Page 191 of Waiting For A Girl Like You
Jamison exhaled slowly. “Then she goes off to fall in love with a man who later becomes a domestic terrorist.”
“Michael was already in the picture when Toby started sniffing around your family. Once CeCe found out Taylor was working at Fairweather Holdings, she was done. That sealed her decision to leave with Sinclair.”
“But, when her big brother comes to town and starts killing women connected to CeCe, Michael gets pissed.”
“They fight. He leaves,” Liam continued. “And the rest is how we know it.”
“He built CeCe that house.”
“Aftershe died. He built it when he refused to do any more black ops jobs, and not long after the house was complete, the headaches started. The doctors found the tumor almost immediately.”
“That’s so sad,” she sighed. “I mean, it’s sad, but it’s not sad? I don’t know what I’m trying to say, honestly.”
Liam didn’t reply, and she knew he was waiting for her to catch up. “Okay, tell me. You never go quiet unless you’re getting to the meat of it.”
“Sinclair was told he had ten to twelve months to live. Surgery was an option, but he wasn’t sure that was the path he wanted. Living without CeCe wasn’t worth it, so he came to Haven House and sat in the graveyard to feel close to her while he made his decision.”
“He told me he did that a lot,” she whispered.
“He wrote about it in the journals, too. But on this particular visit, he claims he saw CeCe’s ghost. She told him the truth about how she died.”
Jamison’s eyebrows lifted. “Did he know then that the brain tumor was causing hallucinations?”
She might have been out of it on the night Michael tried to kidnap her, but she could remember how he screamed at the ball of light and almost begged her to admit she saw it, too. Perhaps one day, she would stop and reflect on her own experiences. Perhaps even find a rational explanation for them. But for now, she didn’t have the time to dwell on her weird encounters or odd dreams.
And she certainly didn’t want to think about how the dreams had tapered off into nothing.
Since they escaped, there had been no more nightly visions. Not of her mother or CeCe. She mourned the loss of her mother, but not CeCe. As far as she was concerned, CeCe Miller could rest in peace quietly.
“So, he understands that he has a brain tumor and knows they cause hallucinations, yet he thinks CeCe’s ghost talked to him?”
“Not just talked to him. This ghost supposedly told him that Taylor was involved with CeCe’s death and that she had only killed herself because she was terrified of what Toby would do once Taylor worked him into a frenzy.”
She heard the shuffle of papers being shifted around. Liam and Holden were in the car, driving back to their hotel, which was quite a distance from the staging site.
“Everyone knows CeCe ate that manchineel fruit,” he muttered, sounding like he was looking for something. “Toxicology confirmed it. Toby claimed it was suicide, which it was.”
Jamison pressed her fingertips to her temples, massaging in circles as if it would help shove all this information into her head. “And what does that have to do with him hallucinating about CeCe?”
“The hallucination said he needed to go see Taylor and have a chat about the night CeCe died. The original story Taylor told Sinclair was that Toby never wanted to hurt his sister and had taken CeCe out into the swamp so she would have a nice view of Haven House from the water while he convinced her to reconnect with their family. That made complete sense to Sinclair. Hell, he was planning to build her a near replica of the place and knew how much Haven House meant to CeCe.”
“So, ghost CeCe tells him Taylor did something bad, and to go talk to her, which he obviously did.”
“Hold on, I want to read this part to you.” He shuffled around more, sorting through something in the car. “Can you still hear me?”
“I can hear you.”
“Okay, I’m going to read you some passages, but Jamison—don’t repeat this to your dad. Or Simone. Or anyone, really. It’ll probably never make it into any official file. And I think that might be for the best.”
She didn’t like the sound of that, but her curiosity was too great. “Let’s hear it.”
“Cecilia and I visited Haven House plenty, walking the trails and peeking up at the house through the trees. We would stop and visit with her sister and mother, who are buried in the graveyard. Cecilia never remembered much about her mother, but she remembered her sister. She would call her memories of Livy her sunshine memories because thinking of her always filled Cecilia with a sense of peace and happiness. Cecilia would complain how no one ever took care of the tombstones, and part of me wanted to believe the Fairweathers started cleaning up the graveyard after her death because Cecilia had finally come home.”
Since she was lying on her back, the tears welling slid sideways out of the corner of her eyes. “That was a good way to describe Livy. I have about as many memories of her as I do of my mom, which is next to nothing, but I can remember very clearly the way Livy laughed. It wassweet and comforting, and thinking of it now tickles the edge of my brain.”
He listened as she sniffled. “You’re tired. We can talk about this tomorrow.”
“No, keep reading. I’m fine.”
