Chapter <b>175 </b>


    “I understand,” Gai said meekly and then sat back in her seat to avoid the two men’s eyes.


    An ufortable silence filled the car, and Richard tried to engage Alexander in conversation, but his attempts were futile.


    Alexander was stewing with silent rage in his seat. He crossed his arms and stared out the window. He couldn’t believe that Olivia was spreading rumors about his dating life to his other employees. How unprofessional was that?


    After five minutes of getting worked up about Olivia gossiping behind his back, Alexander couldn’t take it anymore. He had to act. His jaw clenched with anger as he took his phone out of his pocket and jabbed Olivia’s name on his screen. As the phone rang, the car remained silent until he forgot that there were two other people in the car. Right now, this was between him and Olivia.


    Olivia was at a rest stop with Ava and Aiden. They had stopped for a quick lunch in the middle of their road trip. Her heart mmed against her chest as she looked down at her phone. It was Alexander. Hopefully, he wasn’t calling about checking his work emails. She had brought herptop, but she wasn’t sure she would have reception here.


    “Hi, Alexander, how’s your trip going?” Olivia said when she answered her phone.


    She moved away from Ava and Aiden and shielded her eyes from the re of the sun. Cars passed her by on the busy highway, blowing her long hair behind her.


    “Hi, there, Olivia,”


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    His cold tone made her freeze. Immediately, Olivia knew that something was wrong.


    “Is everything alright, Alexander?” she asked and swallowed nervously.


    “No, everything is not alright,” he replied in a clipped voice. “I’m calling to ask if untrue rumors amuse you?”


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    Olivia’s eyebrows drew together in confusion. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she admitted honestly.


    This just made Alexander even more angry. “I want to know if you find pleasure in spreading rumors about your boss.”


    “Alexander, honestly, I have-”


    Olivia was interrupted by Aiden’s loud voice.


    “Hey, Olivia! Come over here so I can feed you some watermelon.”


    Olivia’s stomach swooped with panic. She tried to cover the phone speaker so that Alexander couldn’t hear Aiden, but she hung up the call by ident.


    Apprehension coursed through her body. “Guys, we should get back on the road,” Olivia told the other two.


    Anger flooded through Alexander. He couldn’t believe that she had the audacity to hang up on him. Did she have a guy at her house and didn’t. want him to know?


    Richard hesitantly looked at Alexander. “Was that a…guy’s voice?”


    Gai let out a gasp, and Alexander turned to her. “What do you know?” he asked. “Is she with a guy?”


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    Gai bit her lip and shook her head.


    “Tell me,” Alexander said in a rough,manding tone.


    “Mike saw Olivia in the parking garage across from her apartment building hugging a young man and then getting in a car and leaving with him,” Gai rushed out, then pped a hand over her mouth, regret shining in her eyes.


    Guilt settled low in her stomach for selling out her friend. But Gai had never done well under pressure.


    “What did this guy look like?” Richard asked calmly. He wanted to take over the questioning because Alexander’s face was turning red with rage.


    “Mike said that he was, um, muscr and that he looked between the ages of eighteen and twenty–one.”


    Alexander scoffed at his age.


    “So, Olivia must like young guys then,” Richard said as he flipped his signal to mergenes.


    “Don’t jump to conclusions,” Gai snapped. “Maybe that guy was just a friend.” She didn’t actually believe the words that she was saying, but after everything she had revealed about Olivia, she wanted to stick up for the girl she had grown quite close to.


    Richard nced at Gai in the rearview mirror, and they narrowed their eyes at each other. Their rift just added to the chilly mood in the car.


    The three drove for a few minutes in an ufortable silence, and Richard shifted in his seat. “Well, it seems like Olivia has found a younger man to warm her bed,” he joked, trying to break the tension.


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    But this only added to the uncase in the car.


    Alexander wanted to scold his bodyguard for daring to crack a joke like that. But he knew that Richard wasn’t the one that he was actually


    mad at.


    “I wonder where she is going with him,” Alexander muttered quietly to himself.


    His stomach swooped when he remembered that he had the ability to track Olivia’s location using his phone. Quickly, he pulled up the app and leaned in closer to see where she was. His hand tightened around his phone when he saw that she was ahead of their car on the same highway as them.


    On route to Ld, just like him.


    “Olivia, is right up ahead,” Alexander growled and pointed out her car to Richard. “Follow after her.”


    Richard nodded and sped up. Gai shook her head and worried about what Alexander would say to Olivia when he saw her. She didn’t want to be the reason they fought. Maybe she should have tried harder not to reveal the man Mike had seen with Olivia.


    “I bet that Olivia thought you were going to go to Ld with Ms. Wright, so she invited this college guy along to make you jealous,” Richard theorized as he sped up.


    “Do me a favor, Richard,” Alexander said through gritted teeth.


    “Yeah, boss?”


    “Keep your opinions to yourself.”


    *Olivia*


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    I sat in the backseat of my car as Aiden drove, and Ava chatted happily to her brother. Crossing my arms, I stared nervously out the window. Guilt ate away at me for identally hanging up on Alexander and for- not telling him that I was headed to Ld this weekend, too. My stomach stiffened with fear as I thought about how he would react if he knew I had copied his travel ns.


    Ava straightened in her seat, startling me out of my thoughts. “Hey…is that Alexander’s car?” she asked.


    My heart raced as I looked behind us, and sure enough, I spotted Alexander’s, although Richard was the one driving. They were only a few cars behind us.


    This wasn’t good.


    Ava turned around and looked at me with confusion. “Why is Alexander following us?”


    I sighed and decided toe clean. “He isn’t. Alexander nned a trip to Ld for a different reason before we nned ours.” I couldn’t help the bitterness in my voice when I pictured Naomi’s perfect face.


    But I had bigger problems right now. I’d managed to get a quick peak at Alexander’s face, and he had been frowning, his dark eyes in angry slits. Quickly, I took my phone out to message Gai and asked why Alexander looked so mad.


    I waited for a full five minutes, but she didn’t reply.


    Pretty soon, Alexander’s car was right behind us, and my stomach rolled with anxiety.


    I didn’t want to find out what would happen if he caught up to us.


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