Sinners and Saints II

Chapter 21

Rafael took a deep breath, contemplating in his head whether to just knock at the door or leave before anyone caught him standing in front of Grace's room, looking as worried as ever. Eleven PM, and he had already managed to walk the burglar out of the house but he was too worried about Grace, too worried about Olivia to get some sleep himself.

He stopped pacing the moment the door opened slowly. Olivia walked out of the room with a glass cup in her hands. She had barely noticed he was standing there till she closed the door behind her and then looked up only to catch him staring at her too.

Olivia held her breath.

"Hey," Rafael placed his second hand in his pocket, his eyes glued on her so Olivia could see right through them.

"Hey." She answered, biting her lip. "How did it go?"

"I just managed to send him home. I've been able to hear his own testimony. Now I just have to get the judge to reopen Musa's case tomorrow and once that's done, we can prep him for trial."

Olivia nodded her head like she understood the whole process. She was obviously running out of words to say.

The silence that followed was awkward.

"How is she?"
Now he was referring to Grace.

"She's still a bit shaken and scared and tired. I just got her to close her eyes." She rubbed the glass slowly. "I think I'm going to sleep here tonight, to make sure she's okay."

Rafael nodded his head.

"Of course. Do what you have to do." He told her. "I've got to get back to work myself." He nodded at the notice of her silence and slowly turned to walk away.

"Rafael," he halted at the sound of Olivia's voice, causing him to a halt. He slowly turned to face her. Olivia pursed her lip. "Thank you," She told him. "For what you did; For saving Grace. I don't want to imagine what would have happened if you had not stepped in."

"Of course I had to." He took a step to her, pulling his hands from his pocket and raising his sleeves to his elbow, one after the other. "Olivia you and Grace mean the world to me, you both are my family. Didn't I promise to love and protect you both? "

Olivia exhaled. He flickered his tongue on his lower lip.

"I know you're mad at me for what I did, for buying you Everyday news and I totally get it. I can't promise I won't do it again, I can't promise I won't go out of my way again to make you happy because that's what you do when you really love someone, you'd move mountains for them. You don't care what you have to do or what you have to buy, or who you have to save from jail to do that and I'm not going to apologize for doing something that I thought was in your best interest. I don't care what anyone thinks or says about you because I know that you're none of those things. I know this is real. I know you love me, and my wealth or my parent's wealth and affluence has nothing to do with it. So get mad at me as much as you want to, I can handle it." He exhaled. "Just don't stay mad at me for too long."

Olivia exhaled. She didn't know what to say or how to react. She was numb from head to toe, Rafael's words playing in her head over and over again.

Rafael let out an exasperated sigh.

"Good night."

Olivia rubbed her arm as she watched him turn around slowly and then walk away from the door, his face front, rubbing his wrist gently as he walked towards the stairs.

Olivia let out a sigh and then turned back to the door. She opened it and walked inside.

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