Olivia turns to stare at Andrew as he hasn’t come forth with the money in his hands to give to Kenneth. No matter how long she stares at Andrew, he doesn’t seem to want to move and this seems to be a lot of time-wasting since she has other things to do before going home today. “Bring forth the money already”, she says in a loud voice getting irritated.
Andrew just stares at her as if he was watching a clown performing before asking, “Huh, me? Mother, what money are you talking about?”.
On listening to these questions, Olivia’s face couldn’t start getting ugly. After a few days of staying with Andrew, she understood the kind of character he has and starts having a bad feeling about what was to occur. But she still says, “The case with you has the money you wanted to deposit”. “Mother, you remember am careless and clumsy, how could you have left the money with me. I have misplaced it”, he replies with a very awkward tone. “Then, what is inside the case in your hands?”, she asks in an angry tone. “The undies of the women I stole. They have always been my priceless collection and you know that no matter how careless I am, I can’t forget this”, he replies immediately.
Kenneth was having a headache just listening to this pair and if not for the fact that he knew Olivia, he would have sent them out of his office. But he just keeps quiet and watches their bantering grow on and on. After a while of useless argument, Olivia finally couldn’t take it any longer and just walks towards Andrew and snatches the box from Andrew, which she carries to meet Kenneth, and on opening it, what was inside causes them to be stumped for words.
At this time, Marian was in her room arranging some stuff, ‘Where is the stuff I bought? Where could they be?’, she storms herself with questions while searching through her wardrobe. She finally sees a case by the side and opens it up, what was inside happens to be the money she thought she had given to Andrew. She has recently bought new undies and hence changed the casing since she thought the former was more beautiful. Due to a lapse in her judgment, she had given the other case to Andrew and seems like Andrew didn’t deem it necessary to go through the case before leaving the house. She was damn hell embarrassed by what would be going on and hoped that Andrew had gone through the case before doing anything drastic. Right now, she felt like her whole world has crumbled.
We come back to the office where Andrew, Kenneth and Olivia are in. Andrew was formerly sulky due to the fact that Olivia has just come and grabbed the case from him, hence when he saw their shocked expression, he couldn’t understand what would make Olivia feel this way. She has after all seen the money he has and stood up to take a look at what put a shocked expression on their faces. He was already starting to get a bad feeling about this and almost thought that maybe Marian has scammed him of his wealth, but that thought quickly went as soon as it came. If she had wanted to do that, she could have done that before he was discharged from the hospital. She has also gone around with him during his shopping spree, so it seems less plausible for that to happen. But on seeing what was inside the case, his heart almost leapt into his mouth, as no matter what he had thought about, it shouldn’t have been exactly as he has initially said. It seems like nature was playing a little game with him and he was a bit relieved that it was just Olivia and Kenneth that was in the room, otherwise, he would have been shamed to death.
Olivia seeing that Andrew has gotten close to her, glares in a profound way, even mixed with faint killing intent in his direction. If looks could kill, Andrew would have been dead a thousand times. She even had the thought that Andrew has done this purposefully to taunt her. Even Kenneth has one of his palms on his face, he didn’t know what to say in this situation. The undies in the case were arranged properly truly like a collection. Seems like this boy named Andrew did have some weird fetishes, and hobbies that the reason behind it could not be explained.
“What’s the meaning of this?”, Olivia finally bursts and rains down torrents of questions at Andrew. Andrew takes a step back almost feeling guilty, but none of that shows on his face. ‘This boy is obviously up to no good. He can never change his ways’, she screams inwardly.
Andrew regains composure while saying with a straight face, “I told you but you wouldn’t just listen to me, mother. This is the only stuff I am able to secure close to me at all times”. He might seem okay but inwardly he was buried with deep shame but made sure it wasn’t noticeable. He just went ahead with how things were currently proceeding.
“What did you just say?”, it took great willpower on the part of Olivia not to send Andrew flying with a slap. Andrew wasn’t a bit phased by her eruption and he keeps on a blank face while saying, “You were the one who took the case from me without my permission, even after I explained everything to you. So why am I being blamed?”.
She just stares at Andrew while she steamed in anger, her chest heaving up and down. It was even possible to notice that they were bouncing. As Andrew noticed such an action, his mind starts thinking of how possible it was to achieve such a feat. He totally stops thinking about the issue at hand and his mind went far beyond and eventually a lewd smile was seen on his face.
Olivia was more incensed by this smile of Andrew but knew how to act in certain situations, she just sent him off from the office with his case, while transferring some bit of money from her account to his account.
Since meeting this boy, she has gotten angry more than she ever had before meeting him. She was even sure he was always by her side to give her constant headache. Everything else went more smoothly while he waited outside the room while thinking about how Marian could have made such mistakes. But no matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t come up with a reasonable answer and hence just decide to leave the matter until he got back to her.
Soon, Olivia came out of the office after further discussions, she was formerly smiling while leaving the office but on seeing Andrew, her smile vanishes to be replaced by a snort. She does not bother with this boy much and just moves on to exit the bank. Andrew coolly follows after her until they entered the carriage. Andrew picks up his wine jar once again and drinks a mouthful while being stared at by Olivia.
The moment the carriage starts moving, she asks, “Why did you have to do that? Is it because of the issue of the hospital? You have done crazier things to me. Do you have to be so petty as to pay back every single thing?”.
Andrew who was about to take another swig from his jar was stumped as the barrage of questions flew forth from the mouth of Olivia. He has an awkward face, he slowly drops his wine gourd, then locks eyes with her before saying, “Would I be so foolish as to do such a thing considering my position? I also have my reputation to consider, and how would I have been sure that the case won’t be opened in public? How could I have known you would throw in the idea of me being your child? Although I love causing problems for you, I know my limits”, he rants on and on, to which bit by bit the anger in the eyes on Olivia fades. She was a general after all and could also use her brains but the fact that this boy has always riled her up clouded her judgment and thus made her discard any thought of thinking it through. But on listening to the words being said by Andrew, she thought everything through and was able to think things through.
“Who then owns that underwear?”, she still couldn’t keep her curiosity. “Well, I guess they have to be for Marian”, he says with his head buried. His being ashamed was now visible when in private. On noticing this, even Olivia was a bit amused. He has after all seemed brave in the office as if he was proud of owning those undies. ‘He is still a kid after all, just that he is a bit mischievous’, she thought inwardly.
After that talk, they drove down to the gate of their mansion, to which Andrew comes down and Olivia headed towards another direction. Seems like she has another mission to accomplish. Immediately as he enters the mansion, he saw Marian fidgeting. He just smiles at this behaviour of hers and guessed that she must have noticed her mistake. He was also secretly relieved that she hasn’t left him, but even he didn’t notice that fact. He just strolls towards her, she hears his footsteps and runs to meet him. She explains everything without him asking and he just smiles all through her explanation. He didn’t even see a reason to chide her.
When Olivia came back, he tried to pay back the money but she just waves it up as nothing. The next day though, he sets off to deposit all the money into his account, but only after he calculated the expenses for his tuition for both him and Marian. She has after all told him about the fact that she wanted to study in order to become a doctor. He didn’t want to take any more help from this new family he was staying with. They have helped him more than enough after all and any more would seem to him like he was a leech which didn’t seem alright to him.
Things continue in such a fashion and another week went by during which Andrew hardly felt pain from his injuries, they were almost completely healed. He didn’t stop his exercises though and he kept on eating with a great appetite. If not for the fact that his body was able to process the meal quickly, he would have perhaps added weight by this time.
Olivia was barely at home this period, she was usually out till the evening time, she was putting things in order before her departure and readying her troops also.
All the formalities for Richard have already been completed some time ago and he has already been assigned to be part of the infantry. He was quick to learn things though and he was always available for drills. He knew the punishment for not being available after all.
Lucas has fully recovered by now and was also present in the headquarters, carrying out his duties. Lancelot has also been ordered to focus fully on medics, but he doesn’t fully agree and went forward to have a hearty discussion with Olivia. After a very long time of discussing, she agreed that if he was free, he could also be present for military training and there about but his main focus should be in the medics' department. Although it wasn’t as he had wanted, he has to be satisfied with this decision of hers and went out of her office in a good mood.
Using her connections, Olivia got the admission forms for Marian, as it seems Andrew has already gotten his own sorted out. The amount of debt Andrew owes her continues to grow by the day, and he sometimes has some kind of conversation with the old madam, although not always lengthy, it was still an improvement in this relationship of theirs.
