The Scorned

By Lisa Haak

Kate is given the opportunity to leave her monotonous life of work and sleep behind her when a family friend asks her to be the caretaker of her beloved lake house. Increduously, Kate accepts and is thrilled at the chance to start a new chapter of her life. A new chapter that would hopefully include happiness and love.
James, after leaving a tumultuous past behind him, was also searching for a new start. He had thought he had found happiness and love with Kelly but then it began taking a dark turn, backing him into a corner filled with regret and uncertainty of what his life was about to become. That was until he met Kate. Now his path to love and happiness is undeniably clear.

Kelly gets what every she wants, no matter what the cost and no matter what the means. When she loses James, who is the only man she has ever loved, her deadly past resurfaces and she will make everyone suffer for what she has lost.
It is a story of how the lives of three people become entangled with deadly consequences.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lisa Haak
• Release date: Nov 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301420735

Lisa Haak

I am 44-years old, married to Nick for almost ten years and have a 5 year old daughter Kaitlyn. I have two ferrets, Seamus and Bailey. I am an avid reader of horror books, thrillers, mysteries, political biographies and true crime. I love music and camping.

Book preview

Prologue

Kate slid her hand slowly across the damp leather, her fingers stretching and contracting as they searched for the far edge of the seat. She could smell the combination of leather and rain water as she pressed her cheek into the side of the seat to move up. Finally finding what they were searching for, her hand slid down and her fingers tightened around the underneath of the chair. She took a small, shaky breath and attempted to use the seat to pull herself up onto her knees.

Everything on the boat was saturated due to the storm, making getting a firm grip on the leather almost impossible. Her fingers slipped slight and her right knee slid through a puddle of water which had gathered on the floor of the boat. She slowly readjusted her position and was able to get some sort of traction as she gingerly pulled herself up. She then lifted her head to see where that crazy bitch was.

She had a shooting pain on the side of her head and the right side of her tongue throbbed as if it had a pulse. The taste of metal permeated her mouth which she instantly knew was blood. She couldn’t remember biting her tongue. It must have happened when she was thrown into the boat and struck her head on the table. She stuck the tip of her tongue into her cheek in an attempt to staunch the flow of blood and felt blood run out of the corner of her mouth. She looked up and locked eyes with the woman that was going to kill her.

Kelly’s eyes widened at the sight of the blood pooling in the corner of Kate’s mouth and down her chin and her lips twitched in a small, sardonic smile. Kate realized her face almost had the gleeful look of anticipation that a dog has when being offered a bone for consumption as a reward.

Kate shuddered slightly and realized that her happy life was about to come to an end. She stared until the other woman broke eye contact and reached toward ropes that held the boat to the dock. Kate could see the muscles in her back working as she untied the ropes and threw them away from the boat. Kate placed her hands flat on the seat to try to steady herself. If she didn’t get up and fight for her life this insane person was going to drive this boat to the middle of the lake and kill her.

Kate got a shaky leg underneath her and pushed up. As she tried to stand her head began spinning so she shut her eyes, gripped the seat and waited for the vertigo to pass. When she felt more steady, she tentatively reached up and felt a bump where her head struck the table. She took a deep breath and pulled herself up further. She wasn’t going to let this insane bitch take her life, not today, not if she could help it. She wanted to live. She had to find James and make sure he was okay. She had to get out of this nightmare.

* * * *

Chapter One

Kate Flannery came around the corner of the waist high wall of her cubicle and slammed a large pile of manila folders down on her desk. She ran her hands through her long brown hair which she had noticed on her last trip to the bathroom around 2:30 this afternoon, had the disheveled look of the crazy cat lady from The Simpsons. That would have been about an hour after she was advised about the emergent court papers that had to be filed next week. She glanced at the time in the bottom right hand corner of her computer monitor which read 8:28 p.m. It was now the fifth consecutive Friday night that she was working late.

I just can’t take another day of this, Kate hissed softly as she moved the files around on her desk. How dare he try to tell me I can’t have off tomorrow. It is Saturday and I am not supposed to work on Saturday. Besides the fact that I told him weeks ago I wouldn’t be able to work. I am not caving in this time.

She gritted her teeth, clasped her hands behind her head and looked around at her desk. The jumble of files and papers scattered across the work surface. Files piled on the floor. It is was she liked to refer to as organized chaos. She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled trying to calm herself down. She waited a moment but her neck still felt as if it was made of thick rubber bands that could not stretch, she groaned and yanked her hands out of her hair. She couldn’t take this life anymore. She worked over 12 hours a day, went home to sleep, worked almost every Saturday and sometimes on Sunday. It had started to become a vicious cycle of repetition with no end in sight.

Kate was a paralegal for a large law firm in New Jersey. Her boss was a difficult, busy litigation attorney. He was so busy that he not only had two full time secretaries and a file clerk, but Kate was his very own paralegal and worked for no one else on the team. She had been there for almost ten years, right out of junior college, and after being hired went directly to work for the senior partner of the litigation department.

The grind of this repetitious lifestyle, day in and day out, was starting to wear on Kate and she was growing increasingly tired of coming in early and working until 8 p.m. every night. She reached over and jabbed a finger into the power button, shutting down her computer. She glanced around one more time at the mess on her desk, twisted her face in disgust and pushed her chair under her desk. She leaned down and opened a drawer to her right, pulled out her purse, stood up and shut the drawer with her right foot. She flung her purse over her shoulder and finally left the 7’ x 6’ cubicle of hell to go home.

Kate was tired and walked slowly toward the elevator, pushed the down button and waited. The doors opened as the elevator arrived at the 15 floor and Kate stepped in and pressed the button for the lobby. She leaned her head back against the wall and sighed. She slowly closed her eyes and waited for the elevator to make its descent down to the first floor.

Stepping out of the large glass building Kate looked around quickly for her car. She had parked it in the lot over 12 hours ago and because it was already dark out—which seemed to be the norm lately—she had to remember where she parked which wasn’t hard at all. Her car was all alone on the right side of the parking lot. Kate realized as she walked through the dark parking lot, that she hadn’t seen the sun in months. It was a long exhausting winter and she was happy that it was mid-April; the winter solstice was over and the daylight would be longer, and she would get to see the sun again.

She sighed as she approached her Jeep and pointed her keyless entry at the car and hit the unlock button to open the door. She climbed in, reached around the steering wheel and jammed the key into the ignition to start the truck. She mindlessly reached over and turned on the radio which was already tuned to the local rock station. The sounds of the Dave Matthews Band filled the interior. Kate pulled the gear shift into drive, stepped on the gas and began her 15 minute drive home.

Kate began reflecting for the millionth time how she was stuck in this rut of sleep and work and how miserable it was making her. She realized she was almost 30 years old, didn’t have a boyfriend and never went out with any friends. She used to see her friends at the occasional birthday parties for their kids (when she could make it) and the obligatory attendance at weddings. She stopped going to any kind of religious ceremonies because she couldn’t justify to her boss the time away from work for a baptism for, as he put it, a kid that wasn’t hers and she wasn’t even related to. So instead of fighting with him over it, she just began declining invitations. She had declined so many invitations in the last ten years; she hardly had any friends left. It had made her sad that her friends had slowly gone on with their lives without her, but it didn’t bother her in the beginning. It was her job, this is what she did for a living. But lately she realized her life had suffered because her boss had the social graces of a slug.

She flicked her blinker on and made a right onto the highway. Kate enjoyed being around her friend’s kids and she wanted kids of her own but she didn’t even have time to try to find a boyfriend, let alone someone to marry and have children with. But the professional drive that Kate had in the beginning was changing and she was now growing tired of this life and had recently been questioning why she was doing this to herself and more importantly what she was gaining by continuing to do it. Her job used to make her feel invigorated, now it just made her feel depressed.

Kate had a nice bank account because she didn’t have time to shop (unless it was on-line during her short lunch break) or even go on vacation. The last time she took off from work was two years ago when her grandmother needed an operation. She had taken off a week and a half to stay with her grandmother. That turned out to be a disaster because her boss called her numerous times every day.

Kate lived in an apartment, because to own a home would require time to go house hunting. Kate snorted to herself, time was something she didn’t have. She turned the Jeep in her apartment complex and continued the drive to her unit.

Kate unlocked the door to her apartment and stepped into her living room. She looked around, her face devoid of all emotion. Her house was sparse of furniture and clean. Her living room was immaculate because she cleaned up whatever small mess she made every night before she went to bed.

She even had a boring, repetitious home life. A quick dinner, fall onto the couch and either read for an hour or watch something unexciting on TV. Sometimes if she was feeling very adventurous and wasn’t totally exhausted, she did a load of laundry or made a quick return phone call to anyone that was brave enough to have called her during the week but as of late, that would only be her grandmother. Even the phone calls had ceased.

She dropped her purse and briefcase down on the dining room table, kicked off her heels and padded bare foot into the kitchen to prepare her dinner. She returned five minutes later with a low calorie TV dinner in her right hand and the remote control for the TV in her left hand. She lowered herself onto the couch and stared down at the small black plastic divider plate her food was in.

Kate moved her fork absently around in the mashed potatoes and muttered to herself, I haven't been on a date in over year and I haven't been in a relationship in over three years. I am tired of eating out of a plastic container, or something reheated in the microwave. How much longer can I do this? She sighed again and pushed a forkful of the potatoes into her mouth.

Kate’s last relationship was with a Clerk for a Judge from the local county courthouse. His name was Steven and because he worked just as much as she did, they actually had to schedule dates. After a few months, it just turned in a monumental disaster, their dates were akin to making dental appointments to have your teeth cleaned, three months in advance and then hope for the best that you don’t have to cancel because it would take another three months for an appointment.

Kate finished her lackluster dinner and tried to concentrate on an uninteresting show on TV. She gave up, shut off the TV and slowly dragged herself off the couch and began her nightly routine of make-up removal and teeth brushing before climbing into bed.

Kate fell into a fitful sleep. Every time she woke up and glanced at the clock, it was only another hour later.

Great, she muttered flinging herself over onto her stomach and wrapping her arms around her pillow in an attempt to try to find a more comfortable position. I can't escape my mundane life enough to get some sleep and try to even dream of a better existence.

Kate woke up in the morning, tired and still in a semi-miserable mood. She showered and put on a pair of black jogging capris pants and a black sport t-shirt under a zip-up hoodie and her beloved Nike sneakers. Her poor feet were jammed into heals all week that they sighed with relief when they were cocooned in the soft padding of her sneakers.

Her attire was in absolute conflict from the usual business suit and the pumps which made her stand almost six feet tall. She tied the laces in her sneakers and slowly stretched into a standing position while she looked into the full length mirror which hung on the back of her closet door. She pulled off the black hair tie she had around her wrist, and reached around pulled her light brown hair back into a pony tail. She always wore it down at work and it fell to about her shoulder blades and was fashionably styled with various layers and side swept bangs. She was at least able to have a stylish hair cut because she ran at lunch time every other month to have her hair done.

She had beautiful blue eyes and a nice figure which was not too skinny—she detested the skeletal look of someone who appeared to have not eaten more than a carrot in years—but she could not be considered overweight. She couldn’t exercise because of her schedule so she kept her figure due to the fact that she never had a chance to breath, let alone snack, at work. Kate literally ate only three meals a day. Because of that, she tried to make those meals as healthy as possible.

She divided her pony tail into two pieces and pulled them apart so the band tightened towards the back of her head. She was pretty enough and considered a good catch, but what did it matter because she had no time. She put a quick coat of mascara on her long lashes, stuck the wand in the tube and twisted it closed. Kate stared at her reflection in the mirror and thought how pathetic she was. She stuck her tongue out at herself in the mirror and threw her mascara into her makeup case.

Kate slowly wandered into the kitchen to scrambled herself an egg. She popped a bagel in the toaster and got a slice of fat-free cheese out of the fridge. After her breakfast sandwich was cooked, she sat at the dining room table, munching her sandwich and thought about her visit with her Grandmother today. See her grandmother always put a smile on her face.

Kate had an immense love for her Bridget Flannery. She was Kate’s maternal grandmother and was all that Kate had left of her immediate family. She had no siblings and Kate’s father had died when she was sixteen years old in a horrific car accident. His death had caused a massive amount of heartache for her mother, which her mother was unable to handle. In the years after her father’s death, Kate’s mother became more depressed and started to drink. Kate always heard of the expression dying of a broken heart but she didn’t understand the physical implication of it until she saw her mother after her dad’s death.

Her mother first started to drink in an attempt to numb the pain, and then it just became a way to get through the day and unfortunately the excessive drinking quickly led to her demise. Kate and her grandmother had tried numerous times to get her mother help, but you just can’t help someone that doesn’t want to be helped and she would start drinking again the moment she got home. Her mother passed away seven years later from liver disease which was caused by a broken heart and many an empty liquor bottle. Kate had relied heavily on her grandmother during these times. They had become more than grandmother/granddaughter, they had truly become friends.

At twenty-three years old, her mother and father both now gone, her grandmother had stepped in to play both parenting roles. See what her mother’s drinking was doing to her, her grandmother asked Katie to move in with her. Katie decided against it because she didn’t want to hurt her mother by moving in with her grandmother, but she couldn’t spend another night crying herself to sleep because there was no helping her mother, so she decided to go out on her own the year before her mother died.

Since Kate's grandfather had passed away and Kate decided not to move in with her grandmother, Bridget decided to sell the large house she lived in and because she didn’t want to be a burden on anyone so she looked around until she found Silver Spring Lodge an Active Adult Community.

Bridget’s next door neighbor and best friend was Mrs. Annette Dwyer (or Nette as her grandmother called her). They were always together and thick as thieves. These two elderly ladies cracked Kate up. It was like they were teenagers all over again when they were together.

Annette Dwyer was somewhere close to eighty-ish (a woman never reveals her real age she had said on more than one occasion) although she looked like a young seventy-ish. She carried herself very well, was always immaculately dressed and her makeup looked like she just stepped out of a makeup artist’s chair. Kate assumed by the way she acted and presented herself that she probably had some finishing school and Kate always wonder if she was brought up in higher in society than Kate’s family had been.

Despite how she looked and acted in public, Kate and Gram knew another side of her, a side that loved to let loose and be flamboyant and just was a boat-load of fun and energy. Nette loved Kate’s grandmother because she could be herself around Bridget, and Bridget never judged. As a matter-of-fact, Bridget Flannery never judged anyone for who they wanted to be and always encouraged Kate to pursue whatever would make her happy.

One day Katie had walked into her grandmother’s house and heard loud music playing and found them in the living room attempting to do the limbo under a broom which was perched atop two dining room chairs. It ended with the two woman in a giggling heap in the middle of the floor. After Kate realized they were fine and did not hurt themselves, her worry turned to envy at the fun they were having.

Kate knew that her grandmother disapproved of her life very much because there was no fun, there was no joy in her daily existence of going to work and coming home every day and quite frankly, at this point, Kate whole-heartedly agreed with her.

Many years ago, on a lovely fall afternoon day when Kate was on a rare shopping trip with her Grandmother, Kate asked her about Mrs. Dwyer. Evidently, Mrs. Dwyer had moved into the active adult community right around the time Gram did. Mrs. Dwyer was a widow, just like Kate’s grandmother. She was well-off but wanted to live in the adult community for the companionship because all of her family had moved away. She had lived in a remote area in North Jersey somewhere by a lake. Kate never heard of the town or had been in that area of New Jersey. It might be a small state, but New Jersey is very congested with traffic and it sometimes takes hours to get anywhere. There was that, and of course the fact that she never had time to take a vacation or go anywhere else in the state.

Kate cherished the time she spent with these two ladies because they made her happy, to hear the stories of their lives and how wonderfully fulfilling they were, so unlike hers. Kate loved living vicariously through them and she wasn’t missing this lunch date for the world.

Kate cleaned up her breakfast dishes. Grabbed her purse off the table and headed toward the front door. She then hopped into her Jeep for the half hour ride to Gram’s house. On the ride over, she started to feel her dark mood lighten a bit.

Hmmm….maybe something wonderful will happen to me today Kate said softly to herself. After mulling the thought around in her head for a second or two, she burst out laughing and headed towards the highway.

* * * *

Chapter Two

Do you want another cup of tea, Katie dear? Gram asked getting up out of her chair. Katie was her grandmother’s pet name for her.

Yes, please Gram. Thank you. I am just having the best time. My stomach is hurting from laughing so hard, Kate said smiling fondly as she watched her Grandmother walk into the kitchen.

Kate, Gram and Nette were all sitting around the patio table in the Florida Room at her grandmother’s house. It was still a bit too chilly outside to take out the glass windows and put the screens in, but Kate had cracked some of the windows and opened up the blinds, flooding the room with bright sunlight. Kate missed the sunlight and was attempting to soak up as much of it as she could on her day off.

Kate turned towards Mrs. Dwyer to continue the conversation they were having. Kate leaned her forearms onto the table and looked Mrs. Dwyer in the eyes, raised her eyebrows and said, Come on now, you are kidding me? You actually refused to date Mr. Dwyer for five years?

Mrs. Dwyer sipped her tea, put it down on the saucer and replied, yes, I did. I was not going to be an easy conquest for that womanizing man!

Kate burst out laughing as did Gram who was filling Katie’s cup with a dark fragrant tea from a beautiful china teapot. Her Grandmother had a large assortment of teas and Katie loved the smells and tastes of the different teas when she came over. She lifted the cup to her lips and was greeted by the much loved smell of cinnamon. She glanced over at Mrs. Dwyer, whose mouth was slightly tilted up, a smug look on her face. She looked back at Kate, her smile becoming broad. She daintily licked her lips and took a deep breath, leaning back she continued her story.

Mr. Dwyer was quite the ladies man at that time and everyone wanted to date him. I hated him just for that very reason. I was a non-conformist, walked to the beat of a different drummer, whatever you want to call it, and I would be damned before I would date a man that would take me to dinner twice and then move on to the next broad.

Kate snorted at her use of the word ‘broad’ as that was a word that was not used anymore when referring to a woman. Go ahead and try to use that word in the workplace today and you will find yourself escorted right out of the building and dropped off at the front door of the unemployment building.

But I was intrigued by him, I wont lie. He was handsome; he was extremely intelligent and had a great sense of humor. He owned his own business, had a nice car and had recently bought his own home. That is why everyone wanted him. You couldn’t get better in the town where I grew up. Mrs. Dwyer looked down at her tea cup and sighed as she picked up the cup. She took a long sip before continuing.

I was the only girl in town that spurned his invitations for dinner, walks in the park or drives to the lake or anywhere else he asked me to go. He told me later that he began to regard me as a challenge because all the other girls went with him so willingly and I would not. She looked up at Kate, leaned forward, put her elbows on the table and folded her hands under her chin. On the day I said yes, and he almost fell off the curb he was standing on because he was expecting me to tell him to go pound salt again. Kate and Bridget started laughing.

I told him dinner and then straight home. No walks in the park. No drives to the lake. I will go to dinner with you and that’s it—and the only reason I am going with you is so you will finally leave me the hell alone! Mrs. Dwyer looked at Kate with a small prim and proper smile on her face. Well the rest is history, we were both hooked after one date, married within nine months and I had two children with him, Patrick and Tabatha.

Kate leaned back and said to Mrs. Dwyer, do you have any other grandchildren besides the two that I met, Ryan and Jared?

Mrs. Dwyer’s back straightened and she seemed to flinch. Her shoulders quickly relaxed and she stared down at her tea cup. Um, yes dear, I have two more, my daughter Tabatha’s children, Caleb and Karen.

Oh, I think I remember hearing about them in passing conversation. How old are they? Where do they live? Kate inquired.

Mrs. Dwyer leaned back, took a deep breath and turned to stare out the window but did not seem to be actually looking at anything, just staring. After about five seconds she turned to Kate and said, well you know my son Patrick is in Florida. He and I are still close but he owns his own restaurant doesn’t get a lot of time to travel. That is why I go to Florida often. Mrs. Dwyer paused for a second and continued on, well my daughter Tabatha moved out to California when she graduated high school to go to college and she married and resides there. She used to come back once a year but after a tragic accident and she has not set foot back in this state again. My granddaughter Karen passed away when she was 11 and my grandson Caleb—well, I uh, I am not sure where he is right now. He had a falling out with his mother and father and subsequently he stopped talking to most of his family.

Mrs. Dwyer leaned toward Kate and seemed to become a bit more relaxed as she talked, he is around your age and I love him dearly, he was my shadow. He is just like me. A non-conformist and very artistic and has divine musical talents. He did not want to follow my son-in-law’s vision of a family business in dentistry. He had a great love for music and decided to go to college for a degree in same. He’s presently a music teacher, and a very fine one from what I understand. But, unfortunately his parents, yes my daughter included, decided on a rigid standard on how to live and didn’t feel that her son’s choice in a career was acceptable.

"Tabatha and I did not get on well either. I swear as a baby she detested me and I believe she wasn’t very fond of my husband either. They say that girls are supposed to gravitate toward their father, but she always kept him at arm’s length. She had a perpetual stick up her ass. Tabatha was studious, never laughed, had very little friends and she thought I was an embarrassment to her because I was flamboyant and spoke my mind. She hated all our friends and thought we are all immature and vulgar. They only time I saw anything that resembled affection from that girl was when she decided to go to college in California. It was going to cost a small fortune and, as they say, hind sight is always 20/20 and I now know why she became nice. She never had any intention on coming back and from the moment she moved out, she limited conversation to only when she had to call. After my granddaughter passed away we talked about once a year and then after my husband died, they would only contact me for certain circumstances. I remember a few birthdays which she never called. Then we had a falling out and they stopped completely." She paused for a moment, and continued.

Caleb hasn’t spoken to his parents for over ten years which was right around the time Tabatha and my son-in-law stopped talking to me because I chose Caleb’s side and decided to pay for his college degree in music. I called him one day and he was distraught. He refused for about an hour to tell me what happened and I literally had to pull it out of him. He then told me that his parents said that if he went to Julliard they would not pay for it and cut him off completely. And since he would only be eighteen when he started college he didn’t know how he would survive in New York City by himself. The last time I was out to visit them we had a brutal fight and I secretly agreed to help Caleb, but the fight was just actually the nail in the coffin that Tabatha was looking for because she had always wanted to cease our relationship. She told me I was dead to her and dead I have been. Mrs. Dwyer sadly looked away.

Now Nettie, don’t get yourself all upset. Kate’s grandmother came around the table to put her arms around Mrs. Dwyer’s shoulders give her a gentle hug.

A humming noise filed the room as Mrs. Dwyer’s cell phone began to vibrate on the glass table top. Mrs. Dwyer composed herself, straightened her back and picked up the phone. Annette Dwyer, she said in a clipped tone.

Kate sat quietly drinking her tea while she listed to the one sided conversation.

Are you kidding me? What. What is the problem? Oh Lord, it was the easiest job in the world! An easy job with very good pay for not having to do anything but live in a house! Oh. . . I see. So she is running off to get married? To whom, may I ask? Oh my god. Well okay, who the hell am I to stop any kind of twisted marital bliss! But this is a nightmare because I am too old to live there anymore. Okay. Alright. I understand. I will get back to you shortly. I understand English perfectly fine Mr. Dolan and as I was one the original members of the Association which you run now, one of the members who made up all the rules and regulations which you now are enforcing, I understand perfectly clear what needs to be done. Mrs. Dwyer snapped, clearly agitated. She slapped her phone shut with the tips of her fingers and tossed it down on the glass table where it landed with the loud bang of heavy plastic hitting glass.

Bridget, be a dear, I need something a bit stronger than tea right now. How about some scotch and ice? Mrs. Dwyer raised her fingers to her temples and started to rub them as if trying to get rid of a headache.

Mrs. Dwyer what is the problem? Are you okay? Kate asked.

"You know that I have a house in Mirror Lake a few hours from here, right? Well that was the Lake Association Management Company. Well the caretaker quit on me! She met a man in town and is running off to Vegas to get married. Evidently she doesn’t need a job anymore so I have no one to watch my house. I knew this was happening but I didn’t want the Association to find out, which is why I sounded as if I didn’t know. I was trying to hold off telling the Association so I could find a replacement and they would be none the wiser, but she ran into someone who she didn’t realize was on the Association and told her. Well, that snowballed and