C3 Debt For Love

Olivia POV

"I feel very ashamed of myself right now standing before you." The bald young man says, looking down at his coffee mug.

"What exactly do you mean? I don't think I have seen you before."

I squinted my eyes properly at him, but I could not match his face to anyone I knew.

"My name is Marcus, and I am Mr. Stone's special advisor. I am a sinner." His words start to charge my bones with fear.

"Ethan? What have I done this time?"

"Not at all. I work with his father, Mark."

I started to entertain thoughts about what Ethan's father would want from me. However, the man's actions depict guilt.

"What does he want from me?" I start to panic and run out of breath. I look around the coffee shop to see if no one suspicious lurks around.

"Listen to me please," he says, locking eyes with me. Tears start to trickle down his face, "Your father is a good man, all he ever desired was to see you happy and he still desires it."

"I know."

I am sure of it more than anything else.

"Your father has previously refused Mark's offer to buy his startup some years back. But Mark was stubborn he won't stop disturbing your father, and by that time your father's company was starting to become a threat to the Stone empire - " he takes us, leans forward to me, and rubs his hand on his head, buried in shame.

"What happened next?"

I remain frozen where I am seated, wishing none of what I hear is true, but I cannot deny facts.

" - your father's failed investment, became an opportunity for Mark, to finally gain control of your father's company. Mark sent me to propose a relief package to your father which he declined times without a number. Ethan bought all the potential investors in your father's company and connived with loan Banks to decline your father's loan proposal. I was sent one more time to convince your father, he was such a strong and innocent man. He agreed this time when his company was on the verge of going bankrupt."

"Ethan's father did all this to my father?"

I could no longer control my tears as every word flowed out of my mouth. Bitterness filled my heart immediately.

"Mark was too cunning, he manipulated the documents to increase your father's debt every month. Your father, having no means of meeting up, proposed you get married to Ethan as a proxy till he can repay his debt. But Mark knew your father was never going to meet up, so he plans to make a final proposition for your father's company, to settle the debt once and for all. I don't know if this will help you in regaining your father's honor I don't know if this will ever make up for the sins I have committed as an accomplice to Mark, but I hope it brings comfort to your soul."

I became shattered and devastated, trying to process everything Marcus had just said.

"Thank you, Marcus."

Marcus is about to take leave, and something clicks in my mind.

"Marcus," I stop him as he stands from his seat, "is my father aware of what you just told me?"

Marcus sucks in his lip and sighs, "I don't know for sure, but he was fully aware of the kind of person your husband and his family is beforehand."

I lose myself after everything I have heard, and I need an explanation from my father. I want to hear it from him: why he would keep such a thing from me and keep me in the shadows like that. I need an explanation for pushing me into the mouth of a beast without telling me everything.

I bet he has the slightest idea of what I go through at the hands of Ethan. I bet he knows how much time I spend soaking my pillows with tears. No, he does not, which is why I need an explanation. He has to tell me why.

It is Saturday morning, and there is no better place my father will be at other than playing golf.

"Hey, Olivia," he says with a grin, stretching out his arms wide to receive me in a hug.

I do not respond.

"What brings you here baby girl?" He hands over his golf stick to one of his attendants as we stroll. "I have a surprise for you, I have been able to finally perfect my strikes. Quite an improvement isn't it?"

I remain silent still.

"Why is your face gloomy?" he asked as we stopped our stroll. He cups my cheeks in his hand.

"Father, you knew about Ethan all along."

He lowers his gaze from my eyes and retracts backwards.

"I'm sorry, it was the only way to save you, to save us-"

"Don't tell me the US! It was the only way to save yourself."

"No Olivia, since your mother passed away, everything I have ever done was for you and you alone. Never for once have I thought of myself without thinking of what will become of you."

"What will become of me? Father! Do you have the slightest idea of what I have been through in that prison you sent me? Do you even care if I was going to survive in there? You knew of Ethan's cruelty and yet the best way to save us was to send me in there."

"Olivia, it is nothing like that. I have always loved you and I still do--"

"Don't tell me you love me. You love nobody but yourself. I sacrificed my dreams, my peace, my convenience just so you could be happy and fulfill yours, Father."

I fall to my knees, weeping uncontrollably. My father kneels beside me and rests my head on his chest as I weep.

He pats my head with a trembling voice, and he says, "You are strong my dear, just hang in there till I make it better."

In our broken moments, Julian, my father's assistant, hurries to us, panting heavily.

"Sir, the investors have all pulled out of the company, they are holding a press conference right now."

"What do you mean by pulling out? I thought Mr. Stone had us covered." My father rises to his feet and meets Julian's eye level.

"I don't know how it happened, our stocks are declining faster than they have ever done. "

"This cannot be happening, this cannot be." My father holds his chest and slowly slumps to the ground.