Olivia's POV
"He explicitly forbade me from setting him up ever again."
I cringe at the high pitch Brooke's voice is rising to. I move the home phone another inch away from my ear and continue to wait until she finishes her rant.
"What did you do? Did you confess to murdering someone?"
"Of course, not." With a sigh, I lean against the kitchen counter and continue to tap my fingers against the spotless top.
It's been three days since my date with Brooke's cousin Nick, but she only now found out about what a dump it had been.
"Then what did you do? Because you obviously did something that freaked him out."
"I think it's because he thought I was talking to myself." He, after all, only heard my part of the conversation with Samuel. "Or it might be because you lied. You said he was interested in me, but it turned out he didn't have a clue about what I look like."
"I..." There's a short silence on her part. "I thought the two of you would hit it off."
"Are you doing this to return the favor for the date I set you up on in the middle of the school year?" I ask.
"I... I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Yes, you do. I set you up with that guy you had a crush on, remember? It's a pity you guys didn't work out. But my point is that you don't need to set me up with someone. Iâ" The sound of heels clicking against the wooden hallway floor catches my attention. "I think my mom returned from work. I'll call you later."
"Sure." Without as much as a breath in protest, Brooke ends the call.
I lower the phone from my ear and set it back on the charging unit when Mom enters the kitchen. To my surprise, however, she isn't alone. After her follows a woman in her early thirties, whose textured bob screams that she just came from the hair salon. Like Mom, she is wearing a pair of heels, but hers are obviously of a much higher quality. As are the slick pencil skirt and the silk white blouse she's wearing.
"Liv, good you're here." Mom sets her bag onto the counter and ushers the woman deeper into the room. "This is Anya, one of my regular clients. She's the one who brought you those beautiful flowers while you were in the hospital, remember? The ones with the violet and the white petals."
"Of course, I remember them. You looked ready to beat me to a pulp with those flowers." With an eye roll, I turn to the womanâAnyaâand smile at her. "It's nice to meet you."
"Yes, it's lovely to meet you again. I believe this is already our third time." Anya turns to me, but more than her rich lavender scent something else catches my attention.
"You're the one with the wallet." I realize why she seems so familiar. "The one who was almost robbed."
"Yes, and thank you so much for that again. Without you, I doubt I would have ever seen my wallet again. You see, I have all my business cards in there, and I really don't want to go through the pain of making them again. I worked hard to shape them into the perfection they are now."
She hands me a small white rectangle and I drop my eyes to the gold letters in the middle of the business card. Anya Ivanova. Finance manager. After it follow the name of the company I assume she works at, her phone number, and her email address.
"It's beautiful." I hand the card back to her.
Anya makes sure she sets the business card directly into the middle of her wallet, in a position which assures not a single of its edges can get even the smallest wrinkle "I'm sorry to barge in on your dinner like this."
"Oh, please. I would've been bored out of my mind with just Liv here." Mom waves Anya off and then turns to me. "You see, while I heard that Anya is exceptional at her job, it's no secret she sucks at cooking. She was actually about to have a take-out dinner, so I invited her to eat with us."
"I hope you don't mind," Anya adds.
"Of course not." Like Mom, I wave off her concern. "You're not the first person Mom's invited over and I doubt you'll be the last. I'm always thankful for every guest because it means she'll be less focused on me. It's especially helpful during exams."
Upon Mom's order, Anya sits at the table and hangs her scratch-free purse over the edge of the chair's back, while Mom busies herself with our dinner. I offer to help her, but she banishes me to the table before I can finish the sentence. Without another word, I hop over to the seat across from Anya and rest the crutches against the back of the chair beside me.
Once seated I find myself unable to keep my eyes off what looks like the thinnest and whitest silk I have ever seen. I can't imagine what it would feel like to have something so gentle caressing your skin. At the same time, I can't imagine ever having the kind of money to buy something like that.
"Your mother mentioned an accident, but she hasn't told me anything else. I hope you don't mind, but what happened?"
"I have no idea." I shrug.
"What do you mean?" Anya glances from me to Mom and then back to me.
"I can't remember a single thing about it." I rest my elbows on the table and lean my head against my open palm. "All I know is what the paramedics told me. And that is only the location and that an old couple found me. That's it."
"How is that possible?"
"Beats me." I shrug, now already tired of having to tell everyone the same thing. "The doctor said there's no medical reason for my missing memories."
"I bet it's because you're intentionally pushing them down," Mom says, while she continues to chop the onion. "The accident probably happened because you were too impatient for your own good."
"I wasn't." I glare at Mom's back. "The accident wasn't my fault."
"How can you be sure?" Mom turns to face me with the big knife still in her hand. "You don't remember any of it."
"I just know. And I'm going to prove it." I shoot up, which causes the chair to scrape against the floor. "You and Samuel are both wrong."
"How are you going to prove anything if you can't even remember why you were in that part of town?" Mom points the knife in my direction. "And whoever this Samuel is, he's a smart one if he agrees with me. You should listen to him."
"I'm going to remember everything about that night and prove both of you wrong." I grab the crutches and without a backward glance hop out of the kitchen. I head into the bathroom, which is located right next door to the kitchen.
"Don't mind her, sheâ" Mom begins.
I shut the door close before I can hear anything else and lean my back against it. I close my eyes and ignore the way the crutches clatter as they fall against the sink. The tiny bathroom is the last place I would usually use as an escape room, but right now I don't have the patience to hop to my bedroom.
All I want is to be at the intersection and force my memories to come out. Because that's exactly what's going to happen. No matter what, I'm going to remember everything about that night.
"Go find another place to hide in. I was here first."
The familiar voice causes me to snap my eyes open and I find Eliza sitting at the edge of the bathtub across the room from me. She has her legs inside the tub while sitting on its edge and leaning with her back against the wall behind it.
"Eliza? What are you doing here?" I ask.
"Do I look like I'm in the mood to be around humans?" she snorts. "I thought this would be the perfect hideout, but now you've ruined it."
"The bathroom? Really?"
"I could ask you the same thing." She stands and steps out of the tub. "Then again, I already know the answer. You're just too much of a chicken to admit that the accident could have been your fault."
"It wasn't." I stomp my injured foot against the floor. "Why is everyone doing this to me?"
"Because we all know you." Eliza begins to edge closer to me. "Mina, Samuel, and Iâwe all know it's likely you ran across the road without paying attention to anything else."
"That's not true." I shake my head.
"You don't know that." Eliza diminishes the last step of the distance between us and rests her hands against the door on either side of me.
The position has me trapped between the door and her body, and because she's taller than me, I have to tilt my head up to meet her eyes.
"You keep saying that you don't remember anything. So, how can you be sure you did nothing wrong?"
"I... I just know."
"No, you don't." Eliza shakes her head. "Everyone makes mistakesâthat's the way of life. Maybe you weren't paying attention for a moment and then bam."
I continue to stare into her russet eyes, while my mind begins to spin. Can it be? Could Iâ
My thoughts are stopped when the door behind me disappears. One moment I'm leaning against the bathroom door and the next, I'm falling with my back toward the ground.
I'm too slow to stop the fall, so there's nothing to soften the way the back of my head hits against the wooden hallway floor.
"Olivia!" Eliza's and Anya's shout reaches my ears, but they are immediately replaced by the white flash of blinding pain.
The bland hallway ceiling above me vanishes and all I see is darkness.
***
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- E