Olivia #2
‘Jesus Christ, and you haven’t even sneaked a peek at it yet?’
‘I had other things going on. I wanted to get the presentation done and be in the right frame of mind before I did.’
‘My love.’ Kate placed her hand gently over Olivia’s. ‘I don’t think you’re ever going to be in the right frame of mind to open this letter. Do you know what was in any of the others?’
‘Nope, and I don’t want to ask. It’s none of my business.’
‘And nobody has asked what’s in yours?’
‘Well, obviously Kyle keeps going on at me to open it – says I shouldn’t leave it so long, as if there’s some kind of expiry date on it.’
Her mind was taken back to the conversation that morning with her brother. His urgency had rattled her more than she let on.
‘And you know that usually I don’t agree with anything your brother says, but in this case, I think I do.’
‘Why? Why is everyone so obsessed with what’s in that letter? It won’t bring her back. It won’t change anything. It’s just words. Empty fucking words.’
‘But they are her
words, Olivia. They’re Leah’s words for you
.’
A weariness crept up into Olivia’s heart. Was she going to keep fighting this? Could she really carry on convincing herself that she wasn’t intrigued by Leah’s letter?
‘And what if they’re bad?’ The childlike voice escaped from her lips.
‘Bad? Why on earth would they be bad?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe I wasn’t there enough. Maybe I didn’t do enough.’ Her words began to spiral, along with her thoughts. ‘Maybe she was angry at me. Maybe she felt like I didn’t care enough.’
‘Stop!’ Kate interrupted. ‘Leah adored you. She loved the
very bones of you, and she knew that you felt the same about her. You did everything
you could to support her. But until you open the letter, you will never know what she wanted to say.’
Kate held the envelope out, and cautiously, Olivia took it.
‘I’m scared.’
‘I know.’
‘Opening it makes this whole thing real.’
‘And not opening it doesn’t bring her back either.’
Before she could stop herself, Olivia ripped open the letter and turned it upside down. Two pieces of paper fell to the floor, and she hastily plucked them from the carpet. The sight of her little sister’s handwriting made her heart hurt.
To my Liv, the best big sister in the world,
Surprise!
God, I wish I could see your face right now.
I’m sorry for keeping this from you, but if you even had the slightest whiff of what I was planning, you’d have killed me before the cancer finally had a chance to.
I’ve made sure the flight date is flexible (who knows at what point you’ve decided to open this!), but unfortunately it’s non-refundable.
You can’t deny a dying girl her money or her wish, can you?
Go. Travel. Explore. Enjoy this thing called life!
Do it for me, my darling, brave sister.
I love you eternally.
Leah x
Olivia’s mind was spinning but her eyes stayed fixed on the words in front of her.
She couldn’t have.
She wouldn’t have …
But realization began to dawn as she scanned the second piece of paper, her eyes competing with her mouth as to which could grow the widest.
‘This is confirmation of your booking for flight BA46369 departing from London Heathrow to …’ Olivia read out loud, her heart climbing higher and higher with each sound she made. ‘Delhi
, India
…’
‘Shut up!’ Kate burst into life, snatching the paper from Olivia’s grip. ‘No way!’
‘This can’t be real.’
‘From what I can see, it’s real all right.’
‘I can’t go to India.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because I can’t! It’s crazy.’ The ringing in her ears grew louder and her stomach churned ominously. ‘Why would she do this to me? How
did she even do this? Surely she knew how much I’d hate this! I have never ever
in my life wanted to go travelling.’
‘You know, sometimes change is good. India is meant to be incredible.’
‘So is climbing Mount Everest, but you don’t see me signing up for that, do you?’
But Olivia knew Kate wasn’t listening to her protests; she had that fantastical far-off look on her face whenever she was excited. And once Kate was in dreamland, it was extremely hard to bring her back down to earth.
‘Ooh, maybe you could have a little Eat Pray Love
moment?’
‘An eat pray what?’
‘You know
, the Julia Roberts film, where she leaves everything behind and travels the world. You could be like her.’
‘Don’t you dare say it.’
‘You could find yourself
. Like Julia did!’
‘The only thing I need to find is a way out of this stupid situation.’
‘Why? You said it yourself: you didn’t know how to fill your time off. This is it! It couldn’t be more perfect.’
‘Look, if you think it’s such a great idea, why don’t you take the ticket instead? I’m sure you can transfer the name or something. Especially if we explain the circumstances.’
Kate raised an eyebrow. ‘You know full well I am not going to do that. This is for you. It was clearly important to Leah that you did this.’
‘I know that. Don’t you think I know that?’ Olivia hissed. ‘Urgh, how could Leah have been so stupid? She must have used half of her savings on this. It must have cost her a fortune!’
‘I wonder who helped her book it,’ Kate mused. ‘Could she have done it all by herself?’
‘Oh my god.’
Realization slapped Olivia hard in the face.
‘I am going to kill
Kyle when I next see him! I wondered why he was so obsessed with me opening the stupid letter. He was honestly harassing me over it! Why would Leah trust him
with doing this? Nobody trusts Kyle with anything.’
‘That’s probably the exact reason. He could arrange the whole thing undetected because you all underestimate him.’
Guilt spiked in Olivia’s chest.
‘That’s not entirely true.’
‘Isn’t it?’ Kate looked at her knowingly.
‘Regardless of whether or not it’s true, it doesn’t matter. Because either way, I’m not going.’ She folded her arms decisively. ‘There is no way in hell
I am going to India.’