Filed to story: Watch Me Win Alpha (Olivia & Ethan)
Right before we arrived at our destination, my phone chimed with a message from Ava.
My pulse quickened. What more could possibly go wrong today?
I opened Ava’s message, and a jolt of apprehension went down my spine when I read it.
‘You have to listen to the voice recording I just sent! It’s a conversation between Chloe and her mother!’
I could barely contain my excitement as I fished around in my bag for my headphones. Once I was all set, I played the recording. My hand was shaking slightly as I gripped my phone in my sweaty palm.
“Please, Chloe,” Mrs. Windsor’s anxious voice said right into my ears from the headphones. I almost gasped out loud from the raw worry in her tone but managed to stay quiet. “You have to wear this necklace that has been blessed. It will aid in your marriage to the Hawthrone family.” Chloe’s mom paused for a long time, and I wondered if the recording was over. Then, she spoke again. “If you don’t wear this necklace….I’m terrified that Russell Lewis’s ghost will come for you and destroy everything that our family has worked so hard for. Sometimes….sometimes I can feel that boy’s presence when I’m around you. I can feel him watching you, biding his time.”
My heart slammed against my rib cage, and my hand tightened around my phone. Was Russell Lewis Chloe’s classmate whose death she had been mysteriously involved in?
Chloe scoffed dismissively. “Mom, you’re being ridiculous. I’m not scared of Russell. He was weak and dumber than rocks. Even if he did come back as a ghost, I would just kill him again. Russell doesn’t scare me.”
My stomach plummeted, and shock sizzled through my veins. Ava had done it! She had gotten proof of Chloe admitting to the fact that she had killed her classmate. Was this enough evidence to go to the police? I wasn’t sure. Ava would know whether a recording would hold up in a court of law.
I shook my head in disgust at Chloe’s cruelty. How could she be so evil and unremorseful? She had taken a human life, one of the worst sins that you could commit. She was going to curse the Hawthrone family… maybe she already had. Sadness for Russell Lewis and his family swirled in my stomach until I was queasy from it. Tears pricked at the back of my eyes as I thought about his life that had been cruelly taken from him.
Richard was slowing down and parked in front of an upscale restaurant.
We had arrived at the location for Alexander’s blind date. Quickly, I pulled out my headphones and stuffed them back into my bag. I couldn’t get the thought of Russell Lewis out of my head. He had just been a boy when he was murdered. I wiped a tear from my cheek and tried to pull myself together.
“Ms. Wright will be waiting for you at the hostess table at the front of the restaurant,” I told Alexander in a quiet voice.
His grim face changed when he looked at me. If I didn’t know any better, I would say that his eyes were full of concern. “Are you alright, Olivia? What happened?”
“I’m fine,” I said briskly, brushing him off.
He frowned and pulled/back from me. “Fine. Well, you have to come with me.”
“No.” I crossed my arms in defiance.
After what I just learned, something as trivial as joining my boss on a blind date didn’t seem too important anymore.
“Yes. You don’t have to sit at the same table, but you will get a table near my date and watch.” His expression hardened. “Robert will make sure that you come in.”
I glanced at the driver’s seat, and Alexander’s bodyguard gave me an apologetic look.
“Fine,” I said and crossed my arms tightly across my chest. “But I’m ordering whatever I want using the company card.”
He smirked. “I was actually going to suggest that.”
Then, he put his warm hand on my thigh and squeezed it.
My stomach jolted from the contact, and I watched him exit the car. Jealousy ate away at me as he entered the restaurant to meet another
Woman.
Five minutes later, I went into the restaurant.
“How many in your party?” the young hostess asked.
“Just one,” I answered, my voice sounding glum even to my own ears.
She showed me to a small table that wasn’t far from Alexander and his date-Naomi Wright. His mom had set him up with a leggy blonde who smiled suggestively at him from across the table.
I slammed my purse on the table and ordered a bottle of the most expensive wine on the menu. My server was a handsome man around the same age as me, and I laughed loudly when he made a joke about a dish’s name that actually wasn’t that funny. But my loud chucking made Alexander tear his eyes away from his date and frown when he saw me talking to the server.
Good.
Let him watch me enjoy myself with another man when he was flaunting his date right in front of me. It was only fair.
Soon. I tucked into my meal. I had ordered three delectable dishes and was planning to take the rest home for leftovers. As I sipped my red wine and cut into my Filet mignon, my phone rang. Usually, I wouldn’t answer my phone inside a restaurant, but I didn’t care about appearing rude tonight. The news of Chloe admitting to killing Russell Lewis and Alexander forcing me to watch his date had made social norms seem unimportant.
My stomach flipped when I saw that Ava was the one calling me.
“Did you listen to the voice recording?” she said, bypassing a greeting.
“Yes, I can’t believe that she confessed to killing her high school friend.” I said in a quiet voice. “Do you think it’s enough to go to the police with?” I took a bite of my steak and almost moaned at the taste.
“I’m not sure,” Ava admitted. “Chloe’s fancy lawyers could argue that we had manipulated the recording in some way. I don’t think it’s irrefutable evidence.”
My shoulders sagged. I had been afraid of th?t.
“Did you hear about Chloe going to the Hawthorne estate and causing a ruckus?” she asked.
“No.” I answered and shrugged as I focused on my meal. “But, I’m glad that Chloe is causing trouble for Ethan. He doesn’t deserve peace.”
“Amen to that.”
I told her about how I was babysitting Alexander’s blind date, and she gasped, saying that something like that was way above my job description. We gossiped about a few other trivial things, and the knot in my chest loosened slightly.
It was nice to have a friend.
*Alexander*
My hand tightened around my fork as I glanced over at Olivia. She seemed engrossed with her meal and was chatting on her phone and smiling. Annoyance washed over me. How could she seem so unaffected by the fact that I was on a date? I had even caught her flirting with her waiter earlier. When I saw that, I had almost shattered my wineglass.
“So, what do you think?”
With effort, I tore my gaze away from Olivia and focused back on my blind date.
Naomi was staring at me with an expectant smile.
“I’m sorry, what did you say?”
VAD MOME
Disappointment flashed in her eyes. “What do you think about coming with me to an art show on Saturday?”
“I’m sorry, I have other plans,” I said and took a sip of my chilled wine.
I seemed to be apologizing to this woman a lot.
Instead of more disappointment, her eyes held determination. “Please, I don’t think this date has gone well. I want to give us another chance to get to know each other.”
I sighed and swallowed another mouthful of wine. I needed something stronger to get through this night.
“Naomi…I think that you’re a lovely woman, but we aren’t right for each other. Going on another date wouldn’t be fair to you. I couldn’t put my all into a relationship right now.
“
