Slithering like snakes

While Noah and the shadow were on their way back to town, Anthony had been given another task. Aside from his watching Olivia, he was now also asked to put in the ground work for a proper punishment for her. All of this coming about because of Olivia's warning to Harold in code after Noah and the shadow had gone to see her and thus deliberately getting in the way of their plans to catch Harold at her family's vacation home.

Noah didn't think this would be a very hard task for Anthony as there were already some means for groundwork available for him to work with. This was because he and Steve had already gathered some things that would incriminate Olivia. You see, Olivia's laptop had not only revealed some messy things about Harold, but also about Olivia herself and her family. At first Noah didn't plan on using that information, as the one he was after was Harold. So, he felt that there was no need to unnecessarily involve 'innocent' people, for as far as you can claim that Olivia was innocent in this whole ordeal, and didn't look into that matter any further. But if people refuse to remain innocent and would be ungrateful towards his kind gesture, there was no longer a reason to spare them.

What Noah and Steve had discovered during their initial search, was that Olivia had laundered money for Harold. This wasn't too much of a surprise as there was hardly any better to expect from a man like Harold. He only knew how to scam, cheat and get money through illegal means, pawning it off as legal with some jobs on the side. Anthony was now tasked with the job to see if, aside from the money laundering, there was more to be found. Noah had also asked him to look into how all the information could best be used to get even with Olivia for the wrongs she had done.

Anthony immediately got started on the job and was happy that Noah had changed his mind on letting Olivia off the hook just because she had told him where Harold was going. But when he started to dig a little deeper, he managed to discover how Olivia had managed to get in touch with a man like Harold in the first place. He found out that Olivia's father was a long-time business partner of Harold's and he had introduced the two at a party. That is when they started speaking and Harold discovered that they had a common person of interest.

Although the reason for their interest was different, this piece of information had apparently got stuck in Harold's mind. So, when both of them realized they were down on their luck, that piece of information managed to draw them back to each other and reconnect them. This was around the time that Harold was losing to Noah and Steve over and over again, and Olivia was suffering the same kind of blows to her ego because of Laila and Noah's unwavering eye for her. After reaching out and talking about each other's problems, Harold proposed a deal to Olivia. It was a long-term game plan because at that moment Harold lacked the funds needed for him to be powerful enough to execute his part of the plan, and Olivia needed time to manipulate both Laila and Noah. She needed to weaken that bond of theirs, so that Noah would become more susceptible to her advances and tricks.

From the messages that Anthony found, some in code, some with aliases and some with their regular names, he could tell that they had agreed on the plan and put things in motion despite not having all the things needed to pull their plan off. Slowly they moved forward, slithering like snakes, eyes locked on their prey. They were clearly very careful. Every few weeks, every other month, the email address would change, a new number would be used to communicate their progress to one another. It was during that process that Harold began to have a thing for Olivia.

Their conversations stopped being solely about business and started to include more personal things. He made it clear that he saw potential in her for a role that went beyond just business partners. She had changed a lot physically and apparently that had drawn his attention. Or maybe his twisted side saw the twisted side in her and he felt a bond over that. Either way it was clear that their dynamic started changing. She began to accept his advances and even made some back after a few messages back and forth. Maybe it was because she was feeling lonely and unattractive for not being able to get her way with Noah, or maybe it was just the evil inside of her rearing its ugly head. All Anthony could tell was that things took a turn in a slightly different direction once their romance became involved.