chapter 5: Unravling threads

Olivia had barely managed to escape Lucas's office, her heart still pounding from the confrontation. The questions swirling in her mind were overwhelming. Who was she really? Was she the woman Lucas thought he knew? Or was she something far different—a stranger even to herself?

The elevator ride down felt like an eternity. Every ding of the floor numbers felt like a countdown to her inevitable unraveling. She had only a few hours before her secret would be exposed—if not by Lucas, then by Ethan, whose suspicions had only deepened.

She exited the elevator on the ground floor and made her way toward the office doors, trying to focus on the task ahead. But her thoughts kept returning to Lucas's words. I’m not going to let this go.

She knew he wouldn’t. He wasn’t the type of man to let something like this slip by. She could feel the heat of his gaze even now, watching her every move, dissecting her every word.

As she passed by the reception desk, she noticed Ethan sitting there, his head buried in a folder. He didn’t notice her approach, and for a brief moment, Olivia thought about turning back. She could slip away, disappear from the office for the day, find some place to hide until the storm blew over.

But she didn’t. Instead, she stepped forward, forcing a smile.

“Hey, Ethan,” she said, her voice sounding foreign to her own ears.

Ethan looked up, his brow furrowing as he saw the tension in her face. “Olivia… What’s going on? You don’t look okay.”

Olivia hesitated. The concern in his eyes was genuine, and it made the weight of her secret even harder to carry. She couldn’t lie to him—at least, not in the way she had with Lucas. Ethan deserved better than that. But how could she tell him the truth? How could she explain what she was hiding, when she wasn’t even sure how to explain it to herself?

“I’m fine,” she said finally, forcing the words out. “Just a long day. You know how it is.”

Ethan didn’t buy it. He set the folder down and stood up, his eyes never leaving hers. “Olivia, you’re not fine. I’ve known you long enough to see when something’s wrong. What’s going on? Is it Lucas? He’s been acting strange lately.”

The mention of Lucas made Olivia freeze. She couldn’t deny that Lucas’s behavior had been unsettling, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell Ethan the truth—not yet.

“I—” Olivia started, but her voice faltered. The walls she’d carefully built around herself were crumbling, piece by piece.

Just then, a voice broke through the air like a jolt of electricity.

“Olivia.”

She turned, startled. Lucas stood at the entrance of the office, his eyes locked on her. There was no escaping him now.

His presence was like a magnet pulling her in. He walked toward her slowly, purposefully, every step calculated. Ethan’s gaze shifted between them, his expression hardening as the tension in the room grew thicker.

“You two have a lot to talk about,” Lucas said, his voice low and controlled. “But I think it’s time Olivia and I had a private conversation.”

Olivia felt trapped, caught between the two men. Ethan’s eyes narrowed in suspicion, while Lucas’s gaze remained unwavering.

It was clear Lucas wasn’t going to let this go. And now, neither was Ethan.

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