by Karly Lane
Until now. Telling their biggest client that he was being an unreasonable jerk hadn’t been the smartest move, but he really had been. For weeks now they’d been bending over backwards to work in with the client’s demands, and the old Olivia would have meekly bit her tongue and stayed silent. In hindsight, that would have been the smartest move, but would Hadley have sat there and let the man not only dictate what was going to happen, but do it with a smug smirk because he knew he was the company’s biggest client? No, she would not have.
That’s when Olivia decided to embrace her inner Hadley, and stood up to the bully. In her head, the rest of the boardroom had applauded her, giving a standing ovation at her fearless courage … sadly, the reality hadn’t been nearly so epic. An uncomfortable silence had followed her bold statement, followed by a lot of awkward paper shuffling, and then Mr Rothers had asked her to leave the room like some naughty child. It had been humiliating to say the least.
This would not have happened to Hadley.
Hadley’s world was perfect: she’d just married her longtime, celebrity news reporter boyfriend on New Year’s Eve. Magazines and TV news had covered the wedding, celebrating the two darlings of the newsroom on their special day. Rankins Springs still hadn’t recovered from the onslaught of media the event had brought to town. She was happy for her friend, she really was, but it’d brought home just how lonely Olivia’s life really was.
It hadn’t helped that as a bridesmaid she’d been paired with Hadley’s brother, Griffin Callahan. Olivia let out a small sigh and briefly closed her eyes.
He was a year older than Hadley and Olivia, and he and Olivia’s twin brother, Oliver, were best friends. They’d grown up next door, and for years she’d only ever been his best friend’s sister. He’d barely given her the time of day. It wasn’t until high school that Griff had finally began to notice her. He’d kissed her at an end of term school disco when she’d been in year nine, and they’d been inseparable from then on until Griff had left for Ag College.
She opened her eyes and shook her head. It was pointless, she thought irritably, dwelling on the past like this. Not to mention irrelevant, she added as she remembered the last time she’d seen Griffin. It was after she’d gone and made a complete fool of herself at Hadley’s wedding reception. Olivia groaned out loud at the memory, quickly stopping it before the drunken scene could replay as it liked to do on a never-ending loop whenever she felt particularly depressed. She’d made an even bigger fool of herself later, away from the entire guest ensemble, when Griffin had carried her from the wedding to his house where he’d placed her into a spare bed.
Olivia reached for a file on her desk. She was not going there today. Her phone rang and Olivia frowned as she picked it up and saw the name on the screen. It was Ollie. She swiped the green answer button. ‘Hi.’
‘Liv. It’s Dad. There’s been an accident.’