in that fucking mental institution you’re going to leave me there forever. You’ll never come back for me. You’ll never check on me. You won’t love me anymore; you’re going to leave me. I know it! You’re just trying to throw me in there so you don’t have to deal with me anymore.”
“No, what I’m trying to do is make sure that you get the help you need so that when I leave you, you won’t kill yourself, Olivia!” I shouted before I could stop myself.
Olivia’s eyes and mouth went wide, and her tears fell impossibly harder. “I knew it! You’re going to leave me as soon as I’m in there! I won’t go. I won’t fucking go! And if you leave me, I swear to God I won’t be alive the next day! Do you hear me?”
My shoulders sagged in defeat and my breath came out in a hard rush. “Liv—”
“How do you think Daddy’s attorney would like that?” she asked, her lip curling in disgust.
My eyes narrowed on her for a long moment before I shook my head and stood. With a hard swallow, I turned and walked toward the hallway. “Go to bed, Olivia. You’re drunk.”
“No! You’re going to leave—”
“I’m not leaving you. You’re fucking sick. I’m gonna get you help. Just like I said I would.”
15
Kamryn
July 5, 2015
THE BELL CHIMED, and I made my way to the front of the bakery. After Aiden had gone home last night, I’d barely been able to force myself through a shower before falling asleep. Yesterday had been draining in so many ways, and for the first time since I’d opened the bakery I didn’t want to be at work.
We should have put up the MONDAYS SUCK board this morning.
A beautiful woman not much older than me was talking on her phone when I walked out, and she did a double-take when she saw me, her eyebrows drawing together as she studied me. I pulled off my glasses and realized I probably looked weird to her with flour on my face and glasses. I looked around for a napkin so I could clean them off.
While I was cleaning my glasses, she stopped her phone conversation abruptly and pointed at me. “Do I know you?”
“Uh, no? I don’t believe so.”
“Huh.” She gasped and snapped a couple times. “Are you a member at the Stockton Country Club?”
“No.” Lord no, no more country clubs for me.
“What’s your name?”
“KC.”
Her eyes widened with recognition, and her glossed lips formed a perfect O. “Oh, this is your bakery?”
“Yes, ma’am. Do you know what you were wanting?”
Her head was still tilted to the side as she looked at me. “I’ll just take two. Anything chocolate.” She rummaged around in her massive Coach purse as she hissed into her phone, “No, I swear I know this girl. Anyway, so like I was telling you. He may have been planning on leaving before, but he’s definitely not now. Not after last night.” She handed me her card, and all the blood left my face.
Olivia Saco. Olivia . . . oh, my God! My boyfriend’s wife is in my bakery, and she recognizes me! How does she know who I am? Has someone seen Brody and me together? Did she know Brody was having an affair? As the room swirled around me, I was positive this was what Barbara was going through when she had hot flashes. Somehow I managed to stop staring at the credit card, and my eyes shifted to watch Olivia’s back as she stood next to the window whispering on her phone.
I suddenly hated that my shop had amazing acoustics.
“. . . with him lately. He’s different. But I played the whole guilt-trip thing . . . Of course, he bought it, he said he wasn’t leaving me, didn’t he? God, it really is pathetic how easy he is to sway, though . . . Oh, I know, right? How he hasn’t realized by now that I can cry at the drop of a hat is beyond me. I never wanted the damn kid anyway. Shit, I’m probably going to hell for saying that, aren’t I? . . . Ha! Love you too, bitch. Be there in thirty . . . I know, I know, I’m getting you a cupcake too.”
My throat burned and my hands shook as I grabbed a little plastic container and put two cupcakes in it. It took everything in me not to scream at her and break down in the middle of my store for Brody’s sake as I realized the amount of guilt and manipulation he’d lived with for years. I’d heard enough stories from Brody’s family and Kinlee, but my God I’d had no idea. Three minutes in her presence and I wanted to get Brody as far away from her as possible. And what did she mean he said he wasn’t leaving her? My gut churned as I replayed Olivia’s words: “I never wanted the damn kid anyway.” I have to tell Brody. I have—
“That’s not your natural hair color.”
I jumped at the sound of her voice so close to me and looked up at her. “Excuse me?”
“Your roots are starting to come in. You’re not naturally a brunette, are you?”