It’s been over a week since I’ve been working back at the diner. Everything seems normal again, but it’s because I’ve changed and so has Olivia.

“You’ve forgiven me, right? For being the green-eyed monster and acting like one of the jealous stepsisters,” she whispers as she stands by the table that I’m cleaning.

“Sure, Olivia. I’m the one that should be begging for forgiveness. I’m the one who lied to you. I’m the one that used you just to get a job here when I realized Cheryl and Fred owned the same diner that Marco hung out at. I’m the one…”

She giggles. “Can you stop already? Damn, we should get past this.”

I agree, “I know, but I still feel guilty, and your mom and dad have been super cool.”

She smiles as she puts a gentle hand on my shoulder. “My parents care about you. If anything, I was probably jealous that they were going out of their minds worrying about you. I don’t think they would have done that about me.”

I hit her gently; she was a melodramatic. She was their only daughter, and they loved her, that part was clear to me from the start.

My new phone starts vibrating in my pocket. I recognize the number immediately and pick it up.

Olivia signals for me to go, the diner’s quiet and we usually have a slice of pie or something at this time. Catch up on the latest morning gossip and then get busy for the lunchtime rush.

I quickly pop into the back and answer my phone, but I wish that it was someone else calling, I wish after all that had happened that it was him.

“Mom?” I say trying to catch my breath from running to the back.

“Yes, Leah. Thank God. I thought that maybe Hayley didn’t save your number properly.”

I know that she’s not calling to find out about my welfare, something tells me she’s calling for the same reason that she’s been calling me for the last few weeks only when she needed something and that something was always money.

“Yes, it’s my number.”

I don’t say anything more than this. I know that in about twenty minutes the lunchtime rush will be coming through that door. I could do with a coffee, and a slice of pie as my stomach starts to rumble.

“Good, good. How are you?” I’m just about to answer, when she doesn’t give me the chance to do so and tells me the reason for her call. “Did they contact you?”

“Who?”

She sighs. “You know the guys. The ones that gave us the money. I’m just wondering if they contacted you and gave you some too. They must have done. They wouldn’t just give it to Hayley and I. They must have done the same with you too?”

She sounds erratic, and no longer is my stomach rumbling out of hunger, but fear for my mom’s life. “Mom, what’s wrong?”

She starts to cry. “They found Steven’s dead body. We saw it on the news here. They managed to figure out who he was from the dental records because his body was pretty much smashed up and…oh, it was horrible, Leah.”

I don’t have any remorse because I knew that Steven was dead, Marco told me the moment that we talked in the kitchen. I still felt that there was more to the story, but then I felt that ignorance was a bliss at the time. He told me what I needed to know and nothing more.

“Sorry, Mom. I need to get back to work,” I say as I’m about to hang up the phone.

“Leah, did you hear what I said originally? I asked if they gave you money. I mean what they gave me is not enough to disappear. Do you know how expensive things are in the Seychelles? Too expensive…”

Before she can finish her sentence, Hayley snatches the cell and starts talking to me, “Leah, we need you to send us money, we’re nearly running out, and we need to get out of here quickly. Mom got into a bit of trouble.”

I can hear her shouting in the background, “It wasn’t my fault.”

“And we need to get out of here. You must have money, even if it’s not a lot. 10k or so will do. I mean, if that’s too much then maybe just 5k. Anything, because…”

I didn’t wait for her to finish, I knew what she was going to say next, and I don’t want to hear it. Then again, what did I expect? I don’t even know how to get ahold of Marco. Now, I have a genuine reason to do it, other than for some crazy reason wanting to be with him. I think about him all the time. From when I’m eating pie to even serving it, and at night he’s always in my dreams. His smile. His touch. His everything.

Olivia comes up to me, and I know that I’ve been standing with the phone in my hand, canceling the repeated calls that Mom or Hayley’s making to me.

Money.

That’s all they think I am. Some money tree.

“Sorry, you still on the call?” she asks.

I shake my head, this time I’m going to be one hundred percent honest with her. “It was Mom and Hayley asking for money.”

She smiles as she takes my phone.

“I thought it was him. In that case, if it’s them two. Just turn your phone off.”

I signal for her to do it.

She does it and then hands me back my cell. “Ready for the lunchtime rush?”

I smile as I wrap my arm around her. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”