“Not at all. I don’t want you watching everything going on inside my house.”
“Understood. It wouldn’t be monitored by me unless you want it to be.”
“I’ll buy three cameras for the areas outside.” Olivia decided. “When will you do the installation?”
“I’ll put them in today. I need to go into your attic. I’ll wire it in a way you won’t have to worry about anyone cutting wires on the outside.”
“Makes sense to me. I like your way of thinking.
“I will need to install an application on your computer. Do you have a desktop?”
“I have one in my bedroom. I fell in love with this quaint house and sacrificed having another space for a home office. I
didn’t want the computer in the living room since it didn’t fit in with my décor.”
“I see. If you turn it on, I’ll load the necessary applications. I’ll go to the truck to get the equipment and start working. It should only be a couple of hours for me to finish.” Durbin stood from the table and stretched his tall frame well above Olivia.
“Thank you, Durbin. I’ll show you the attic when you come back.” Olivia escorted him to the front door.
Once he returned, Olivia showed him where to go. She heard him clomping around above the ceiling as he worked. He traveled outdoors and back inside several times. She turned on the desktop for Durbin to access when needed.
While Durbin worked on the installation, Olivia busied herself on the laptop at the kitchen table. She wasn’t sure when she could return to work in her clinics as a psychologist again. She determined writing a blog to address various topics, would be the best way to communicate about mental health with the community.
Due to her past struggles with bulimia, she kicked off the blog with a series on eating disorders. Olivia recalled the limited amount of information available about Black women who have dealt with the same challenges she had. She wanted to make sure other women could easily find the resources they needed to fight their condition. Now, with Simone’s issues with cutting, she considered including self-harm as a topic as well.
Durbin popped his head into the room. “I wanted to let you know it may get noisy in the attic. I’m about to use a drill. I hope it won’t disturb you.”
“No problem. Thanks for letting me know.” Olivia kept her eyes on the laptop.
Durbin pointed to a photo of her with the kids on the Riverwalk. “By the way, great picture. Your skin is beautiful and you look like you are glowing.”
Olivia raised her chin toward Durbin and twisted her face in confusion. “My skin? It’s shiny from sweating in the sun.”
“Not at all. You have such a pretty, chocolate brown color. Did you get it from your mother or your father?”
“Ha. I don’t look like anyone in my family. I’m the black sheep amongst white ones.” Olivia shook her head to dismiss the thought. “They considered my dark skin tone to be ugly. I won’t bore you with the details.”
Durbin raised his brows in surprise. “Really? That’s crazy. I see nothing except a gorgeous woman.”
Olivia’s face warmed from his compliment. She averted her eyes back to the laptop and mumbled, “Thanks.”
“Well, um. I guess I’ll go finish up.” Durbin left to return to the attic.
His comments about her skin color lured Olivia into a reflection about the last phone conversation she had with her mother, a month after her release from jail.
“Olivia. This is your mother.”
“Hello, Mother. How may I help you?” Olivia responded with coldness dripping in her voice.
“Is this how you greet me after all of your drama?” Mother’s shrill voice forced Olivia to remove the phone from her ear. She’d prefer hearing fingernails on a chalkboard.
“None of you visited me in jail. I called you and Dad several times when I got out. You never answered or returned my calls.”
“Well, it wasn’t worth the time it took to listen to your pitiful messages left on the voicemail. I expected you would’ve left an apology.”
“An apology? For what?” Olivia couldn’t believe her mother had the
nerve to ask her for anything. Especially, an apology.
“For embarrassing our family. How do you think it feels to have everyone in the world know you tried to kill your husband and children?”
“I’m not going to repeat what happened. I’m sure you followed my court case. You know good and well I didn’t try to kill Simone and Christian.”
“Oh, yes you did. You’re no different from your grandfather, who set our house on fire when I was a child. What a shame you are to me, your father, and your sister.”
“So nice of you to call and see how I’m doing, Mother. Thanks for asking. The children and I are fine. I appreciate your concern,” Olivia responded with as much disdain as she could muster.
“Don’t you get smart with me, missy. You’re nothing except a selfish wench who believes the world revolves around you.”
“Like mother, like daughter. I see I didn’t fall far from the tree.”
“Excuse me? There is nothing to compare between me and you. I wish you were more like your sister.”
“Oh boy. When will you get it into your thick head, I am not Sheree?” Olivia controlled her anger the best she could. She took in a deep breath before beginning again. “I have no desire to be like her or you. I’ll never understand why you resent who I am. It doesn’t make sense since I’m your daughter, too.”
“There you go playing the victim again. You should wish you were like Sheree. She never would’ve set a house on fire.”
“Hmm. Maybe she didn’t due to the fact her husband left her for a man after two months of marriage. You ever think about her mess?” Olivia asked with spite. “Perhaps if he stuck around, she would’ve set their house on fire too.”
“Don’t you talk about Sheree with disrespect. She’s the woman you’ll never be.”
“Thank
