Lahat ng Kabanata ng Flowers for Olivia: Kabanata 31 - Kabanata 40

I barely make it to my room, once I get there I slide down against my door. I’m shaking, it’s not just the possibility of my dad being a criminal, but Stefan too... I just can’t take it. My uncle Gus said my brother was murdered so my dad would hand over his business, florists don’t murder their son’s competitors for gain, mobsters do. I cover my ears as if that could prevent me from thinking. I hear a loud noise on the other side of the wall, my mom must have dropped something in her room. Suddenly, I know what I have to do. I stumble up and walk to my mom’s bedroom. I don’t even knock, I just let myself in. She’s sitting on her favorite armchair knitting. She looks at me annoyed as if my presence bothered her.“What do you need?” She asks rudely as if I had just interrupted her from saving malnourished children.“Who murdered Alex?” I ask directly, there’s no reason to beat around the bush.My mom lowers her knitting to her lap and looks at me shocked.“Olivia, what kind of question

Stefan is waiting for us in the dining room, he’s casually chatting with the officiant. When they see us coming they both get up their seats.“Are you all ready? Let’s begin,” the officiant says, ignoring the distress in my face or how anxious my parents are. He takes out a document, probably our marriage license.I slowly walk to place myself in front of the officiant and next to Stefan. My eyes glued to the floor; Stefan tries to grab my hand, but I pull it away. He snorts like I’m being absurd with my reaction.“Do you, Olivia Ricci, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?” The officiant asks directly, I guess there is no point in giving a big speech about true love or any of that nonsense.I don’t reply. My heart starts pounding in my chest, my mouth feels dry. The silence in the room is so uncomfortable it’s painful. My mom pinches my arm to force me to answer to the officiant.“I do,” I mutter, the words taste bitter as they come out of my mouth.“Do you, Stefan Corvino

I open my eyes and the first thing I feel is an acute pain in my forehead. My vision is blurry and it takes me a few seconds to adjust it, I feel a little dizzy, once I can see clearly, I look around and I realize I’m no longer in the bathroom. This looks like a hospital room, I’m surrounded by white walls and medical instruments, there’s an IV attached to my hand. I look around and find Stefan in the corner of the room talking to a doctor. He looks upset. What happened to me?I try to get up, but the pain in my head worsens as I move. I let a weak groan out and both men turn their at

I wake up and I find that all of my purchases from yesterday are already in the bedroom. I didn’t hear a sound, but given that they are neatly arranged by size it’s easy to guess it was Stefan who did this. I hear a sound coming from the dressing room, I go check and I’m surprised to find Stefan getting dressed. He usually leaves pretty early every morning for the gym, showers there, and then goes straight to work; I normally only see him in the evenings. 

Back at the apartment, I feel restless, I walk from the living room to the dining room and back, over and over again. I’m biting my nails, I can’t help it. I hid the bottle of pills inside my makeup bag, I’m still not sure what I want to do with it. That is the reason I feel so nervous, the presence of the bottle in the apartment has me on the edge. I was going to toss the pills down the toilet, but my mom’s words kept ringing in my mind, ‘do it for your brother’, she really hit a tender spot with that sentence and now I feel torn apart, unsure of what to do. I don’t want to become a criminal just like the rest of them, but I also don’t want to stay seated in my place while life runs me over. Could I be capable of poisoning a man? Even someone as vile as Romano Corvino is still a person. I wish I was brave enough to avenge my brother and don’t feel guilty about it, but I don’t think I’m that type of person.Every time I close my eyes I imagine Ivan or Olga finding the bottle of pills a