CHAPTER 172: CHAPTER 172

Olivia’s POV

Before I could process the disturbing thought of Maxwell knowing my address, his expression hardened, and his voice became cold.

"But that’s not why we’re here right now." He leaned forward slightly, and the intensity in his gaze made me want to shrink back against the seat. "Where the fuck is my cat, Oliver? And why the hell are you walking around the streets with flyers of Mitchell?"

I opened my mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. No words came out.

My brain was short-circuiting, trying to figure out how to explain this in a way that didn’t make me sound like a completely irresponsible disaster of a human being who’d somehow lost a billionaire’s beloved pet.

"I... she..." I swallowed hard, forcing words to form. "Why aren’t you at work? Shouldn’t you be in the office?"

It was a desperate deflection, and we both knew it.

Maxwell’s jaw tightened, a muscle ticking there dangerously. "How the hell could I concentrate on work after the news you dropped last night?" His voice rose. "My assistant calls me in the middle of the night to tell me my cat is missing, and you think I can just sit in my office and review documents? WHERE IS MY CAT?"

I flinched at the last three words.

"She’s missing," I said quietly, holding up the flyers like evidence. "That’s why I’m distributing these everywhere. Someone has to have seen her. Someone..."

"Missing." Maxwell repeated the word like he couldn’t believe it. He sat back against the seat, and I watched his hands clench into fists on his thighs. Every muscle in his body was straining, filled with rage. "My cat is missing. The one thing - the ONE thing - I trusted you with."

Guilt washed over me in waves, and I tried not to let it lead to tears.

"Drive," Maxwell suddenly commanded the driver, his voice tight.

The car pulled away from the curb.

"Wait - where are we going?" I asked, panic rising in my chest as I watched the neighborhood start to slide past the window.

Maxwell didn’t answer. Just continued staring at me with those dark, furious eyes.

"Sir, where are we going?" I asked again, more urgently this time.

Instead of answering my question, he asked his own. "How did this happen? Walk me through it. Every detail."

I took a shaky breath, my mind racing to keep the story straight. This was the performance of a lifetime - I had to be Oliver convincingly enough to satisfy Maxwell while also explaining away my presence at the club last night as Olivia.

"I was at the hospital until late. The doctors wanted to keep me for observation after the electrocution. My girlfriend Kira - she’d gone out to the club last night. After the club closed, she came to the hospital to pick me up so we could go home together."

I watched Maxwell’s face carefully, trying to gauge his reaction.

"When we got back to the apartment, we discovered that Mitchell was gone. The door was locked, the windows were closed - I have no idea how she got out, but she wasn’t there. We’ve been searching ever since."

Maxwell nodded slowly, his expression unreadable. Then his eyes locked onto mine.

"So your girlfriend was at the club last night." It wasn’t a question. "The same club where your cousin Olivia happened to be. Together."

Oh shit.

"And you were fine with that?" Maxwell continued, his voice dangerously soft. "Your girlfriend going out clubbing while you were lying in a hospital bed, recovering from being electrocuted? What kind of relationship is that?"

"I... I give Kira freedom to do what she wants," I stammered, "I trust her. She needed to blow off steam, and I didn’t want her sitting around the hospital worrying about me."

"How progressive of you." Maxwell’s tone was filled with sarcasm. "Tell me, Oliver...were you also aware that your girlfriend was with my brother last night?"

My heart stopped.

"Your... brother?"

"Damien." Maxwell’s eyes never left my face, watching for any crack in my composure. "And then there was the rather interesting moment when your girlfriend climbed onto the stage - in front of everyone - searching for some mysterious man."

Every word was a trap. Every pause was a test.

I forced shock onto my face - which wasn’t hard, because I actually was shocked that Maxwell knew so much about what happened last night. "Kira did what?"

"Climbed on stage. Looking for someone." Maxwell tilted his head slightly. "Your girlfriend’s quite the entertainer, isn’t she?"

"There... there must have been a reason for it," I said weakly, my mind spinning out of control trying to keep track of all the lies, all the identities, all the explanations that needed to remain separate but somehow also connect. "Maybe she was looking for a close friend who wandered off. Maybe..."

"Interesting theory."

My head was swimming. Spinning. Drowning in the tangled web I’d created. Every lie required another lie to support it, and I was rapidly running out of bandwidth to keep them all straight.

Olivia was at the club. Oliver’s girlfriend Kira was at the club. Damien was at the club. Eddy and Ken were also there. And somehow I was supposed to be in the hospital through all of this while also being at the club and also being me.

It was too much. Too complicated. Too many threads that were bound to unravel.

That’s when I noticed where we were going. The neighborhood had gotten more quiet, the streets wider and tree-lined. We were heading into Maxwell’s neighborhood.

"Are we going to your house?" I asked, though I already knew the answer.

Maxwell nodded, his expression set in stone. "Oh yes. You’re going to stay with me until Mitchell is found."

"What? I can’t..."

"You will," he interrupted, his voice leaving no room for argument. "I’m not letting you out of my sight, Oliver. Not until my cat is home safely. I wouldn’t want you escaping or running away if Mitchell isn’t found."

What!?