T. Leigh - Gorgeous Chaos

“Goddammit! That’s our granddaughter in there!” a muffled voice sounded from down the hallway.

“Shit!” Alexander exclaimed, jumping from his chair and heading out the door to speak to Rose and Donald Harris.

“Alex!” Rose exclaimed. “What is going on? We got a phone call saying that Olivia’s alive. Please say it’s…”

“Yes,” he replied. “It’s true. She’s alive, but she’s in pretty bad shape right now.” He lowered his voice. “Please. Let’s go somewhere we can talk, and then I’ll check with her to make sure she’s strong enough to see you. She’s had a rough go of it lately.”

“Okay,” Donald agreed, sighing, trying to comfort his emotional wife. Alexander led them down the hallway and into the hospital cafeteria. After grabbing a few coffees, he sat down with Olivia’s grandparents and told them everything. How she never died in that crash. How his father changed her identity to protect her, making everyone believe that she actually did die. How Alexander found her in August and realized it was her, but kept her true identity a secret…at first for selfish reasons, and then to protect her. How Olivia’s father led a corruption ring, selling government secrets to known terror organizations. How their daughter died trying to expose him. And how Olivia almost died doing the same thing.

“I just want to meet her,” Rose cried out, clutching her husband’s hand.

Alexander looked up. “Rose, you already have. That girl you ran into in the bathroom back in October the night before the Newport Marathon…”

A quiet sob left Rose’s mouth. “That was…?”

“That’s Olivia.”

“Oh!” Rose cried out, burying her face in her husband's chest. “She looks so much like her mother.”

“Yes,” Alexander said, a twinkle in his eye. “She certainly does.”

~~~~~~~~~~

“CAM? IS THAT YOU?” Olivia sobbed out later that day when detectives wanted to begin questioning her about what had happened at the beach house.

“Hey, Libby,” he said softly, rushing to her side and wrapping his arms around her. Alexander nodded and retreated from her recovery room, giving them some privacy.

“I just don’t understand,” she cried into his chest.

“Hush. It’s all okay. You’re going to be okay. You’re stronger than this. I’m going to stay by your side as long as you need me to. I'll explain everything, and make you understand that nothing you could have done would have stopped what happened, okay?”

Olivia pulled her head out of Cam’s chest and looked into his brilliant silver eyes that were full of compassion. Wiping her tears, she nodded, thankful that he was there for her.

He stayed by her side throughout the week, helping her understand exactly how her father could do what he did and feel no remorse for his actions. It was difficult to process but, in the end, Olivia was grateful he was there. She didn’t know how she would have dealt with everything had Cam not been there to shed light on her father’s mentality.

Once Cam deemed her strong enough toward the end of the week, a detective arrived, wanting her statement. Glancing around the hospital room, she was thankful to have Carol and Alexander there alongside Cam to help her answer all the questions the police were asking.

“So, let’s go back to Simon,” the detective asked after hours of questioning regarding what she knew about her father. “What was his involvement?”

“Leave Simon out of it,” Olivia vehemently replied. “If it wasn’t for him, I’d probably be dead right now. He tried to help me escape, as much as he could.”

“I understand. You’ve said that over and over again, but he was involved. He’s admitted as much. He has been extremely valuable to our investigation and told us about everyone who was involved that he was aware of, but he is going to have to do some prison time. We’re just trying to understand everything that happened.”

Olivia sighed. “He’s a good man, a changed man. And that’s all you need to know about Simon. Like I said, he’s probably the only reason that I’m alive right now. I’m done talking about him so you can move on to something else, or you can leave.” She glared at the detective. Carol chuckled a little bit, glad to see the old strong-willed Olivia returning.

“Okay. I’ll move on from Simon.” He glanced around the room. “I apologize, but I need to ask about Grant.”

Her chin quivered from the memory and Alexander clutched her hand in his, giving her a reassuring nod.

“I’m sorry, Miss Adler, but it’s imperative to the investigation that we know exactly what happened.”

She took a deep, steadying breath, looking for the inner strength to relay everything that Grant did to her at the beach house. She broke down several times and Alexander didn’t do much better. He wanted to kill Grant all over again. He wanted him alive so he could torture him just as he tortured his Olivia. Thinking about it made him wild with rage, but he tried to control his emotions and remain calm.

“We’ll stop here for today,” the detective said as the sun began to set after several hours of questioning about Grant. “Thank you for all your help, Miss Adler. It’s been very useful.”

She nodded, watching as he began to retreat from the room. “Did they catch everyone?” she asked. “And not just everyone incriminated in the documents. Did they catch everyone that was involved?”

He nodded. “Yes. Everyone that was named in the documents and who was involved in the plot has been apprehended, except for Mark Kiddish.”

Olivia perked up. “Does that include Adele Peters?”

“Yes. She is currently in police custody as they try to determine the extent of her involvement.”

Olivia grinned, trying to hide her delight at the thought of Adele being led away in handcuffs for her role in everything, wishing she could have been there to witness it. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure.” The detective left the room, Carol close on his heels.

“Libby,” Cam said, looking down at her. “I need to get back to Florida, but I can stay if you need me to. Are you going to be okay?”

She glanced at the two men at her side and she smiled, squeezing both his and Alexander’s hands. “For the first time in my life, I know that I will be. Thanks for being here.”

“Anything for you.” He planted a kiss on her forehead. “The next time I see you, you better be out of this hospital bed, okay?”

She nodded, watching as Cam left her room.

“Olivia, love,” Alexander said once they were finally alone. “There’s something I need to talk to you about. I want you to know that no one is pressuring you to do anything that you’re not ready for yet. Do you understand?”

“What is it, Alexander?”

He took a deep breath. “Olivia, darling, your grandparents are here. They've been here every day this week but we wanted to wait until you were ready. They would really like to see you, but they understand if you need more time to process everything.”

Her bottom lip quivered. “I can’t believe that I finally have a family!” she cried out, a tear escaping from her eye.

“Oh, love,” he said, cradling her in his arms. “You always had a family.”

“I used to think I was all alone in this world,” she explained through her tears.

“You were never alone. I always knew you were out there.” He planted a kiss on her head.

She turned and looked into Alexander's eyes. “Can I see them?”

“Of course. When do you want to see them?”

“Now?”

Alexander smiled. “Okay.” He got up to go find Rose and Donald Harris. When he approached the doorway, he glanced back. “Hey, Olibia?”