IN HIS BROTHER’S BED

CHAPTER 6: “How far would I go”

What the hell are you doing here, Liv?”

Daniel asked in a harsh tone. No panic. No regret. The lady he was with in the hotel room stood behind him, breathing heavily.

For a moment, Olivia finally let tears stream down her face right before Daniel. He had never seen her cry — not even when they weren’t married. But he didn’t seem to care. Nothing about Olivia concerned him. He stood there, looking at her as though nothing had happened.

“I followed you.”

Olivia said this as she stepped closer to Daniel.

The lady standing behind Daniel couldn’t shake off the embarrassment she found herself in. Passersby couldn’t take their eyes off the scene.

“You what!” Daniel exclaimed, clenching his fist.

“Oh, come on. Hit me.”

For years, Olivia had finally let out her pain. She wasn’t going to allow pain, hurt, and grief to eat her up anymore. She was ready to stop numbing the pain she had been through all these years and confront it, regardless of what might happen.

“I said hit me, Daniel. Of course, that’s all you know. I’ve spent years building this life with you, working even on weekends, while you move from hotel to hotel with your lazy brother, having unnecessary fun and sleeping around with other women as a married man.”

With anger in her voice, Olivia stepped backward and reached for a tissue in her bag to wipe her tears.

“How dare you call my brother lazy, you piece of garbage!”

Daniel said, clenching his fist as he approached Olivia.

“Isn’t he lazy? I went into debt to build property with you, only for you to entrust everything to his care without my consent. Wait — you think I’m some dumbass just because I’ve been quiet all this while? I did everything, Daniel. I did everything, but you took me for a fool.”

After finishing her speech, she tightened her dress and walked off. As she left the scene, thoughts began to form in her head.

How far would I go?

Daniel looked at her disdainfully as she hurried away. He didn’t seem to regret what he had done. Not even the slightest bit of remorse showed on his face. He didn’t care about what Olivia felt or how it would affect their marriage. After all, he had always shown indifference toward it — someone who didn’t even sleep in his matrimonial bed with his wife, Olivia. No wonder he wasn’t regretful after everything.

Olivia sat by the roadside, a place where passersby usually sat while waiting for a taxi. Thoughts of what she had seen with her own eyes earlier wouldn’t leave her mind. Daniel’s words kept echoing in her head.

“A piece of garbage, huh,” she murmured, wiping her tears with the back of her left hand.

“I’ll teach you a lesson, Daniel. So you’ll know the real piece of garbage I am, as you said.”

For the first time in years, Olivia was finally going to fight back. She wasn’t going to stay silent any longer. And this time, it was going to be something really tough—something no one would ever think she would do. She whispered to herself in a calm but intense tone.

Not long after, a red taxi showed up. Quickly, she hopped in, and the driver took off. She rested her head just below the window, running her fingers through her long hair.

“How the hell did this woman get here? God, she ruined my day.”

Daniel said this while walking up and down the hotel corridor. He removed a cigarette, lit it, and puffed as he reached for his phone. He texted Ethan that Olivia had come to the hotel room, unsure of how she found him there. Daniel was dumbfounded about how Olivia got to know this. Still, he didn’t care what she thought of him, despite being caught red-handed. He was more concerned about how Olivia had ruined his day with the sexy lady Ethan had arranged for him.

“Maybe she’s stalking me? What BS.”

Upon receiving the text from Daniel, Ethan climbed the stairs to where Daniel was standing.

“Gone?” Ethan asked, with a bit of tension in his voice.

“Of course! She walked her ass off down there.”

Daniel was still puffing his cigarette.

“You won’t believe it. For the first time, Olivia tried to sound harsh on me. I nearly sent her to hell.”

Ethan was confused. Olivia did the same here? Initially, she had sounded that way when he refused to show her Daniel’s room number. What was happening? The once quiet, vulnerable woman was now sounding harsh and trying to fight back.

Something might be happening. He began to feel uneasy about Olivia. What if she hired serial killers and they murdered him and his brother? He stood there quietly for a long time as these thoughts ran through his mind.

“You good, man? You’ve been quiet for long.”

Daniel asked, still puffing his cigarette and tapping Ethan on the shoulder.

“We gotta get moving,” Ethan said, as he walked toward the room, checking to see if Emily—the sexy, gorgeous lady he had given to Daniel—was there. To his surprise, no one was in the room.

“Oh, she left,” Daniel said, dropping his cigarette on the floor and crushing it with his foot. “She couldn’t stand Olivia’s pressure. That lady spoiled my day.”

Without a second thought, they walked down the stairs and got into the car. Ethan couldn’t stop feeling that Olivia was planning something. She had something up her sleeve; he just didn’t know what exactly it was.

The taxi pulled up at the entrance of the house. Olivia banged the car door open and got out. She paid the driver and headed straight to the shower. Tears couldn’t stop streaming down her face. As she looked into the mirror, her face had turned pale red.

“How far would I go to silence this pain?” she asked herself, rubbing her face over the sink.

Hours passed, and Daniel had not returned home. She didn’t let that bother her. No texts, no calls. She just sat by the bedside, trying to think of something. She wasn’t going to numb the pain any longer. She was ready to face it. Only through that would she find real harmony, real peace—not the one masked within lies, hurt, and betrayal.

The car horn blew, and she knew it was her husband. She didn’t look through the window as she used to. Daniel banged the door open and walked in, dropping his car keys. No word, no conversation. He realized Olivia hadn’t cooked dinner. For the first time in years, Olivia had ignored her husband. She didn’t even seem to care about what he was going to eat. She just sat uncomfortably by the bedside, planning ways to work things out and take revenge on Daniel—not only to hurt him, but to take back everything she had worked for that Daniel had taken away with his brother, Ethan.

Ideas ran through her mind. She had come up with a better plan on how to take revenge on Daniel and reclaim everything that belonged to her. Olivia was going to use Ethan—Daniel’s brother—as a tool to uncover everything they had been doing behind closed doors and, at the same time, take back what was rightfully hers. It wasn’t going to be an easy journey, but she was willing to weigh the pros and cons to make it a reality.

She got up and grabbed her phone from the bed. She scrolled through her contacts, searching for Ethan’s number.

“Got it,” she said to herself.

“Ethan… I know everything. Tonight. Alone. Don’t tell him”

Olivia typed the message, hit the send button without hesitation, and drifted off to sleep.

Ethan had gone to the club. On his way home, he reached for the phone in his pocket. He scrolled through his notifications and saw a message from Olivia.

“Olivia?”

He was astonished. Why was Olivia messaging him? Frustration began to build inside him.

“Trying to track me?”

He started asking himself several questions, his mind racing.

“What the…?”

His mouth fell open as he read the message.