Haunting Olivia

by Janelle Taylor

  “I don’t know,” Kayla said. “I’ve thought about it.

  It could be her. I mean, she really loves me. She’d do anything to make me happy. So of course she wants me to win.”

  “That does make sense,” Cecily said. “Anyway, let’s go over your speech.”

  Olivia made as little noise as possible. On one hand, she wanted to make a racket and let Kayla know she’d been in hearing distance. On the other, she wanted her daughter to have this time with her friend to work on her oral presentation.

  She poured herself a cup of coffee and sipped it with a heavy heart. She’d talk to Zach about it all later.

  That night, Olivia knocked on Zach’s door. He sat on his bed, wearing only a pair of faded jeans, a set of blueprints spread out before him.

  He was so, so beautiful. The moonlight cast its beams on his silky hair, his strong shoulders. She smiled at the memory of her sisters oohing and ahhing over him yesterday afternoon after he and Kayla had gone out grocery shopping. “He’s so good-looking!” Amanda had said. “No—hot, hot, hot,” Ivy had put in.

  Maybe you should tell him how you feel. . . .

  “Are these plans for a house?” she asked instead, her gaze on the blueprints.

  He nodded. “This one was just finished. It’s so HAUNTING OLIV IA

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  expensive that it hasn’t sold yet. It’s on the coast in Marbury, which is about forty minutes north of here.”

  She sat down on the edge of the bed. “It’s beautiful. It looks like it blends right into the rocky coast-line. You know what it reminds me of? That house you were sketching when I first met you. Whenever I showed up to meet you, you’d be drawing away, so engrossed you didn’t notice I was there yet.”

  He smiled. “I was always surprised that you did show up. I used to bring my ‘life’s work’ just in case you didn’t, so that if one dream got dashed, I’d still have my house.” He pointed at the blueprints.

  “This is that same one.”

  She saw now that it was. From the wraparound porch to the tree house in the huge oak to the gardens.

  “I told myself I’d wait until you came back for Kayla,” he said. “I waited until she was ten, and then I guess a part of me believed you probably wouldn’t come. That that was a dream I did need to let go of.

  So I started building my dream house in Marbury.”

  “Do you know how many nights I would stare out the window of my apartment in New York at the glittering lights and wonder if you were out there somewhere, thinking about me, wondering what happened to me and our child? It was actually comforting to me to think that you didn’t know. I mean, when I thought she was stillborn.”

  “Oh, Olivia,” he said, taking her hand. “I can’t begin to imagine how sad you must have been.”

  She glanced at him. “If only, if only, if only I’d known. I would have rushed back here.”

  “I know that now,” he said. “But back then, I had nothing to go on but the lies your father told me. I 262

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  was actually glad the building of the house would take three years. The longer we stayed in Blueberry, the easier it would be for you to find us. I figured you’d come up to visit your father or have some kind of family reunion. But you never did, of course.

  And then just a couple of months ago, my builder told me the house was ready.”

  Olivia’s stomach sank. His dream house was ready. She’d come back to Blueberry in the nick of time.

  And now he could go.

  Her heart breaking, Olivia forced herself to focus on why she’d come knocking on his door in the first place.

  Because I love Zach. That’s why.

  “Zach, there’s something I need to talk to you about. I overheard Kayla and Cecily talking after school today. And I’m really concerned about some things Kayla said.”

  Zach gave her his full attention. He rolled up his blueprints and sat back on the bed.

  “Kayla told Cecily that she thought I might be behind the posters and dead mole and nasty letters.”

  “You? Where would she get that idea?”

  “She had a few theories. From how much I love her to how much her winning the pageant, as I did, means to me in making up for lost time. I didn’t know how to handle it, so I didn’t.”

  “I think you handled it just right,” Zach said, running a hand through his hair. He glanced out the window, the moonlight glowing on his profile. “I’ve learned in the past couple of months that teenagers talk and talk and talk and say everything to each HAUNTING OLIV IA

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  other that pops into their minds. I know she’s confused as hell about everything right now.”

  “Including what’s going on between us,” Olivia said.

  “Cecily knew that I sleep in the guest room. So Kayla’s definitely talking about her parents’ relationship.”

  “I wish we had something concrete to tell her,”

  Zach said, “but we don’t.”

  Because he didn’t know how he felt. Thirteen years was a long time. And he’d raised Kayla alone.

  “Did your father’s attorney get back to you?”

  Zach asked. “Is the house yours free and clear?”

  “He hasn’t called back yet,” Olivia said. And when he did, Zach would pack up and move to his dream house on the ocean in Marbury. And Olivia would be in limbo, belonging nowhere in particular.

  “Well, after this weekend, after the pageant is over, I’m putting this house on the market. I used to think it would be good for Kayla to grow up here because she was conceived in love here. But now that you’re in her life, being here doesn’t seem as important. She doesn’t need the connection to Blueberry the way she did before.”

  Olivia was sure she’d hear from the attorney in the next day or so. He’d verify that Johanna was nowhere to be found, and, therefore, the conditions of the will were null and void. The cottage would be hers. Zach wouldn’t have to safeguard her anymore; she’d be free to go.

  And clearly, he would let her.

  Chapter 22

  “Dad!”

  Zach jumped out of bed and raced downstairs.

  Kayla stood in the front hallway, pale and shaking in her pajamas, holding a letter. He took it from her just as Olivia ran out of the guest room.

  “Kayla, what’s the matter?” Olivia asked, her voice frantic. “What happened?”

  Kayla pointed at the letter in Zach’s hand, her finger trembling. “I . . . I found it sticking out under the front door.”

  Typed on a plain white paper was: “Kayla, if you don’t drop out of the pageant, I will make your life a living hell.”

  Rage shot up through Zach so fast he almost slammed his fist against the wall. He passed the letter to Olivia, willing himself to calm down.

  “What does that mean?” Kayla asked, tears welling in her eyes. “What are they gonna do to me?”

  “No one is going to do anything to you,” he said, kneeling down so that they were eye level. He wanted to tell her that she didn’t have to worry, that HAUNTING OLIV IA

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  they were moving next week, that she’d have a fresh start away from all this madness, but he was afraid she’d ask about Olivia. If she were coming too. And he wouldn’t know what to say.

  “I won’t let anyone hurt you,” Zach assured her, tucking the envelope into his pocket. “In fact, you’re under parental orders to play hookey from school today.”

  She pumped her fist in the air. “Yes!”

  It was amazing what a free day off from school could do.

  I will make your life a living hell. . . .

  The rage boiled in his gut again as the threat against his child sank in. Damn it, he thought, what the hell am I missing?

  “Kayla, are you all right?” he asked.

  She nodded. “I’m freaked, but I’m okay. I’m sure it’s that weirdo Deenie. Or Brianna. I could totally take them. Well, maybe not Deenie. She’s, like, a foot tal
ler than me.”

  “I’m going into my study to think this through,”

  he said, squeezing Kayla’s shoulder.

  They were definitely missing something, something obvious. But what? he wondered as he stared out the window. A light snow began to fall. With any luck it would accumulate into a blizzard and the damned pageant would be cancelled.

  Coffee. They needed coffee and lots of it.

  “Kayla, are you hungry?” Olivia asked as Kayla started back up the steps. “I can whip you up some pancakes or eggs.”

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  “No thanks,” she said. “I came down and had a cup of juice before I noticed the letter under the front door.”

  Olivia glanced at the grandfather clock. It was just before six. And still dark outside. Kayla didn’t have to be up until seven. “Why are you up so early, anyway?” she asked. “Jitters about tomorrow night?”

  “And tonight,” Kayla said. “What if I screw up rehearsal? What if I can’t figure out which way to exit the stage? What if I lose my place in my oral presentation? Cecily said I should look up a lot while I’m reading so that I’m not just staring at the speech in my hand.”

  “That’s good advice,” Olivia said. “You could look up after each paragraph, maybe. And put your finger on where you’re up to. That’s what I used to do.”

  “Great idea!” Kayla said. “I’m going to go practice, okay? I’m so glad I have the whole day and now all of tomorrow too.” She ran up the stairs, the threat against her forgotten in her excitement.

  Zach came out of his study. “She doesn’t leave our sight until this pageant is over,” he said. “Between the two of us, she should be okay.”

  Olivia nodded. “I’m going to make a pot of coffee. I’ll bring you a mug.”

  “Thanks,” he said, disappearing back inside the study.

  Olivia took a filter from the cabinet, then saw that she hadn’t emptied the old grounds from yesterday.

  As she dumped the old filter into the garbage can under the sink, she saw something that made her blood stop.

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  Scrap paper. With variations of what had been typed on the letter that Kayla found ten minutes ago.

  Hey, loser. You’d better drop out of the pageant or I’ll make your life hell.

  Kayla Archer, drop out of the pageant, or you’re dead.

  She closed her eyes against the truth of what this meant. Kayla had typed the note herself, slipped it under the door this morning, and then “found” it.

  And then screamed for her father.

  Which would explain why a day off from school had been able to calm her so quickly. There was no threat against her.

  “Liv?”

  She whirled around. Zach stood there, his expression questioning. She hated what this was going to do to him.

  “Are you okay?” he asked. “I called your name three times before you heard me.”

  She let out a deep breath. “I found these in the garbage can under the sink,” she said, as she handed the notes to him.

  Confusion, then understanding dawned on his handsome face. He counted to ten, then rushed out of the room, taking the stairs two at a time.

  Olivia was right behind him.

  He knocked, then burst in. Kayla was standing in front of her bureau mirror, a brush up to her mouth as if it were a microphone.

  “Your mother found these in the kitchen trash,”

  he said, his temper barely controlled. “Explain yourself.”

  “What are those?” Kayla asked, taking them from him.

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  Kayla read them. “Huh? What’s this?”

  “That’s what we’d like to know,” Zach said. “They look like practice runs to me. They look like you worked on the letter until you got it the way you wanted it.”

  “What?” she said, looking from Zach to Olivia as though she had no idea what they were talking about. Her confusion was replaced by anger. “Wait a minute. Are you saying you think I wrote these?

  And the one I found under the door?”

  “That’s what it looks like, Kayla,” Zach said.

  “That’s what I’m saying.”

  “I didn’t!” she yelled. “I didn’t write these!”

  “You’re looking me in the face and telling me you didn’t write these or the one you found this morning?” Zach said.

  “Yes,” she screamed, tears running down her face.

  Zach dropped down on her bed. “I don’t know what to think. What to believe. Did someone break in in the middle of the night and leave more evidence to frame Kayla,” he directed to Olivia, “and then leave the note under the door?”

  “It fits all the other incidents,” Olivia said. “Someone got into the Abernathy home to put that dead mole on Eva’s pillow.”

  “And it wasn’t me!” Kayla shouted.

  “Okay, honey,” Zach said. “I saw those notes Olivia found in the trash and I freaked out. I thought the worst for a moment and I was wrong.”

  “The creepy thing is, someone broke into the house,” Kayla said. “While we were sleeping, some-HAUNTING OLIV IA

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  one was walking around our house. We’re lucky we’re even breathing right now.”

  Olivia thought Zach might spontaneously com-bust. He stood up and hugged Kayla, then apologized again and went back downstairs. “Let me know when you’re hungry, sweetie,” Olivia said, then followed Zach. Now she knew why he was so conflicted about this entire matter. She’d finally gotten a taste of what it felt like to believe Kayla guilty. As she had held those scrap papers in her hand, she had believed without a shadow of a doubt that Kayla had written the note herself. It felt awful to think the worst of a child. Her own child.

  She had no idea how any of them were going to get through the next twelve hours.

  It had snowed all day, but the light, wet flakes were obliterated the moment they touched the ground. Kayla fretted about what the sleet would do to her hair. If she was this concerned over a rehearsal, Olivia knew that she’d be a ball of nerves and fears tomorrow night.

  Zach drove them to the town hall. He barely said two words, except to remind Kayla to stay within their view at all times tonight.

  The auditorium lights were on when they arrived, but the room was empty. Zach and Olivia sat in the front row. Kayla ran up to the stage and practiced walking on and off from the left and right.

  The doors opened, and Colleen came hurrying down the aisle with her usual stack of papers and clipboard. Marnie and Brianna followed a few 270

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  minutes later, then Cecily and Rorie. Kayla hurried off the stage and sat between Zach and Olivia, her expression nervous. It was as though she remembered that someone had made a terrible threat against her.

  Colleen peered around the auditorium. “Deenie McCord? Are you here?” Colleen shook her head and glanced at her watch. “It’s five after, so let’s get started. If Deenie doesn’t arrive in the next ten minutes, she will not be able to compete tomorrow night. That rule is stated clearly in the pamphlet handed out at our last meeting.”

  “And you said that at the last meeting,” Brianna called out. “So it’s totally fair.”

  “What a brown-noser,” Kayla whispered.

  Deenie arrived with one minute to spare. “Sorry I’m late,” she said, in a low voice. “I had to wait for my mom to get home from work so I could drive here. I live at the other end of town.”

  “You’re here now,” Colleen said. “So, before we move on to why we’re here—to go over the order and how you’ll be introduced and stage directions—

  I would like to say on behalf of the town of Blueberry that you’ve all displayed a great deal of inner beauty in the face of some serious ugliness. As you know, the Abernathy twins have dropped out of the competition because of the threat against one of the girls.

  Brianna, Cecily and today,
Kayla, were all the victims of vicious remarks and threats. The police are involved and are—”

  “I haven’t received any threats,” Deenie said, standing up. “I don’t understand.”

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  “That’s a good thing, Deenie,” Brianna said, rolling her eyes. “You’re lucky.”

  “But why?” the girl repeated. “Because I’m not a threat to anyone? Because I couldn’t possibly beat any of you?”

  “You could beat us to a pulp,” Brianna said, laughing.

  There was a gasp, and everyone turned around.

  Jacqueline McCord was standing, her face red.

  “How dare you, you little princess,” she spat at Brianna.

  “Don’t you dare speak to my daughter,” Marnie yelled, bolting up.

  “Everyone, sit down this minute!” Colleen called.

  “This meeting will come to order!”

  Jacqueline and Marnie sat.

  “This is ridiculous,” Zach whispered to Olivia.

  “Colleen should put us out of our misery and cancel the pageant.”

  “If there are no further outbursts,” Colleen said,

  “we can continue on with rehearsal. Kayla, you’ll be up first. You’ll read your essay on what inner beauty means to you, and then you’ll smile at the judges and the audience and take a seat in one of the chairs that will be lined up in front of the back curtain. When Kayla sits, I’ll announce that our next contestant to share her essay will be Cecily. Cecily, you’ll then do the same as Kayla. And so on.”

  “That sounds easy enough,” Kayla said.

  “You’re going to do great,” Olivia assured her.

  “Creepy,” Kayla whispered. “I feel like someone is staring at my back.”

  Olivia glanced behind her. Deenie McCord was 272

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  staring—no, glaring—at the back of Kayla’s head.

  And Jacqueline was doing the same to Zach.

  Then Marnie slid her cold gaze her way, and the hairs on the nape of Olivia’s neck stood up.

  When Colleen finally dismissed the meeting, Olivia couldn’t wait to get out of the room, if only to breathe some clean air.

  Zach stared at the drawing he was working on, the lines blurring into nothing. He might as well forget trying to work. Until tomorrow night, he wouldn’t be able to concentrate.