Chapter 9

Five years ago, this was the woman who had smiled across a private club table and told Olivia to leave her son. Now Mrs. Walker saw them too.

Her step paused, her eyes moved from Olivia to Alex, and mother and son locked gazes before he calmly said he had come to pick her up, and let her meet someone.

Mrs. Walker greeted Olivia with a polite, distant smile and suggested they sit somewhere instead. Since the airport café was still open at that hour, the three of them soon found themselves seated across from one another.

Mrs. Walker lifted her Americano with elegant composure, took a sip, and remarked that Olivia seemed to be doing well. Olivia said nothing.

Alex, however, got straight to the point and asked whether she had been the one behind Nathan's case three years earlier. Mrs. Walker quietly said yes.

She admitted it without hesitation, and Olivia's heart clenched. Then Mrs. Walker looked at her with a complicated expression. "But, Miss Hill, there is something I need to make clear.

"Back then, someone told me your background made you a threat to Alex. They showed me your file and said you were a corporate spy who had approached him to steal Walker family secrets."

Olivia froze, and even Alex frowned. When he asked who had given her that file, Mrs. Walker was silent for a few seconds before answering at last: William.

The café seemed to fall deathly quiet. A chill shot up Olivia's spine. William. Again, it was William.

Mrs. Walker's finger traced a slow circle along the rim of her cup. "Back then, the Walker family was bidding on a multibillion-dollar project, and Horizon Holdings was the main competitor.

"The file William brought me said that before you met Alex, you'd interned in Horizon's legal department."

Olivia looked up sharply. "I interned at Horizon in my second year of grad school. That was two years before I even met Alex. And I was a regular intern. I left after three months."

A crack finally showed in Mrs. Walker's expression. "I know."

"When did you find out?"

"Last year," Mrs. Walker's voice dropped. "Last year, I had someone look into your background again. During those three months, all you did was file contracts. You never even touched Horizon's core business. That whole corporate-spy story was completely made up."

She lifted her head and looked at Olivia, a flicker of guilt buried deep in her eyes. "I was used as a pawn.

"They used how protective I am of Alex. They used the Walker family's resources to go after an innocent girl and her brother. By the time I found out the truth, Nathan had already been in prison for two years."

Under the table, Olivia's hand curled into a fist so tight her nails dug into her palm. Five years. She had lost Alex for five years. Her brother had his ribs broken in prison. And all of that suffering had started with a fake file.

"So that's why you hid in Europe?" Alex's voice was ice-cold. "After learning the truth, your first reaction wasn't to fix it. It was to run?"

Mrs. Walker could no longer keep that polished elegance on her face. "I... I didn't know how to face you. Or how to face Ms. Hill.

"With one phone call, I ruined five years of a young woman's life. I ruined the lives of both brother and sister.

"Alex, I wasn't running away. I was too ashamed to come back."

Olivia suddenly spoke. "Mrs. Walker, the judge who presided over my brother's case was William." Mrs. Walker's pupils shrank.