Chapter 7


Kelsey flushed the toilet to make it seem as if she was actually using the bathroom. She grabbed some toilet paper and brought it up to her eyes to soak up the tears that had managed to escape.

She hated that he scared her so much.

He shouldn't.

She should hate him.

And she certainly shouldn't be doing anything he says.

That she knew.

But here she was still trying to figure out a way to make this all right for everyone involved. And there was only one way to do that.

She splashed some water on her face but no amount of water in the world could get rid of the redness that consumed her eyes.

"Shit," she whispered when she got a better look at herself in the mirror. She took a deep breath and shook her head, opening up the detective's medicine cabinets in search for eye drops.

Olivia barely got much of Kelsey's conversation. She heard muffled sounds over the water running. The one thing she did hear was Kelsey saying she was going to try to fix it and that she couldn't leave because she was in a foster home.

What was she going to try to fix?

Where did she want to go?

These were the two questions that consumed Olivia's mind.

When the detective heard the water shut off, she quickly ran back over toward the dining room and grabbed hold of the menu in an attempt to pretend she looking through it. The bathroom door opened just thereafter and Olivia's eyes went up.

It barely took five seconds for the detective to notice that Kelsey had just been crying.

Who the hell was she just talking to? the woman asked herself. She wanted so badly to ask the teen what was wrong but she didn't feel as if she could just yet. This wasn't a rape victim that had just been assaulted. She wasn't a victim at all as far as Olivia was knew.

That she was used to.

That she could handle.

This was her sister that she just met. Her sister, who barely said more than ten words to her or even a full sentence for that matter. Olivia couldn't help but think that Kelsey would just withdraw completely if she pressured her too soon.

The woman had to be smart.

But she also had to say something. "Everything go okay?" Olivia asked Kelsey as she paid full attention to the teen's facial expressions and body language.

Kelsey fidgeted with her hands a little and pushed her hair back before responding. "Yea. Thanks," she said as she handed her phone to Olivia. But Kelsey wasn't stupid. She knew that her newly found sister was trying to get something out of her.

She's cop, she rationalized. Of course she would pry.

The teen attempted to change her demeanor and appear more casual. "Is there anything good in there?" she questioned as she pointed to the menu in Olivia's hand.

An avoidance technique, Olivia thought to herself. She wouldn't say anything even if I asked.

The woman smiled and handed the menu over to her, "It depends on what qualifies as good to you? I usually go with the orange chicken and white rice. Here you go."

Kelsey took the menu and handed over Olivia's iPhone.

The girl glanced over the paper slowly as she considered what to say next. Are my eyes still red? Maybe she'll just think I'm sick. …Why doesn't she live with anyone else? "So," Kelsey started as she walked over to the sofa and saw a photo of a man and a toddler. "Is this your husband?" Shit, that was a stupid question, Kelsey realized as soon as she said it. If he was still her husband, then he'd live with her. I should have said 'ex-husband'.

The detective glanced at her phone from a blind spot near the kitchen. She didn't expect to recognize the number but she wanted to make sure Kelsey hadn't deleted it. "Who?" Olivia furrowed her eyebrows as she put the phone on the counter. She walked over toward the living room again to see whom Kesley was referring to. She noticed the picture frame in her sister's hand. "Oh. No," she smiled. "That's my brother, Simon and my niece. Well... Your brother and your niece too, I should say."

Kelsey examined the photo again, attempting to distinguish some sort of resemblance between them. She knew there was an obvious resemblance between her and Olivia, otherwise she wouldn't have believed her when the cop told her she was her sister. But he looked nothing like either of them. "Do you two have the same mom?" She questioned out of curiosity.

"Um...No," Olivia voiced a little more nervously. "Just the same birth father..." She paused before she considered asking the question that had been burning a hole through her mind since she discovered she had a little sister.

"Wow, I guess Robert got around huh?" Kelsey tried to joke.

But Olivia became silent when she heard what the girl had just said. Who the hell is Robert? she thought to herself. Did her mom tell her she had a different father?

"Sorry," Kelsey said, when she realized she said something wrong. Maybe she shouldn't have joked about him. "I didn't realize you two were close. I shouldn't have said that without–"

"No," Olivia interjected. "That's not it," she shook her head slightly.

"Okay?" The teen continued as she waited for the woman to give her a more detailed explanation.

Olivia nodded understandably. "My father's name was Joseph...Joseph Hollister."

Kelsey squinted her eyes and the detective in confusion, "Soooo? ... We're not sisters, then?"

"No," Olivia corrected. "We are. DNA doesn't lie."

And that she knew too well.

The teen had to think about what Olivia was saying to her for a few seconds. "So, what the hell?" she mumbled without much emotion. "Robert wasn't my dad?" she asked as she watched the detective carefully for her reaction. Kelsey spoke as if she were learning something new in school rather than a lie she had had lived with throughout her entire existence. Olivia couldn't help find this fascinating but yet strange.

She certainly felt more comfortable discussing it now. "Um, no," she shook her head.

"Hm," Kelsey pursed her lips and acted as if the revelation intrigued her. "Now I don't feel so bad for him leaving us," Kelsey showed a small smile. "I wasn't even his kid… That's cool," she finished as she took a seat on the couch nearest her.

Olivia wasn't even sure how to respond to Kelsey words. It took her a short while to ask her next question, "I take it you weren't close?" Olivia asked as she too sat down on the sofa.

Kelsey chuckled slightly. "If you call my mom and I being his personal and live punching bags for eight years, than yeah, we're close," she continued to smile.

Smiling or laughing was something Kelsey had done when she felt nervous or sad. Olivia was beginning to realize it was either one of the two. None of this would actually seem funny to anyone.

"It's okay though," Kelsey shook her head. "He decided to ditch us both for a new family when I was like eight or nine. I can't remember… Haven't seen the douchebag since. Oh well. Makes sense."

Olivia nodded. Her father abused her. That wasn't something the detective felt pleased with hearing at all, but it was obvious that Kelsey only felt comfortable with their conversation because they were talking casually. She couldn't ruin that even though the thought was beginning to piss her off. "Do you want something to drink?" Olivia asked as she began to stand up. "I have water and iced tea?"

"Um, water's fine," Kelsey answered as she watched Olivia walk toward the kitchen. "What about your dad? Were you two close? Did he even know about me?"


There it was.

The question Olivia had wanted so badly to avoid when she realized that her sister didn't even know what he did or who he was.

Sure, Olivia had her own questions but she was positive that Kelsey wouldn't even be able to answer them now. She hadn't wanted her to even find out about possibly being the product of a rape. It was something that had tormented Olivia her entire life, even though in the same token, it was what made her who she was today.

Kelsey had apparently been through enough, Olivia realized. Why put all of that in her head now?

"That bad huh?" Kelsey smiled.

Olivia came back and handed her a glass of water and sat down on the same couch opposite the girl. She took a sip of her glass and shrugged her shoulders. "I never met him," she replied honestly. "He got my mom pregnant and… took off," she answered vaguely.

"That sounds like another douchebag," Kelsey answered as she tilted her head and glanced at the menu again for a few more seconds. Another question popped up in her mind that caused her to lift her gaze from the paper, "So why would you take me home with you if you didn't even know him? I'm confused," she admitted.

Olivia froze.

It was the same question she had asked herself.

In reality, she couldn't even understand why she would go to the police station to meet with her half-sister in the first place.

Why did she feel such a connection with her?

With Simon?

How could she feel such a connection, when the only obvious connection was that their father raped her mother?

"I guess…" she fumbled again. "I don't know. I've just… I've always been alone all my life–"

"What about your mother? Where's she?" Kelsey asked without even thinking.

"She passed," Olivia said softly as she took another sip of her water to keep her mind occupied. She hadn't wanted to cry but she could feel the tears wanting so badly to form in her eyes. She loved her mother despite all the pain she had managed to put her through. "Anyway," she continued, "…I just w-wanted to meet you. I wanted to get to know you," she answered honestly. "I can't explain it. I felt connected with you in some way as strange as it sounds," Olivia offered a small laugh.

"It does sound strange," Kelsey admitted and they both chuckled at her honesty.

"Have you decided what you wanted yet?" Olivia asked her in order to get her sister to let go of the whole family drama and order some food. The truth was she was starving and she was sure the teen was too. Neither of them had eaten.

"Yes, I'll have the orange chicken with white rice," Kelsey answered as she handed Olivia the menu.

"All of that contemplating just to get what I was already getting?" the woman questioned with a skeptical look and a smile.

"I was having trouble deciding," Kelsey answered casually and returned the smile.