The Affection Multiplier - Chapter 256: Weapons used for self-defense. (Patreon)

This is stupid. It really fucking is. It had no business happening.

Olivia steps out of the building, walks down the stairs and out the gate of the metal fence surrounding the big wooden cabin. She takes a moment to snarl at a tree, just to let it out now and not in front of the girl, Taylor.

So David had to deal with another girl like her before they met? No wonder he was such an easy target. Low self-esteem is the easiest thing to take advantage of to get someone to do what you want, and if he was heartbroken before, then no wonder he fell again when she pushed him.

There’s no need for her to ponder on this much. She’s already been clear, both with herself and David. That man means the world to her, and if someone is messing with him, then she’ll step up.

David has already fixed enough issues by himself. There were those she caused, and those he helped her with. But there were also those she was told about. Mrs. Hayes and Mrs. Miller being big examples.

No, David doesn’t need to handle this one. He should sit down and relax with the rest of the girls. He deserves it. And if Olivia can give him that peace of mind, she’ll gladly dirty her hands to do it.

“Seriously, what are you planning to do?” Olivia turns around and sees two girls crossing the gates. Emily and Sophia.

“What are you two doing here?” Olivia asks, raising an eyebrow. She chuckles. “Ah, I see. You’re coming to keep me in check.”

“In part,” Sophia shrugs.

“But we also have business with that girl. You think you’re the only one pissed that she came out of nowhere just to mess with David?” Emily says with a scowl.

“I guess I’m not.” Olivia sighs. “Alright, but let me do the talking. Don’t go against what I say, no matter how harsh it sounds. Don’t try to play along, either. You can’t pull it off. Believe me when I say I know what I’m doing.”

“Fine,” Emily says, crossing her arms.

“Just remember this,” Sophia tells her with a wry smile. “David won’t like it if you go too far.”

“Oh, I’m well aware.” Olivia grins. “Don’t worry. We’ll have this done in an instant and we’ll be back to enjoy our week like nothing ever happened.”

The three girls walk the path from the cabin back to the main building. The area around the guest cabins is rustic, with trees and bushes every few meters at the sides of the paths. Olivia doesn’t yet know if her dad plans to change that and build more or if he wants to keep it that way. Perhaps he’ll gauge reactions this year and make changes the next? Anyway, that’s not important right now.

What’s odd is walking with Emily and Sophia beside her instead of Lilian and Jessica. Those two are practically her sisters at this point, and it’s true that she told them to stay because she didn’t want them to get involved in shit anymore. They don’t need to. They should really just spend their time with David and the others. The only reason she agreed to have Emily and Sophia accompany her is because they wouldn’t have backed down even if she tried. They’ll also be trustworthy witnesses. And she has to admit that knowing she can count on the support of even more people is… comforting.

They reach the main building, and it doesn’t take them much to find the girl, Taylor, sweeping the floor of the lobby. Olivia approaches slowly, enough to let the girl see them coming. Emily and Sophia are slightly behind her.

“Taylor Brook, was it? I believe you have business with me,” Olivia says. Her posture strong, calm and detached. The blonde girl is smaller than Olivia, so she has the luxury of looking down at her.

“Ms. Hughes. A pleasure to finally meet you,” Taylor says with a fake smile that annoys Olivia for several reasons. “And your friends?”

“Oh, they were interested in meeting you too,” Olivia says. “After all, you seem to be interested in our group in general.”

Taylor lets out an annoying, high-pitched chuckle. “I see that guy is still hiding behind other people, huh? I thought he’d grown a spine, but I guess I was wrong.”

Olivia feels Emily taking an aggressive step forward from behind her, so she steps in first.

“Why, I thought your business was with me, the owner’s daughter. I don’t see why you’d want to talk to your ex-boyfriend. Unless you wanted to rekindle old passions, but I heard there was never anything there,” Olivia gives the girl a quick look from head to toe and smirks. “It doesn’t seem like David missed anything, though.”

Taylor’s smile falls and turns into a small, suppressed scowl.

“I’m here, Ms. Brook,” Olivia continues. “If you want to talk, let’s do it now and get it over with. We don’t want to waste our time. Let’s find somewhere private. Somewhere of your choice, of course.”

“Fine. Follow me.”

Taylor takes them outside and away from the main building and the walkways that lead to the cabins. It’s an open field where they could be seen, but not heard unless people were close or they were speaking loudly. Even so, there’s not many people around. The employees are either cleaning rooms or doing desk work.

“David told you already, didn’t he? I want a promotion, from this shitty janitor job right up to manager. You can do that, right, Ms. Hughes? If you don’t, I’m getting your teacher fired and your friend expelled. Maybe all of you too, if I’m lucky.”

“Okay,” Olivia nods with a small smile. “Convince me.”

She has to suppress her laughter when she feels Emily’s and Sophia’s dumbfounded stares behind her and when she sees Taylor’s smugness fall.

“What do you mean?” she asks with a dismissive snort. “Is that not enough for you?”

“Let’s say it isn’t.” Olivia grins confidently, poised. “What can you do?”

“Fine. I’ll just show the picture, then. It’s not like I give a fuck about what happens to David.”

Finally, Olivia can’t take it anymore. She starts laughing mockingly in Taylor’s face, causing the girls behind her to look at her like she’s crazy and the girl in front of her to take a step back.

“Oh, dear. David really was a wuss in high school if he was doing whatever you told him,” Olivia shakes her head. “Listen to me girl. Do you think having a picture is enough to blackmail someone? Do you think making up a story to go along with it makes it undeniable?”

Olivia gauges Taylor’s reaction. She’s seen this many times before. People who think they can fight back, and then their confidence starts cracking when you don’t look affected. Taylor’s shoulders drop slightly, and she crosses her arms in front of herself, trying to look confident but only putting a barrier between herself and Olivia.

In contrast, Olivia stands with one hand on her hip while the other casually fixes her hair. Her feet firmly planted on the ground, her back straight and her chin raised ever so slightly to look down at the pathetic girl.

“You don’t understand a thing,” she shakes her head. “Blackmail only works when you have undeniable proof, or when the person you’re blackmailing doesn’t have the will to fight back. This can easily be denied, and that tells me you’re doing this solely on the memories you have of a wimp, coward and awkward David. Sophia,” she calls behind her. “You’re the captain of the debate club and have known David longer than I. What do you think he’d do about this after he cools down?”

Sophia closes her eyes and ponder for a moment.

“Shift events so that this looked like a coincidental meeting,” Sophia shrugs. “It’d be easy, considering the reservation is not to his name, and that you’re the owner’s daughter. We could easily move to another cabin and let the teachers on their own. Creating our own story would be pretty easy, actually.”

“There you go,” Olivia shrugs. “David is not the guy you knew anymore. You can’t blackmail us with something this petty.”

She can plainly see in Taylor’s face how she’s starting to panic. Her face falls, her eyes dart from one girl to the other, as if looking for an idea to save her situation.

“I-I can find more proof! You’re staying here a week! I can take another picture!”

Olivia’s jaw drops. She stares at the girl, dumbfounded, before taking a deep breath and holding her forehead with the tip of her fingers as she shakes her head.

“My GOD, girl! You’re pathetic! Is that the best you can come up with? Do you even realize that attempting that would get you fired for violating company policies about guest privacy? SERIOUSLY! How did a smart guy like David ever get tricked by a dumb girl like you?”

“We got worried over absolutely nothing,” Emily groans.

“You don’t even have your priorities straight, girl,” Olivia says, now more tired than anything. “You’re trying to see how you can catch David doing something, when you should be aiming for me! I’m the one with influence here, not him. You only aimed for him because you thought he was an easy target and assumed I’d care enough.”

Taylor starts shaking. It’s subtle, Olivia will give her that much. The girl can at least keep some of her emotions in check. But Olivia can still tell.

“Let’s just go,” Emily says with a sigh. “This girl can’t do anything.”

“No, she can still do something,” Olivia says, her eyes locked on Taylor’s. “She can still ruin our week. Our long awaited, precious week with our boyfriend.” Taylor’s eyes widen, but Olivia mercilessly continues. “Do you know what that means, girl? You tried to fuck up our plans. MY plans. I arranged this so that my boyfriend could finally relax instead of work, study and stress himself over stupid shit, and you, just by virtue of speaking to him, fucked that up.”

She takes a step towards David’s ex. Their faces are close, and the blonde girl seems to shrink, overwhelmed by Olivia’s presence.

“Let me tell you what’s happening. You won’t try to do anything else, either to me, our boyfriend or any single member of our group. You’ll stay quiet. You won’t remember you saw us. You’ll take this to your grave.”

A single finger barely brushes against the outline of Taylor’s jaw. Olivia smiles down at her, malice hidden behind well-feigned tenderness.

“It’s in your best interest, girl. With no effort, I can find out anything I want about you. Where you live, your family situation. I can get you fired and make sure you never find work again. I can ruin every single aspect of your reputation until whoring yourself is the only way you’ll ever make a living. I’ve done it before. I can do it to you. You can’t win against me, girl, but you’re welcome to try. Just know what’s waiting for you if you do. I’ve broken better women than you.”

Taylor is now visibly shaking, her eyes locked on Olivia’s with sheer panic.

Good.

This girl needs to know who she’s messing with. This girl is small time. She neither has the skill nor the stomach to do half of what Olivia has done. This was easy. With nothing but words and presence, Olivia broke Taylor’s will.

…

There’s a pang of guilt in her chest. A realization that, perhaps, she didn’t change like she thought she had. Would she have acted on her threats if words hadn’t been enough? Maybe, if it meant protecting David. How is that any different from what she did to protect Lilian, Jessica and herself?

“I-I won’t try anything else,” the girl says, weakly. “I p-promise. B-But please, don’t get me fired! T-This is all I have!”

Olivia can’t feel pity for her. She can’t feel pity for someone who tried to use her and David. She can’t feel pity for someone who tried to ruin the best thing that has ever happened to her.

…

But David would feel pity. He would extend a helping hand, even after all this.

“My eyes are on you from now on,” Olivia says. “You know what that means? I’ll know everything you do. Everything. From how terrible you are at your job…” she takes a deep breath, and although the malice vanishes, she still keeps a firm look. “…to how well you perform.”

“…Huh?”

“This company has no use for mediocre workers. But on the contrary, we reward excellence and good contributions. My eyes are on you. Show me you can be of use to this company and I’ll put in a good word for you.”

“Y-Yes! I will! I promise I will!” Taylor answers eagerly.

“…And one last thing,” Olivia sighs with eyes closed. “If you feel the slightest bit of regret over this, apologize to David. He’ll forgive you. I know it. If you don’t, don’t even approach him. I mean it.”

Without saying anything else and considering the mattered settled, Olivia turns around. She finds Emily and Sophia grinning at her. Heat rises to her cheeks and she quickly walks past them and away from Taylor.

“Gotta admit,” Emily says, following. “That was fucking ruthless, but cathartic at the same time.”

“I’d never seen you do that in person,” Sophia comments with a chuckle. “No wonder you had the entire school in your hands.”

“You’re not holding it against me?” Olivia asks with a wry smile. “It’s no different to what I’ve always done. I haven’t changed at all.”

“Oh, you’ve changed,” Sophia nods firmly. “The old Olivia would’ve acted on those threats immediately, and she never would’ve offered a second chance.”

“And I don’t think you caught that last look she shot you,” Emily chuckles, looking back to the spot Taylor used to be. “I think you have a new admirer.”

“I still don’t see how this is any different from everything I did to David and Katherine.”

“You answered hostility with hostility, and even then never took it further than words,” Sophia points out. “What’s more, you lifted her up and gave her a second chance. I think that’s very different to nearly destroying a person’s self-worth just out of precaution.”

“I agree. And besides, you stood up for David,” Emily shrugs. “I guess you’ve always done that. Stood up for those important to you, I mean. I don’t think that’s something you should change at all.”

Shit. To think there’s people other than Lilian, Jessica and David who can lift her spirits up now. This world is fucking insane.

“Thanks,” Olivia tells them, smiling honestly. “Now let’s go back. I told David to relax, but I bet he’s still worrying.”

“Oh, for sure.” Emily laughs.