Chapter 20

The next morning while the girls were still sleeping, Olivia had just gotten out of the shower, and now stood at the mirror in her towel. She picked up her comb, and proceeded to run her fingers through her freshly washed hair. She looked In the mirror, just staring for a moment before she started to drag the comb through her long thick hair.

There hadn't been much sleep for her last night after Nick made his announcement, and as happy as she pretended to be for him, inside she bled! How could he go after all we'd been through together? Was all that she could think. Sure, he explained the perks and what an adventure it would be to live in Paris, but dammit, he was leaving her!

She didn't even know why she was so upset by his news, they'd agreed that this thing they'd rekindled had brought too much pain for the people around them, and that it'd be better if they stayed away from each other. It was for the best... She kept reminding herself, but damn if she didn't lie in bed all night, tossing and turning while she thought about all the plans they made once they would have been free to tell the world about them. But alas, circumstance…

She thought so many times of his beautiful face, his smile and the lips that framed it so perfectly. His kiss, the way his mouth would devour hers, those eyes that would stare into her very soul while they made love with a pure raw animal attraction! God, there were times where she could literally feel him on her, making passionate love to her while she…

Suddenly she felt her nipples leaking milk and looked down to find the towel she wore, soaked.

"SHIT!" She yelled, dropping her comb on the counter. They're reading David's will this morning, Olivia; your dead husband! You cannot be thinking about…

"Mommy?" Aria called as she walked in and Olivia startled, making a mess of the contents of the countertop.

"Ari. Hey. What um, what do you need?" She said, embarrassed and breathing heavily as she tried to put the countertop back in order.

Aria looked at Olivia, then at the towel she wore, the wet spots getting bigger, and she shyly said to Olivia, "...I think you need to feed Theo."

…

Nick was dreaming of her, of her sensuous kiss. Her hands peeling his shirt away from his body as their lips…

"Come the fuck on!" Nick said out loud, to no one in particular as he rolled onto his back and kicked off his covers. He got up from his bed after looking at the clock, Six-Forty-Five. He was incensed that the insane urge to pee had disturbed his dream as he made his way to the bathroom, with a serious hard on that he rubbed through his boxers.

He thought that taking Answari's job offer and getting some distance between he and Olivia would make things easier, but seeing her face when he told her, she was crushed although she tried to hide it.

Lid back down, he flushed and stood at the sink washing his hands. In his heart, he knew he was doing the right thing, so why did it feel so wrong?

"Porque la amas…" ¡Aunque eso no cambia el hecho de que no hay nada que puedas hacer al respecto! He heard a voice say. "Who said that?"

¡Lo hiciste! Independientemente de cómo te sientas, sabes que Olivia nunca podrá amarte como ella quiere, por culpa de las niñas. Perdieron a su padre, hombre; pasarán años antes de que estén listas para tolerar que alguien entre y ocupe su lugar.

"But-"

"But nothing. Olivia will do everything she can to protect her children; you know she will. So unless you can be comfortable with her loving you in the dark, You'll never be anything more to her than a secret. If you love her, let go; for her own sake!

…

"Alright Bean," Olivia said as she came from the cliset dressed in sweats, to Aria who was seated at her vanity. one braid or two?"

"One. A French braid, please." Aria said quietly . She sat still as Olivia began to brush her hair.

"One French braid coming up!" She smiled as she began braiding.

"Momma, are you really going to go to the prison for Sophia?"

"Soph told you about that, huh?'

"She tells me everything."

"I see…" Olivia said as she continued braiding. "I suppose it's good to have someone that you can share things with,"

"Yeah, especially when they're best friends like we are."

Olivia smiled again. It warmed her heart to know that her girls were so close. "Well, that is the plan. Did you want to wrote something too?"

"No. He took our dad, so I don't have anything to say to him. I just hope he goes to jail for a long time!" Olivia stopped Aria's braid halfway, but holding her place.

"You know what? I'm gonna do everything in my power to make sure that happens." She said with her arm around the child. Aria took her hand and hugged it tight, Olivia kissing her head.

…

"Okay, I think I have everything." Julia said out loud to herself when taking stock of what she'd need for the baby during her bank visit this morning, to retrieve her father's safe deposit box. The suspense had plagued her mind since she opened Roger's note yesterday, and she'd even tried to call him but all he would say was "it's best if you go to the box first…"

Finally, morning was here, and after making sure that it was indeed the right bank, she was about to be on her way- if the damn rain would just stop for a moment, because there was no way she was waiting till tomorrow!

Julia again looked out of her bedroom window at the rain, it wasn't stopping anytime soon, or even letting up a little. She couldn't go out with all this stuff, so walking was out of the question. Yes, she could be driven, that way, she could just leave the child in the car with the driver while she ran into the bank-

"Are you kidding me?" She said to herself, fear creeping in just thinking about what could happen to her precious daughter in just a few minutes without her. She actually started to breath heavy thinking of it and she immediately picked a sleeping Chloe up from her bassinet and held her close. She kissed her daughters head and smelled her, the calming scent easing her mind and she rocked her as she slept.

"change of plans…"

…

"Ms. Montgomery, I'm so sorry for the wait," the bank manager apologized, to which Julia assured her it was no problem as she checked on a sleeping Chloe, who was all snug and warm in the sling Julia wore across her chest. "Follow me, please." the manager said. A moment later, she was standing with Julia in the safe deposit box vault.

After comparing keys and inserting them both in the locks of the box, the manager excused herself from the vault, telling Julia to take all the time she needed.

Julia sat at the table that was provided and she took a deep breath before opening the box. Given the secrecy under which it was kept all these years, what was inside could very well change her life and she said a small prayer, to who? She wasn't sure since she had stopped believing ages ago, but still, she uttered the words, and sent them out to the universe before she opened the box. What she saw inside baffled her even more than Roger's note; there was a manila folder, and on top of it lay an envelope with her name scribbled across it in her father's handwriting. They were the box's only contents.

She quickly decided that whatever was in that folder, this was not the time nor place to discover. That, and her nerves were telling her to get out of there, so she did just that. She took the manila folder and the letter, put them in her purse and made her way out of the vault and out of the bank, not knowing what lay in store for her when she got home.

…

"This is the last Will testament of David Theodore Haden II…"

The reading was harder that what Olivia had imagined. She was surprised to find that it was a video of David expressing his final wishes, not just the lawyer reading them off paper. She cried when the lawyer hit play; just seeing David as he was, so healthy and strong the way she remembered him, the tears came and wouldn't stop, for almost everyone.

At the end of it, he told her that his heart was hers from the moment they met; that he loved her, he loved their children and he thanked her for trusting him with her heart.

"I don't know if there's anything after this life, but even if there isn't, I love you forever, Queenie…"

He'd provided well for the children, left them major stocks in several companies that Olivia was to oversee until they were of age, that included a couple of board seats, and money in giant trust funds that they could begin drawing on at eighteen if they chose, but at Olivia's discretion.

Everything else was to go to Olivia. The money, the houses and cars. There were stocks that she inherited with other things and it was all just overwhelming to her. She didn't know the first thing to do with all that he'd left her and went home after saying her goodbyes to those in attendance..

While being driven home, drawing her cell phone from her purse, she couldn't help but looking at Sophia's letter to David's killer -she wouldn't call him anything else, not even his name, even if Sophia had addressed it yo Mr. Corn. Pausing from dialing Fin on the phone, she reached in her purse and took out the letter. She'd told Sophia that she'd go to Rikers tomorrow, but honestly, she figured why not go now? It wasn't like a regular scheduled visit, she was police and didn't have to wait. Plus, with hearing David's final words to her, she needed to see this man, needed to find out what he had to say that she would possibly want to hear.

"Mitchell, I'm sorry, but change of plans. We're going to Rikers Island."

"Right away!" The driver said, and turned the car around at the next street, and Olivia quickly called the nanny to tell her she'd be a little longer.

…

As Olivia stood at the gate in the private visiting room, waiting for Stanley to arrive, she wrapped her arms around herself when a chill suddenly hit her, and it wasn't because of the drafts that were everywhere in this place; she had an uneasy feeling about being here, something about this was going to-

"You're being ridiculous, Olivia." But was she? The plan was to give the man Sophia's letter and leave. Olivia didn't want to see him, and she certainly didn't think she had anything to say to him. After all, what could be said? He'd taken her husband, the father of her children because he was drunk. Anything that she had to say to him would be said to him in court. Yet here she was because she couldn't bear the thought of her 7 year old daughter doing this herself. Sophia had a right to confront this monster even if it was just through her letter.

Olivia held the letter, cut open because it had to be read by the guard before it could be allowed in. She know Sophia asked her not to read it, but she wanted to know what her daughter said to this man. And so, she took the letter from it's envelope, unfolded it, and started to read.

Dear Mister Corn,

You have a funny name. Well, I guess maybe it's not so funny to you, so I'll say it's unusual.

Olivia gave a sad smile. Sophia was being polite even when trying to confront this man through her letter.

My name is Sophia Haden, the day you hit my Daddy's car, me and my sister Aria were in the back seat. I was going to the doctor because I did not feel very well…

Suddenly Olivia felt guilt all over again, and a few tears dropped. It all went back to that day when she was with Nick while her baby needed her. Now feeling like she'd eavesdropped on something extremely personal and deciding that she'd read enough of Sophia's letter, she refolded it and slipped it into the envelope, just as it had been. She had put the letter beside her on the table when she heard the gate on the other side being open. Quickly, she wiped her eyes just as the guard came in with Stanley who had his hands and feet cuffed and chained. But that isn't what had Olivia thrown, no. There again, toying with her memory was the thought of him and where she had seen him before. She knew this face. She knew she knew this face.

"Ms. Benson, it's so nice to see you again. I'm sorry, do you prefer Mrs. Haden?" Stanley said as he sat, cuffed to the tabletop.

"Again?"

"Yes, you may not remember; it was so brief, but we met at your husband's humanitarian award ceremony,"

"You were in the hall with David?" Olivia said, remembering. Now she had even more questions.

…

Tbc…