When Olivia had confronted her parents she moved in front of her siblings, Michael and Claudia were standing on either side of Fitz, stunned by what had just transpired. Huck had a small smirk on his face. Olivia is still staring down her parents, not willing to be the first to blink. She hears Michael and Claudia whispering behind her.
"You know we would never get away with that right?" Claudia said in a hushed tone to Michael.
"So are we going to sit down and handle this or not?"
"Olivia, I don't think I really want to deal with your attitude. You left this family we didn't leave you so I wont have you playing the victim." She was reaching. Maya and Olivia both new it. Olivia had a small look of momentary triumph on her face. Eli sensed his wife was acting off, yes she always was indifferent to their kids, but for her to say that Olivia left the family, as if she cared alerted him to something being off.
"Everyone sit. Now. Explain quickly." Eli commanded and everyone responded to his instructions. Michael and Huck told him about hearing through the grapevine that people were looking for Olivia, and they immediately went to her. The plan being to alert her and keep an eye out until they felt there was no threat. Olivia picked up the story telling him about her and Fitz going for breakfast when Fitz saw a man pull a gun and aim it in their direction. When Olivia's face got splotchy again Claudia picked up where she left off. Seeing Fitz pushing her down and taking a bullet in his arm, she told him how they stitched him up and took him home. Michael then explained that they found the gunman and got him to talk, which led them to Sal, the ghost.
"We can't find any information on him. There isn't a picture, and Sal more than likely isn't his real name. We hit a road block." Despite his anger at his mother Michael couldn't continue, he knew what his mother would face from his father. He looked at Huck and he picked things up.
"I had been tracking people's online presence, as well as phone records, in the community to figure out who could have let it slip that Liv is alive, especially after all this time." Maya sat perfectly still the whole time, not showing any fear. "And we uhm found that the leak… it uhm… came from inside the family." Everyone looked around finally realizing how bad this was going to be if even Huck had a hard time breaking the news.
"Let me save you all some stress and time, I know Maya did it." Everyone stared at Eli, no one could believe he would let her get away with something that duplicitous.
"How could you let her do that?" Michael sat in disbelief, he worshipped their father the way politicians admire Nixon.
"He wouldn't, he wanted her to do it. He put her up to it. Didn't you?" Olivia didn't have to ask she already knew the answer, but at this point he owed her the truth. When he didn't answer she went on,
"You helped me get away, you trained them to take on the business, I was supposed to go to college and get a degree that I would actually use. I was going to have a legitimate life. Why would you bring me back into this?" She looked back and fourth between her mother and father, everything shifted, all the anger she had for her Mother for betraying her and her father evaporated, and all that was left was a void.
"It was time Olivia, you needed to come back to reality. When we realized how ingrained this life was becoming in you, you got sloppy. Beating that girls boyfriend, we knew it was time to bring you home." Olivia stared at her mother. Her siblings were silent, staring. She couldn't even look at Fitz, but if her grip on her knee was any indication he wasn't coping well either.
"The deal was I don't come back. You both warned me that if I did this I would be out. I accepted that and was grateful for that opportunity and you played me. I wanted normal and easy. I didn't want my life to be a long line of people waiting to die in the service of Eli Pope."
"Normal is not an option Olivia that is not what you were bred for. You will come home as soon as you graduate and you will happily stand in line, the line to power. That's why people are in the line because they want power. You used to want that to until we let you leave, now you want normal." Her mother scoffed at the word normal. "You think I wasn't just like you? That I wanted this when I was eighteen, my parents sent me away, and you know what I came home and fell in line and you will too." For a moment she sat in stunned silence. She had no idea her mother ever tried to leave the life. Her mother was the epitome of the mafia wife. Strong in her own right, but willing to defer to the men around her, ambitious, but willing to share the throne if only to taste the power. How had her teenage mother gone from wanting to runaway and have a life to the women that raised her?
"I'm not you Mom, besides I'm dead, what are you planning on telling people, reanimation?"
"Olivia dear, don't ask questions you know the answer its beneath you." Her father looked disgusted he even had to have this conversation.
"Closed casket." It was a hushed whisper. They had a closed casket because the body was too mangled. This had been their plan all along.
"This little reprieve is over." He said it like there was no argument, and maybe if he had told Claudia or Michael that would have been it, but for Olivia she always had another card to play.
"What makes you think I will just come back? How can I even be apart of this family if I can't trust you? What you did could have gotten people killed could have gotten me killed? Was it worth the risk?"
"You didn't get hurt."
"Didn't get hurt?! Are you crazy? Fitz got shot, I had to stitch him back together, that hurt me. Had he not been there I would have gotten shot." She felt Fitz flinch when she said it.
"Because you've gotten sloppy." She saw no remorse or understanding in either one of their eyes.
"So this is my punishment? For growing up? For making my own life? For falling in love with him, I'm sure you never saw that coming." She knew her parents thought she was being ridiculous even arguing that love might be a valid reason for her not wanting this life. She's done, there's nothing they would say at this point, but she needs to know why they would do this, even if the reason doesn't make sense to her she needs it. She gets up and begins to pace in circles, her siblings stare straight a head, but Fitz's eyes followed her. He missed her being next to him, but he knew she needed to think.
"We don't have time for this Olivia. You don't have a choice, I'll be in my office." Her father left the room and her mother followed soon after. All five of them sat in silence, no one knowing what to do. Olivia looked around and saw that everyone was clueless as to what their next step would be.
"Like hell am I coming back, so think people." Olivia was sick of her parents manipulations, no matter what she needed to do to convince them she was no longer under their thumb she would do it. Huck spoke up first,
"First thing he is going to try and do is get your name off of the accounts, he hasn't yet."
"Okay we can fix that, move the money, all of it. Put it in one of your personal accounts, I guess, its not like I can hide it in my bed, I can find a way to open my own later. Next?"
"We still don't know what family he is working with. It has to be someone he trusts, someone that wasn't hurt by the fallout," Michael paused looking back and fourth between Olivia and Fitz, "you know who we have to talk to."
"No absolutely not!" Claudia finally spoke up.
"You think I want to? We don't have a choice, Huck can you find him? I guess I'll have to tell him I'm not dead. That will be a delightful conversation…" Olivia made a sour face. Claudia looked livid, but nodded in agreement to whatever plan they had come to subconsciously.
"Well actually Liv that's one thing you wont have to do…"
"Michael, you didn't! He knows!? Seriously does anyone still think I'm dead!?
"We ended up in the same bar after your fake funeral, he was a mess Liv. I was too." Olivia was so angry that it seemed she was the only one truly dedicated to keeping her dead.
"Got him, he's at the hotel bar actually." Huck told them.
"Fitz?" Olivia was nervous. "Come on. You get to meet my ex." She sounded defeated. She never wanted Fitz to realize what her life was before he walked into it, and her ex would be just a little too enlightening. As one unit they all began to move except for Fitz. She held out her hand and he grabbed it. Fitz knew she had dated before, but a sudden spark of jealousy flooded him when he realized they were going to him for help when he couldn't.