Haunting Olivia

by Janelle Taylor

  Because, as he knew without a doubt last night, he did love her. And not with the innocence of a HAUNTING OLIV IA

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  seventeen-year-old boy, unfettered. He loved her the way he’d been waiting to love someone again.

  He simply had no idea that person would be Olivia herself. He shook his head at the irony of it. The magic of it.

  He glanced at Marnie, her eyes shooting sparks.

  “All I can do is apologize, Marnie.” With that he got back into his truck and drove to the diner to pick up Olivia.

  He saw her through the plate-glass window; she was poking at a salad and looking ner vous. Worried. He went in and sat across from her and filled her in.

  “So Johanna must have told Marnie what she knows about me. What she thinks she knows, anyway,”

  Olivia said.

  He leaned close. “All I know is, Johanna has something against you. Marnie has something against both of us. And suddenly the two of them are fast friends. I’m glad you’re going to be staying at my house from now on. There’s no way I’d leave you alone, especially at night. Stay in town until it’s time for your meeting. And keep your cell phone on you at all times. Okay?”

  She nodded. “The tension in the town hall auditorium should be pretty scary tonight. Hopefully, Marnie will focus on her daughter and not on me. I don’t doubt she’ll want Brianna to win at all costs.”

  Which was what worried Zach.

  Chapter 14

  All the contestants and their mothers were early.

  At a quarter to six, Pearl was able to take the stage to welcome everyone to the meeting for contestants to enter the thirty-first annual Inner-Beauty Pageant.

  Eleven girls and their mothers were sitting in the first few rows of the auditorium, everyone checking out the competition, including Olivia. She could tell who Kayla was worried about by the expressions the girl made as her gaze stopped on each entrant. Brianna barely got a glance; clearly Kayla thought the girl had no inner beauty. Marnie hadn’t looked Olivia’s way once since arriving.

  The pretty blond girl whom Kayla had complained about in the diner got Kayla’s poutiest pout.

  If Olivia thought the dirtiest looks sent her way would come from Marnie, she was wrong. Jacqueline McCord took that honor. She sat with a tall girl who stared at her shoes.

  “All rightie!” Pearl said, clapping her hands.

  “First order of business is to formally enroll our candidates in the pageant. So, we’ll need to verify HAUNTING OLIV IA

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  that all entrants meet the age requirements of thirteen through seventeen. You cannot be younger than thirteen or older than seventeen to enter.”

  “But Jennifer’s birthday is next month!” said a woman sitting in the front row. “She’ll be thirteen in just a few weeks!”

  “Which will make her eligible for next year’s pageant,” Pearl said, with a smile.

  The woman smacked her lips and practically yanked her daughter out of her seat. Olivia knew from experience that girls entered the pageant because their parents had their eyes on the prize money.

  “Please line up with a birth certificate or other proof of age,” Pearl said.

  “Dad put my birth certificate in my packet this morning,” Kayla told Olivia. She opened up the pink folder and handed Olivia the document.

  Olivia sucked in her breath, her fingers shaking as she took the piece of paper, its raised seal assur-ing her of its authenticity.

  Mother: Olivia Kaye Sedgwick

  Father: Zachary Archer

  She would never, ever forgive her father for the lie. No matter what he tried to undo thirteen years later.

  “Olivia?” Kayla said, tugging on her sleeve.

  “Everyone’s in line except us.”

  Olivia regained her composure and smiled at Kayla. “I’m just so thrilled to see this,” she told Kayla. “It’s the first time.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Kayla said. “I didn’t think of that.

  Sometimes I would take it out of my special box and just look at your name to remind myself that I did have a mother out there somewhere.”

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  Olivia squeezed her hand, and they got in line.

  There seemed to be a bit of a commotion up ahead.

  “This is a proper form of ID!” a girl with curly brown hair screeched. “It’s my driver’s license!”

  “Dear,” said Pearl, “this is not a valid Maine driver’s license. It’s a fake ID just like my own daughter used to have before I found it and cut it up. Maine licenses have six numbers, not seven. If you don’t have another valid form of ID to prove your age, you will need to leave.”

  The girl’s mother tried arguing, but Pearl held up a hand and said, “Eh, uh-uh!” She then clapped her hands, hard. “Listen up, people. If there is anyone on line who does not have a valid form of ID—and trust me, I know what they look like—you must leave now.”

  There were grumbles, and five girls and their mothers left the auditorium.

  “I see we’re down to a very manageable number now,” Pearl said as the next girl handed over her birth certificate.

  Left were Kayla, Brianna, the blond girl who Kayla sulked about, and three others: Jacqueline McCord’s daughter, a tall brunette who seemed to stoop as though she was uncomfortable with her height; and, interestingly enough, one set of twins.

  “All rightie!” Pearl said once everyone was seated again. “I am now proud to introduce the six contestants for this year’s Inner-Beauty Pageant! When I call your name, please stand up. Cecily Carle.”

  As the pretty blond stood, her mother clapped excitedly.

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  “Cecily, please state your age and why you want to enter the Inner-Beauty Pageant.”

  “I’m fifteen and want to enter because it’s what’s inside that counts,” said Cecily. Her mother clapped again.

  Kayla pouted. “That’s what I was going to say,”

  she whispered.

  “Next is Brianna Sweetser.”

  Brianna popped up. Olivia saw Marnie doing a silent clap for her daughter. “I’m thirteen and I want to enter because I want to show all of Blueberry that there’s a lot more to me than just a pretty face.”

  Kayla rolled her eyes. “Do you believe her?” she complained and Olivia smiled.

  Pearl consulted her roll sheet. “Next is Emily Abernathy.”

  One of the twins stood and moved out to the aisle.

  “I’m fourteen, whooo!” she said, breaking into cheerleading moves. “I want to enter because it’s what’s inside that counts.” She added a few twirls and claps.

  “I already said that,” Cecily pointed out, with something of a restrained smile.

  “Well, if you hadn’t gone before me, I would have said it first,” Emily shot back, slipping into her seat.

  “Our next entrant is Eva Abernathy. And I will note for the record that Eva and contestant number three are identical twins.”

  “Identical except that I have slightly more inner beauty!” Eva said, also moving out to the aisle and breaking into a cheerleading routine as she spoke.

  “I’m fourteen and I want to enter because it’s what’s inside that counts.”

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  “She already said that!” Brianna contributed.

  Marnie grabbed her daughter’s arm in admonish-ment.

  “Well, if she hadn’t gone before me, I would have said it first,” Eva sing-songed.

  “No, because Cecily said it first,” Kayla threw in.

  Olivia had a feeling that coordinating this pageant—

  if she was allowed to—would lead to a massive headache. She glanced at Jacqueline McCord and her daughter. Both had been silent, not joining in the bickering.

  “Before we continue,” Pearl said, “I should point out that during the judging round, it would be wise not to repeat an answer that someone has alread
y said.”

  “Yeah, but what if the answer you were going to give is the same as what someone else gave?” Kayla asked.

  “I guess you’ll just have to think fast,” Pearl responded.

  “I don’t think fast,” Kayla whispered to Olivia.

  “Our next contestant is Kayla Archer,” said Pearl.

  Kayla stood and smiled. “I’m thirteen years old.”

  Silence.

  “And the reason why you want to enter the pageant?” Pearl prompted.

  Kayla turned red. She looked to Olivia for help, but it wasn’t like Olivia could—or would—whisper an appropriate answer. “Um . . . I was going to say the thing about what’s inside counting, but there’s another reason I want to enter.” She glanced at Olivia. “My mother won the Inner-Beauty Pageant when she was fifteen. I want my mom to know that HAUNTING OLIV IA

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  even though we’re just getting to know each other, like from scratch, that I’m just like she is.”

  Olivia felt every set of eyes in the room on her.

  Even Marnie’s.

  “Girls, if that’s the case, I’d keep your boyfriends under lock and key,” Marnie said, with a laugh. But the deadly look she leveled on Olivia was anything but funny.

  Pearl cleared her throat. “Our last contestant is Deenie McCord.”

  The only girl in the room who hadn’t yet stood up remained seated. Olivia could see her cheeks tinged with pink.

  “Deenie McCord?” Pearl called, lifting her bifo-cals from around her neck to her face.

  Olivia saw Jacqueline nudge the girl’s thigh, and Deenie stood, her stoop more pronounced. She said nothing until Pearl prompted her. “I’m seventeen years old. I . . . I want to enter because this is my last year to show everyone that I have inner beauty.”

  “She certainly doesn’t have outer, ” someone whispered. One of the twins. Olivia wasn’t sure which.

  “Who said that?” Jacqueline demanded, bolting up.

  “Name callers should be disqualified immediately.”

  Red faced, Deenie sat down.

  “Name-calling is not allowed,” Pearl announced.

  “Are we understood?” The rounds of nods must have satisfied Pearl. She called for a round of applause, and then each girl was handed a sheet of paper listing the rules and regulations, which Pearl went over in agonizing detail. “And now, I have some news about the open coordinator’s position.

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  weather. Therefore, we need a new coordinator. It came to my attention that a former editor of Glitz magazine in New York City is residing in Blueberry and she is also a former winner of the Inner-Beauty Pageant. I thought with her credentials she would make an excellent coordinator. However,” Pearl continued, “she is also the mother of one of our entrants, Kayla Archer.”

  All eyes swung to Olivia.

  Pearl cleared her throat. “As there is a possible conflict of interest, I thought I would throw out the issue to you all and see how you felt.”

  “I, for one, would not feel comfortable with one of the contestants’ mothers coordinating,” Marnie clipped out.

  All the other mothers agreed.

  “Okay, then,” Pearl said. “I did have an assistant coordinator lined up, so she can take over the general role, though she isn’t very experienced in such events. In fact, I’ll even suggest that all of you moms become co-coordinators this year.”

  Everyone liked that idea. And with that settled, the very long meeting was called to an end.

  “Co-coordinators?” Zach asked as he and Olivia entered the cottage to pick up some of Olivia’s belongings. “Will that work?”

  “It has to,” she said. “But, to say there are some big personalities involved would be a serious understatement.”

  Zach had been beyond confused when Olivia had filled him in on what had gone on at the meeting.

  The girls and the mothers sniping at each other.

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  Marnie’s nasty dig at Olivia, but at Kayla’s expense.

  “How exactly is Kayla going to turn into an angel with all that muck going on?”

  Olivia smiled. “Sometimes, when you’re in the right place at the right time, trying circumstances can do wonders for building character.”

  He glanced at her. “I know what you mean.”

  “I know you do.”

  “I want to see the home you were sent to,” Zach said. He had no idea where that had come from.

  He hadn’t even been thinking of it at the moment.

  “Really?” she asked. “Why? It’s not an example of the right place, right time during trying circumstances.” She glanced down at her feet and took a deep breath. “I don’t even like to remember that place.”

  “What was it like?” he asked, imagining her alone and scared.

  “The place itself was fine. The care was good. I even had some friends, well, acquaintances really. But there was somewhere else I wanted to be, somewhere else that felt right to me. But I couldn’t be there.”

  He glanced at her. “With me, you mean.”

  She nodded.

  “I want to see it,” he said again. “I want to see firsthand where you spent those lonely months of your pregnancy. I want to know where you were.”

  “I suppose we can just drive up and surprise them with a visit,” Olivia said. “It’s about three hours north.” She froze. “I wonder if the doctor who attended the birth is still there.”

  “I hope the hell not,” Zach said. “Who knows what other lives he interfered in.”

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  “I’d like to go tomorrow, so I’m not anticipating the trip for too long,” Olivia said.

  “Tomorrow it is.”

  Olivia glanced around the cottage. “I guess I’ll just bring some basics, clothes and toiletries. I’ll need to be back here every morning at eight, anyway.”

  Zach dropped down on the easy chair in the living room while Olivia went into the bedroom.

  “Zach!” she screamed. “Zach!”

  He rushed in. Olivia stood by her bed, her hand over her mouth, her face pale.

  Her bed had been slashed to ribbons, some sticky red substance oozing all over.

  “What is . . . that?” she asked, her voice shaking.

  “I’m sure it’s paint or something like that,” he said. He banged the wall with his fist, and pulled his cell phone from his pocket.

  “Zach, look at this,” Olivia said, pointing at something on the bed.

  He leaned over. A note, typewritten on a plain piece of paper, was pushpinned to one of the pillows. It said: “You’re next.”

  As Zach dealt with the police, Olivia sipped the tea that was supposed to calm her down. But the more the officers said they had no leads, the more agitated Olivia became.

  Could it be Marnie? Johanna? Both? One of the contestants’ mothers? No, that was stretching.

  Granted, the four other mothers—besides Marnie—

  were hardly friendly, but this nasty business had begun before Olivia had had anything to do with the pageant.

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  The police left, and Zach joined Olivia in the kitchen.

  “I packed a bag for you,” he said. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  “You packed for me?” she asked, surprised. And then she remembered that any man who’s single-handedly raised a teenager knows something about packing for a girl. She smiled. “You always manage to make me feel better.”

  He placed his hand over hers. “We’re going to get this creep. Whoever it is will slip up, Olivia.”

  “I’m surprised he or she is reverting to stupid notes on pillows,” she said, twisting her hair into a knot on her head. “To go from trying to strangle me to a threatening note and some food coloring or whatever it was is pre
tty weird.”

  “That’s a good point,” Zach said. “Although slashing your bed with a butcher knife is more than aggressive.”

  Olivia shivered. “I thought I left mean and backstabbing at Glitz magazine. I never expected to en-counter this here.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “Maybe my ex-boss sent a henchman up here to pay me back for quitting on her.”

  “All I know is that you’re not spending another minute alone unless you’re in the center of town,”

  Zach said. “If the police won’t protect you, I will.”

  She stood up and went to him, then traced a finger down his chiseled cheek. “I feel safe when I’m with you. I feel safe just knowing you’re there.”

  He pulled her close and kissed her, and that was when a stone came careening through the kitchen window, narrowly missing both of them.

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  direction, but all Olivia saw was the movement of the trees and brush from the wind.

  They made it out to Zach’s truck unscathed. Once back at Zach’s house, Olivia saw him release a breath after they checked in on Kayla and found her sleeping peacefully. Zach paid Mrs. McGill and sent her home and then joined Olivia in the guest room.

  She opened the suitcase Zach had packed for her. There were jeans and sweaters, a bunch of under wear, her fluffy bathrobe, and the slinky slip.

  She smiled at him and took his hand, and then they both lay down on the bed, fully dressed. She curled against him so that they were spooned, and she closed her eyes as the rhythmic beating of his heart lulled her into relaxation. Tomorrow they would drive to the Pixford Home and possibly confront the staff. In any case, Olivia would be transported back in time to when she was truly scared. She realized that nothing could ever top how fearful she’d been then. Of the unknown. Of giving up her baby.

  Of how she’d feel afterward. Of course, she’d never for a moment thought she might lose the baby.

  Nothing would ever scare her as much as her time in Pixford had. Not a rock through the window, nor someone trying—and not very well—to strangle her in her sleep.

  “Penny for your thoughts,” Zach said, rubbing her shoulders.

  “Just thinking about tomorrow. About going to the home I stayed at.”