“Georgia!” Calvin roars behind me, pulling me by the top of my arm forcing me to stand behind him.
“What the fuck are you doing?” He demands repeating my exact thoughts.
Georgia's wrathful eyes pass Calvin and pin straight on to me. Her full red lips turn into a calculating smirk, while her eyes are all over the place. She’s all over the place. She’s drunk!
“Calvin. What the fuck is she doing here?” Will someone tell me what she’s doing here!
God, I don’t need this. Not now. Not ever. Why has this women just walked into my boyfriend’s home? And she has a fucking key!
“Didn’t Calvin tell you Olivia? I live here.” She sneers answering for him.
Calvin pushes me back a little more staying in front of me. His body tenses as he inhales sharply on rage. “You don’t fucking live here anymore Georgia. I kicked you out after what you did to Olivia. Get the fuck out or I will throw you out.”
Georgia tips her head back laughing, her long brown hair falling down her back. My face is burning up. My body starts shaking out of how much resentment I feel towards her.
“But we were having such a nice time Calvin, before she come back into your life.” She points abruptly towards me. The hate on her face is disturbing.
“Calvin, what is she talking about?” My voice is low and weak. He turns towards me, he’s furious but I can also see he’s anxious about the situation.
“She’s drunk Olivia, don’t worry. Go into the living room I’ll get rid of her.” He guides me through, making me walk backwards. His voice is low, almost like he doesn’t want her to hear him, but she does.
“Go on little Olivia, do as your told. You’re good at that.” Do what I’m told? I am missing something here? It seems like.
“Yeah that’s right, Calvin told me all about how much you listen to your step daddy. How you always do what they tell you too. She’s so naive Calvin, isn’t that right? At least with me Olivia, he knew he was getting a real women.”
My breathing becomes deep. I feel sick. He said those things about me?
Calvin shoots me a worried look before glaring back at Georgia. “I didn’t tell you any of those fucking things you lying bitch now get the fuck out.” He’s about to grab on to her arm to force her out but she quickly moves out of his grip marching her way past us and walking into the living room. Calvin walks towards her but she continues to walk away from him smiling like it’s some sort of game.
“How she does know those things Calvin?” My anger suddenly turns into feeling utterly betrayed. He spoke to her about us?
Calvin’s attention shoots towards me. “Olivia I never told her anything, it was Ashton. Please don’t listen to anything she says. She’s a crazy manipulative bitch.”
She laughs out loud looking towards me, her eyes are glued on mine. She’s doing everything she can to demoralize me.
I have no idea what the hell is going on. I don’t know why this women hates me. I don’t know why she has so much convenience in Calvin’s life. What I do know is that she isn’t just a stupid old friend who wanted more out of Calvin than friendship.
Calvin tries desperately to make her leave, it’s like he’s scared of what she’s going to tell me. So I make a stand.
“No Calvin, let her finish.”
He turns towards me, his eyes wide and apprehensive. “No. I don’t want her anywhere near you. You’re not giving her any of your time.”
I hate every second of this as much as he does but I need to hear her out.
“Just hear me out.” I ask of him. His jaw tenses and he curses but allows me to speak.
“Georgia,” I focus my attention on her as she smirks thinking she’s wining and places her hand on her hip. “Calvin is with me now, he never was with you, and he never loved you. He loves me. He let you live here while he was away because your fiancé kicked you out. Probably because of what an obnoxious deluded bitch you are. You obviously kept the key Calvin gave to you because you have it in your mind that you two have this special understanding, and maybe if you’re persistent he will find you attractive. But to be truthful, it’s embarrassing. Tell us what you think is so important, give Calvin his key back, then fuck off.”
Her expression stumbles at my calm non tolerance tone, and Calvin eyes light up in shock and admiration. But Georgia quickly regains composure and her face splits into a cunning grin.
“He can have his fucking key back.” She throws the key across the room in a rage. Then turns back to me flicking her hair behind her shoulder. “You want to know why I came. I heard you were back together and thought I’d put a stop to it. Not for your sake Olivia but for Calvin’s. He can’t be with you. You think he loves you?” she mocks, snorting. “How could he love someone who lived with the killer of his parents?”
I step back stumbling on her words. She knows that? He told her that?
“Shut the fuck up Georgia, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Calvin doesn’t look at me, his dark glare is rooted on Georgia. He’s silently warning her to shut her mouth but she blurts out everything on slurred words, but somehow I make out every single one clearly. “He used you Olivia, he used you to get to your scum of a family and you want to be with him after that? Do you see what I mean about him and me having an understanding? He tells me everything. I even helped him with his plans.”
I choke on a sharp gasp. My chest tightens at the news. It feels like time has stood still for me, while I’m subjected to Georgia and Calvin’s past. I can’t get a grasp on it. My head starts spinning. I don’t want to cry in front of Georgia but I can’t help it. She helped him?
Calvin walks towards Georgia speaking in a bitterly ice cold tone to make his words clear. “If you don’t get the fuck out now, I will physically remove you myself.”
Georgia pleads with him, the way she speaks to him is like she’s known him all her life. Like he’s the love of her life and I’m non-existent. My heart is braking just watching her speak this way to the man I love. But I’m stunned to the spot, frozen by extreme pain and the feeling of ultimate betrayal.
“Calvin, don’t do this. We were so good together. You even said it yourself. I helped you, I helped you because I cared about you. Did you just use me as well?”
Calvin's laugh is scornful. “I didn’t use you Georgia you came to me. You hated him as much as I did. Don’t act like you did this for me. I told you not to get involved but you had too didn’t you. You couldn’t help yourself. I had no choice but to let you in. If it wasn’t for me you’d be dead.”
What are they talking about? Talking like I’m not in a part of this.
“It was my only way in Calvin. You me and Ashton were doing so well. Why are you stopping now? We had him and we still can. You’re ruining it, just because of that bitch.” She spits towards me infuriating Calvin making him snap.
“The only bitch I see around here is you. Your drunk, deluded and out of your fucking mind. Stay the fuck away from Olivia do you understand?”
Yes she's drunk but is what she's saying true? Calvin seems to have history with her. Did these two actually have something? He told me he never did. But yet they shared some sort of life together didn’t they? I don’t think I need to hear anymore.
I never use violence and never have condoned it, but the way I’m feeling now, I can’t see past it. I scream in rage, convulsing in anger. “Calvin get her out! Or so help me I will fucking drag her out myself.”
Georgia, without warning lunges at me not giving me any space for reaction. She’s grabbing at my hair screaming and pulling me down to the ground like a lunatic. I have no time to retaliate, Calvin is on her immediately pulling her away from me. He pulls her from around the waist while her arms and legs fly everywhere trying to get at me. She just misses my face as I move out of the way of her kicking heel while Calvin drags her away. I push my mangled hair out of my face in shock and watch on trembling as he escorts her away from me, carrying her to the fr
ont door while she sobs to him. What the fuck.
Why didn’t I smack her one?
“You’re making a mistake Calvin. You can never be happy with her. Think about it.”
I hear the door open over my heavy breathing. My heart is pulsing through my ears.
“You stay the fuck away from Olivia and you stay the fuck away from me. I’m done with you.” Calvin yells before slamming the front door.
My legs come from beneath me. I break down sobbing on the floor. Calvin is instantly by my side trying to pick me up. “Baby, speak to me. Did she hurt you? I’m so, so sorry.”
I push him off me venomous. “You both did.” I wail. “You told her about me? About us?”
I can’t deal with this. He would betray me like that? Again!
“Is that what she meant about your understanding? She helped you? She helped you on your quest to bring down Mauricio?”
There’s panic etched all over Calvin’s face. I won’t let him touch me and I’m screaming at him. Something he’s not use to.
“Olivia, listen to me. I know how it sounds, but it wasn’t like that. She came to me. She offered to help. I told her no so many times. But she insisted.”
“Why?” I whimper. “Why is she in love with you? Why would she want to help you? Does she know you better than I do?”
“No one knows me better than you do. Please don’t cry.”
“Then tell me?” I demand trying to suppress my sobs.
He sighs and walks away from me, clutching at his hair. “I met her in Brooklyn, about two years ago. She was working as a stripper. I was only at the god damn club to meet with this guy called Seth. He had information for me and Ashton. She overheard our conversation and Seth was about to kill her for eavesdropping. I talked him out of it because I felt sorry for her. Told him I would take care of her myself,”
I grimace and look away from him, closing teary eyes in pain. He looked after her?
“Obviously I never intended on killing her. I asked her what she heard. She told me everything, and she also told me more about Mauricio then anyone. She’s the one who told me where we could find him.” He lets out a sharp breath looking up at the ceiling.
She’s the one who led Calvin here? She started this for him and Ashton? Oh god, this makes me feel even worse. He must have felt something for the women who led him to his parent’s killer.
“How did she know?” My voice is a croak. I can’t speak over the lump that has formed in my throat.
Calvin informs me clearly. “When she was twenty one she got engaged to a man called Joseph. She was set to marry him. She met him when she was young, eighteen, and he was almost forty but she loved him dearly. She hasn’t got no other family. She’d been in and out of care her whole life, so when Joseph come along she finally had stability. He was a lawyer and was going to stand trial against Mauricio for witnessing the killing of another man. Mauricio wasn’t going to let that happen so he killed him and left Georgia with nothing. He ripped her life apart.”
What? He killed Georgia’s fiancé too? How many people have Mauricio killed!
“After he left her with nothing, she went downhill. She turned to drugs and become a stripper to make ends meet. She’s twenty six now and until recently she was engaged again but that was just for money. She loved Joseph and has been bitter about it ever since. So when she met me that night, she jumped at the chance to help us out. Mauricio didn’t know who Georgia was so that made it all the better. She was biding her time, but how could one young girl get revenge on a man like Mauricio by herself?”
I stare stunned, wide eyed and poignant as he speaks. “So you told her about your parents and hatched a plan together?” He said he hadn’t told anyone but me.
He shakes his head disagreeing. “No, I didn’t tell her anything at first. I didn’t tell her why I wanted to ruin him, all she knew was that I wanted to. I didn’t trust her at the beginning. But the more I got to know her the more I felt her pain. I realized she was genuine. Ashton wanted to get rid of her the first chance he got but like I said, I felt sorry for her. She had nothing and no one. I eventually taught her how to play poker and found she was really good at it. She came to her first poker tournament with us and won, after that there was no stopping her. She made a better life for herself by playing and she found it therapeutic, like I did. Do.”
She finds poker therapeutic just like Calvin does? I didn’t know he found it that way.
I pull myself up onto the sofa stiffly. I feel nauseous from knowing Calvin took this women under his wing and that he cared for her. Half of me is riddled with envy. The other half of me has been filled with repentance. I feel deeply guilty that Georgia, even though I dislike the women, has had a broken life and all down to, again, Mauricio. I feel envious at the fact Calvin taught her how to play poker. It’s also extremely painful to understand that they both find a sense of relief from playing because they share the same tendencies.
“Olivia? Say something?” Calvin’s anxious, I know he is. His eyes are filled with fright from not knowing how I’m going to take this.
“I’m just trying to follow.” I let him know on a whisper. It hurts to speak. He nods and exhales relief; I think allowing him to continue.
“When we found out Mauricio lived here in Chicago we were rearing to go. I told Georgia I didn’t want her involved any more, told her to stay in New York. She didn’t take it well and suddenly blurted out that she’d fallen in love with me. I didn’t know how to react. I knew I didn’t love her, I just cared for her like I always did. She told me that we had a special understanding, both our lives had been ruined by the same man and that no other women would have that connection with me.” Calvin looks away from me briefly, building up his next sentence cautiously. From the thwarted feeling I’ve gained in my stomach I know I’m not going to like it.
“She kissed me, and out of stupidity, I kissed her back,”
I close my eyes slowly letting out a shaky breath and ask the inevitable. “Then you slept with her?”
“Once.” He admits on a regretful sigh.
What? “You told me you never slept with her. You told me that in Vegas.”
“I said I never slept with her in Miami, Olivia.” He corrects me.
“Oh, so that makes it better, then?” I bark back at him. I don’t know why I’m so angry. This was before I met him. I just can’t bear the thought of another women, that woman, receiving any sort of affection from him.
Calvin doesn’t look shocked by my outburst. He knows this is killing me, hearing all this. But I wanted the honest truth, so what do I expect?
“No it’s not Okay, I’m not saying that. I hated myself for it. I never had feelings for Georgia like she did for me, yet I slept with her anyway. Giving her false hope. As soon as I did I was full of remorse. I told her it shouldn’t have happened but she wouldn’t listen. In the end me and Ashton left her behind and came to Chicago without her. She then took it upon herself to meet up with Mauricio in New York. She spiked his drink and got him hammered. He told her about a women being pregnant who was burnt. He was even talking about my mom in his sleep. Georgia then got hold of his cell phone and bugged it. She’s a clever women I’ll give her that. She played out what he’d been talking about a few days after to me and Ashton. It was a break through for us, we learned about this big drug shipment he had in the pipe line. Even though we didn’t ask Georgia to do it for us, she wanted to ruin him as much as we did but she became obsessive, wanting to know our next move. Making sure we gave her something back for her giving us information. She’s crazy and became a liability. Ashton told her to get fucked but I knew how vindictive she could be if things didn’t go her way. So I wanted to keep her close, just in case. That’s until she hurt you that night then I washed my hands with her. You mean more to me than anything in this world Olivia and I can’t bear anyone hurting you. So I cut all ties with her, threw her out of my home, and now, obviously, she’s going back down the path of destruction.�
�
I’m trying to keep up with all this but there’s so much to follow. So much information to digest. I hate every second of it. Even though everything is slowly making sense, it doesn’t mean I like hearing any of it.
Georgia’s life, Calvin and Ashton’s life and who knows how many other people’s lives have been ruined by Mauricio. Calvin took Georgia in because he felt sorry for her. She shared the same pain as him. Not because he wanted to use her to get to Mauricio like she said. And now I know Georgia had met up with Mauricio. She bugged his cell? How? When was this? And why was Mauricio near Georgia?
“What did Mauricio have to do with Georgia?” I finally ask him after staying silent for what seems forever.
The way Calvin looks away from me regretful, I know he doesn’t want to speak about that.
“You don’t have to know all about that Olivia. I don’t want to fill your head with all this shit.”
I do need to know about it. But do I want to know, is the question.
“And you never have loved Georgia?” I ask again on a whim.
“Never.” He confirms it, the one word making it clear enough.
I let out a wheezy sigh as my body tremors then I burst into tears.
I don’t look up at Calvin, but I feel him near me instantly, he sits on the sofa next to me and pulls me into his lap. He remains silent which I’m grateful for, and allows me to drown in my emotions.
Calvin breaks the silence when my sobs die.
“Olivia, look at me.”
I pull myself away from his chest and glance up into his uneasy blue eyes. “I am so sorry I’ve put you through all this. That then with Georgia, you shouldn’t have had to sit through it, you shouldn’t have had to listen to those things she said. And I know I won’t be able to protect you from everything, but I want to try. That’s my job now, to look after you. I will protect you with everything that I have, every day.”
Confessions and Olivia (Olivia #2) Page 17
