LITMIR.BIZ

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I thought it was supposed to be like that. She traveled a lot in her job. That, I didn’t like. She’d always come back from those trips with an attitude. Things got worse when Allison got pregnant. She blamed me, said I didn’t care about her, I should have done this or that. She wasn’t ready for motherhood, that kind of thing. She moved out of the bedroom, and that was pretty much the end of our relationship. I thought all pregnant women acted like that. Then came the day of your birth, and she crippled me. She was so cold, so heartless, so uncaring. I felt like I’d been run over by a train. I probably would have had a nervous breakdown, but I had you to think about.

      “I went back to the hospital to try to talk to her several times, but they wouldn’t let me in to see her. When I went back the last time, she’d been discharged, and she paid the bill herself. I never saw or heard from her again.

      “I was stupid, Ollie. It wasn’t till that last time that I realized she’d taken all of her things out of the house. I don’t know when or how she did that. It was like she’d never been there, like the whole thing was just a bad dream. That’s my story.”

      Olivia’s head bobbed up and down as she tried to come to terms with everything. There was just so much her weary brain could deal with. “Still, Dad, you should have told me at some point.”

      “To what end, Ollie? I didn’t want you to have to deal with her rejection. I did what I thought was best. I’m sorry if you feel I was wrong.”

      “I can forgive you, Dad. Now, what are we going to do?”

      “I guess you and I are going to call Mr. Prentice O’Brien and see what the next step is. You okay, Ollie?”

      Olivia smiled. “Sure, Dad. I’m a big girl now.”

      Liar, liar, liar.

      Chapter 4

      It was almost like old times, Olivia thought, as she and her father cleaned up the kitchen. Even though they had a dishwasher, Dennis washed the dishes, and Olivia dried them. It was something physical to do other than sit across from each other in the great room—Olivia with accusing eyes, Dennis’s filled with guilt and shame.

      Dennis squeezed the yellow sponge until it condensed into a tight little ball in his hand. His voice was low, little short of a whisper. “I can’t change anything, Ollie. If you want the truth, if I had to do it all over again, I’d do it the same way.

      “Do you know how many sleepless nights I’ve had over this? Thousands. I don’t think I had a good night’s sleep until the day of your eighteenth birthday. I always had this fear that Allison would show up and whisk you away. As hard as I tried, I could never convince myself otherwise. Now, to see that Allison took an interest in you when you turned sixteen…Well, that more or less confirms that my fears were justified.”

      Olivia snapped the dish towel against the dishwasher before she straightened it out and hung it up. “C’mon, Dad, lighten up. In time, I’ll get over it. It just came out of the blue, and I wasn’t expecting it. Never in a million years. You have to let me blame you for a little while till I get it out of my system. Right now I think we need to talk about how I can make this all go away. I don’t want anything from her. We have to figure out a way to give it all back. I refuse to accept it.”

      “It doesn’t work that way, Ollie. The will has to go to probate. There are inheritance taxes, all kinds of legal issues that have to be resolved. If Allison was as wealthy as it appears, I’m sure she had a battery of attorneys who have everything in place. Then there’s the estate planning…just so many things. Tomorrow, I’ll go with you to the lawyer’s office. In the meantime, we can talk it to death, or we can sit on the couch with the dogs and watch television. I have to warn you, though, I’ll probably fall asleep within five minutes.”

      “Go to bed, Dad. I’m fine. I’m going to go out to the studio and do some paperwork. Don’t forget to call Lea. You said you were going to do it before dinner but forgot.”

      Dennis grinned. “Yes, Moth—Damn, I’m sorry, Ollie.”

      “It’s not a problem, Dad.”

      “Honey, are you sure you don’t mind if I go to bed? I promise to get up early and make us breakfast. Eggs Benedict if you have all the ingredients.”

      Olivia stood on her tiptoes to kiss her father’s cheek. “I have everything.”

      Dennis hugged her. Tightly, as though he’d never let her go. To Olivia, the hug didn’t feel as comforting as past ones had.

      With a heavy heart, Olivia scooped both little dogs up in her arms and carried them into the great room. She’d made up that little story about going to the studio so her father would go to bed. Together, she and the dogs settled themselves on the deep, comfortable sofa to watch an inane television show about people on an island eating bugs to survive.

      The house was cloaked in silence as Olivia slumped into the corner of the sofa. Outside, the snow continued to fall. Within minutes, she joined the two dogs in slumber, tears drying on her cheeks.

      Dennis Lowell was as good as his word. When Olivia woke, she could smell fresh coffee and other tantalizing aromas coming from the kitchen. The dogs leaped off the sofa to race to the door. Today, though, there was a difference. Dennis had shoveled a path across the patio for the dogs. The new snowfall amounted to little more than a few inches. The sound of work crews and snowplows could be heard as they lumbered down the main and side roads. By midmorning, traffic would be back to normal.

      “Good morning, Ollie. How did you sleep?” Dennis asked warily.

      “Fairly well, Dad. Listen, are we always going to have this…this uneasiness between us?”

      Dennis thought about the question for a minute, his brow puckered in concentration. “I think that pretty much depends on you, honey. I can’t turn the clock back. What’s done is done. I can keep saying I’m sorry from now till the end of time, and it isn’t going to mean anything until you are ready to accept the situation and forgive me in your heart of hearts. I would be lying if I said I know what you’re feeling. I don’t know, but I can imagine. You feel I deprived you of a mother, and I know, Ollie, how special mothers are. Allison just wasn’t the kind of person who…who would have made a good mother. You’ll never know that, though, and you only have my word for it.”

      Olivia stared at her father. “I know, Dad. I’m not stupid. I was devastated yesterday until you told me your side of things, but now I understand more.” Looking at the breakfast her dad had prepared, she said, “Just give me a minute. I want to brush my teeth. Everything looks good, and it smells even better.”

      “I aim to please,” Dennis said lightly.

      Olivia was back in the kitchen in five minutes. She sat down and shook out her napkin. Her father had always been big on cloth napkins, the kind that would wrinkle and have to be ironed. Her father had always set a good table. He was also big on manners. She’d learned just about everything she needed to know about life from her father. She owed everything to her father. Not to the woman who gave birth to her.

      “How did you sleep, Dad?”

      “Soundly for a few hours. I woke up around three and couldn’t get back to sleep. Do you have any clients today?”

      “Three unless they cancel. If the roads are clear, I imagine they’ll show up. Why?”

      Dennis placed a plate in front of Olivia before he carried his own to the table. “I think it might be a good idea to cancel today’s schedule so we can go to see Mr. O’Brien and get this over with. I have to leave by the weekend because I have a big paying charter for Monday. I want to see and hear for myself what you’re up against. For some reason I don’t see this as a simple inheritance. I say this because I know Allison.” He corrected himself. “Knew Allison. By the way, when did you get another dog?”

      Olivia explained Cecil’s story. “He loves Alice. She’s going to miss him when he leaves. I think he’s going to be one unhappy little

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