"Take out this part right here," Olivia gestured into her tablet so the young intern beside her could see just what part she was talking about. "Take it out too in Naomi's copy. We don't want her talking about it on air today. It could stir up trouble."

"Yes ma."

Olivia took a deep breath as she watched the intern walk away with the tablet. She turned around to the rest of the broadcast team. The room was so rowdy. It was exactly how it always was when there was an 'on air' presentation, everything just had to be perfect.

Olivia checked her wristwatch.

Twenty minutes left before they kicked off.

"Lights!" She could hear the director yell on the top of his lungs as he walked from one end of the room to the other with two workers tagging along behind him. Olivia rubbed her arm, she was beginning to get so cold from all that air from the air conditioning or was she just falling really sick?

Now she missed her bed. She couldn't help but wish she had just stayed back home but she knew she didn't want to. Being at work was the only way to take her mind off everything that had happened the day before, everything she didn't want to remember. Plus being at work was her only reasonable excuse to avoid him, to avoid Rafael because she knew the moment she saw him, she was going to have to tell him everything and it was going to make him so mad at his parents. That was the only reason she left the house so early just so they didn't have to bump into each other at breakfast. Speaking of breakfast, her belly rumbled. She was so hungry.

She rubbed her belly for a short while and raised her fingers up just so she could take another look at her shiny engagement ring.

"Mr Okonkwo?"

Olivia's thoughts were cut short the moment she heard someone call his name. She hesitated for a while, wondering if she probably heard wrong, right before she smelt him. His cologne filling the air as she heard footsteps approach her. It was his.

Olivia turned around quickly, a look of surprise in her eyes as her eyes met his the moment he got closer, walking as briskly as he could with a huge frown on his face, ignoring everyone that greeted him on his way to where she stood.

"R-"

He walked past her, his eyes glued to the bench behind her where some of the ladies had dropped their bags. Olivia turned too, narrowing her eyes on him as she watched him approach the bench, going straight to her orange Prada bag. It was like he knew exactly which was hers. Why wouldn't he? Her bag was the only branded one on the bench, at least the only real designer and Rafael was really good at spotting expensive items.

He grabbed the bag from the bench just as she walked as fast as she could to him as he opened it, his attention focused on it. Olivia watched him turn the bag over, emptying all the contents to the ground even before she got to him. She halted with her mouth wide open in disbelief as she watched all her items, her powder, lipgloss, book, pens, glasses and phone fall to the ground making loud noises on their way down. And there it was, the small piece of paper, taking its time, moving lightly with the direction of the wind like it was a feather until it landed right on top of her book.

Olivia could see how Rafael's eyes were glued to the paper. At that moment she knew what he was after. She knew he already knew about the cheque. She made a quick step to reach for it before he did but she was too late. He was one step ahead of her. Olivia watched Rafael bend over slowly, reaching for the paper and then coming back up with it.

She blinked hard.
It was like she was numb all over the moment he opened it to read what was in it.

She swallowed hard. Rafael raised his head slowly to meet hers, raising the cheque a little bit in the air.

"What is this?"

"Rafael," Olivia took a step towards him. "I can explain."

"That's not an answer to what I just asked." Rafael glared at her. She could see just how angry he was. "I asked you what this is."

"Rafael-"

"What is the meaning of this Olivia!" Rafael yelled at the top of his lungs bringing about an awkward silence in the room as everyone stopped what they were doing, finally noticing his presence. They turned just to see exactly what was going on, even the newscasters that were getting ready to go on air.

Olivia bit hard on her lower lip as she turned around to see all those faces watching them. She had never felt so embarrassed twice in a row in a long while.

"It's Rafael Okonkwo." She heard some of the ladies whisper to each other.
"What's going on? Why is he here? Why is he talking to her?"

Olivia turned back to Rafael, he had his eyes glued on her like he wasn't seeing anything else, like he wasn't seeing anyone else except her, like he had lost sight of where he was. It was him again, the Rafael she used to know. The Rafael that was always mad at her.

"Mr Okonkwo," Olivia heard the chubby little man in a pair of glasses rush to them with a script in his hands. It was the director. He was barely standing straight as he rushed closer to them.
"Good afternoon sir," he bowed a bit to show his respect with a huge smile on his face even though Rafael didn't reciprocate, even though Rafael wouldn't even look at him.
"I had no idea you'd be stopping by today. If I did, I'd have preferred we talked in my office-"

"Empty the room," Rafael ordered, his eyes still on Olivia. "I would like to talk to my fiancée alone."

Olivia shut her eyes and then exhaled.

"Fiancée?" She heard some people whisper from the front. "They're engaged?"

The director looked around the moment he realized just how much attention they were getting especially since Rafael was just making it obvious that he could do what he liked. He slowly turned back to Rafael.

"Sir, we are currently about to go on air in fifteen minutes, perhaps you'd like to use another room, please-"

Rafael slowly turned to him, causing the man to swallow back the rest of the things he was about to say the moment he noticed the look of fury in his eyes.

"I'm sorry sir, of course." The man bowed and then turned to the rest of the crowd with a nervous smile on his face.
"Let's give Mr Okonkwo and Miss Kalu some privacy guys, I'm sure they won't take long." He announced and everyone began to leave whatever it was they were doing.

"Why do we have to leave for them?" A lady whispered to the other lady beside her as everyone began to leave the room one after the other without looking back.

Olivia exhaled and then bent over to pick up her things from the ground, squatting so she could reach better.

"Just because you bought the place doesn't mean you can just do whatever you want." She told him as she picked up her bag from the floor.

"Get up." He said not bothering to look at her.

"I have to pick all of this up first." Olivia said trying to pick them up one after the other.
"This book belonged to my mum, it cost her and my dad so much to get Victor Allen to sign on it." She slowly turned to the really old book on the floor, there was barely a thread holding the front cover from ripping out as it was. Tears welled her eyes.
"There's only one of it in the world and I can't afford to get him to sign another one since he's dead." She picked it from the ground and managed to close it carefully before she dusted it.

Rafael scoffed out loud in disbelief. He was truly running out of patience. He bent over and then forcefully grabbed her arm, pulling her up from the ground as hard as she could making her throw the book back on the ground, ripping out the cover in the process. Olivia forced a sniff as Rafael pulled her to stand in front on him.

Olivia's heart was racing as she saw the state her book was in. She took a deep breath before she pulled her hand away from Rafael's hold and made a move to go get her book again when he grabbed on to her hand again.

"Didn't you hear me!" She yelled at him turning to glare at him. "I have to get my book!"

"Explain this." He glared at her, raising the cheque again so she can see it one more time. "What is the meaning of this? Why do you have this? Why did you accept this?"

"And why not?" Olivia glared at him. Rafael scoffed. "Fifty million is a whole lot of money to just throw away."

"Does this seem funny to you? This is not a joke Olivia!"

"I never said it was, but that's the thing with jokes. That's the thing with everyone thinking my life is a joke, my feelings are a joke, my love-" her voice broke as the tears in her eyes were already falling down.
"My love for you. And I'm tired." Olivia managed to thicken her voice as she glared into Rafael's eyes.
"I'm tired of going through the same things over and over again, you have no idea- you have no idea what I've been through, you have no idea what he said to me, what he thinks of me, not just him your mother too. He called me a nobody, he said I was less deserving of you and then he wanted me to take this cheque and disappear like I was nothing."

"You should have come to me." Rafael told her just as she scoffed and then looked away to clean the tears off her face. "Olivia you should have told me-"

"Told you what huh!" She went back to yelling. "What should I have told you exactly? Should I have told you how much of a mean person your father is? Should I have told you that I was scared? That I was scared everything that used to happen to me before was happening again? That I was scared that maybe just a little bit of what he said was true?" Olivia sighed. She was crying all over again. Why was she crying again?

"Because it is. Because compared to everyone else out there I can't do anything for you, I am nothing. I am not worth any of the love and care you give me. I have no power, I don't come from a palace. I am a single mum, who was repeatedly abused by her dead husband, a woman that couldn't fight for herself because she was weak and powerless. I'm an ex convict, I am everything he said I am, I am nothing and it scares me." She pointed at herself.
"It scares me because I feel one day you'd wake up and feel the same way too." She sniffed.
"I thought I could. I thought I was ready, I thought I could be stronger than I was then, that if I just fought harder and not let anything anyone said bother me, that we'd be fine, that I'd be fine, that I'd be enough but I'm not. I can not be enough for you. There's always going to be someone that doesn't think I should be with you, someone that has something to say or ways to hurt me if I don't listen, I've been through this before so I know. But I can't now because I have Grace and I have to protect her and I'd rather die than let anyone hurt her because I just wouldn't listen. I'd rather die but you know the part that hurts the most?"
Her voice broke even more as she bit hard on her lower lip.

"Stop talking."

Like she was going to listen. Olivia knew just how important it was that no one interrupted what she was about to say. Not even him.

"It's that I can't leave you. I can't take that cheque and disappear like he wants me to. It's that no matter what anyone says to me I can't see myself living without you either, I am willingly walking into the lion's den and I can't help myself so tell me what I'm supposed to do!" She yelled at him at the top of her lungs. "Tell me what I'm supposed to do Rafael because I don't know anything anymore-"

Before she could say anything else, Rafael pulled her by her waist, so close to him and then kissed her deeply, catching her completely off guard. Olivia's head was racing. She had not seen it coming and so her eyes were wide open. She tried to push him away but he pushed her back to him, tightening his grip on her and locking his lips with hers until she slowly gave in, closing her eyes as the final tear drop fell off and letting go of her book's cover.

She could hear her heart beat slowly. For a second it was like nothing else mattered. It was like the first time all over again. Rafael slowly drew his lips away from hers, she was numb all over, especially since she could still feel his breath on her skin. Their bodies were still so close. Rafael tried to say something anything.

He wanted to, but his lips failed him. He had to show her. He had to show her how he felt.

Rafael grabbed her hand quickly and held on to it as hard as he could. Olivia swallowed hard and just before she could say anything else, he pulled her towards the large white door, pushed it open and then stormed out, pulling her every step of the way behind him.