"We are here Madam."

Olivia opened her eyes slowly at the sound of the driver's voice. It was about time. She had spent the entire journey crossing her fingers, praying so hard with her heart in her mouth that the car didn't crash.

Cars.

No matter how long it had been, she knew she could never get used to them, they terrified her a lot.

This is it Olivia, this is it.

Olivia slowly turned to the window, she needed a better view of outside, pushing the window buttons so they wound down enough for her to see what was going on outside the huge building.

Parties.

The last time she had ever been to one, she was dragged out, beaten and raped by the man that had promised to love and protect her forever. She couldn't shake off memories from that night.

If Rafael asked her to be there then it had to be important right? Besides, it was for Austin. Austin, the man that had done nothing but be on her side through all the drama that had always taken place. It was the least she could do for him especially since she knew her presence was going to be so important to him.

Olivia drew a deep breath as the driver walked to the door and opened it. She slowly stretched her hands to him so he could help her get out of the car. She didn't want to ruin her long dress by stepping on it while she tried to pull herself out on her own.

"Thank you." She whispered to him then turned to the building just as the man hurried back to the car and drove off to the parking lot.

Olivia took another step closer.

The lights,
They were so lovely, so bright. Just how much did the Silvers put into this event? She wondered as she took more steps to the building, looking around, trying to capture all the details she saw in her head. All those people, all those celebrities and important personalities, all dressed in red. That was the dress code after all, a touch of red. Olivia had almost forgotten how Victoria adored the color red. It had always been her favorite.

She could see how most of them glared at her in disgust as they walked past her, some with surprise written all over their faces as they whispered into each other's ears. It was her first public appearance since she got out of prison after all.

Olivia tried as hard as she could to avoid all forms of eye contact with any of them. These were the same people that always pretended to admire her when she was still the princess of the Silver family, the same people that sent her gifts and wanted to be associated with her so badly before catastrophe happened.

It didn't matter anyway.

She stopped walking for a while and turned to her tiny watch. She frowned a bit and looked around carefully.

He said he was going to be waiting right outside, where was he?

She narrowed her gaze to the other corner of the building close to the entrance. If not for anything, she could never forget what his back looked like because she had seen a lot of it, then his standing posture. She didn't even need to see his face, she just knew the man standing right there with his eyes glued to his phone had to be him, it had to be Rafael. She scoffed lightly and slowly reached for her phone from her tiny purse.

She dialed his number. It only rang for a minute.

"Hey," She started.

"Hey," he answered, suddenly looking at both his sides like he was trying to find her "You were supposed to be here five minutes ago, where are you?"

Olivia really wished she could see the look on his face as he muttered those words. Was he upset? Or just irritated again?

"Behind you." She said slowly, not taking her eyes away from him.

It only took a few seconds before Rafael slowly turned around, scanning the area for a few more seconds till his eyes met her, till his eyes met hers. Olivia slowly took down her phone from her ear, she raised her head to meet his.

Rafael stared at her, his jaw almost dropping. She was so beautiful, more beautiful than he had ever seen her before. His heart began to beat slowly just as he dropped his phone from his ears.

Olivia smiled and waved to him, her long white gloves, sticking perfectly on her pretty long fingers. Her hair was packed in a bun and her make up was fire. It was just at that moment Rafael had realized how extremely beautiful her eyes were, and really small. He had never noticed the tiny birthmark beside her right eye until then, how perky her nose was and her lips, they were adorned by her red lipstick . Her jawline, perfectly carved to highlight all her facial features.

Not to talk of her dress, her shiny , sleeveless red dress that went all the way down to her feet, clinging beautifully to her perfect curves. Her tiny waist and God, those thighs, thank God he chose the perfect souvenir.
Olivia clenched on hard to her gold seashell purse, she had chosen to compliment her gold earrings and chain. Not like she actually chose them, thank God Rafael had to wisdom to get the perfect accessories to match with the dress. Talking about Rafael, she couldn't help but wonder why he looked at her like that.

It made her feel really weird. She couldn't help but think she was overdressed or did too much especially since everyone was looking at her too, or was it her make up?

Olivia gulped hard and walked up to him , taking her time. If she needed to go through the night without falling on her face, she knew she had to take her time.

Rafael let out a loud sigh just as she got close enough to him. He scoffed in surprise and then flickered his tongue on his lip.

"I-" he started "You-"

"God, it's the make up isn't it?" Olivia cut him off "I overdid it. I knew you said to be subtle but this was all Amy's idea-"
Rafael cleared his throat and looked away the moment a Group of ladies walked to the entrance.
They had their eyes glued to Olivia. She could see them chuckle to themselves as they got closer.

"Killer."

One of them said as they all laughed out loud just as they walked into the building.
Olivia rolled her eyes.

Cry her a river. Like she was going to let anything anyone thought about her bother her. She already had so much to be worried about.

But still, she couldn't hide how sad it made her feel.
Watching all those people look at her that way even when she was declared innocent by the law.

Rafael could see it too. She Let out a weak sigh.

He turned slowly and walked to stand beside her, then stuck his arm out, bold enough for everyone to see. He was permitting her to hold him.
Olivia stared at his arm right before she raised her gaze to him. Why was he doing it? Was he trying to make her feel better? Maybe he was.

He turned to her slowly.

"Shall we go in?"

Olivia felt a tiny smile spread on her face without her even permitting it. He was doing it again, standing up for her even when it looked like everyone were against her. Was it really okay to hold him?

She slowly stretched out her hands to his. He wasn't resisting. She folded her fingers on it and held on firmly.

She turned to look at him slowly.

Thank you!

She was dying to yell those words out loud. That was exactly what she needed, a hand to hold, a hand to make her feel like it was okay, like she wasn't a complete freak and in that moment, Olivia felt like royalty again, but this time, she wasn't a princess, she was a queen. She raised her head in confidence, her ego, suddenly boosting itself so hard that it almost blew her head off.

Olivia loved it the way heads turned and mouths dropped when they saw the both of them walk in, holding hands. No one would have ever thought. She loved how it made many of them feel, as they walked down that hallway, straight to the security. Rafael dropped his invitation on the fancy table.

"Welcome."

They walked inside. For the first time, That was what real royalty felt like.

༛༛ ༛ ༛༺༻༛ ༛ ༛༛

Thirty minutes into the party...

And Olivia was almost drunk. Even with the soft music playing in the background, she just couldn't help herself from feeling so miserable. She scoffed out loud, reaching for another red wine from the waiter's tray, so much for feeling like royalty.

God, that party made her want to hang herself.

"How could she?" Olivia whispered to herself, her eyes focused on the group of ladies a few paces in front of her. Amanda, being her only subject of concern, her supposedly doctor and best friend who had betrayed her and lied in court about her.

How could she be so happy after what she did?
Just looking at her standing there, pretending like she didn't see Olivia standing right there too made Olivia want to gauge her eyes out.

Olivia could see how she was doing all she could to avoid eye contact with her, pretending to laugh so hard with her annoying friends and no matter how she tried to ignore them, to look the other way, it looked like they were laughing at her. It made her so angry, so furious.

She drew a deep breath and turned to where Rafael was standing, talking to a few of his friends. He seemed like he was so caught in the moment that she was sure he wasn't going to notice what she was about to do.

She couldn't take it anymore, she knew she didn't have to but she knew she couldn't stand there and watch the woman that almost ruined her life act like she was totally invincible anymore, she needed another drink. She hurriedly stopped the waiter that passed with another tray of drinks in his hand. She took another one.

"This is it." She hurriedly emptied the wine into her mouth and then shook her hands .

"Stop talking, she's coming." Olivia heard one of them whisper as she slowly approached their small circle with the most insincere smile on her face. She could feel them all look away as soon as she got there, Amanda couldn't hide how uncomfortable she suddenly became by her presence.

"I wonder what seems so funny to you all." She asked them, striking a pose with one leg far beside the other, one hand wrapped below her breasts and the other holding her wine glass slightly in the air. She rolled her lips and then clicked her tongue, "Errrr," she blinked "I've been feeling so miserable tonight, I could use the laugh too."

Amanda exhaled
"I think I need a drink." She turned to leave before Olivia grabbed her arm quickly to stop her. Amanda quickly turned, glaring so hard at Olivia.

"Don't go just yet." Olivia slowly turned to look at her. She could see the guilt in her eyes. "We just started talking."

"Are you drunk?" Amanda asked her pulling her arm away from her.

Olivia scoffed

"Maybe, just a little bit." she chucked slightly "But what do you care? Since when did you care?"

"Olivia," Amanda grabbed her arm "Come with me." She looked around to make sure no one was watching "You're going to embarrass yourself if you don't, you know you have no tolerance for alcohol." Amanda whispered

"What?" Olivia couldn't help herself now, she laughed. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm just trying to help you," Amanda leaned closer to whisper to her even more so no one else heard "I'm trying to stop you from causing a scene or doing something you might regret."

"Help me?" Olivia pulled her arm quickly from Amanda's hold. "Since when did you ever care to help me or anyone besides yourself?"

"Olivia," Amanda still tried to keep her voice down, rolling her eyes and staring so hard at Olivia with a huge frown on her face.

"Help me? You want to help me now? How can you help me? You should have helped me months ago, no, you should have helped me six years ago when I was sitting in that box with no witnesses and no lawyer to defend me, you should have told them the truth, you should have told them I was good, that I was incapable of doing what they were accusing me of, but no, you weren't there. You weren't there six years ago, you never visited and then after six years, I finally got to see you, my best friend trying to testify against me, lying against me in court."

"I didn't lie." Amanda cut her off "Everything I said in that court room was the truth and you know it."

"No." Olivia shook her head.

"You were a troubled child while growing up." Amanda tried to look her in her eye "Yes you made us think you got over it but let's face it, anyone that had gone through half of what you did as a child could never go through it without help and you didn't get one."

"You're lying." Olivia's heart was racing. She held on tight to her glass, trying so hard to control her breathing. All those things Amanda was saying kept playing in her head. What happened in the courtroom kept repeating itself in her head.

"Maybe you didn't directly say it but it was your eyes, you looked like you wanted him dead, like you wanted to be the one to do it, like you were going to kill him."

"Stop lying," Olivia raised her voice a little bit.

"I know you Olivia," Amanda raised her voice a little too trying to overshadow hers "I've known you all my life. You've never been the type to talk much or act on how you feel but when you really put your mind to it, you could be a big monster, a scary monster-"

"Stop lying!" Olivia yelled at the top of her voice, smashing the glass in her hand on the ground with a loud yell that echoed around the room.

The music stopped playing just as everyone in the room quickly turned to the ladies who just stood where they were, frightened as they glared at Olivia. Amanda too

One of Rafael's friends quickly tapped him to turn so he could see what was going on. He did, his smile slowly turning to a frown.

What on earth did she think she was doing?