Chapter 10

"Olivia? Can I come in?" Sheila opened the door just enough to stick her head in.

Elliot had left the room an hour ago and Olivia was stretched out on the bed, propped up against the pillows, one hand behind her head. She was dying of boredom and wished she had something to do, but when she saw Sheila she thought she would rather be bored than deal with this right now. "Sure," she replied.

Sheila shut the door behind her and sat down cross-legged on the end of Olivia's bed. "How're you feeling?"

"Bored."

"Elliot said your knee is hurt." Olivia suspected this was Sheila's way of measuring how angry Olivia was at Kyle before saying what she really wanted to say.

"It'll heal. So will my arm."

Sheila nodded absent-mindedly. After a minute she looked up at Olivia. "What happened to him?"

"I really don't know. But he's getting help now."

"Is he ever going to get better?"

"Sheila, Kyle and I haven't been in touch for more than two decades, and I'm not a trained psychiatrist."

Sheila sighed and nodded sadly. "He was looking for my father, wasn't he?"

Olivia nodded slowly. "Yeah. How'd you know?"

"I talked to Nancy, she told me about Jeremy. I wasn't really sure who he was, but it wasn't hard to guess."

"Please tell me you didn't talk to him."

Sheila shook her head. "No, he doesn't need to know about me. He probably never knew about me, and I'm sure he has a family of his own by now, there's no point in ruining that. I just wish Nancy could tell me my mother's name."

"Well Kyle already knew where she was living. And even if he didn't, he probably didn't want to betray his promise to her."

"Promise?" Sheila looked at Olivia, confused.

"He promised to take you away. Your mom didn't want to take away from your relationship with Kyle and James, and it was too painful for her to see you all the time, so he promised to keep the truth from you."

"You know, if you had told me that a few years ago I might resent her for sending me away, but it sort of makes sense now. She cared about me enough to let me go. Up until recently I've had a pretty great life, I guess."

"That's good."

"So why do I still want to know? Shouldn't having two loving parents be enough?"

"There's just something about a biological connection that calls to us. Believe me, I understand. My father was a monster and I still wanted to know who he was."

"Did you ever find him?"

"He was already dead when I finally found out who he was."

"Did it change anything, knowing who he was?"

"Well, the brother I never knew existed was a big change, but no, it really didn't change anything. My situation is a little different from yours, though."

"Maybe I have siblings."

"You have two half-brothers on your dad's side."

"And on my mom's? Do you know whether she had anymore kids?"

"She didn't," Olivia replied after a minute.

"So you kept in touch with both of them?"

"I found out while looking for Kyle."

"Wait, my mom lives in the city?! Come on, now, this is just cruel, you have to tell me!"

Olivia shook her head. "It won't change anything."

"You don't know that! I'm an adult now, I deserve the truth! I'll find it eventually, Olivia, you know I will."

"You know, if you really thought hard about it for a while you could probably figure it out without me telling you anything."

Sheila was stunned into silence for a moment, and then said, "I don't get it."

"That's because you're too trusting of the people around you. The truth is pretty obvious if you're willing to accept you've been lied to. I'm surprised you haven't figured it out already, actually."

Again Sheila looked stunned and confused. She put her elbows on her knees and buried her face in her hands. Olivia turned, letting her bed leg slide off the bed and bending the other underneath her. Her wounds were still screaming in pain but they were drowned out by her hammering heart. After a minute that seemed like an hour, Sheila lifted her head slowly and pushed her glasses back into place, staring at Olivia. "So…you've met my mother before? You know her pretty well? I can't believe I didn't see right through that. Of course Kyle would tell me to go looking for you if anything happened to him. You're right, I swallowed your lies without the slightest bit of doubt."