A Sister's Love

Chapter 1

"You were saying?" 

She heard the question, but Kayla Lawson couldn't make herself respond. She just sat there with her heart pounding and her eyes fixated on her smartphone as it vibrated on the conference room table. Her breath caught in her throat as her sister's name continued to flash on the screen, along with a picture of her smiling face.     

Even after a year, seeing Rachel's picture still made it feel like she had a fifty pound weight on her chest.   

She hadn't received a call from that number since her sister passed away, which was why she'd forgotten the contact was still saved in her phone. Who'd be calling her from that number? 

"Kayla, you were saying?" Robert Fitch, her boss and son of the man who put the Fitch in Soloman and Fitch, said more forcefully this time, not bothering to hide his impatient tone. 

"Uh..." She couldn't think straight. What had she been saying? Something about the proposed demographic they should target with the new campaign, that much she knew, but the specifics had vanished. Her mind was too busy spinning with the possible reasons anyone would be calling her from that number. Was something wrong? Were her nieces okay? Kayla's chest tightened. She hated she always assumed the worst, but that was what a death in the family did to you.   A

With every muted ring, the vibrations echoed on the oval cherrywood table until no one could ignore it. Everyone in the conference room, including the ad agency's most important client, Art Patterson, stopped what they were doing and turned to look at her expectantly.  

Answer it. Hang it up. Throw it out the window. But do something, you fool. 

She felt her face heat as she picked up the phone with uncharacteristically shaky hands and stood to push her chair back. "Will you excuse me? I have to take this."  

Robert shot her a look that said, Make it quick. "Of course, Kayla," he said for the benefit of the client sitting across from him. If they'd been alone, she knew his response wouldn't have been as polite. 

"No problem," Mr. Patterson said. His aged face crinkled at the eyes as he gave her one of his rare smiles no one in the agency seemed to get but her.  

As she pushed open the door and stepped into the hallway, the murmur of voices started back up, but Kayla could no longer hear what they were saying. She slid her finger across the screen to answer the call then held it to her ear. "Hello?" she said, her voice cracking a little. 

"Hi, Auntie Kayla." 

She let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Alex? Is that you?"  

"Yes, it's me. Who else calls you Auntie Kayla, except Hannah? But she's only five. Plus, I don't think she knows how to use the phone."  

Kayla chuckled as the weight of the worry that had been sitting on her chest evaporated. "You're right. Of course, it's you. To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?"  

Alex let out a heavy breath into the receiver. "Not much. I just wanted to talk to you." But there was something strange about her voice, like there was something she wasn't saying.  

Of course, she sounds off. She's a ten-year-old girl without a mother. 

Kayla immediately felt a stab of guilt. She hadn't exactly been the best aunt in the world. Before Rachel's death, her visits to Smooth Lake had been more frequent, but now... now it hurt too much to go back to the town where they grew up without expecting to see Rachel around every turn. So, except for the quick day trips for holidays and family birthdays, she'd stayed in Toronto buried in her work. She tried to remember when her last visit had been. Easter, maybe. Oh jeez, that was over two months ago.