Face?
Olivia subconsciously reaches up to touch her face, only then remembering the two slaps she received.
"No, my parents hit me."
Noah listens to Olivia's explanation and guesses that something must have gone wrong tonight and is about to ask when his cell phone rings twice and a message comes in.
From Lucas.
[I told you Olivia must be having a terrible night!]
[Your nephew is really something, usually pretending to be a human being, but he's really raising people outside.]
Two messages in a row, then a long video, and Noah glanced at Olivia.
"I'm going down for a smoke; wait a minute."
Olivia replied with an "okay."
Noah got out of the car, and Mason, who had been waiting outside, immediately came over to him. Noah reached over and asked him for a cigarette, watching the video in between puffs of smoke.
Olivia waited in the car for about fifteen minutes, guessing that Noah had gone down there to consider whether or not to help her and that she should have her answer when she came back.
So when Noah opened the door and came back in, she immediately sat upright and waited for the line:
"Perhaps you need to rest now."
Noah watches the video and realizes that she has suffered a great deal tonight and worries that she made an impulsive decision and tells her to go back and calm down.
"You go home and get a good night's sleep, and if you wake up tomorrow and you still want to call off the wedding, come back to me."
He was afraid she would regret it, so he gave her time to think it over.
Olivia knew what he meant, and she knew in her heart of hearts that no one would believe that she would actually give up on Liam, given the way she'd treated him before.
"Uncle, I am reckless by nature and indeed prone to impulsiveness, but I have a reverence for you, and I dare not beg you until it is absolutely necessary."
Olivia looked up at Noah, her tone calm and emotionally stable, not half joking.
"The first time I begged you to help me keep my engagement to keep Liam, I meant it, and this time, I beg to come before you, I mean it."
Noah could see her determination, his low, husky voice wrapped in a hint of gravity.
He brought up the timing of the wedding.
"The wedding is in three months. Do you have any idea what you'll face if you cancel it now?"
The wedding is canceled for whatever reason, and it's Olivia who will be ridiculed and discussed, and it's Olivia who will suffer.
Olivia is naturally aware of these subsequent chain reactions.
She's not afraid at all. What's cheek? She doesn't have it anymore. What's the point of having it?
Mockery was mockery, and whoever loved to laugh could laugh; she couldn't care less.
"Uncle, I thought it over very well when I decided to come to you. The marriage, I am sure I don't want it, and Liam, I am sure I don't want it either."
Thinking that Noah's repeated reminders are in case she turns around and regrets coming back to him, Olivia assumes that he's too much of a pain in the ass and holds up her hand and swears.
"Uncle, it's really the last time; after this time, you can just pretend that I didn't save you, and I won't come back to trouble you again, really."
Saving Noah back then was an accident.
On her way home from her grandmother's grave, she comes across the scene of a car accident.
The white sedan did not know how to hit; the whole turned over, the front end of the car crashed horribly, smoke rolled, and the bottom of the fire constantly ran out of the tongue.
The place was remote, and. It was late in the evening; there weren't many people around. Olivia was actually quite scared, but after calling the police, she ran over there out of instinct.
Both the driver's seat and the passenger side were occupied, and the man on the passenger side begged her to save the one in the driver's seat first.
Unfortunately, the driver's seat was so miserable that the driver's entire body was stuck; she couldn't yank it halfway after several tries, and besides, the driver was unconscious.
The co-pilot was in much better shape; the man just had his leg stuck, and she smashed through the glass, struggling to pull open the door that had been smashed out of shape and get in to help the man move his leg.
The fire grew and crackled like a countdown to life, and Olivia could barely open her eyes from the smoke.
Luckily, the man wasn't unconscious and was still able to exert himself.
Olivia felt brave when she dragged the man out, but when the car burst into flames, and the fire engulfed the entire vehicle, her soul was scared nearly out of her body.
She sighed at the luck of the draw!
She also had injuries on her hands and arms at the time, which she realized when she followed the ambulance on the way to the hospital.
It turns out the person she saved was Noah.
The person was saved by accident, of her own free will, and she shouldn't have had to chase after them to ask for help.
As a result, he'd begged once for Liam, and now he was brazen enough to ask a second time.
There's no next time.
She was ashamed of herself.
The compartment was silent as Noah spoke slowly at Olivia's anticipation.
"Last question, what would you do if Liam married someone else?"
Olivia froze and married someone else? Sophia?
Liam loves Sophia so much that once their wedding is canceled, Liam will marry her, right, even if getting Sophia into the Johnson Family will be a thousand times harder.
If Liam marries Sophia ...
"I give up on him, and whatever he does in the future has nothing to do with me."
Olivia said, "It's for the best that he's married."
It's the truth.
She now wishes Sophia had married Liam like she wanted to.
Liam's mom resents the poor and takes class power extremely seriously.
Her Smith Family daughter's status that noblewoman couldn't even look at her, and she had to be sarcastic and difficult from time to time.
It wasn't love that got her engaged to Liam; it was Noah.
Sophia's family was ants in the eyes of Liam's mother, and if Sophia did marry Noah, tsk, tsk, the family wars would begin, and the Johnsons would fight every day.
Noah's floating mist-colored eyes stared at her for a moment and said, "Just think about it and don't regret it."
It's a promise to help.
Olivia's tense body loosens a few moments, and she is grateful, "Thank you, Uncle."
Noah's dark eyes stayed on her and suddenly called out to her as she finished expressing her gratitude and was about to get out of the car.
"Olivia."
Olivia was just about to open the door when she sniffed and turned back to him.
Noah said, "I thank you for saving my life; I had given you three chances; you used two, and one remains."
Olivia froze, "Eh?"
One more wish to grant her?
What else? Doesn't he think she's annoying? She had shamelessly approached him twice for a life-saving favor, and he even gave her one more wish.
In a daze, Noah had opened the door and gotten out of the car, his dark voice coming out.
"You take Mason's cell phone number and call Mason when you think of what you want."
Before closing the door, Noah paused and added, as if carelessly.
"Third chance, anything you want, it doesn't matter if it's too much, just mention it, and I'll say yes."
Olivia: "... Okay, thanks, uncle."
By the time Olivia came back to her senses, Noah was no longer in the car.
She hurriedly turned around, ready to go down as well, and her hand had just touched the door handle when a man came in from the driver's seat.
It's Mason.
"Olivia, my cell phone number you took down?" Mason sidled toward the back, his tone calm.
Noah's promises aren't for everyone, and Olivia isn't stupid enough to take them.
"Good."
The phone came out, only to realize it was off and dead, and Mason gave her one of his business cards.
Mason offered to take her back, but Olivia was too busy saying no, "It's too much trouble."
"It's no trouble. President Noah's dinner isn't over yet, so it's not too late for me to come back after I drop you off."
Mason fastened his seatbelt and smiled, "President Noah said it's not safe for you to take a cab alone this late in the evening, so he asked me to take you back."
Olivia thought about her cell phone running out of battery and not having any cash with her, so she didn't push any further, "Thank Uncle for me."
Who on earth said that Mr. Johnson Noah was cold-blooded, selfish, and heartless?
It's a rumor. Uncle Noah is still very friendly.
...
Noah returned to the clubhouse and went straight to the third floor.
The meal had broken up half an hour ago, and a group of people had moved to the ground, playing cards in a private room.
Lucas sees Noah come in and waves his hand with the cards at him.
Noah walks over to him, and immediately, someone makes room for him and takes the cards; he scans the situation, draws a card, and throws it out when it's his turn.
Lucas leaned over.
"How so? So is Olivia adamant about canceling the wedding?"
When Olivia arrived, Lucas was going to go down with Noah and was stopped.
Noah says Olivia is here to beg, and she'll be embarrassed by the crowd, so save her face.
Lucas thinks about it and doesn't go, but he's really surprised when Olivia suddenly wants to break off her engagement to Liam.
Olivia and Liam grew up together and really got to know each other.
Liam is twenty-five, and Olivia just turned twenty-four this year, and the two have been entangled for twenty-four years.
Twenty-four years, how long?
Long enough for Liam to go from clean-cut teenager to smooth, worldly scumbag.
It grows to the point where Olivia goes from a star-studded Smith family to the poor little thing whose own father doesn't love her, whose mother doesn't love her, and who is disliked by her first love.
The only thing that hasn't been cut by the years is probably Olivia's love for Liam.
Olivia had always just wanted to marry Liam, and now she was suddenly waking up to the fact that something must have happened.
Lucas knew it was Ava's birthday, not that he'd deliberately noticed, but someone at the dinner party had just mentioned that most of the young talent in Cedarburg was at the Smith Family tonight.
He figured Olivia's mood tonight would have something to do with Ava's birthday, so he asked a friend who was at the Smith Family tonight to inquire.
Sure enough, something really happened.
A friend sent him the video, and after watching it as a man, he choked up for Olivia.
Regardless of how she fell into the water, the first thing her own parents and brother cared about was actually their adopted daughter and the first thing her fiancé saved was actually another woman.
How suffocating.
It's no wonder Olivia's going crazy; in Olivia's old temperament, she's bound to bring the roof down on the Smith Family tonight.
As a result, she came up out of the water and was surprisingly quiet.
Amelia has said that she's not afraid of Olivia being crazy, but she's afraid of Olivia being quiet.
Being mad means there's room to turn things around; it means she's giving the other person a chance to coax her.
Once she's suddenly quiet and cold, it means she's really desperate.
So Olivia must have completely given up on Liam when she came to Noah this time.
...
Noah didn't answer Lucas's question, straightened his cards, and suddenly remembered something and lifted his eyes to look at him.
"Where's Amelia?"
Lucas peeked at his cards with a wink, "Traveling for work, why do you ask her?"
Noah was oblivious to Lucas' little gesture, "You call her and ask her if she knows what happened at the Smith Family tonight."
If she knows, then she's definitely going to be there for Olivia. If she doesn't know, then let her know and let her be there for Olivia.
Lucas glanced at his cards again, "I'm not informing Amelia; I'm bugging her lately, too pestering; give me some breathing room."
Noah spread his cards out directly in front of him, "Call and let you win."
Lucas: "..." Does he need to let?
Okay, he needs to; he hasn't won yet, but he definitely needs to win once tonight and show it off to his friends when he wins.
Lucas called Amelia, and the process went quickly and noisily.
"Lucas?"
Amelia's voice was a little breathy, "I just got off the plane, and I'm in a bit of a hurry right now; if your business isn't important, I'll hang up first?"
She'd just been on a plane, turned her phone on when she landed, and found Olivia's missed call just as she was about to call when Lucas's call came in.
"Off the plane?" Lucas then remembered Olivia's comment about her cell phone being off, "You're back in Cedarburg?"
Amelia spoke quickly, "Well, it's Ava's birthday today, so I'm coming back to spend time with Olivia and leaving on the earliest flight tomorrow."
Lucas hears that Amelia doesn't know what happened at the Smith Family tonight.
"There's been a situation over at Olivia's, so since you're back, spend some time with her. I'll have someone else follow the work over there, and you will stay in Cedarburg."
Hanging up the phone, Lucas suddenly remembers a question and turns his head to Noah.
"You care about Olivia a lot?" why else ask about Amelia specifically?
Noah plays a bright card with their hand, ignoring the eyes of the table peering over, and draws a card and throws it out.
"She saved me."
Lucas looked at his cards graciously, then played one on him.
"If I were Olivia saving your life, I'd want you to marry me."
Noah ignored him and reached for his cell phone to message Liam.
[Meet me at the office tomorrow morning at 8:00 am. You bring Sophia.]