Austin couldn't stand the yelling.
And he had become a lot more uncomfortable after he saw the staffs and musicians walk out of the dining room. He tapped his fingers nervously against the leather of his chair and looked up to find his mother who sat in front of him, reading her newspaper like it was the only important thing happening around her.
"Why are you staring at me, Austin?" She raised an eyebrow, her gaze still buried in the papers.
"Do you not hear them, mothe-"
"Hmm." She cut him off frowning. "So the Ijikanmi's really did sell oil illegally," she clicked her tongue, "and I thought they were responsible, what a pity." She shook her head, lowering her newspaper. "You were saying?" She lifted her glass of orange juice and took a sip from it.
"Mum-" Austin watched her in disbelief.
"Hold on a second." She raised her hand to silence him as she summoned one of the maids. "Replace this with a colder one from the freezer." She passed the glass of orange juice to her.
"Yes ma." The maid collected the glass from her and walked away.
"Mother." Austin called for her attention once again. He didn't care how demanding he sounded anymore. It was obvious he was the only one disturbed by what was going on in the room next to where they sat. "Mother, he is going to kill her at this rate if we don't do something about it." He told her. She sneered and turned as the maid entered with her new glass of orange juice .
"Thank you my dear." She collected the glass from her, a small smile playing on her lips. "Bisola right?" She asked the maid. The dark skinned girl nodded, her gaze buried to the ground. She couldn't dare look up, she was still in a lot of shock that the boss lady knew her name but Austin could believe it because unlike most people, he knew his mothers tribalism problem could not be underrated. "Such a beautiful young girl." She nodded. "Get back to work." She dismissed her. Austin scoffed.
"Mum, you can't just sit here and pretend you can't hear what's going on in there." He frowned as Victoria took a sip from her orange juice.
"I never said I can't hear it. I just don't see how it's any of my business, or yours. I don't know what you want me to do. It happens all the time. Don't worry about it, it would stop soon. They'd get over it and he'd cook her dinner again." She shrugged, picking up her newspaper once more. Austin stared at her with disgust. He didn't want to believe he'd heard her correctly.
"She wanted a husband, a rich one and she got one. How is what's going on in their marriage my problem?" She added, flipping through the pages of the newspaper. "There's so much going on in the business world nowadays, I mean, look at this." She said loudly enough for him to hear.
"Mother, I cannot believe those words came from you right now." He ran his fingers through his thick hair. She glared up at him from her newspaper, eyeing him warily.
"Austin, kilode?" She snapped. "Please let me have my peace here." She warned. "You're free to jump in if you want but let me have my peace." She lifted her glass to her mouth and took another sip of her juice.
Austin scoffed.
He relaxed back into his seat, his legs tapping impatiently on the tiled floor before he heard another crash, a louder this time. Olivia's voice followed afterwards. She was begging, crying.
And he'd be damned if he sat still for a second longer.
He didn't care what the consequences would be. All he knew was that he had to stop Andrew from making the worst decision of his life.
"Where are you going?" Victoria asked as he stood up and hurried towards the door and as he drew closer, her sobs grew louder. He couldn't bear it. He couldn't sit back and watch Andrew hurt her like this.
He would do whatever he had to do to get her away from Andrew until he calmed down.
Whatever he had to do.
He pushed the door open.
He didn't know exactly what he'd expected to see but it definitely wasn't Olivia curled up on the floor. He hadn't expected to see her nose bleeding. He hadn't expected to see Andrew standing few meters away from her, his expression masked with shock, masked with fear. He looked so afraid...so sorry.
And he definitely hadn't expected the next words that came out of Olivia's mouth.
"Andrew, I'm pregnant."
God, she sounded weak. She looked like shit too and it hurt.
It hurt because he knew she did not deserve what she was getting. It hurt because he knew she deserved better.
"Andrew, get away from her right now." He said even if it was pointless.
The silence in the room was so cold now, only Olivia's tiny sobs filled the room. She was in so much pain while she tried to stop the blood that hurried itself out of her nose.
"Until when are you going to stop this Andrew?" Austin continued. He didn't care how close he was getting to his brother now.
He could see the look of pity and confusion written all over his face. It was like all that anger was gone that second as he had his eyes glued to Olivia. He just stood there still, staring at her.
"Olivia-". He took a step forward. She didn't know where the strength came from but Olivia found herself pulling her body back, away from him
"Olly," Andrew slowly squatted as he tried to reach for her "Olly I'm sorry."
"Stay away from me."
Austin exhaled,
He was so speechless. He didn't know what to say or do. He pulled his palm over his face with one stroke and let his both hands balance on his hips
"Olivia," Andrew was persistent, he had a lot of tears in his eyes now. "I-I didn't mean to, I don't know what came over me." He continued. Olivia sniffed. "You know I love you. I don't mean to ever hurt you."
"Stay away from me," she said with her shaky voice one more time as she held on to the only chair close to her that wasn't on the ground for support, wincing in pain as she tried to stand to her feet.
She couldn't do it anymore, she could take any of it anymore.
"I'm tired." She said trying not to look in his eyes till she finally did.
Olivia glared at him, her legs were shaky. She was done feeling sorry for herself, she was done crying.
"I want to leave this house Andrew, I can't do this anymore."
"Olivia," Andrew got to his feet.
He took another step to her. Olivia slowly reached for the tiny knife on the table. She had to protect herself. She knew she couldn't let him hurt her anymore.
She cringed again, raising the knife in her defense so he could see it before he planned to hurt her again.
Andrew stared at her, surprise written all over his face, not just surprise, fear too.
"Take another step closer to me I dare you." She warned him.
"Olivia," Austin stepped forward. "I know you're in a lot of pain right now, but you have to drop that knife so you don't end up hurting yourself or him."
Olivia scoffed.
She slowly turned to Andrew
"I can't do this anymore." Her voice broke "I want a divorce."
"Olivia," Andrew's voice was shaking. "Olivia, don't leave me please." He said standing right where he was. "I'd do anything-"
Olivia snorted in disbelief
"I love you-"
"Well I don't love you!" She snapped back. Her voice was shaking. Where was all that courage coming from? She bit on her lower lip as soon as she saw the tears that fell from Andrew's eyes. He was crying so hard.
"You're a monster." She continued. She was tired. She tried to hold back the tears in her eyes. "You're a coward and you're a pathetic woman beater."
"Is that so?"
They all turned at the sound of Victoria's voice as she slowly walked into the room, holding on tight to her shawl, with her eyes glued to the scene, to Olivia.
"You have a knife pointed at my son and he is the monster?"
"Mother," Austin tried to stop Victoria from taking sides. But he knew nothing was going to stop her.
Olivia slowly turned to the knife. She had almost forgotten she had it in her hand. She was just trying to protect herself from all of them.
"Stay away from this mother." Andrew said, not bothering to turn to her.
"Stay away from what?" She asked. "How on earth would you let this low life you call a wife disrespect you like this? Disrespect this house?"
"Disrespect?" Olivia asked in a rather surprised tone.
Victoria turned back to her.
"We let you into our home, we've literally been the ones feeding you all your life, putting a roof over your head and this is how you choose to repay us? By being so disrespectful?"
Olivia scoffed
"And now, the heat has become too much for you, you want to leave? You want to run away like a coward, just like your parents were trying to do before karma hit them."
"Leave my parents out of this."
"No one asked you to be here. You chose this family because you wanted all the benefits that came with it. "
"B-benefits?"
"Because you wanted to taste what being rich and luxurious felt like. You wanted to be recognized, to be called a Madam, to be called Mrs Silver and now you got what you wanted you think you can just disappear as you like? Like a parasite you clung yourself to my son and now you think you can just leave? Oh I dare you to. The moment you step a foot out of this house better be prepared to give back all we have given you. Every penny, every dress, every Chanel purse, Versace earrings, YSL shoes, diamond necklaces, all of it. Every penny my family has ever spent on your dirty ungrateful perpetrating ass."
Olivia stood still for a second.
She couldn't believe it. She needed a second, a second to wrap her head around all the rubbish she had just heard. It was the first time, the first time Victoria ever said a word to her anytime Andrew hit her and she was taking his side? Unbelievable but not surprising.
She slowly turned to the table and then dropped the knife.
She didn't know what to say. She looked so disgusted but she wasn't surprised. She took a step forward, and then another.
She was going to call their bluff, all their bluffs. She was going to leave. She knew she had to. There was no one that was going to stop her.
She walked away from them and headed straight to the door without saying another word, she walked out of the room.
"Olivia!" Austin turned around, trying to call her back but Olivia was barely even listening. She was far from them, far gone from the kitchen.
Victoria scoffed.
"As expected." She said "I knew you should never have married that hood rat."
"Shut up."
Andrew whispered not bothering to turn to her
"It's all they are ever good at, forcing themselves into peoples' homes and dominating. Feeding from where isn't theirs. Bunch of leaches, all of them-"
"Shut your mouth up!" Andrew yelled turning to look at her.
She frowned in disbelief, drawing a sharp inhale while she glared at him.
"Andrew-"
"You did this," Andrew continued. "This is all your fault!"
"My fault?" The shock on Victoria's face was a lot. "How so? Did I ever ask you to turn your wife to a punching bag?"
"You fueled my insecurities,"
"Oh please,"
"You did this and if I lose her, if Olivia leaves me, you're going to lose me too."
Victoria slapped him.
"Mother!" Austin yelled
"Be careful how you throw such careless words to my face." Victoria warned him, still trying to remain as calm as she always was. "I might have been watching you disrespect and disobey me all these while but I am still your mother, the head of this family and you would treat me as such."
Andrew glared at her biting hard on his lip. She was pushing him, pushing him to react in a way he was possibly going to regret.
He wanted to get so mad, but he knew better. He sniffed and turned. He stormed out of the room before anyone said anything else.