Filed to story: Watch Me Win Alpha (Olivia & Ethan)
Late that evening, after a drained but pointed meeting with Ethan’s legal team, I decided to visit Alexander. He’d been discharged earlier and was resting in his penthouse. My motivations were mixed-gratitude, unresolved tension, and a silent need to finally be with someone who’d proven to stand by me.
I called Mike first.
“He’s in the bedroom, reading” Mike said, his voice neutral enough. “You can go up. I’ll be in the kitchen”
I thanked him and gripped the fruit basket-apples, grapes, a few peaches. He opened the door to the private hallway.
I paused just outside the door, heart pounding. Something felt awkward. Yet the warmth from inside, the calm stillness Alexander exuded, urged me forward.
I stepped in.
Alexander sat in a plush leather armchair, his robe draped neatly, book in hand. Eyelids lowered. No surprise. He’d always been composed-even in the hospital, bandaged and bruised. He looked up slowly, unreadable for a moment.
“You’re late.”
I hesitated. “I-I wanted to give you space, You’ve been surrounded by people for days. Reporters, doctors… I thought you might want some quiet.”
He closed his book and set it aside. “I was fine.”
I offered the fruit again. His jaw tightened, but he reached out and took the basket, placing it carefully on the bedside table.
“I-“I swallowed. “I thought hospitals are weird places to stir rumors. People assume things.”
He glanced down at the fruit, then looked back at me, expression unreadable. “Rumors?”
“Yeah.” My voice came out softer than I intended. “I didn’t want anyone saying you were feeding your secretary grapes in the middle of the night, or whatever.”
He gave a quiet chuckle. Not warm, but not mocking either. “That’s… considerate.”
I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding. “I didn’t want to embarrass you.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You think me-easily embarrassed?”
“Maybe not.” My shoulders loosened a fraction. “But I didn’t want to give people something to gossip about.””
He leaned back, folding his arms. “Either you don’t think they care-or you’re wrong.”
I stared at him. “You said-I mean, you said I shouldn’t think my presence would give people impure ideas about our relationship.”
His mouth quirked, “Yes. I said that. Because-no-look, Olivia, focus on me. Do you think sharing hospital space with me makes you special? Makes people assume… what?”
I swallowed, heart pounding. “I-didn’t want to distract you.”
He sighed, softer. “You’re not a distraction.” He paused, as if choosing his next words. “But your worry-your overconfidence-is dangerous.”
I flinched. “Overconfidence?”
He met my eyes. “You assume you’re important enough to matter that way. To be judged or wondered about. Most people don’t even notice.”
Olivia’s POV
I walked out of Alexander’s room with my spine straight, but every step felt heavier than the last. My cheeks burned, not from anger but from the raw, familiar sting of humiliation.
I had brought fruit. Thought it’d be a small gesture. Thought maybe it mattered that I showed up at all.
Apparently, it didn’t.
The way he had looked at me-calm, unreadable, then cold-like I’d overstepped just by standing there. When he mocked me for being concerned about “gossip,” I knew it wasn’t just teasing. He was reminding me of where I stood. Of who he was. Of who I wasn’t.
I’d heard that tone before. It was the same one I’d heard from strangers at the golf club that day-right before the headlines called me a gold-digger, before whispers claimed I wore that dress just to seduce my boss. I thought I’d survived that storm. But maybe I hadn’t. Maybe I’d just dressed the wounds prettier.
The difference was, this time the voice was his.
I had no words to offer him that wouldn’t sound desperate. So
I’d laughed awkwardly, pathetically-and muttered that I’d overthought it. Then I excused myself like the fool who walked into the wrong room and thought she belonged.
When I passed Mike in the hallway, he looked up from his tablet and tried to smile. “Don’t take it personally. He’s… not great at expressing himself”
I managed a stiff smile, clutching my bag tighter. “It’s fine. I just remembered I left something on the stove.”
He tilted his head. “You don’t cook”
I laughed once under my breath and shrugged. “Just sometimes.”
I didn’t wait for a reply. I just left.
The elevator ride down was quiet. Still. And when I stepped out into the open air, I wasn’t angry. I wasn’t even sad. I was just… embarrassed.
Back at my apartment, I changed into the comfiest sweatshirt I owned and sat cross-legged on the couch, staring at the wall without really seeing it.
It wasn’t that I had feelings for Alexander. I wasn’t that foolish. I knew he was the kind of man people respected from a distance, not someone you stood next to.
But somewhere along the way-between him pulling me out of that fire, between the way he stood in front of the cameras and silenced the Windsors-I’d started to feel something dangerous.
Like I could trust him, Like he might see me as more than just
Ethan’s ex-wife or a temporary assistant trying to find her footing.
I guess that was my mistake.
Maybe I’d confused gratitude for something else.
He saved me. But that didn’t make us equals.
He stood on ground I wasn’t allowed to touch. And I-no matter how steady I looked-was still someone pulling herself together, still trying not to flinch every time someone raised their voice.
He wasn’t wrong. Peoplewouldgossip if they saw us too close.
But what stung was how quickly he shut the door. Like even the possibility of it was laughable.
I curled deeper into the couch, exhaling through my nose. No more illusions. No more lines blurred.
He’s my boss. And I’m supposed to stay at a professional distance from Alexander.
The Next Day
I was halfway through picking at my lunch-some lukewarm rice and saut?ed greens I didn’t really want-when my phone rang.
Mike.
Just seeing his name made my stomach clench. I wiped my hands and picked up. “Hey.”
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?