Page 64 of Chasing Your Ghost

“Riley’s father was fixated on the supernatural, and it’s clearly rubbed off on her,” Edith explained as she picked up the books and threw them in the trash.

If Asher hadn’t decided to give up the search, Riley would have put up more of a fight for the books, but as it was, she only flinched as they were tossed away.

Edith turned to her daughter and looked at her with the fear one usually reserved for spiders or snakes. “Go to your room. If I find out you’ve been looking at this sort of thing again, you’ll be grounded for another week.”

“I hate you,” Riley said. The words were quiet but full of rage.

They hit their mark, making Edith’s bottom lip tremble. “Hate me all you want, but my word is final,” she said in a trembling voice. “You are not to bring that blasphemy into this house.”

Riley straightened, refusing to bow her head in front of the woman who hadn’t even given her a chance. “It’s a bit hard to do that when I’m literally the proof of a blasphemous relationship, don’t you think?” she sneered. “I’m the reminder of your sacrilegious mistakes, aren’t I, Edith?”

“Don’t say another word,” the woman warned, her voice trembling.

“You’re a hypocrite,” Riley told her, refusing to let this woman make her feel ashamed. If Edith wanted to judge her, then Riley was going to give her a taste of her own medicine. “You had a child out of wedlock, and instead of living with the consequences, you ran away like a coward, so you don’t get to stand there and accuse me of bringing blasphemy into your home when you abandoned your own baby.”

Edith had gone pale, and tears began falling from her eyes, but she said nothing.

“That was out of line,” Hugh said, and Riley wanted to yell at him too.

He hadn’t piped up when Edith had been throwing accusations at her, but there he was defending his wife. It made sense that his loyalty was to his wife, but that didn’t mean Riley had to like it.

“You need to apologize to your mother.”

Riley felt like she’d been punched in the gut. “I won’t apologize for telling the truth,” she said with a disgusted shake of her head. “Oh, and not that any of you care, but I took the wine out of the cabinet because I was going to make dinner, seeing as Hugh had his hands full.”

With that, Riley spun on her heel and fled the room, not pausing when Hugh asked her what she meant or when she heard Olivia running down the stairs to ask what she’d missed.

Riley slammed the French doors behind her, reveling in the loud bang that cracked through the air, and she did the same with the door of the pool house, flinging it open and closing it so violently that the walls of the room seemed to shake.

Riley yelled a curse and kicked the frame of her bed, needing to take her anger out on something. Her already ballet-bruised toes cursed her for it, but she sent her foot into the wood again, ignoring the bite of pain.

She was viciously and carelessly pulling her hair out of the tight bun she’d had it in for her ballet lesson when Asher walked through her door, his gray-tinged form moving through the white wood in a stark reminder that he would be leaving soon.

“What do you need, Asher?” The words came out harsher than Riley had intended, but she hated the way he was looking at her, his expression guarded.

“Are you okay?”

Riley barked out a dry laugh. “Well, let’s see… Edith thinks I’m a Satan-worshipper with a drinking problem. And it seems like Hugh and Noah have started to believe that too. So, no, I’m not okay. I’m very, very far from okay.” She kicked her bed again. “Can you believe they thought I was going to drink while I was meant to be looking after Olivia?”

Asher’s gaze slid away from hers, his green eyes resting on the bare wall. It was all the answer Riley needed.

“You too?” she asked, her arms folding over her stomach as anger was replaced by hurt. “You really think I’d do something like that?”

“No,” he answered quickly, his wide eyes briefly returning to her before he looked down at the floor in front of her feet. “I know you wouldn’t. I just… well, I can see why they would think that.”

“Is it because I have dyed hair? Because I don’t go to church? Because I can see ghosts?” she spat, every sarcastic word laced with resentment.

“No,” Asher replied. “I only meant that given how Edith found you in New York and the fact that you were holding a bottle of wine when they walked into the house, it wasn’t exactly an absurd conclusion to come to.”

“Right,” Riley muttered, chuckling darkly. “Does everyone know about me getting wasted after my dad’s funeral?”

Asher winced. “I overheard Edith talking to Hugh about it,” he explained.

Riley blinked back the moisture in her eyes. “I can understand Edith not believing me. This wouldn’t be the first time she’s judged me for something she shouldn’t have. But everyone else? They should have given me the benefit of the doubt and let me explain.” You should have given me the benefit of the doubt, she wanted to say.

Asher nodded slowly. “You said something about making dinner?” he asked, and Riley couldn’t decide if she was grateful he was asking or disappointed that the others hadn’t.

“It was getting late, so I thought I could help out and make dinner. I settled on making something my dad used to make every week. Chicken, broccolini, and rice with a lemon and white wine sauce.” Riley breathed in deeply and ran her hands over her face. “You know what? Believe me, don’t believe me, it doesn’t matter.”

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