A Reckless Life

by Michelle Files

  “So, I see that you are pregnant as well. Aren’t you a bit young?” some short, squat blonde woman said to me. I didn’t know anyone’s name.

  “I guess.” That’s all I wanted to say about it.

  Then another one chimed in. “Are you married?” Man they could be nosey and the tone of her voice was very judgmental.

  “It’s not really any of your business,” I told her.

  Then I looked over at Sarah and she glared at me.

  “She has a boyfriend. He works in town. They plan to move out of the area as soon as the baby is born,” Sarah told everyone.

  I had no idea if she was just winging it, or if she had this story concocted all along in case someone asked. I still thought it was none of their business.

  “Wow, you would think that girls today were smart enough not to get themselves knocked up. But, I guess not.” This came from the short, squatty one again, and everyone laughed.

  I felt my face get warm and I’m sure I turned a bright shade of red. Just as I started to give her a piece of my mind, Sarah jumped in.

  “Abbey, why don’t you bring in that delicious lemon cake that Oliver made?”

  I knew what she was doing. I let her have her way and I started toward the kitchen. “I just have to frost it and will be back in a few minutes.”

  I walked directly to the bathroom in the back hall. That is where I knew there was a bottle of Ipecac. I grabbed it from the medicine cabinet and put it in my apron pocket, so no one would see me with it. When I got back to the kitchen, Oliver told me he was going to take a quick break and would be back in five minutes. I had to hurry. As soon as he walked out the door, I poured the contents of the bottle into the bowl of frosting. I then added a bit more sugar to help cover up any bad taste.

  Once I finished frosting the cake, I cut it up and took a slice to everyone, even Sarah. It wouldn’t hurt her since she wasn’t actually pregnant. Everyone dug in immediately. I went back into the kitchen. If I had just stood there watching, waiting for something to happen, it would have looked a bit suspicious. I knew that it wouldn’t take long before I was very aware of the outcome.

  Roughly ten or fifteen minutes later I heard Sarah yell my name from the parlor. It was a desperate sort of sound, so I went in to see what she wanted, bracing myself for the inevitable. When I walked in, I couldn’t help but smile to myself. I had to try really hard not to burst out laughing. Almost everyone at the party was holding her stomach and gagging. Many had already made a beeline for a bathroom. There were two of the women that seemed fine. When I looked at their plates, they had only taken a couple of small bites of the lemon cake. I guess it wasn’t enough to hurt them.

  “What have you done?!” Sarah screamed at me.

  I looked at her like I had no idea what she was talking about. I had to kick my acting skills into high gear.

  “What’s wrong with everyone?” I asked innocently.

  “This is all your fault!” She was still screaming and the remaining women were looking at me intently.

  That’s when Oliver came running in. He took just a moment to take in the scene and gave me the oddest look.

  “How is this my fault?” I asked her.

  “You are the one serving the food and drinks. Something here obviously made everyone sick.” Then she started to heave and sprinted to the bathroom.

  Thank goodness there were a lot of bathrooms in that house. I hadn’t thought ahead about who would be in charge of the cleanup if people didn’t make it. Luckily, they all did.

  Then Oliver turned to me. “How did this happen?”

  I gave him an innocent look. “How should I know? I didn’t cook any of the food, you did.” It was wrong to betray him like that, but I really had no choice. I obviously didn’t think the whole thing through.

  “What the hell happened here?” We both turned around to see Adam walking up behind us.

  “We don’t know.” Oliver responded, shrugging his shoulders and glaring at me. “Everyone just got sick.”

  “Maybe we should call an ambulance,” he said, looking around. “Or several. There are a lot of sick people here. They may have food poisoning.”

  “No, it’s not food poisoning.” Sarah said, carefully walking back into the room. She was still holding her stomach and now was holding up a small bottle.

  Oh no. I knew I was about to get into really big trouble.

  “Let’s get everyone out of here and on their way home. Then we can talk.” She told us as she started herding the nauseated women out the door, explaining that they were not poisoned. It was just an innocent mistake. They would feel better by the end of the day. None of them were happy about it, but relieved that it wasn’t something more serious.

  Several minutes later, once everyone was gone, Sarah gathered us all back together. “Someone,” looking directly at me, “gave them Ipecac. It induces vomiting, but is not poisonous.” She held up the bottle like a trophy she had just won.

  Everyone then turned to look at me. I couldn’t believe that I was stupid enough to leave the bottle sitting on the counter in the kitchen. There was no way out of this mess. No one would believe for a second that Oliver had anything to do with this. It was me and they all knew it.

  I looked down at my feet in shame.

  “Why would you do this?” Adam asked me.

  Time to come clean. “Because the women were all making fun of me, telling me how stupid I was for getting pregnant, and laughing about it.”

  Then Adam realized that Oliver was standing there and he didn’t want him to know about the stuff we all had cooking.

  “Thank you for your help, Oliver. You can go back to work now,” Adam said dismissively.

  It was quite obvious that Oliver wanted badly to stay and hear what was going on, but he turned and left. The gossip mill would already have enough to keep them busy after today. We didn’t need to add anymore fuel to that fire.

  “Really, what were you thinking?” Sarah said softly. She was clearly still feeling sick. I thought she might take off any second for the bathroom.

  “I’m sorry. It was stupid. I promise not to do anything like that ever again.”

  “Just please go finish helping Oliver clean up,” she said, waving her hand dismissively at me. “And, please don’t tell him what this was all about.”

  They very badly wanted to yell at me. I could see it in their faces. But, they held back. My guess was that they were afraid that if they came down on me too hard that I would just leave, taking the baby with me. I could see the fear in their faces. As long as I was carrying this baby, I was in charge. They knew that, and I knew that. Even so, I had a feeling that this was not going to blow over anytime soon.

  Chapter 22

  Remember a while back when I was telling you about the really bad storm I was driving in? Well, here’s the rest of that story.

  It had been about a year since I first got into trouble and ran away from home and came to live at the Tyler ranch. One night a really bad storm was headed our way. That’s all the TV news had been talking about for a couple of days. It wasn’t going to be so bad that we needed to evacuate to a safer area, but bad enough that everyone was strongly encouraged to stay indoors and ride it out.

  I needed to talk to Sarah about dinner preparations, so I went to look for her. I found Sarah and Violet together in the dining room talking. Adam was out of town on business, so it was pretty much just the three of us in the house, plus a couple of the staff. When I walked into the room, it went silent. They were certainly acting strange.

  “Hi. I just came in to find out what you would like for dinner?” I looked between the two of them.

  “Abigail, what exactly do you plan to do once this baby is born?” Violet looked at my stomach when she said that.

  “I…I..plan to get another job somewhere and move out.” I wasn’t prepared for the question and stuttered over my answer.

  “That’s good, because Sarah and Adam certainly don’t need you
hanging around confusing things.”

  “I wasn’t planning to hang around. Didn’t we already talk about this?” I asked, a bit sarcastically.

  “I’m just making sure that we are all still on track. I didn’t make all of this happen for nothing, you know,” Violet blurted out.

  “What? You didn’t make anything happen,” I said back to her.

  That woman was so frustrating. She had to make sure to take credit even when there was no credit due to her.

  Sarah looked at both of us with anger written all over her face. Even though she was mostly civil, it was going to be a while until she forgave any of us.

  Violet saw the look Sarah gave us. “Oh come now, Sarah. You didn’t really think that Abigail cooked this all up on her own, did you? We planned it from the beginning.”

  “Yes, I’m painfully aware of that.” Sarah tensed her jaw when she said that.

  “No we didn’t! She came to me and told me she wanted me to seduce Adam and get pregnant, and I told her no!”

  “Yet, that’s exactly what happened, isn’t it?” Violet said smugly, looking directly at me.

  “Well..yes. I guess. But, not because you wanted me to.” I didn’t sound convincing at all.

  “I don’t believe this. Both of you are pathetic!” Sarah screamed at us and stormed out of the room.

  Who could blame her? As much as I didn’t like Sarah, she was clearly the victim in all of it. Adam cheated on her. I betrayed her by sleeping with her husband. Violet instigated the whole thing. Sarah didn’t do anything wrong. I kind of felt sorry for her. She certainly had the right to blow up at us now and then. I would have to find her later and apologize once again.

  I glared at Violet. “What the hell? Was that really necessary? You got what you wanted. Why do you feel the need to always make everyone around you miserable!” I ran out and to my room to sulk.

  Violet was such a horrible person. Everything was already a mess. I don’t know why in the world she felt that she needed to make it worse. It was already difficult to live in that house, with those people, especially considering the crazy situation we were all in. And Violet just had to make sure that everyone knew she was responsible. Like she was going to win some sort of prize or something. Well, maybe she was. She probably thought of my child as her prize in all of this. She manipulated all of us and in the end will get exactly what she wanted. A grandchild. My child. And I was just stupid enough to play my part in her twisted game. She was manipulating all of our lives, and we just let it happen.

  She really wasn’t though, no matter what she thought. It was all just a stupid mistake on my part. Or was it? Did I subconsciously make all of this happen? I would have to think about that one. Either way, I thought that Violet was making a huge mistake. Now Sarah was furious at her. That was not going to make things any easier around the estate.

  A little while later I realized that I never found out from Sarah what to prepare for dinner. So, I cleaned myself up and went looking for her again. I was just about to walk into the library when I heard two people talking. Arguing actually. The door was shut and with the wind howling outside, I was having a hard time hearing. I heard Violet’s voice, but couldn’t tell who the other person was. Even though I could tell that they were arguing, they were trying to keep their voices low. I stuck my ear to the door, but it didn’t help. It was probably Sarah in there. Who else? I’m sure it would take a really long time before Sarah forgave Violet for all she had done. Sarah was probably giving her a piece of her mind. I really wished I could hear what they were saying, since it was probably about me.

  Not long before my altercation earlier with Violet and Sarah, I saw Violet in the parlor drinking her ‘tea.’ So, I was pretty sure she was sloshed by that point. It was her nightly ritual. I really couldn’t tell through the door though. I did hear my name. Why was it that whenever someone was having an argument in that house, my name always came up? I tried to listen for a couple more minutes, but really couldn’t make anything out, so I started heading toward my room.

  I saw Sarah walking toward me in the hall, heading for the library probably, and she stopped to speak to me. I knew then that it wasn’t her in there arguing with Violet. That surprised me. Who in the world was in there then?

  “Abbey, please make liver and onions for dinner. Since Adam is out of town, it’s the perfect time, because he hates them. I know it’s one of Violet’s favorite meals. Though right now I don’t care if she is all that happy or not.” She paused for a moment, thinking about Violet I’m sure. “Well, anyway, go ahead and make that tonight.”

  “Okay sure,” I told her. “Oliver just picked some up at the store yesterday. I’m heading that way, I’ll go tell him right now.”

  “All right. I’ll let Violet know,” she said. “I think she’s in the library.”

  “She is,” I replied as I continued on down the hall toward the kitchen.

  A few seconds later I heard Sarah scream and I turned around and started running toward the sound. The library door was open then, and I ran in. What I found made me turn white. It was Violet, laying face up on the floor in a pool of her own blood. There was a knife on the floor beside her. Sarah was just standing there staring at her, doing nothing. I knelt on the floor to check on Violet. She was still alive and bleeding profusely from several stab wounds. She was wearing a white blouse and there was a lot of blood. The entire thing was a deep crimson color. I looked up at Sarah, who looked like she was going to faint.

  “It wasn’t me, I swear!” Sarah blurted out, raising up her hands to show me that there was no blood on her.

  I looked around and saw that the back door to the library was wide open. The wind was howling right outside and making its way in. Sarah had only been in the room for under ten seconds when I heard her scream and went running back to the library. So, it was very obvious that she couldn’t have stabbed Violet several times, opened the back door, and screamed to get my attention in that short of time. Besides, when I arrived a few seconds later, Violet was already bleeding quite a bit and was unconscious. It looked as if she had been lying there for a few minutes. She was probably stabbed right after I walked away from the library and while I stood in the hall talking to Sarah. It is surprising that we didn’t hear a struggle or any screaming from Violet.

  “I believe you,” I told her. “You’re the doctor, do something!” I yelled at her.

  She was already scanning the room for something. She walked over and picked up a small blanket and then knelt down to put pressure on the wounds.

  “Call 911,” she ordered.

  I was already reaching for the phone on the desk. The operator on the other end told me that due to the storm, their emergency personnel were all out on calls and it would be at least an hour before they could get there. From what I could see, Violet didn’t have that long. I hung up the phone and turned to Sarah.

  “They can’t get here for at least an hour. Can you help her?” I started shaking then. I didn’t know if it was from the trauma of the bloody scene in front of me or from the freezing storm coming in through the still wide open back door.

  “No. She needs surgery. There’s nothing I can do here. I’m not a surgeon. She is going to bleed out and die if we don’t get her to a hospital right away.”

  I could see Sarah shaking like a leaf. She was a doctor, or at least almost, I think. Why would she be so freaked out?

  “Are you okay?” I asked her as I jumped up and ran over to shut the back door.

  “Yes. I know I should be more calm. I have seen this type of thing before when I worked at the hospital, but when it’s your own family, it’s different. Please, I need you to drive us to the hospital.” She sounded so desperate.

  “Me? I don’t know how to drive very well. I’ve only had a couple of lessons and don’t have a license.” Adam had given me some driving lessons, certainly not enough to know how to maneuver a car through a storm and get there quickly before someone died. The thought completely u
nnerved me.

  “It will have to do. I can’t drive right now. I’m too upset. I don’t really know how to drive anyway. We have a driver. I never needed to learn.” She told me. “Since Adam isn’t here, it’s up to us to try to save her. Go get the car!”

  It was not the time to argue about who was the worst driver, so I jumped up and ran as fast as I could outside. It only took me a minute or so to get back with the car. I parked it right in front of the door. One of the housekeepers helped us carry Violet to the car. She was the only person in the house we could find. I told her to call Adam and let him know what was going on and to meet us at the hospital as soon as he could. Then we headed out into the night.

  Chapter 23

  I drove in the storm for quite a while, still not knowing if Violet would live or die. It was one of the most terrifying things I have ever done. The storm was not letting up and I barely knew how to drive. Not a great combination. But I was determined to get through it, to fight the forces of nature, and to win. Nothing else on earth mattered at that moment. Violet was conscious off and on, moaning mostly from the backseat. Sarah was doing her best to keep an eye on her. The bleeding had mostly stopped, but Violet was dangerously weak.

  When we reached the narrow bridge that crossed over the river, I could see that the water was very high and raging wildly. It was actually overflowing the banks and threatening the bridge itself. I don’t know how this was even possible. How long had it been raining? Certainly not long enough for this to happen. But, there it was, right in front of me, very close and threatening.

  While crossing the bridge, it suddenly felt like we hit a patch of ice, which was impossible, because it was a summer storm. But that’s what it felt like. I had the steering wheel in a death grip. The car started skidding and there was not much I could do about it. I took my foot off the gas and turned into the skid, knowing that was what I was supposed to do, but it wasn’t helping. The car seemed to have a mind of its own. I could see, and feel, the bridge railing coming straight for us. For a moment I wasn’t sure if we were skidding toward the railing or if it had broken loose and was flying toward us. It felt like it was all happening in slow motion.