Haunting Olivia (12 page)

The woman didn’t respond. She simply turned and walked away. Olivia stepped back to see where she went; the woman had left the store and was walking fast down the street.

Creepy, Olivia thought. Perhaps she’s one of the women her father dated and, like Johanna, thought Olivia a heartless opportunist.

Yup, Daddy dearest, all my dreams are coming true, all
right,
she thought as she brought her basket to the checkout counter.

She froze.
All your dreams will come true. . . .

She only ever had one dream, albeit for just a short while, that she and Zach would run away together and raise their baby.

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Her father knew that Zach and Kayla were living in Blueberry. He’d been sending Kayla birthday cards and Christmas cards in Olivia’s name for years. William Sedgwick had known exactly where they were all these years.

Why had he chosen now to let Olivia learn the truth? Why after he was gone? Had he not wanted to deal with the fallout of what he’d done? Olivia couldn’t imagine he’d care one way or another who was angry at him. Perhaps he worried about legalities.

Olivia, again full of questions with no answers—

and no way to get answers—lugged her heavy basket atop the checkout counter.

She would definitely pay a visit to the home for pregnant teenagers where she’d spent seven long months. Have a little chat with a certain doctor and nurse. Thirteen years wasn’t too long ago. There was a good chance both were still there.

How much had their lies been worth? Olivia wondered as the clerk rang up her purchases. A lot, she imagined.

Receipts safely tucked in her purse, she headed back to her car with her bag of groceries.

She stopped dead in her tracks.

“Rich bitch”
was written in marker on the passenger-side window of her car. And two of the tires were slashed—on the passenger side. Whoever had done it had been blocked from view by the hedges that lined that edge of the lot.

The “HOT!” blonde in the general store immediately flashed into her mind. So did Marnie. And Johanna.

Which one of you is doing this? Or is it someone who
has yet to let me know what he or she thinks of me?
More HAUNTING OLIV IA

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furious than scared, as she’d been last night, she pulled out her cell phone to call the police. She asked to speak with the officer who’d been at the cottage last night.

“Someone sure doesn’t like you,” the officer said.

“What did you do to anger someone to that degree, anyway?”

Jerk. “I didn’t
do
anything,” she said.

“Well, you’ve pissed off someone.”

“I thought I was the victim here,” Olivia snapped.

“Someone will be out in a few minutes,” the officer said and hung up.

She wouldn’t be surprised to find out the ever-so-concerned officer was Marnie’s cousin.

Chapter 9

Zach was pleased to see Kayla doing her homework when he arrived back at the house after work.

He’d collected her assignments from the principal and warned Kayla that if she didn’t do her school-work, there would be no Inner-Beauty Pageant.

“Yay, pizza!” she said, eyeing the two big boxes he’d set down on the kitchen counter. “Wow, you must be hungry.”

“Actually, we’re having company for dinner,” he said, walking toward her.

“Not Marnie and Bri-asshole again,” she said, glaring.

Zach stopped dead in his tracks. “Kayla!”

“Sorry,” she said. Without meaning it. He’d add another day of being grounded to her already packed month, but given the bombshell that was going to change her life tonight, he couldn’t bear to.

“And no, it’s not Marnie and Brianna. It’s the woman you saw yesterday morning in town, the one with the blond hair—”

“The beautiful one,” Kayla said, perking up. “So HAUNTING OLIV IA

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you’re dating her now? Did you dump Marnie for her?”

I am so out of my element,
Zach thought. Out of his element with Kayla and her constant questions and certainly out of his element with the emotions and questions tonight would bring. Which was why he’d opted to pick up pizza instead of cook something fancy. He had no doubt there would be more talking done tonight than eating.

“We’re not dating,” he said. “Come help set the table, please.”

She surprised him by jumping up and heading into the kitchen for the silverware and plates. “Why is she coming, then?”

Zach stiffened. He needed to tell Kayla the truth now. Before Olivia arrived. His daughter deserved to hear the truth of her history from him; to have Olivia there as she learned the story would be overwhelming. And Kayla would need some time to digest what she heard. “Sweetheart, I have to make a quick phone call. Can you finish setting the table?”

She nodded and got to work and Zach headed outside with his cell phone. He pressed in the phone number for the Sedgwick house, a number he’d never forgotten. He’d only dialed it once before, when he was seventeen and in love. King Sedgwick had asked his name.

“Archer? It’s not ringing a bell,” William had said.

“My father is a mechanic at Joe’s Auto Repair.”

There had been silence. And then, “Don’t call here again. Olivia is not permitted to date while she’s visiting.” And then he had hung up.

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Sedgwick. There had been one other, when he’d learned about his daughter. When William’s lackey had placed her in Zach’s arms.

Zach paced the front yard, hoping Olivia hadn’t already left.

“Hello?”

“Olivia,” he said. “I’m glad I caught you. Look, I think it’s best if I tell Kayla about you myself. It’s been just the two of us her entire life, and to spring the truth on her with you there strikes me as incredibly overwhelming. I hadn’t thought of that before.”

“That’s true,” she said. “I think you’re right.”

“Give us an hour,” he said. “I think after hearing what I have to say, she’ll want to see you, even if it’s just for a few minutes. She’ll need to see that you’re real.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Olivia said. “It says quite a lot about you as a father.”

He was silent for a moment. “See you later, then.”

He put the phone back in his pocket, took one hell of a deep breath, and then headed back inside. It had been a long time since he had felt this nervous.

Oh, boy,
Zach thought as he walked into the dining room and saw what Kayla had done. Lit can-dles on the table. A lace tablecloth. Dim lighting.

She was wearing a dress. And her hair, which was usually in her face, was pulled back by a pretty clip.

“Kayla, I want to ask you something,” he said, taking her hand and leading her to the living room.

They sat down on the sofa.

“What, Dad?”

“It’s more than clear by the romantic table and HAUNTING OLIV IA

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your good-girl appearance that you’re hoping this dinner will mean Marnie’s out and that a new woman is in.”

“Am I that obvious?” she asked, smiling.

He gently yanked her hair. “Yes. But. And there’s a big but. Let’s say I do fall for someone other than Marnie. Let’s say we—whoever it is—start seeing each other. Will you have a problem with that relationship too? Or is it just Marnie you have problems with?”

She glanced down at her feet. “I don’t know,” she said, and her eyes welled with tears. “You’re all I have. I don’t want to share you.”

There was no better segue. He pulled her close and hugged her, stroking her fine hair. “Sweetheart, I understand that. I really do. I know it must be hard. Listen, I need to tell you something. Something very important.”

She wiped away her tears. “What?”

“It’s about your mother.”

Kayla stared at him. “What about my mother?”

Here goes. He looked at his daughter, his precious girl, and knew that he was about to change her entire world. For the better, he knew, but for a thirteen-year-old, this was going to be mind-blowing.

“Kayla, the woman you saw me talking to yesterday, the one who’s coming over tonight . . . she’s your mother.”

Her mouth dropped open. “She’s my mother?”

He nodded. “Olivia Sedgwick.”

Kayla jumped up and stared at him. “She came back for me?”

He took her hand. “Sweetheart, it turns out that she didn’t even know you were alive all these years—”

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“What?” Kayla interrupted. “She gave birth to me!”

“I’m going to tell you a story, a true story, most of which I heard for the first time yesterday. I know you’re going to have a lot of questions, and I want you to ask anything. Anything at all.”

She took a deep breath, then stared at him as he recounted his relationship with Olivia when they were teenagers and then what William Sedgwick had done.

“She was told I was dead?” Kayla whispered. “Oh my God.”

“And I was told that your mother didn’t want anything to do with us,” he said. “Which wasn’t true.

Olivia loved me then. And she loved you.”

Kayla covered her face with her hands and cried.

He held her. “I’m glad whatshisname is dead!” she screamed. “He deserves to be dead.”

“Sweetheart, Oliv—your mother—is due here in about a half hour. Are you up for it? Or should I have her come tomorrow?”

“Is she nice?” she asked.

“Yesterday was the first time I’ve seen her in thirteen years, Kayla. But she was nice when I knew her.

I was madly in love with her then.”

“Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God,” Kayla said, pacing the room. She broke into a smile, then burst into tears. Then started laughing. Then another nervous round of “Oh my God.”

“Kay? Are you all right?”

“I have a mother,” she said, her expression happier than he’d ever seen. “I have a mother!”

She flew into his arms and he held her close as she continued to cry and laugh and utter, “I have a mother. I have a mother like everyone else.”

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Oh, Kayla,
he thought, his heart twisting.

The doorbell rang, and Kayla turned white. “I’m not ready! Tell her to come back in a half hour. I’m not ready! No, wait. I’m ready. Do I look okay?”

“You look beautiful, Kayla,” he said.

She smiled and took a deep breath and accompanied him to the door. But standing on the doorstep wasn’t Olivia.

It was Marnie.

“Kayla! How pretty you look!” Marnie exclaimed.

And then her eyes zoomed right to the dining room table, where Kayla had set the stage for romance. “Expecting someone?” she asked, her eyes narrowed.

“Olivia Sedgwick is coming for dinner,” Zach said.

Marnie’s expression turned from hurt to anger to just peachy in seconds. “Just peachy” was a favorite expression of hers. “Well, I don’t want to intrude,” she said, hesitating.

But an invitation to join them would not be forthcoming.

“I’ll call you later, Marnie,” Zach said.

She leaned close, pressing her breasts against him. “Please do,” she whispered in his ear, adding a twirl of her tongue, another of her favorite moves.

Sometimes the hot breath shot straight to his groin.

Now it did absolutely nothing. He hated playing games, and he felt like he was playing one right now, but he couldn’t exactly pull Marnie aside, tell her the truth, and let her know things would go on as they had been between the two of them. He had no idea if they would. He had no idea of anything right now.

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Marnie was already back in her car and driving away when a car he didn’t recognize passed hers on the road. Olivia was behind the wheel. He hoped there hadn’t been another incident.

“Here she comes,” Zach said. “You ready?”

Kayla nodded.

The conversation had exhausted Kayla. By ten, she’d fallen asleep on the couch. Olivia had told Kayla everything: finding out she was pregnant, her father’s reaction, the home for unwed mothers, believing that Zach had abandoned her, and being told that her baby had been stillborn.

First Kayla had been angry, then moments later, the anger had been replaced by tears. “How could your own father have done this? Don’t you hate him?”

Good question, Olivia had thought. “I need to sort out my feelings for my father and what he did.”

“Well, I need to sort through my feelings about my
mother,
” Kayla had said. “So I guess I can understand that.”

It had been a breakthrough.

“Aren’t you really, really mad at your father?”

Kayla had asked. “I mean, how could you not be?”

“You know what, Kayla?” Olivia had said. “One feeling overrides any other: joy at knowing that you’re alive.”

Kayla had smiled. And she’d clearly had enough for one night. Before Olivia had returned from the kitchen with the two pies, Kayla had been snoring on the couch.

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Zach had carried Kayla upstairs, and Olivia had followed, her heart beating wildly in her chest.

“Can I tuck her in?” Olivia had asked. “For the first time?”

He had smiled. “Go right ahead.”

She had sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled the pink comforter up, then just watched Kayla breathe for a minute, her chest rising and falling.

You’re my daughter,
she had thought, marveling at Kayla’s face, at her features, a combination of Zach and herself. She had Zach’s eyes and Olivia’s nose.

Zach’s smile, and Olivia’s hair.

From somewhere deep inside her, a feeling of love so strong had burst up, and tears had come to her eyes. “I’m so sorry I missed out on your child-hood,” she had whispered. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there. And that you thought I didn’t want you.”

She had felt a strong hand on her shoulder and turned; Zach had stood there.

“You’re here now. That’s what matters. Today and the future.”

She had nodded, unable to speak for a moment.

“Thank you, Zach. I know how hard this must be for you, too. Suddenly sharing your daughter after thirteen years.”

“It’s what I’ve always wanted, Olivia,” he had said.