doesn't want to hear anymore… "Have you finished?"

"For now, yes, I suppose so…"

"Good, then let me pass please…"

Reluctantly, he lets her by. "You're making a mistake Liv." He warns with trepidation, as she opens the door and happens to walk right into Fitz- who had been waiting for her patiently on the other side.

"You okay?" he whispers discretely.

"I'm fine." She brushes him off icily, on the verge of losing her composure. It's killing him, not being able to hold her right now, although he suspects if he did she would surely crumble. However, it's when he sees Eli, with his solemn expression that the magnitude of their deception suddenly comes crashing home. He was supposed to be his friend, but yet unbeknownst to Eli he was now the cause of his relationship with his daughter falling apart. He felt sick to his stomach.

"Fitz." Eli greets him with a subtle nod of the head, which he returns despite himself; finding it incredibly difficult to look him in the eye, convinced that he will sense his guilt if he does. "Eli…"

"Can I have a word please?"

Upon her father's request, Olivia turns and looks at Fitz like a doe caught in headlights, frightened at the prospect of her father and Fitz being alone…

"Sure." Fitz agrees, ignoring her silent protest and belying his true feelings, which was not that far removed from Liv's.

He follows Eli to his car.

"Do you know anything about this?"

"Only from what I could make out from the other side of the door." He answers carefully.

"Some married man is taking my baby girl for a ride, and she's foolish enough to believe she loves him… Believe me Fitz if I get my hands on this guy, I'm going to go down for murder."

He swallows nervously. "I don't know what to say Eli…"

"What can you say? Other than it's completely messed up. God, I never thought it would be my daughter involved in something like this… Where did I go wrong?"

"You can't blame yourself Eli…"

"You're right, I should blame him… The bastard, he did this to her!" He spits in rage. "Look, I need you to do me a favour Fitz."

"What do you want me to do?" He asks, although he has a good idea as to where this is going…

"I need you to keep a close eye on her… Let me know if you see anyone sniffing around her, and as soon as you do, let me know… If she won't listen to reason, maybe he will…"

Fitz had guessed correctly.

"So, what do you say?"

"Sure Eli, I'll look out for her." He couldn't feel any lower if he tried.

"Good man, I owe you one…" Eli pats him on the back, grateful to have him on board, before popping open the boot of his trunk and taking out one of the many black sacks filled with Liv's belongings… "Here, seeing as you're dressed for the occasion, you can help me with these…"