Fated To Not Just One, But Three-Chapter 637: Stalking

Lennox’s POV

She set her water glass down and walked past me, her shoulder brushing mine—a deliberate, lingering contact that told me she wasn’t as indifferent as she claimed.

I watched her go, the silence of the kitchen feeling heavier than ever. I had the boys. I had my brothers. But as I stood there alone, I realized that without Olivia’s heart fully back in this house, I was just living in a very expensive, very crowded tomb.

I went to the sink and splashed cold water on my face. I needed to be sharp. I needed to see Aurora.

I found her in the hallway near the guest wing, Levi and Louis standing awkwardly a few feet away. She looked pale, her hands trembling as she clutched a shawl around her shoulders.

"Lennox," she whispered, her eyes wide with that familiar, broken look that had made us all so protective of her in the first place. "I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to cause trouble between you guys and Olivia. I can leave. I’ll find a hotel—"

"No one is going to a hotel, Aurora," I said, my voice firm but not unkind. "But things are changing. Olivia is the heart of this family, and she’s been feeling like a guest. That stops now. This wing is yours. You’re welcome at dinner, and you’re welcome in the gardens. But the boys’ rooms and our private quarters... those are for family only."

Aurora nodded quickly, a look of profound guilt crossing her face. "I understand. I really do. She’s... she’s wonderful, Lennox. I never wanted to take her place."

"You couldn’t even if you tried," I said, perhaps a bit too sharply.

I turned to my brothers. "Get her settled. I’m going to check on the boys one last time."

As I walked away, I felt their eyes on my back. I knew they thought I was being harsh, but they hadn’t seen Olivia’s face in the study. They hadn’t felt her heart breaking against mine on the kitchen counter.

I reached the boys’ room and cracked the door. They were all asleep, piled together in a heap of limbs and blankets. But Olivia wasn’t there.

I walked back to my room, the silence of the mansion mocking me. My skin felt too tight, my mind racing with everything I wanted to say but couldn’t. I needed to move. I needed the cold to snap me out of this spiral.

I grabbed a towel and headed down to the indoor pool area. It was late, the glass-walled room lit only by the soft, blue underwater LEDs.

As I pushed the heavy glass doors open, I froze.

Olivia was there. She hadn’t left. She was sitting at the far edge of the pool, her back to me, her legs submerged in the water up to her knees. Her silhouette was framed by the moonlight streaming through the skylight.

She heard the door click and spun around, her eyes widening in surprise before they immediately narrowed into a frown.

"Are you stalking me now, Lennox?" she asked, her voice echoing off the tile.

I scoffed, partly out of relief that she was still here and partly because of her immediate defensiveness. "Stalking you? No. I’m going for a swim. I actually thought you’d left already."

"I’m still here," she snapped, turning back to look at the water. "I’m here. Now you should leave. I wanted to be alone."

"The pool is big enough for both of us," I countered, walking toward the opposite end. "I’ll stay on my side. I won’t even look at you if that’s what it takes."

She rolled her eyes, a sharp, dismissive movement. "Unbelievable."

I didn’t give her a chance to keep arguing. I pulled my shirt over my head and tossed it onto a lounge chair, then kicked off my pants. Standing there in just my boxers, I took a breath and dove headfirst into the deep end.

The cold water was a shock to my system, exactly what I needed. I broke the surface and shook the hair out of my eyes, looking across the blue expanse. She was still sitting there, staring at me with an unreadable expression, her toes cutting tiny ripples into the surface of the water.

"Fine," she muttered, though I barely heard her over the sound of the water. "Stay on your side."

I stayed on my side for exactly two laps before the distance between us felt like an insult. The water was cool, but the air between us was still thick with the heat from the kitchen.

I swam toward her, my movements silent until I reached the edge where she sat. She didn’t move, just glared down at me as I broke the surface right between her dangling legs.

"I thought you said you’d stay on your side," she whispered, her voice trembling with a mix of anger and something else.

"I lied."

Before she could protest, I reached up, grabbed her ankles, and pulled. With a sharp gasp and a splash that echoed through the high-ceilinged room, she plunged into the water. She surfaced a second later, sputtering and wiping wet hair from her face, her eyes flashing fire.

"Lennox! You idiot, I’m soaking wet!" she yelled, her hands coming up to frantically splash a wave of water directly into my face.

I wiped my eyes, laughing darkly. "You were already halfway in, Olivia. Stop acting like a martyr."

"Go to hell!" she snapped, splashing me again, harder this time. "This is exactly what you do. You force your way in. You don’t ask, you don’t care about boundaries, you just take."

"Because if I don’t take, you disappear!" I stepped forward in the shallow water, my chest brushing hers. "You want to talk about boundaries? You’re the one who walked out on a family that loves you because you’re too damn proud to admit you’re overwhelmed!"

"I am overwhelmed because you treat me like a piece of furniture!" she screamed back, her palms landing hard against my chest to push me away. "You and your brothers don’t love me like you used to."

"Don’t you dare say that," I growled, grabbing her wrists and pinning them to her sides. "I just moved Aurora to the guest wing for you! I’m trying, Olivia! What the fuck do you want from me?"

"I want you to leave me alone!" she cursed, struggling against my grip. "I want you to stop making me feel like I’m losing my mind!"

"Then stop fighting me!"

"I hate you!" she choked out, her face inches from mine, her breath coming in ragged gasps.

"Liar," I hissed.

I crashed my lips onto hers. It wasn’t a sweet kiss; it was a battle. It was filled with all the curses we’d just yelled, all the months of silence, and the desperate, territorial hunger that neither of us could suppress. She fought me for a second, her hands balled into fists against my shoulders, before her fingers uncurled and she pulled me closer, her mouth opening against mine with a soft, broken moan.

The water swirled around us, our bodies slick and tangled, the world narrowing down to just the taste of salt and the sound of our heavy breathing.

Clack.

The sound of a heavy door hitting the stopper cut through the air like a gunshot.

We broke apart instantly, treading water and looking toward the entrance.

Louis stood there. He was dressed in a robe, his face shadowed, but even in the dim light, the look on his face was unmistakable. He wasn’t surprised to see us—he looked disappointed. Angry.

"The boys woke up," Louis said, his voice flat and devoid of its usual warmth. "They were looking for you, Olivia. I told them you were... gone."

He looked at me, his eyes cold in a way I’d never seen before.

"I thought we were giving her space, Lennox," Louis added sharply. "But I guess the rules only apply to the rest of us."

Without waiting for an answer, he turned on his heel and walked out, the heavy door thudding shut behind him.