Page 63 of Chasing Your Ghost

“Go to your room,” Edith ordered as she put the wine back into the overhead cabinet.

“But I wasn’t doing anything wrong. I was going to make—”

“Enough,” Edith yelled, her hand smacking down on the island counter with enough force that Riley was surprised she didn’t flinch in pain. “I’ve been trying so hard to make you happy here, but I’ve obviously failed. All you do is keep pushing back.” She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, looking exhausted and frustrated. “Go to your room, and don’t come out until tomorrow morning.”

“What about dinner? I was trying t—”

“You can go to bed hungry.” Edith leveled her daughter with a look of such anger that Riley stumbled back. “We asked one thing of you, Riley. One thing!”

“If you’d just let me explain,” Riley tried, but it was no use.

“You’re grounded for a week. No tv. No swimming. No ballet lessons.”

“That’s not fair.” A week was a hell of a long time to be grounded for something she hadn’t even done. It was also a bit ridiculous, given that Riley was eighteen and about to start college. She was an adult, not a child who needed to be reprimanded. “You won’t even let me explain.”

“Fair?” Edith scoffed. “What’s not fair is that Hugh trusted you to look after our daughter for an hour, and you threw that trust back in our faces.”

Riley’s eyes filled with tears, but they weren’t sad tears. They were tears of anger. Of course, Edith would assume the worst of her, and of course, Riley had been stupid enough to put herself in a position that could be misinterpreted. Today, she seemed to be a master of screwing things up.

“What’s not fair is that I’ve been doing everything to try to apologize and make up for my past mistakes, but you would rather spend time with my husband instead of with me,” Edith continued, the dam wall that must have been straining against the weight of her emotions for weeks, if not years, finally breaking. “What’s not fair is that I am drowning in my guilt, and I have no idea how to fix this and get my daughter back.”

Riley opened her mouth to yell back with her defense, but Noah and Chris chose that moment to arrive.

“What the hell is going on?” Noah called out from the entrance hall. “We could hear you from outside,” he said as he and Chris walked into the kitchen with matching frowns.

Nobody else could see him, but Asher came in with them, his green eyes scanning the scene before landing on Riley.

“What’s going on is that we came home to find Riley about to open a bottle of wine,” Edith explained.

Hugh kept quiet, his eyes fixed on the floor, while Noah, Chris, and Asher turned to Riley with shocked expressions. All three of them were looking at her like they didn’t even know her, not a trace of doubt on their faces, and Riley’s anger finally snapped.

“If you’d just give me one goddamned second to explain myself,” she screamed at Edith, her eyes burning as more tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Don’t you dare talk to me that way,” Edith snapped back, interrupting Riley again. “I’ve had enough of your attitude towards me. I’ve made mistakes, Riley. Nobody denies that, but you’ve gone too far this time. Now go to your room.”

“Fine,” Riley yelled. If they wanted to believe the worst of her, they could go ahead. It would make things easier when it was time for her to leave. “If any of you are interested in what actually happened, you’ll know where to find me.” She punctuated her words by shoving past the women who shared nothing but DNA with her.

“Hold on,” Noah called out, and for a second, Riley let herself hope he was about to defend her, but she was proved sorely mistaken when he held out a brown package to her. “This was at the front door,” he explained as he shifted awkwardly on his feet, unable to meet her eyes.

Riley lifted her hand to take it, but Edith got there before she did.

“What are you doing?” Riley asked. “That’s mine. Give it to me.”

Edith ignored her, pulling open one of the kitchen drawers and taking out a pair of scissors.

“You can’t do that,” Riley shouted, moving to stop the woman before the situation got even worse, but Hugh stopped her by gently taking hold of her shoulder. She shrugged out of his grip. “What, so now I have no privacy?” she demanded to know. “I can’t even order a few books without you checking the box for alcohol or drugs or who knows what?”

Her arguments fell flat, however, when Edith opened the box and pulled out the books Riley had ordered. Asher swore, knowing precisely what kind of books they were, and his eyes turned pitying as his gaze met Riley’s.

“What is this?” Edith asked in a dangerously quiet voice as she looked through the book covers, and Riley knew she was dead meat. “What is this?” she asked again, this time loud enough to make Riley flinch.

“They’re just books,” she replied weakly.

“Books about the occult,” Edith corrected, dropping them like they were covered in poison. She gulped and lifted her pale eyes to Riley. “These look satanic,” she accused.

“What are you talking about?” Hugh asked, finally speaking up as he moved to look at the books in question, frowning when he saw the picture of a ram’s skull with a pentagram carved into it on one of them.

Admittedly, they didn’t look like books you’d want your daughter to read, but Riley’s mother knew why she would look at stuff like that. She might not have been happy about it, but she didn’t need to overreact the way she was.

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