Chapter 5: Nice to Meet You

"So nice to meet you," Charlotte sniffed. "So nice of Adam to come home, also, specifically to meet you, even though he's never home any other day of the week or time."

"Oh," Abigail swallowed nervously, she had very clearly caused something. "Uhm, nice to meet you too."

"Huh," Olivia cocked her head to the side, staring at Abigail, giving her a once over. "You look like me. Or I look like you, I suppose, given that you're older. I'm prettier of course," Olivia waved her hand like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "But that could just be because you were living in poverty. Poverty does tend to make people much more uglier than they actually are."

Abigail blinked, unable to process exactly what was happening or being said around her. She really could not comprehend that these people were speaking to her. They must think she was deaf, or at least hard of hearing.

"Not that you're ugly of course," Olivia gasped, as if for the first time realizing what she had just said. "How could you be, when we share half of our genetics? And not one portion of me is ugly, so you of course can't be ugly either."

Oh. So even Abigail's own looks were less about Abby and more about Olivia.

"How old are you?" Abigail asked, she would completely understand everything that was happening right now if Olivia said she fifteen. Or five.

"Now that's just rude," Charlotte remarked, staring down at Abigail reproachingly. "One should never ask a lady her age."

"Oh, come off it mom," Olivia waved her mother off. "I'm sure there's an exception for sisters, and she's obviously just asking because I look so young and she can't believe I'm only two years younger than her."

Abigail couldn't believe how vain her sister was. But her vanity seemed harmless enough.

"Is that all you're going to discuss?" Adam asked his daughter distastefully. "Why don't you discuss something of substance?"

"What?" Olivia asked her father. "Like the names of the board of directors in Alphabetical order? I'm sure that would be fun. Come," Olivia turned to Abigail, "Let me show you around properly. I'm sure daddy got three minutes into showing you around and had to go because of some emergency."

"Thank you, Olivia," Adam interrupted quickly. "Please, do go show Abigail around, and update her on the schedule for the day tomorrow, please."

Schedule? Abigail wasn't aware that they'd had anything planned. But she would be grateful to see her room, this duffel was getting a little difficult to carry with her.

"Oh, yeah, do emergencies happen often?" Abigail asked, as Charlotte started leading her out of the entry way and towards the corridors. "Code Emerald, I think?"

Immediately Abigail and Olivia both froze, hearing a sharp crash and a loud shriek.

"Run," Olivia told Abigail, and together the two girls sprinted, just barely hearing Charlotte start screaming as they rounded a corner.

Olivia grabbed Abigail's hand and pulled her down two corridors, and Abigail was sufficiently lost and out of breath by the time Olivia stopped pulling on her, and both girls leaned against the wall.

They're all insane, Abigail thought, trying to take a deep breath.

"Oh my god that was fun!" Olivia shrieked. "Please, please promise me you'll make mummy and daddy more upset with each other every day."

"What did I do?" Abigail asked around gulps of breath, genuinely concerned.

"Code Emerald is the wait staff's warning to daddy when Mother is in a mood," Olivia laughed. "I think she was upset that daddy was here to greet you today but couldn't be here for her yesterday morning."

"Oh," Abigail felt bad, and she didn't like that she had started on such a footing with Charlotte. "What did she need him for yesterday?"

Charlotte shrugged, "I think one of the servants put too much sugar in her tea, and she accused him of trying to age her faster and damage her diet, and so she wanted daddy to fire him on the spot. But I think daddy was in an acquisitions meeting with someone at the time. A billion-dollar investment deal, and he let her message go to voicemail."

Abigail well and truly wondered if she would fit in here. And for the first time that she was sure was not going to be the last, wondered if she wanted to.

"I," Abigail started. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cause trouble."

"Trouble will find you in this house," Olivia warned her. "You have to be really very careful with everything you do."

Abigail was starting to see that, but she got the impression that even if she did, she would still get so many things wrong.

"Come," Olivia nodded to her, pushing off against the wall. "Let me show you to your room. It's a bit of a walk from here, but you can get the driver to pull right outside your French doors, and then you won't have to walk to the entrance every time you want to leave."

Abigail blinked, trying to comprehend having a car pick her up from right outside her bedroom doors. It seemed so surreal, given that she had gone from not having hot water in her shower this morning, to having her own personal chauffeur today.

But overarching that, Abigail worried what Olivia meant that trouble would find her here, and that she had to be really careful about what she did.

"Olivia," Abigail called out to her, when they'd been walking for a few steps.

"Uh huh?" Olivia answered, not turning to look at Abigail.

"What do you mean, I have to be very careful with everything I do?" Abigail asked, wondering if Olivia had maybe been referring to her mother.

"Oh," Olivia waved her hand again. "It's just dad. He's very particular about how he wants everything to run. And that's not just for the company, either. Its for the family, and the house and everyone in it."

"Oh," Abigail said aloud. She hadn't been expecting that. So far, her father had seemed very easy going, if a bit of a busy man.

"Yeah, so we have the Woodtriche name, his name," Olivia emphasized, making a chopping motion with her hand on her palm. "So we have to be deserving of it. At least, that's what he says. There are important events to attend to, we have to be on time for everything and on our very best behaviour."

"Wow," Abigail said again. "That sounds like a lot."

And nothing of that had even been seen in the newspapers, neither had Adam mentioned anything of that to her. Maybe she was held to different standards?

"Will he expect that of me, too?" Abigail asked, she would try to honor her father's wishes as best as she could, while she lived under his roof.

"He will expect it, solely of you," Olivia told her. "He's given up entirely on me, and that's why you're here. I think he's just hoping for a do over baby with you, given that mother refuses to give him another child on the basis of how much I ruined her body." Oliva made air quotes at the last bit. "But you're a full grown adult, so that's even better."

Abigail bit her lip nervously. She didn't want to put too much weight on everything Olivia was saying, but then again, if anything, Olivia seemed blatantly honest and upfront with her words.

She didn't seem like someone to make something like that up.

Though, she hoped her sister was wrong. She would hate to think that her father came looking for her simply because his legitimate child wasn't exactly what he wanted her to be.

"He's not impossible though," Olivia admitted. "He's just very exacting. And I wasn't what he wanted me to be, so. But I'm okay with it. I mean, I'm still my own person, and he's kind to me. I will tell you one thing, we have a good dad, he's a bit harsh and sometimes goes about things the wrong way, but he always means well."

That last piece of information soothed her. Then she could deal with anything that was given to her. If Adam wasn't impossible, just had high expectations for his children, Abigail could understand that, and she was more than willing to work within those limits and try to reach those expectations.

"I'd really like it if you could help me," Abigail said again. "Trying to see how I can fit in here, and to make sure that I don't mess up, or say anything I shouldn't again. I'd really appreciate the help."

"Of course," Olivia promised her sweetly. And for some reason, Abigail thought she just shouldn't trust that promise.

Abigail had no doubt that everything Olivia had just told her was true, but she also knew when someone agreed too readily to something, there was generally a benefit for them in it.

But she tried not to dwell too long on it, as they reached a pair of large oak doors.

"And this," Olivia said, stopping outside the two large oak doors. "Is your room."