Page 34 of Finding Chaos

Chapter 16

Walker

The helicopter passing overhead had me gritting my teeth. If we’d made it back, I could have sent Destiny with them and wiped my hands of it.

The lady in white appeared in my path, and I stepped right through her in my attempt to make it back to the cabin before the storm worsened.

“That was rude,” Destiny announced. “You should apologize to Jane.”

“Putnam told me you can see them and talk to them,” I said with more bite than necessary. “He also told me you saw the ghost in these woods as a child. There’s no need to pretend any longer that it was him.”

“I did see the ghost as a kid, and then I found Hope’s picture in my father’s study,” she offered. “I found it the night he’d been scolding me about my career choice. When he’d been telling me that I needed to get my act together.” She swallowed hard as if admitting that had cost her.

“Who the hell is Hope?” I asked. “You just called her Jane.”

“Jane is the lady in white. I gave her a name until I find out her real one.”

“And Hope?”

“She’s a ghost too,” Destiny said.

“If your father had a picture of her, sounds like he likes to hunt ghosts too,” I growled.

“No. You don’t understand,” she said.

There was a lot of that going around. I shook my head and continued to the cabin.

“She wasn’t a ghost in the picture. The one I found showed her very much alive.”

My steps faltered. “You know the identity of one of the ghosts?”

“Not exactly,” Destiny answered. “But I believe she’s my mother.”

I slowed my strides to match hers. “You believe the ghost you just called Jane is your mom?”

“No.,” she said as her brows knit. “I believe the one I called Hope is.”

“Why do you believe she’s your mom?”

“When I found the picture of Hope, we just looked so much alike. She could have been my sister. I knew we were related. I just didn’t know how, so I contacted a friend that works with Genealogical DNA, and we submitted mine anonymously to see if we could find a match. We found matching relatives, only when I inquired on the girl in the picture with that family, I found out she’d been missing for decades. Then, I was given a picture by her family members. I knew then that I’d been lied to my entire life.”

My heart clenched for Destiny. The news she was adopted would be a hard secret to swallow. “Did you ask your parents?”

“They lied. They claimed it had to be some mix-up with my DNA and that I’m my mother’s daughter. They showed me pictures of her being pregnant.”

“But you don’t believe it?”

“I’m a journalist,” Destiny answered. “I went in search of the truth, and I found it in a charge to a website before my birth. A website where they sell silicone baby bumps for fake pregnancies. It was all an elaborate lie.”

We walked in silence the rest of the way to the cabin. The snow was coming down faster. We’d been lucky to beat the weather back. Not that we had a choice.

I fought the wind in an attempt to close the door and locked it behind us. Stomping the snow off of my boots, I ditched the pack and unzipped my jacket, hanging it in the closet.

I spent the next thirty minutes bringing in wood from the porch and stoking the fire back to life. The weather was worsening and we’d need to keep the fire going for the rest of the night.

When I had everything as prepared as possible, I used the phone to call down to my boss to report that everyone was safe and we were hunkering down. He sounded relieved, agreeing with me about staying put.

I cooked and fed us both before the turning off the lights to conserve fuel in the generator. We were reduced to lanterns, candles, and the fireplace.

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