Chapter 206: Chapter 206: Old Friend

Olivia POV

I retreated into myself as well as into the house. It was an instinct developed when I was little. To get away from what bothered me or anything I didn’t want to think about. Skeet shooting was fine. I actually had fun, out in the yard in my tweeds, blowing clay pigeons apart.

I knew my way around a shotgun when I was 12, but when it came to hunting animals. I got a lot fainter of heart. The idea of seeing anything hurt managed to hurt me. Not in the same way, but as a pressure in my chest, like a hand crushing my heart.

It was happening then, a squeezing in my chest. The same sick feeling I got before every family hunting trip, hiding under my bed so I wouldn’t have to go. Dad argued it was something I had to know along with music and horses and sailing. He just wanted me to be well-rounded, but there were things I couldn’t stomach.