She
Never Got to Say Goodbye
by
Ica Iova
When Olivia trades
her promising career for a more domestic lifestyle as a wife and mother, she
expects many things but never to see ghosts much less be one.
Her life with her handsome husband, Brandon, a successful criminal lawyer, starts as a happy one, but following a tragedy, guilt, alcohol and drugs crush their blissful world in a hurry. One minute Olivia is planning to leave the marriage and the next she’s floating at the foot of her son’s bed. Dead. Murdered. And all evidence points to Brandon as the prime suspect.
She is angry and determined to make him pay, but soon, she learns that she if she wants justice, she must follow the clues that reach back into Brandon’s past.
Suspenseful, romantic and awash in the afterlife thrill, She Never Got To Say Goodbye captures the power of love and friendship.
Click
HERE
to add to Goodreads
Olivia covered her
eyes with both hands to block the brightness around her but, unsuccessful, she
winced and closed her eyes quickly. She tried again—this time, opening her eyes
gradually, allowing them to adjust to the light. It worked. She looked around,
taking in her surroundings. An entirely white room. Top to bottom. There
appeared to be no doors or windows.
Where was she? A
hospital?
No.
How did I get here? she wondered, trying to shake the
foggy feeling in her head. Confused, she looked around again, grabbing at frail
fibers of specifics from her mind about her prior whereabouts.
Nothing. A blank,
invisible veil wrapped around her brain making her feel strange.
Then she discovered
the source of the brightness. Glare. It shimmered from above. Soothing.
Magnificent. She had never seen anything like it, so her mind found nothing to
compare it with. For a moment she thought she saw human forms floating in the
light. Translucent but definitely there. The light, it seemed, radiated from
them. They spoke softly, mere whispers, like a mother. Were they beckoning her
to join them? Without warning, they faded away, taking the light with them.
Olivia blinked
repeatedly to adjust to the new light…or lack of light. The house, her house,
felt quite dark and still and something seemed different about her senses. At
first, she couldn’t pinpoint it. Then…
My vision; what’s wrong with my vision?
She could see above
as well as below all at the same time. Her vision seemed to be at three hundred
and sixty degrees.
This is disturbing.
Was she dreaming?
That was it. It was just a dream. She should wake up now. She could not tell if
it was day or night. Closing her eyes, she willed herself to wake up. She
opened her eyes. Nope. Still the same hazy state. Was this real? It couldn’t
be.
Brayden.
The name popped into
her mind, and an unexplained fear churned deep inside her. Almost
instantaneously, she found herself standing beside Brayden’s crib. He slept
peacefully. She blew a sigh of relief.
Thank God.
She reached to tuck
Brayden in, but her hands went straight through. Startled, she took a quick
step back. It didn’t feel like a step; it felt more as if she floated through
the air. She looked down. Her feet dangled above the ground. She did float through the air.
“What is happening to
me?” she asked the stillness around her. Her words sounded hollow. What was
going on? This had to be a dream, but why couldn’t she wake up? Maybe the dream
wasn’t over yet. That had to be it. Okay. Okay, she would play along a little
while longer.
No. It didn’t make
any sense. She glided down in the rocking chair beside Brayden’s crib and tried
to still her thoughts long enough to make some sense of the situation. She
shivered, suddenly feeling chilled.
Pipes clanked
somewhere below followed by footsteps and doggy toenails clicking on the
hardwood floor. More clanking morphed into muffled voices from downstairs.
Instantly, Olivia found herself looking at a multitude of people, most of them
dressed in police uniforms. They went in and out of the house as if that was
the most natural thing to do. Flash bulbs made lightning strikes in the setting
sun. Two people—a woman and a man—both dressed in plain clothes, talked to some
uniformed officers while pointing, measuring, and comparing notes.
Olivia’s parents sat
on the sofa in the living room. Her mother cried uncontrollably. Brady had his
arm around Dana, comforting her while he fought back his own tears.
Outside, uniformed
officers swarmed in all directions. A coroner’s van parked in front of the
house stood out from the rest of the police vehicles. Olivia spotted Brandon.
He sat on the curb with his legs sprawled out in front of him. Holding his face
in his hands, his body shook as he sobbed. Dark red splotches covered his white
shirt. The same dark red substance coated his hands and face.
Why was everyone
crying?
Another lightning
strike drew Olivia’s attention toward the garage. She drifted in that direction
and froze. A lifeless body, which looked a lot like her, lay in a pool of
blood. Detective Libby kneeled down beside the body and looked at something, in
particular, then shook her head.
“It looks like she’s
been dead for hours,” she said.
Olivia looked at the
body in disbelief. It was her body.
She was…dead?
How?
Sheer terror shook
her. Even more confused, she hovered trying to compute the events leading to
this moment. Still in a haze, flashbacks began to rush through her mind. She
remembered her fight with Brandon…her plan to leave him in the morning. The
scratch on her arm… Instinctively she looked at her arm. Yep, it was still
there. She had walked into the garage…the intense burning sensation in the back
of her head. She remembered thinking of Brayden. Begging for help…and a voice
instructing her to relax.
The stream of blood
running down on the cement floor as her life slowly drained from her body. She
remembered fading away, knowing she would never see her son again. She never
got to say goodbye. Her heart sunk for Brayden, for herself. She wouldn’t be
there to teach him things, guide him, and see him graduating or getting
married.
Her final breath had
whispered past her lips, and everything had gone black. She was, in fact, dead.
The finding shook her as shock replaced the confusion. A sense of betrayal
began to stir somewhere deep inside her soul as a burning rage hissed through
like a deadly poison.
“I am dead. He’s
killed me. The son-of-a-bitch has finally killed me. Damn you!” she roared.
Suddenly, she stopped
her rumble. Something wasn’t right. If she was dead, why was she still here?
Wasn’t she supposed to move on? To heaven or something?
“Am I a ghost?” The
question hung in the air like a dark shadow. She examined herself, trying to
find something that would prove or disprove her theory. She was still dressed
in the same clothes from the night before…as was the body lying on the ground of
her garage. She wasn’t glowing or translucent; she had no halo above her head.
She looked normal. Well…if she did not take into account that her voice sounded
hollow; or that she glided instead of walking; or that she went through doors
and walls as if she were taking a walk in the park.
“Dammit! I am a
ghost; nothing more than a spirit without a body.” That bit of knowledge was
the first thing that somehow seemed to make sense. She swirled a few times,
assessing the situation then she stopped. “He has to pay for what he’s done,”
she decided calmly.
Instantly, her calm
morphed into anger and resentment again. “I will make him pay!” she shrieked as
she flew into a rage. Spinning around like a crazed toy, she knocked things
down in her path.
“Close that door. The
draft is messing up the evidence,” Detective Libby yelled at no one in
particular.
Olivia’s flight
continued out the door until she reached Brandon and clutching on to her anger
she beat the air with her hands into a frenzy trying to hit Brandon.
“You, son-of-a-bitch!
Damn you! Damn you!” she screeched endlessly until she couldn’t anymore.
Exhausted and
frustrated, she slouched beside him on the pavement. “Why? How could you do
this to me? I loved you. Why couldn’t you just divorce me?” She wanted to cry,
but tears didn’t come. Only an excruciating, soul-gripping pain.
Shoulders slumped,
she glided back into the house. Her parents came into view again. Her mother
had slid to the floor, continuing to cry violently. It didn’t sound like she
paused long enough to breathe. Her father had kneeled down beside her, one arm
wrapped around her and the other caressing her hair in an apparent attempt to
calm her.
Olivia felt her
parents’ pain and wanted to, somehow, make it go away. Unwillingly, she glared
into her mother’s soul and felt everything her mother felt—torment, pain,
anguish—each sensation building on the other. That was what Dana suffered. Pain
more agonizing than anything Olivia had ever experienced came in waves and
seared through her like a branding iron. Her mind conceded to the torment,
unable to bring a thought to completion. Her only desire was to curl into a
tiny, invisible ball while the pain burned and radiated.
Debbie came into the
room holding Brayden in one arm and caressing the back of his head with the
other, his tiny legs wrapped around her waist. Olivia approached and gently
touched her son’s face. Brayden smiled as if knowing his mother was there.
Why does Debbie’s advice make so much more sense after I
screwed up?
Olivia wondered, remembering countless times when Debbie told her she deserved
better.
Olivia floated back
outside. This was an entirely new experience for her, one to which she knew she
must become accustomed. No one seemed able to see or hear her. Suddenly, she
knew her reason for still being here. She had to tell the world that her
husband had killed her. She had heard about thinks like this before. Not that
she believed in ghosts at that time. Now she wished she had.
“Help! Please,
someone, help me!”
For a split second,
she stood somewhere on a highway, waving for help. A bus driver seemed to spot
her. He would stop. But…no. He just swerved around her and disappeared from her
view.
She was back at her
house in her bedroom where it was quiet. Olivia stilled her thoughts. Though
the events seemed crystal clear, she had to focus on finding a way to make her
presence known. She had never believed in ghosts, but she had always loved
movies about the paranormal. In the movies, the spirit could communicate. But
that was Hollywood. This was real life…or death.
“Gah! Just kill me
now!” she sneered in frustration. “Oh, wait. Somebody did. Never mind, false
call,” she growled looking toward the heavens.
There were a lot of
things she needed to work on in her new existence, besides making her presence
known. Things like traveling. She could no longer tell time, but she knew she
moved too much, too fast because she became easily disoriented.
Thinking of something
allowed her to go to the source of the question. It quickly became one of
Olivia’s favorite pastimes, much like dessert was a favorite at mealtime.
Apparently, she just needed to learn how best to utilize her ghostly senses,
but a dark pressure-like sensation fogged her attempts. Something she could not
describe, almost similar to how there are no words to describe colors to a
blind man. Perhaps pain? Perhaps regrets for a life unlived?
From an outsider looking in,
Olivia had a great life with a promising career. She fell in love with
her sweetheart, got married and was on track to building her family.
Behind the walls though, her marriage is crumbling. Her husband Brandon,
an attorney, is succumbing to the pressures of life and turns to alcohol and
drugs. Olivia finally decides she has had enough one night after Brandon
comes home late and extremely drunk, passing out on the kitchen floor. In an effort to protect her child, she knows
she must leave this unhealthily relationship. Before she even gets a
chance to pack her bags, tragedy strikes and Olivia dies before she can better
her life. You would think that this is where Olivia's story ends, but
alas, it is not. Olivia has not crossed over and in her ghostly state is
convinced that Brandon killed her and she is determined to make his life a
living hell until he admits that he is a killer.
I really liked the premise of
this story, but the story seemed rushed to me as there is a lot going on
in a such a short amount of time – so much, that I really couldn’t connect with
the characters as much as I would have liked. I really would have liked
details to be expanded upon more so that I could connect with the story better.
The mystery factor was what kept me intrigued throughout as I tried to guess
who killed Olivia and I was kept guessing until the end. Overall, because of its simplistic writing
style, I feel that this was an easy read and a good choice for a lazy afternoon
of reading, especially if you enjoy a ‘who-done-it’ mystery with a ghostly
twist.
3 stars
Ica Iova is the author of several books—two of
which are award winners. She Never Got To Say Goodbye, won bronze at World’s
Best Story, 2015, and Boundaries, was a finalist at WBS, 2014.
Ica writes what she enjoys reading. In her
novels, she brings to life powerful, gripping relationships and fascinating
characters to which readers can relate.
A former Examiner at Examiner.com,
Ica is also an avid reader and a Reader’s Choice Official Reviewer. When she is
not writing, editing, or marketing, she’s a proud wife, mother, and
grandmother, with a substantial sense of humor. She loves spending time with
her family and pets, shopping for shoes, or just lazing around with a good
book.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
No comments:
Post a Comment