The Girl: Unabridged Part 1 of 3

1 | Gravel crunched under the tires of Margo’s dark blue 1997 Toyota Corolla as her car bumped and rolled down the long drive from the main road towards her sister’s home.

She checked herself in her rear view mirror and smoothed back her dark blonde hair behind her ears. In the hot, rainy New York weather, her hair looked greasy and plastered to her scalp even though she’d just showered before leaving the city. She felt self-conscious and out of place knowing the upscale area she would be moving into. She hadn’t bothered to put on makeup, but as she looked at her pale skin with red splotches in the little mirror, she wished she would have at least taken five minutes to put on some concealer and powder. She would dig the coral lip gloss out of her bag to slap on if the car hadn’t been bumping along so hard. She decided she’d quickly apply some when she pulled up and put the car in park.

Her tires almost got stuck a few times in the worn tracks that left divets along the entire drive. So far, this didn’t bode well for the state of the rest of the house.

“All this gravel is going to be hell on the rust on the undercarriage,” she thought out loud. The unpaved driveway twisted and turned through a small forest that secluded the house from anyone driving by on the main road. She rounded the last few trees as the drive bobbed and weaved, and the house came into view. It wasn’t completely dilapidated like Margo feared, but it was evident that it hadn’t been regularly maintained in some time. The size of the house was impressive.

“Guess this is how the better half lives,” reflected Margo as she thought about the last time she saw her older sister, Stella, alive. It was at Stella’s lavish wedding to Adam.

She knew Stella was going to find a guy with a lot of money, and Adam was a trust fund baby from upstate New York.

***

Growing up in the city where Margo, Stella and their parents lived in a 500 square foot, single bedroom apartment, living paycheck-to-paycheck, seeing their parents’ constant exhaustion from working multiple jobs to make ends meet, took its toll on them.

For Margo, it was to find achievable career goals and start working hard at entry level. She worked her way up to a position where she could afford to take night classes to advance her education while she scrimped and saved every penny.

For Stella, it was marrying rich. Stella never really had the same drive as Margo. She watched their parents working at grocery stores during the day and waitressing and bartending nights, working 7 days a week, and that life just did not appeal to Stella. Working hard wasn’t her forte. She wanted someone to take care of her and give her all the best things the world had to offer.

She met Adam “by chance,” bumping into him in the business section at Barnes & Noble. And by “by chance,” she meant that she saw his family all over the internet for being the highest donating billionaires for 4 years running, and Adam was notorious for being spotted on the club scene downtown and partaking in illegal substances before his parents threw him in rehab. After a 3-month stint in what could only be described as a rehab resort, Adam’s father made him start taking work seriously so he could take over his father’s e-commerce and logistics business. Rivaling Amazon required experience running a business, excellent work ethic, and continual studying of the market to foresee where they needed to invest their money and technical resources to stay relevant. Spending your life drinking, doing drugs and clubbing wasn’t going to maintain their family fortune, and while the fortune they had was substantial, it wasn’t going to last forever if Adam kept up that life after his parents were gone.

Stella practically stalked Adam’s Instagram page and googled his name constantly until she knew of the places he most frequented to manufacture a meet-cute. Once she had his attention, nature took care of the rest. She had natural beauty with long silky blonde hair a few shades lighter than Margo’s. She was tall and thin similar to Margo, but where Margo was lanky, Stella was ethereal. Everything about her said “feminine and delicate” where, by stark contrast, everything about Margo said “comfortable bookworm.” Margo wasn’t homely by any standard, but by comparison, Stella knew how to carry herself in a manner that oozed confidence.

Stella also knew how to do her hair and makeup like most models, and she had an eye for vintage clothes, shoes, and bags at thrift shops. Adam had no idea that she came from such a struggling family until his parents met her and ran a background check on her. They wanted him to marry someone else whose family also had money to keep their legacy going. But Adam had already fallen for Stella, and being a rich, spoiled only-child, he convinced his mother to convince his dad to back off.

Their wedding was at the NYC Plaza hotel. The ceremony was in the Terrace Room followed by the reception in the Grand Ballroom. It was as expensive as a wedding could be. Stella was beaming and glamorous in her Monique Lhuillier white lace dress that was fitted to her knees and then flowed out into a train behind her. With the dress backless and up to her neck in front, she adorned herself with simple jewelry: 18 karat diamond drop earrings from Tiffany’s that cost more than Margo made in two years of work. Her hair shined like gold, in a half updo with loose curls, and a long train with a lace edge matching her dress tucked into her hair with a silver comb.

Margo worried about Stella’s spending. She wondered how her sister would be able to adjust if Adam’s family’s company ever went under or if the stock market took a dive. It had only been six months since she had met Adam, and already she bought extravagant items that she didn’t really need and would rarely use. Adam hadn’t been the most responsible person up until recently either with his recent substance abuse recovery.

While she was happy for her sister getting everything she’d ever wanted in life, she mourned the distance that had grown between them over the years, especially since she’d met Adam. Stella started treating Margo like a second-class citizen in her life, distancing herself from Margo so she could devote herself fully to her new life. Her coupon-clipping, penny-pinching sister didn’t fit that narrative, and it was hard to pretend like you never lived a life like that when it was staring you back in the face. In fact, Margo only got about 30 seconds of time with her sister at the wedding, and the only thing she had a chance to tell her was “Congratulations” before her sister was swept up by the crowd of people and paparazzi. Margo didn’t have much family since their parents died: Their mother passed away from breast cancer two years earlier that they couldn’t afford to treat, and their father died from a massive heart attack less than a year later. In a way, Stella was dead too. She was a different person now, and there was no place for Margo in her life. So Margo acquiesced, but the loneliness of having lost her whole family in the span of three years at the age of 22 was resounding.

***

Margo was still processing as she’d come closer to the home, which she deemed a “McMansion” as it looked slightly smaller than most mansions in upstate New York; some might call it a manor based on its secluded location, but it wasn’t quite as old as most manor-houses in the state.

She’d gone from being estranged from her sister for the last 15 years, to being guardian of her two young nieces that she’d only learned of from her sister’s lawyer 4 days ago.

No one had even contacted her after her sister and brother-in-law’s shocking deaths to let her know what happened or where the funeral would be. She had to find out about it on the day of the funeral on TMZ, which she’d mistakenly landed on while channel surfing. The call from the lawyer followed the next day.

Had Adam had any siblings, or had his parents still been alive, Margo might not be here now, pulling up to her sister’s home where a lawyer awaited inside with some papers to sign. Then she’d basically be a surrogate mother for at least the next 13 years until the girls were old enough to split their parents’ estate. Everything felt so surreal to her.

The drive split left and right in a circle around a large pond on the front of the property allowing people to drive around and exit without having to reverse. The lawyer’s sleek, black Maserati was parked in front, pulled to the left, so Margo went right at the pond and curved around to park just outside the front door.

2 | Margo walked through the front door into a wide foyer with mahogany wainscoting lining the walls, and a wide staircase ahead. In the middle of the entryway, she could look straight up three floors to a beautiful stained glass dome that cast colorful light along the walls and staircase. There was a hallway to the left and a hallway to the right. The lawyer had told her to meet her in the dining room down the hall to the right, so she turned on the heel of her worn leather boots in that direction and kept walking past a few doors until the hallway opened to a large dining hall. Two large crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling over a table that was clearly bought to host grand parties, and not meant for a cozy family meal. It all felt like a cliche facade to Margo, having grown up in a small apartment where everyone was in everybody else’s personal space. Before today, she herself had only lived in a modest studio apartment with only necessities and a bookshelf full of books, mostly fiction with a few finance books and old textbooks from when she’d attended college that she’d yet to sell. Everything she owned was now packed into boxes and was all crammed into her backseat and trunk, while an old coworker stayed in her apartment until the lease was up and would sell her few pieces of furniture and they’d split the cost. God only knows if she’d have anything left to call her own once her nieces were grown, so she planned to save every penny she could from selling what she needed to. That way, she’d at least have something to fall back on someday, and if she invested well, who knew what amount she could have in just over a decade.

The lawyer, an African American woman with the complexion few were lucky enough to be born with (and most others spent hundreds of dollars a year on makeup trying to achieve) stood and walked toward Margo. Margo figured her for middle-aged only because she was a lawyer that required a great deal of education, and due to the fact that she held herself in a stoic manner that few young people could maintain.

“Mrs. Smith, I’m Janet Barclay,” she said as she stood and offered her slender hand out to Margo. “You can just call me Janet. It’s nice to meet you in person. I’m sorry it’s under the circumstances. I’m so sorry for your loss.”

Margo shook her hand and couldn’t help but notice the difference between Janet’s manicured nails and soft hands compared to her calloused hands and nails short from biting them, a habit she still had yet to kick at 37 years old.

“Thank you. It’s just Miss, not Mrs. You can just call me Margo,” she offered. “So… Where are the girls?”

Janet smiled warmly at Margo. “They’re upstairs with the social worker. I figured we could handle the paperwork first, before you start getting to know the girls and the lay of the land here.” Margo silently scolded herself for thinking the girls would be standing down here to be presented to her like you see in most movies. This is their home after all. They’re probably just playing with their toys trying to drown out the trauma of the last week, not even thinking about what the next few days will bring.

“Right. Of course,” she said.

Janet went through all the paperwork with Margo. There was all the information regarding state laws and when the girls would be legally old enough to access their inheritance. Then there was the guardianship information to go over, and what assets that would be available to Margo to raise and care for the girls and to provide for herself while ensuring the girls’ financial safety. Margo listened, her mind running and anxiety rising with all the papers in front of her and legal jargon, and the responsibility that she’ll now have to raise two young girls that she didn’t really know at all. Her palms started to sweat and her head started to feel dizzy. She had to plant her hands on the table just to stabilize herself for a moment.

“Miss Smith? Margo?” She’d heard Janet talking, but it sounded like she was in a bubble or like a voice on the other side of a wall in the next room. “Margo, are you alright? Should I call a paramedic?”

Margo suddenly bounced back into the moment. Like the bubble popped and everything was as it had been minutes before. “I’m so sorry. I’m fine. No need for an ambulance. I’m just feeling a little overwhelmed by all this. I’ll be honest, I’m not quite sure I understand what half of these documents mean, and I’m so nervous about taking care of the girls that my mind feels preoccupied. I’ve only really ever taken care of a fish and a hamster, and they both died. I probably shouldn’t be saying that to you right now, I’m sorry.”

“No need to keep apologizing, Margo,” Janet was now standing on Margo’s side of the table instead of seated on the other side, and Margo couldn’t recall seeing her get up and walk over. Janet placed a hand over Margo’s. “Don’t worry, it’s normal to be nervous. I’m sure your world has been turned as upside down as the girls’ has. It’s going to take some time, but you’ll all get through it and learn together. If you ever need advice, you can always feel free to call me. Not just legal advice. I don’t live far and I’m happy to talk you down if you ever have need of it. I am the oldest of six, and practically raised all my brothers and sisters. My parents passed away young too, so I have an idea what the girls are going through too.” Janet patted Margo’s hand once more and pulled out a chair on the same side of the table and sat down. “I’ll try to go through these a little better in ‘English’ and if there’s anything that doesn’t make sense, just stop me and ask. We only have a little left to go through. Then a few signatures, and we’ll be all set.”

3 | After all the paperwork was signed, Janet gathered everything up to take home and make copies. She promised Margo a copy within the next three days. She told Margo she’d drop it off in person herself to make sure everything was going well.

As Margo walked with Janet back to the foyer, she pointed up the stairs and directed Margo to go up to the second floor, the stairs wrap around so she’ll take a right at the landing, left from where they were standing as they faced the stairs, and go to the second door on the left. She’d already messaged the social worker, Justine, to inform her that Margo would be on her way up momentarily to meet the girls.

Janet gave Margo one more handshake, handed her a business card with her cell phone number jotted on the back, and left. Margo was feeling a little relieved after the discussion with Janet and was feeling more confident. That is, until she got to the second floor. Her nervousness returned with every step closer. She turned right at the landing on the second floor and saw 2 doors on each side and one at the end of the hall. The door at the end of the hall was closed with sunlight showing through the bottom of the door. She thought she’d seen the shadow of someone running past the door. She figured if it was one of the girls, she’d catch up with her after she met the social worker. She went to the second door on the left and knocked lightly.

When she heard a “come in,” she turned the knob and gently opened the door in case one of the children was moving near the door and peeked her head in first.

The social worker was sitting with both girls on the floor as they sat in front of an immaculate dollhouse, while they brushed their small dolls’ hair. They placed the dolls down in one of the many small rooms and turned towards Margo.

“Hello,” Margo said. She was going for a gentle tone, but it came out in an awkward squeak. She couldn’t believe how much they looked like Stella. Like impeccable miniature copies: slender, delicate, with heart shaped faces and silky golden hair with a natural wave pulled into a low, loose ponytail running down their backs.

“Hello, Miss Smith. I’m Justine. Girls, this is your Aunt Margo who will be moving in today and taking care of you. Miss Smith, this is Ella,” she said as she gestured to the girl on her right, “and this is Elyse,” gesturing to the girl on her left. “I’m sure you all want to get to know each other, so I’ll just stay and observe a while and answer any questions you have, and then I’ll get out of your hair and let you all settle in together.” Justine was a stout older woman that appeared very grandmotherly to Margo. She could see why someone like her would be good at working with kids. She must put them at ease.

“So you’re our aunt?” asked Elyse bluntly.

“Yep, I guess I am,” replied Margo nervously.

“Why haven’t we ever met you?” asked Ella.

“Well… Your mom is my sister, and I haven’t seen her in a really long time. She married your dad and moved further away, and I’ve spent a lot of time working. I lived in the city up until today.”

“In the city?” asked Ella. “So have you seen a dead body? On tv shows, the cities always have lots of dead bodies and cops.”

“Girls,” interrupted Justine, “that’s not very appropriate for young girls your age to talk about.”

“We’ve seen a dead body,” added Ella.

“No not dead body, stupid, it’s just a ghost girl. It’s not really her body,” interjected Elyse, seamlessly hijacking the conversation from her sister. “We saw mommy and daddy’s bodies, but they weren’t moving like the girl in the water does. She comes to visit us sometimes. Mommy and daddy didn’t come back, though.”

Margo stood dumbfounded, unsure how to respond to a five year old child about the conversation she found herself in. The girls seemed unaffected talking about their parents’ deaths.

“Ummm….,” Margo glanced at Justine then back to the girls. “I guess since I’ll be living here now, I may see your ghost girl too. Let me know if you see her. Are you afraid of her?”

“No, she doesn’t do anything,” replied Ella, “just stands there.”

“Makes a big mess of the rugs though,” chimed Elyse. “She gets everything wet. My mom was really scared whenever we told her about the ghost girl. Are you scared?”

“No, I don’t suppose I am,” replied Margo.

“Hm. Good,” replied Elyse. Then the girls returned to playing with their dolls.

Margo looked at Justine with her right eyebrow hitched up in question. Justine nodded her head towards the door, indicating she wanted to talk to her in the hallway.

“Girls, your auntie and I will be right outside the door for a moment. Holler if you need anything.”

“Okay,” came the reply in unison.

Both women stepped into the hallway, and Justine gently shut the door and took a deep breath.

“So…,” came the beginning of her explanation, “while the girls have been through quite a trauma with their parents’ deaths, from what I’d heard from past nannies, this is persistent behavior that the girls have shown since they could talk. One of them, who cared for them prior to that, ran for the hills because the girls couldn’t vocalize what they saw, so they just stood and pointed all the time. From what I understand, your sister had paid a hefty price tag for the therapy that was required for their nannies and caretakers in the last few years, so I pray you have a strong backbone and enjoy the occasional thriller. The girls also see a counselor once a week. They just had their last session this morning and Dr. Ross visits the house, so you won’t have to worry about getting them out the door. They also get in-home schooling from private teachers. The teachers and counselors have been set up with funds so you won’t have to worry about any of that, and you’ll have an accountant that has been assigned to help with the girls’ affairs should anything come up.”

“Do they ever actually leave the house?” asked Margo.

“Honestly, it appears your sister has held a pretty tight leash on everyone in the house the last decade or so. I’ve interviewed the previous staff, and they all had the same report. They’d come on board shortly after the accident with her other daughter, shortly before Stella had become pregnant again.”

“Wait-- her other daughter?”

“Yes-- did you not know she’d had twins prior to Ella and Elyse?”

“Twins? I-- no, I… I’ll be honest. I haven’t seen or spoken to my sister since her wedding fifteen years ago. We didn’t have a falling out or anything. She just married up and I was still a working stiff and we really just didn’t cross paths after that. I tried to keep my distance. She seemed to be uncomfortable with me around, after she met Adam.” Margo paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. “I’m so sorry to have you in the middle of this mess, but I only just found out I had two nieces less than a week ago. I had no idea Stella had any children before that. Would you mind telling me more about what happened? You said twins, so do I have two more nieces? And what accident happened?”

“I’m so sorry Margo,” said Justine, “I hadn’t realized what you were walking into here. Yes, I read everything in the girls’ case file about their parents and siblings. I’ll be happy to get you a copy, but I’ll tell you what I know. Let me just tell the girls we’ll be a while, and let’s go sit somewhere away from their door.”

The next hour was a big dive down the rabbit hole for Margo. She and Justine sat down in the receiving room on the first floor, the first door on the left on the opposite side of the entryway than she’d been in for the paperwork with Janet.

She sat dazed in an overstuffed and likely very expensive leather loveseat and learned about her sister’s other set of twins. She’d gotten pregnant shortly after the wedding. Everything had gone well with the pregnancy, but Stella had been documented to have postpartum depression that started shortly after their birth, and after a couple years, Adam had returned to rehab. The stress of two infants with a depressed wife was enough to drive him back to substance abuse. Things had seemed to get better for a few years, but shortly after that, around the time the girls were the age that Ella and Elyse are now, one of the girls had gone missing while the other stayed asleep in her bed. The next morning they’d realized they had forgotten to set the alarm and the window had been wide open when they’d gone in to wake the girls and had found one of them missing. The police and search parties looked for two weeks with no success. Since there was no evidence of the break-in, the police had very little to go on, and the stress had sent both Stella and Adam into another depression and bout of drinking and drug-binging. Adam’s parents spent a fortune to keep the whole ordeal out of the media, and, shortly after that, his parents passed away.

The questions started spilling from Margo. “So one of the girls had gone missing and is presumed dead, but what about the other girl? Where is she now? What is her name?”

“Madison. Maddy, is your niece that is currently in the custody of the state. Shortly after the incident, she started having hallucinations and breakdowns that your sister and her husband just couldn’t cope with. They could barely cope themselves and it was no longer a safe environment for the girl. You won’t have to worry about her. During the will reading, all arrangements had been made and funded for her to continue to receive treatment at the state hospital and she will not be under your guardianship,” Justine stated matter-of-factly. She clearly had a way of disconnecting her personal feelings from these types of situations given her line of work. It was a lot harder for Margo to wrap her head around.

“What is my other niece’s name? The one who went missing. What was her name?” Margo found that now that she knew she had all this family, she felt she needed to know their names even if only to light a candle and say a prayer at night.

“Amelia. Mia for short. I don’t know much else about her,” replied Justine, “except what was in the report. I wasn’t their case worker at the time. The previous social worker assigned had since retired and moved out of the country.” She had a guilty expression, as if she wished there was more information she could offer to give Margo more peace of mind.

“So,” began Margo, “if their daughter had gone missing, the other institutionalized, my sister depressed and Adam doing drugs again, how did they get from there, to having Ella and Elyse?”

“Honestly, I am not sure how they turned it around, but the case file will have the details,” said Justine. “The gist of it is that he got back into rehab, Stella saw a psychiatrist five days a week, and after they’d dealt with his parents business and estate, things started to get back to normal for them, or as normal as they could be under the circumstances. Shortly after, they found out they were pregnant again, and sometimes a small joy, while you’d think it would bring up bad memories, is just the miracle that is needed to bring everyone back together.”

They sat in the quiet of the big house without saying anything for a while, while Margo let all this new information sink in. She was simultaneously exhausted, while also wondering how she was ever going to be able to sleep that night.

Justine decided that it would be best for her to leave for the night and let Margo bond with the girls. She gave Margo her phone number for her office and her emergency cell phone number and told her to contact her at any time of day or night if anything urgent comes up and wished her the best.