𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬¹ ✓

Two

Survive {Verb} - continue to live or exist, especially in spite of danger or hardship.

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𝓞𝓵𝓲𝓿𝓲𝓪 sat in the kitchen with Tony and Noah as her sons played in their living room. She couldn't help but feel the stress that came with her father's request.

"You don't have to do it Liv. Just stay here with us." Noah suggests as he rubs her arms soothingly. She shakes her head. "I wish it was that easy but you guys know what my father is like. It's either do as I'm told or die."

Tony scoffed as he runs a hand down his face, "This is really starting to piss me off." He'd always had trouble controlling his anger. "On the bright side, he hasn't contacted me yet so I still have some time." She looked out into the living room, watching her sons giggle as they played with their toys.

"I'm just scared. I don't know what I'm gonna do with my boys." That's all she's been able to think about since Arthur showed up. She would hate herself forever if she were to introduce them into that life.

She remembers the torture and hatred she had to endure from a young age in that life. She'd rather die than have her sons go through all that.

"Keep them here," Noah suggests, making both Olivia and Tony look at him. "I can't do that to you guys. You two already do enough for me in watching them while I'm at work." Tony sighs. "Noah's right. We can take care of them here while you go and do whatever your father wants you to do and whenever you have time, come and see them." She looked between the two men.

Tears started welling in her eyes as they smiled. "Are you sure?" She says as she wipes her tears away. Tony chuckles as he pulls her into a hug. "We're sure. We're your friends Liv and those kids are practically our sons too." He says making them all chuckle.

Suddenly, a thought popped into her head. "What about April?" She asks now looking at Noah. "She'll be fine." But Noah's words were anything but reassuring so she looked up at Tony. "I'll keep her in check, don't worry." She nodded slightly at his words before looking over at her sons again.

Noah's girlfriend, April, wasn't too fond of Olivia and her sons. Tony always joked that it was because she was jealous because they always looked like a small family. And in good old Tony fashion, he was right.

April hated that Olivia and Noah looked like two parents and their sons, making her look like the mistress whenever they went out together.

Olivia went to the bathroom, splashing her face with cool water so it wouldn't look like she was crying before going and sitting with her boys in the living room. Noah and Tony finishing up dinner in the kitchen.

"Are you sure about this?" Tony asked Noah as he started plating the food. Noah sighed, "I don't know. We'd be raising two kids and frankly, neither of us have any experience in that field." Tony looked at him, and deadpanned, "Then why did you tell her we would take the kids?"

"Because you heard what she said? You've heard everything she's told us about her father? She has no choice, Tony and I'd rather the kids stay here, safe and sound, instead of wherever her father takes her." Noah finished as he started pouring juice into the boy's sippy cups.

"Aren't you scared her father will send some of his men to take care of us and take the boys away?" The two men had no clue what Olivia's old life was like. The world she was forced into.

All they knew was that her father was a powerful, dangerous, businessman in France.

"The promise she made had nothing to do with the boys and all to do with Olivia going back. Her father could care less about whatever life she made here as long as she fulfills her promise." Tony nodded. Olivia had spoken to them about it all, most of the time while drunk.

She always tried to go into as little detail about the dangers of it all.

It's safer for them not to know.

***

Olivia lay in her bed after tucking her boys into bed for the night.

She stared up at the ceiling, thinking about what was to come. She'd be lying to herself if she said she wasn't scared, she was terrified.

Her father was never the nicest man, never the most caring father.

He pushed her until she would break, his excuse being, "The scars will only make you stronger. No one wants to be ruled by an idiot." She hated him, he took everything away from her, only kept her alive to continue his stupid legacy.

In the three years she had spent away from him, from that life, she had hoped and prayed that he would find someone better to take the job. That he would forget about his 'perfect little prodigy' and let her live away from the Lenior name but she should've known better.

Father wouldn't waste the perfect robot he spent years breaking down to make stronger just to throw her away.

She had lost all hope of getting any sleep as she looked over at her clock.

"One am." She muttered to herself with a sigh as she got up from bed. She walked over to her closet, crouching down as she pulled out a box from the depths.

She opened it to find things she had almost forgotten about.

On top was a framed picture she wished she had burned the day she left France.

Her father had burned a hatred for the Italians into her soul since the day he took her in. He said they were their biggest enemy. But all that hatred went away the day she met Ares and Apollo's father.

The perfect man until he wasn't.

The man that promised her freedom until he disappeared, bringing back all that hatred her father had installed into his robot.

In the picture stood pregnant, smiling Olivia with the man she loved holding her from behind, smiling and happy.

Little did she know that three days after that picture was taken, she'd go into labor and he'd run for the hills. Leaving her alone and scared with only her twin sons keeping her from disappearing.