CHAPTER 1 - In which Olivia ends up in an unexpected place
“IN ONE HUNDRED FEET, turn left.”
The robotic voice of the navigation system jarred her out of her stupor and made Olivia realize how distracted she had been.
Surely she had not fallen asleep behind the wheel, had she? No, she had her eyes open the whole time. But she had fallen into a sort of trance. A result of being jet lagged and exhausted. Damn, she needed to stay focused.
The road ahead and to the left was dark beyond the car headlights, and there was no sign of a place to turn left. She looked again, trying to see past her car’s headlights into the absolute darkness that surrounded her.
“Turn left.” The GPS repeated.
“There’s nowhere to turn left!”
She kept driving straight as the GPS recalibrated the directions.
“Damn.” Hitting the steering wheel solved nothing, but it sure helped vent her frustration. She hadn’t even arrived, and she was already messing up. It did not bode well for the rest of this trip.
She should have arrived at the cottage an hour ago. She had looked up the directions before leaving Heathrow Airport and it was about an hour and a half trip. She had been on the road for three hours. It was obvious something was off, but she had dismissed her concerns and kept driving.
Ten minutes later, the GPS kept repeating “Proceed to the route”, and she was getting frantic. She was well and truly lost. At night, in a foreign country, on a rural and deserted road. Fucking fantastic.
She took a deep breath and willed herself to calm down and make sense of the GPS directions.
Another jarring sound, this time the ring of her phone. A brief glance at the screen, and she couldn’t suppress a groan. Mom. It just needed this. Hadn’t she already talked to her mom upon landing? What did she want now?
“Hey, Mom.”
“Livvy, sweety, have you arrived at the cottage yet?”
“Not yet, mom. I told you I’d let you know when I get there.
“I know, but it’s been hours. You told me it was a short drive.”
“It is, Mom. But it’s taken longer than I expected. I’m almost there, though.” The white lie was worth it if it kept her mom from worrying more. Ever since Olivia’s sister had been killed in an accident a few years back, her mom’s grief had turned into anxiety. Now she insisted on checking in on her way too much.
“Is everything ok, Livvy?” Mom’s thready voice betrayed her mounting unease.
“Yes! I just... took a wrong turn before and got a little sidetracked. But I’m already on course.”
As if on cue, the navigator's voice chimed in again. “In one hundred feet, take a slight right—”
“Did you hear that? I’m following the GPS.”
“I don’t know Livvy. You shouldn’t be driving alone in England. You are not used to driving on the left side of the road.”
“It’s fine, Mom...”
“You shouldn’t have gone on this trip alone. At the very least, you should have taken your assistant.”
Ah yes, because poor, incapable Livvy couldn’t do anything by herself.
“Mom, Sasha needs to be in the office to take care of business while I’m gone. And I’m thirty-two years old. I don’t need a babysitter.”
“Well, maybe not a babysitter, but a friend. Or better yet, a boyfriend to keep you company. I would worry less.”
Deep breaths. She shouldn’t snap at her mom. She had already suffered too much.
As gently as she could, she replied, “We have been over this. At the moment, my focus is my business.”
