Page 16 of Chasing Your Ghost

“What?” she shrieked. “That’s not fair.”

“It’s more than fair,” her mom replied in a no-nonsense tone. “Now go to your room.”

“Edith,” Hugh sighed. “Is that necessary?”

Her nostrils flared, but she didn’t take her eyes off their daughter. “Yes.”

“Fine,” Olivia spat, her chair scraping against the wooden floor as she stood hastily. She grabbed her plate, the tacos nearly flying off it as she spun on her heel and fled the room.

Those left at the table remained silent as she stomped up the stairs and slammed her bedroom door violently behind her.

“I’m sorry, Riley,” Edith said. “She shouldn’t have spoken to you like that.”

“It’s okay,” she replied, though, of course, it wasn’t. “Can’t really blame her for acting out, honestly. It must be hard for her to have me here.”

This family had been living their life happily for nearly two decades, and here Riley was destroying it. She could practically hear Miley Cyrus singing about coming in like a wrecking ball in her head. Sure, it was Olivia who’d been the one to destroy the peace, so to speak, but it was Riley’s presence that had triggered the girl’s anger.

Regardless, it wasn’t as though Riley had made grand plans to get to know her half-sister. It was better this way. It would make it easier for Riley to leave.

Edith frowned. “She’ll get used to it. I think she’s just not used to sharing the spotlight.”

Noah closed his eyes and shook his head. “Liv doesn’t care about being the center of attention.”

“You know what, if it’s okay, I’m going to take my food to my room as well,” Riley said, directing her words toward Hugh. She needed to get out of there. She needed to get away from her egg donor.

He nodded sadly. “Of course.”

“Thank you.” She pushed her chair back without the dramatic flair that Olivia had done it with and took her plate with her as she left through the French doors.

The humid and hot air hit her like a punch once she was outside, but within seconds, she was safely cocooned inside her air-conditioned room. She was too angry to eat right then, so Riley placed her food on the bedside table and went into the bathroom. She stripped off her clothes with forceful and furious movements, probably stretching and ruining her white tank top but not caring one bit.

She tried not to notice how comfortably large the shower was when she walked into it and pulled up the faucet handle. Cold bullets of water hit her body, and Riley half-expected the droplets to sizzle and vaporize as they met her pale skin and the hot rage boiling beneath it.

Her hands weren’t gentle as they slathered soap over her body, and her scalp cried out in pain when she brutally scrubbed her hair with shampoo, but once she was out of the shower, towel-dried, and wearing a comfortable pair of sweat pants and a matching t-shirt, she had calmed down enough to stomach her tacos.

They were cold and a bit soggy, but hell, they were the best tacos Riley had ever eaten. Her egg donor was a cow, but her taste in men wasn’t in question. Though he couldn’t compare to her dad, Hugh was nice. He had eyes that didn’t freeze people when he glared at them, and the man sure could cook. Riley didn’t know what the hell he was doing with someone like Edith.

Better yet, she didn’t know what the hell she’d been thinking when she agreed to move in with them. She’d thought of it as the easy way out in some ways, but she’d underestimated how tense things would be. Even if the food was delicious, the bed was disgustingly comfortable, and the shower was magical, Riley had never been less comfortable in her life.

She spent the rest of the evening in the pool house, trying to distract herself with one of her well-worn fantasies. But her attention was divided, and she found herself rereading the same paragraphs over and over again, the words never quite penetrating her cluttered mind.

After what seemed an eternity, Noah knocked on the door to ask her if she wanted to watch a movie with them. Had Riley not been feeling a bit sweaty and dizzy from low blood sugar—something she, her dad, and her gran had all suffered from thanks to their ability or simple genetics or a combination of both—she would have claimed tiredness and avoided it altogether.

Instead, she took him up on the offer so she could grab a snack while she was inside the main house. Not having interacted with a ghost for the entire day meant that she only needed something small to keep her going, but if she left it much longer, she knew she’d feel awful.

She followed Noah inside, and after she went through to the kitchen to scarf down an apple, she joined everyone in the living room. Riley was shocked to find her stepfather and Olivia laughing their heads off as Hugh attempted to throw pieces of popcorn in Olivia’s mouth. It was jarring how happy her half-sister looked after the disaster that had been their dinner.

Edith was shaking his head in amusement at their antics. When she saw Riley, she smiled and waved her over. Olivia wasn’t so at ease with her presence, though. Her laughter quickly cut off when Riley sat down on the couch next to Noah.

Riley watched the comedy without taking in a single word of the dialogue, too tense to pay attention to what was happening on screen.

After the movie was finished, she returned to her room and crawled straight into bed. She cried herself to sleep, thoughts of her dad, his absence, and her new life without him too much for her to bear.

5

Riley woke up early, puffy-eyed and with a headache that mostly disappeared after a long shower. Not having unpacked her bags the previous day, she had to rummage through them to find something to wear, and by the time she’d pulled out one of her many concert T-shirts and a pair of denim shorts, two of her suitcases were left a disastrous mess that she had no energy to clean up.

After pulling her long lavender hair into a loose and poorly-made braid, knowing she needed to brave the main house if she wanted breakfast, she left the safety and privacy of the pool house. The unforgiving July sun glared down at her, threatening her easily-burned skin. Riley was quick to walk past the loungers and the pool to escape its harsh stare.

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