25. Finding Olivia

                                    

                                          
LEONARDO'S POV.
I keep standing, waiting for Olivia to turn around one last time.
Waiting for those big, brown eyes to meet mine, or for her to say something else. Anything at all, anything but those painful words she had cried to me seconds ago and I had felt the guilt eat away at my soul.
'You know, I never begged you for any of this! Why would you treat me like I did?'
But she doesn't look back. 
And I'm left with those words haunting me as the car drives away, taking her with it.
"Why on earth would you do that to her? You didn't have to—"
"Oh please." I grumble, my gaze still fixed outside as anger surges within me at the sound of my father's voice. "What does it matter to you? You got what you wanted, didn't you?"
"Leo, what I wanted was for Miss Washington to keep her job. You could have let her down gently instead of this display—"
"Oh my God, shut the hell up!" I yell, turning around to face my father as my hands clench into fists.
"Don't even dare bring that up! Letting her down gently?! Do you think this was easy for me too? That I had a choice other than this? That I could have said this any other way without—" 
I stop myself in the nick of time, realizing what I was just about to say.
'—without breaking down and begging her not to leave me?'
My father lets out a sigh then, his gaze on me.
"Leo, I knew you cared about her."
"Like hell you did!"
"Well, I did. Honestly! I knew you would both want to take time to figure this out, why else do you think I gave her time until the contract expired when I could have just fired her instantly?" My father asks and his new admission springs up a question in my head.
"How exactly did you find out about us?" I say, and the word feels foreign coming out of my mouth.
Us.
With affairs, I always referenced them by the lady's name.
But somehow with Olivia, I managed to say 'Us'. 
"It was you, okay? You may not exactly despise me but I'm not your favorite person either. Yet ever since Switzerland, you were more present. Finding reasons to be in my room, speaking to her, not snapping at her anymore."
I keep observing my father as he lets out a remorseful sigh.
"And I admit I should have brought it up then but I liked having you around. I liked seeing you in the morning and I liked that your visits here were constant. Then I saw the way you looked at her and how she held you at the wedding... and I had to think about protecting Olivia at that moment because I knew it was no longer a harmless affair."
"And you couldn't tell me any of this?" I ask him, conflicted by this new information. "You just let it play out for your benefit until you were ready to fire her."
"She chose to quit, Leo. She's gone! It had nothing to do with my benefit because I don't even have a nurse now. Leaving her in the dark would have been ruthless, she had to know about your marriage to Kate if she was going to stay." 
"You know why I'm marrying Kate, it's the only way to help her!"
"And Olivia didn't know that, did she? Was I supposed to just let her stay here, waiting to get hurt by the news? If neither of us had said a word, if we had both kept this secret from her and let her work here cluelessly, do you think this would be any different? If she found out on her own and got hurt, don't you think she would quit regardless?!" He yells, and as much as I want to stay angry at him, I know he's right.