Start Again | Forbidden Book 2

23. Birds of a Feather

First came the police, then the ambulance. Liv sat on the floor, holding her arm that was bleeding as the police picked up Ashley and took her with them. She felt like she was in a trance as she told them everything that had just happened. 

Then the paramedics arrived and thankfully this time Olivia didn't need to be taken to the hospital. They stopped the bleeding with pressure, gauzed her and bandaged the graze of the bullet, which seemed like a long cut horizontally on her am.

As they all left and Liv was left alone once more, one of the policeman came to her before getting in his car "Miss Perez, I believe this is yours" he said handing over her phone. 

"Thank you" said Liv taking it. She had 45 missed calls in the last hour. Most from Max, some from Checo, a few from Carola. Just when she was looking at the notifications her phone started ringing again, it was Max. 

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Even though It had happened merely an hour ago, it felt like multiple hours had passed. Carola was speaking with Liv when she received the flowers, everything was normal. When Liv came back after the flowers arrived there was a smile on her face that vanished quickly as she looked alert to something ahead of her that Carola could not see. 

Even though Liv had muted the sound on her computer, she did not mute her microphone, so Carola could hear everything. She heard Liv starting to argue with someone, questioning why they were there, telling them to get the fuck out of her apartment. Carola called out for her "Liv? Is everything okay?" but there was no answer "Liv? Who is it?" Carola started to get increasingly concerned as she ran to the bathroom and banged on the door "Sergio! Come out now! Something is going on with Liv!". In that moment Carola started recording their video call, she didn't know what was going on but she had this growing fear inside of her. 

"What?" called out Checo, not hearing her well above the noise of the running water.

"COME OUT!" Carola yelled louder, scaring even the kids who stopped playing to look at their mother with fearful faces. 

Then she heard Liv say "Ashley how many times have you tried to kill me exactly?"

"Oh my god!" said Carola feeling like she was about to faint, her heart beat hitting her rib cage with every beat. Checo came rushing out of the bathroom, a towel around his waist. 

"What is going on?" he asked looking around for the source of the commotion.

"Ashley is in Liv's apartment!" Carola turned to him with her eyes filled in tears. 

Checo blinked, thinking this was surely a mistake or a hallucination, then Carola showed the laptop's screen in his direction and increased the volume. 

They heard Ashley talk "Liv look around! You took everything from me! You took my boyfriend, my apartment, my life" she said with an incredulous laugh "and I just want it all back"

"Don't lose track of her" said Checo right away, his heart going crazy, he was feeling the panic grow inside of him "I'm calling the police, I'm getting Max!" 

"Okay" said Carola barely above a whisper as a few tears started to fall from her eyes. She put the computer down as Checo grabbed his phone and ran from the room. 

As Checo ran to Max's door which was a few rooms away, he was calling the police in Monaco. 

Max opened the door confused seeing Checo in nothing more than a towel, Checo was talking over the phone alarmed when he said hysterically "I need the police now! My sister is being attacked, Ashley Williams broke into her apartment" he said hurriedly.