I Said No

Chapter One

June 21st, 2013

"Mom, mom! Where are you?", Katherine rushed down the stairs, ecstatic to tell her mother some good news. She searched the entire house, starting at the kitchen, which was unusually messy. Then her parents' bedroom. Then the backyard. But her mother was nowhere in sight.

Dropping her school bag on the floor next to the fridge, she was more than happy that high school was officially over. However, it wasn't necessary an unpleasant experience.

On the contrary.

To everyone who has ever seen her, it was more than obvious. Katherine was a beauty. Not just in the way her dark brown locks danced around her shoulders, or the way her honey colored eyes gleamed when she smiled. To her friends, she was a sidekick. To her family, a good daughter.

But to herself, mischievous.

Katherine wasn't the type to start the mess first, but she surely did know how to finish it.

She handled it almost naturally. No insults, no thrown punches, but her opponent would always end up on the ground. When that needed to be so.

Grabbing an apple from the kitchen island, she bounced off to the yard. Dropping herself on the couch, legs on the table, she happily observed how two birds were standing on a nearby branch. Katherine was no animal expert, but it was more than obvious that those two birds were lovers.

Lovers. She muffled out a smile at her choice of thoughts.

In normal circumstances, she wouldn't spare them a second glance. But today, she felt different. Kate was no girl interested in love. She was a girl with plans. University, job, apartment, phD. That's how things went for her. And it all seemed so very logical.

After finishing the apple, she took the phone out of her burgundy jacket and dialed her aunt Diana. After waiting for a few seconds, she heard the very familiar voice on the other end of the line: "Hey Kate! What's up?".

Pulling her lips in a half smirk and tilting her head in the slightest angle, she replied: "Actually there is something I need to tell you. I met someone and he's –". Her aunt's gasp stopped her dead in the tracks.

Katherine didn't expect Diana to be this excited.

"Katherine, whom did you meet?", Diana cautiously asked. She was standing in the middle of the street, her grocery bag now on the floor and occasional by passers staring in confusion.

"Why are you so shocked all of a sudden? It was inevitable that one day I too find my prince charming, Di.", she replied laughing but got anything but it in exchange.

Dead silence.

"Aunt, are you still there?", she asked in mere confusion. Pulling the cellphone from her face to check if Diana was still on the line, she noticed nothing out of the ordinary. The screen clearly stated: one minute and thirty three seconds.

Diana tried to pull herself together. Tried to imagine anything but the scenario which was involuntarily developing in her head. Opening her eyes and taking a deep breath, she asked: "What's his name?" and expected it to be everything but not the one.

To Katherine, it all sounded like a game when she replied: "He's actually a very charming and intelligent man." For a brief second she paused, waiting for some kind of reaction from her aunt, but got nothing.

On the other end, Diana tried to keep the phone from slipping out of her shaky hands.

"His name is Mr.Bloomwood. He's a professor at the University of Washington. Remember how I told you I wanted to go there? Well, after Mrs.Green told him about my academic success, he offered to help me with the admission process. Isn't that great?", Kate almost screamed out of joy.

In her head, she already saw herself in her college dorm, as a pre-med student.

But Diana, on the other hand, saw Katherine out of trouble. Realizing how close she was to meeting him every day, her heart quickened its pace.

She had to call Elizabeth.

They must get Katherine out of here as soon as possible. To Washington. To Alaska. Australia. Anywhere but here.

"Oh, honey, that's great".

"But why the gasp? You actually thought I was going to run off and get married?", Kate teased her aunt.

"No, no. I thought you encountered Jane's cousin. You know, that man who offered you to work at the bakery. It would be such a waste of potential.", as lame as it sounded, it was the only thing she managed to make up after the initial shock.

A hearty smile filled the line. "Of course not. You know I'm smarter than that, right?", Kate joked. But, just as she was about to bid goodbye to her aunt over the phone and head out to her room to get some rest, Katherine heard the door bell.

"It must be mum", she thought.

"Listen Di, I gotta go. I think mum just arrived home. I have something amazing to tell her!", she replied and was already half way to the entrance of the house.

"Of course honey, have fun."

And the call ended.

With a rush of happiness she hasn't felt in a while, Katherine reached the door, put her hand on the handle, and put on her best smile.

But instead of finding her mom in front of her, she found two policemen.

"Are you Katherine Davis?", an older officer asked, his eyes pointed to the floor. The other one stood uncomfortably, his body language clearly giving out the signs that it was the last place on earth he wanted to be at.

In a matter of seconds, her happiness turned to confusion. Eyes narrowed, she asked: "I am. Why are you asking?"

Finally looking up at her, the officer spoke: "I am very sorry madam, but your mother, Elizabeth Davis, was found dead earlier this morning."