Page 55 of The Blairville Legacies

“Excuse me, who am I talking to?”

“Diana, it’s important that you...”

Shit.

“There must be some misunderstanding, I’m not Diana, I’m...”

Suddenly, the phone was snatched out of my hand.

I spun around and looked at the horrified face of my mother, who gave me a warning look and then spoke to the person on the other side of the line.

“Yes, yes, it’s me... No, yes... no. I’ll be there. Good... I’ll see you.”

She hung up and looked at me indecisively.

“Sorry, I thought that was mine.” I pointed to the phone in her hand, which was basically mine again. We even had the same case. I had probably grabbed hers when I went upstairs.

“Did she say anything weird to you? Did you say you were my daughter?”

“No, just that you were 10:00...”

I hesitated.

“Who was that?”

“No one special, just Dr. Copeland’s assistant.”

“What are you doing at 10:00 p.m. with Dr. Copeland, for heaven’s sake?”, I cautiously said. At this, images immediately popped into my head that I had not intended to evoke.

Confused, I shook my head.

Was it possible that this Dr. Copeland and my mother...?

No.Impossible. Besides, she had told me to stay away from the Copelands. That had been a woman just now, and this appointment had sounded way too professional. Or was I wrong about everything?

“The hospital also gives out appointments for evenings...” Mum laughed sheepishly. “Not everyone is an early riser.”

“Evening?”, I huffed, and somehow it was getting more and more suspicious. Ten o’clock was almost night...

Mum started spinning the phone in her hands, avoiding my gaze again.

Was this what it was all about all along? Had she built a new life here, and I didn’t know about it yet? Wasthatperhaps why I should stay away from the Copelands?

I was about to ask if there was anything else she wanted to say to me when a loud male voice rang out from downstairs.

“Diana?”

It had to be Mr. Bardot.

“Wait, I can hear you so bad up here, I’m coming down,” Mum shouted louder now, smiled at me again and disappeared downstairs in a hurry.

She was such a bad liar. And as always, she left me with endless questions. Questions upon questions and I got no answers to any of them.

I had only been here five days and had gotten to know my mum from a completely different side. A side that scared me because it showed me that Mum had secrets and kept quiet about it.

A mother with a thousand secrets, weird citizens in a hillbilly town where people disappeared and massive wild wolves ran around, an annoying playboy neighbor and a best friend who didn’t even check in with me for my birthday.

I would wait until tonight. Maybe she would call me after all. In the end, it wasn’t even her fault, and it was this fucked up network out here.

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