Where Have the Children Gone
Page 6“Hey, did you hear me?” Olivia was losing patience with this man who thought he was the Almighty.
Adal turned slightly and raised his eyebrows at her. “Woman, you are not to speak to me in a raised voice.”
Olivia rolled her eyes. All she wanted was to get the hell out of this place. “You have one week to get your things and those women off of my property.”
She stormed out of her own house, slamming the door on her way. She would get a court order if she had to, but she would get those people out. Then she thought of another way. She could charge them an exorbitant amount of rent until the house sold. They wouldn’t have to know the house was for sale. She would do a silent listing with the realtor who had been a close friend to her mother. When she got into her car, she reapplied her lipstick, unaware that Adal was watching her from the living room window.
Olivia sped off in search of the deed to her parents’ home. She supposed someone could have changed the document to show ownership by the group that Adal seemed to have claimed as his own, but she doubted it. It was a scare tactic, but it wouldn’t work with her. She knew how these cults worked and from what she had seen so far, this was definitely a cult. But she wasn’t like the women of the region. They had never known a life beyond the group or cult, and Olivia knew there was a big world out there filled with possibilities. She was a part of that world. She located the deed to her parents’ house locked safely in the safe deposit box her parents had left and it showed clearly that the house belonged to her now. She would love to shove the deed in Adal’s face along with a court order demanding that he get his sorry ass out of her house, but she thought it would be much more fulfilling to sell the house out from under him. Let the new owners deal with the nut job, she said to herself.
After getting things squared away with the realtor and tucking the deed inside her purse, Olivia drove past the entrance to her family home, glancing briefly through the trees. She had driven for only ten minutes before turning the car around. He was chasing her away. Adal had chased her out of her own home and she had allowed it to happen. Well, not anymore. She would stay there as long as she pleased. Once the fanatic got a taste of her secular music blaring from every corner of the house, he and his wives or girlfriends would leave on their own.