Page 4 of Chasing Your Ghost

Edith looked down at the envelope she now held, more tears dropping from her eyes.

“Wait while she reads it,” her dad asked. “Please,” he added when Riley glared at him.

She huffed out an annoyed breath but did as he’d asked, observing her mother as she opened the envelope like it held something incredibly fragile. Edith’s lips pressed together into a thin white line as she unfolded the letter, and her eyes slowly and hesitantly trailed over the page.

“What does it say?” her husband asked when she had finished it and folded it back in half.

“Richard’s parents are gone too?” Edith asked Riley instead of answering her husband’s question.

Not knowing what her dad had written in the letter he’d kept in his sock drawer, Riley hesitated before nodding, caught off-guard by the question. “They both died last year after they got Covid.” Losing one of them would have been hard enough, but losing them both had nearly killed Riley and her dad.

With their abilities to see the spirits of those who had unfinished business, she and her father knew more about death than most, but that hadn’t prepared her for losing the grandparents who’d helped raise her.

Edith closed her eyes as if in pain. “I had no idea. Richard didn’t tell me.”

“Where are you staying?” Hugh asked. “Do you have any other family?”

Riley gritted her teeth, refusing to answer. The blonde woman standing in front of her was all she had left, but there was no way she would admit that. She hiked her backpack up higher on her shoulder. “Look, this has been nice,” she lied. “But I should get going.”

“What?” Edith asked, her face falling. “You just got here. Don’t you want to come in?”

“You should stay,” her dad agreed, but Riley was already shaking her head from side to side.

Edith had made it clear eighteen years earlier that she wanted nothing to do with her, and Riley didn’t care that the woman had come crawling back months later. She was under no delusions that the woman had changed her mind about her daughter’s abilities. Edith was probably still terrified of her.

“That’s okay. I don’t want to intrude.” She took a step back and turned around.

“You need to go back,” her dad argued. “Please, Riley.”

“I already did what you asked,” Riley whispered as she strode away from the house. “I delivered the letter. That was our deal.”

“Well, maybe the deal has changed,” he said, his strides matching hers.

“You can’t just change the deal,” Riley hissed, vaguely aware of Edith calling out to her. “You said you’d be able to move on if I gave her the letter.”

“I know what I said, but you’re already here. What’s the harm?”

“Are you seriously asking me that? That woman tried to get a priest to bless me with holy water because she thought our abilities came from the devil.”

He grimaced but didn’t give up. “Maybe it will be good for you to speak with her. Please, honey. Do it for me.”

“Riley, wait,” Edith called out, and though she was sure she’d come to regret it, Riley stopped in her tracks.

“Just give this a chance,” her dad begged.

“That woman abandoned us, Dad. She left us.”

“Please,” he repeated, and Riley knew she couldn’t say no. Of course, she couldn’t.

“Dammit,” she muttered before spinning on her heel.

Hugh was still standing in the doorway, but Edith was rushing toward Riley, her heels clicking on the brick path that spanned from the pavement to their front door. Riley let out a heavy breath and waited for the woman, arching a brow at her genetic donor in question when she reached them.

“Can Hugh and I take you out for lunch?”

“Say yes,” her dad urged.

Riley frowned, wishing she could tell her father what she thought of Edith’s invitation.

---