Page 76 of Splitting Secrets
Her expression falls. “None of us had any control over how that was handled.”
I roll my lips into my mouth, choosing not to comment on that.
She goes on. “I’m just weary of his ability to be a good man when he’s been forced into nothing but evil.”
“And I’m telling you, as someone who actually knows him, that he’s more than good,” I insist, my cheeks heating. I don’t know why I feel the need to defend him so strongly. It just doesn’t seem fair to judge the monster he is when she had a hand in creating it.
And who is she to talk about evil when she’s spent the past decade hiding from her own daughter?
Her lips purse into a disapproving pout. “Fine, we’ll drop it,” she relents, even though her expression says the opposite. “We need to talk about why your presence here is so significant.”
My ears perk up at that. Finally. “I would love to.”
“You and I are descendants from the Landry bloodline,” she begins.
“That much, I know.” Thanks to Finley’s regular visits. “Why didn’t anyone care that your parents were related to them?”
I’ve wanted to ask her for so long—before I ever realized I could. It doesn’t make sense to me that the Midnight Syndicate didn’t begin targeting us until she came along.
She carefully sets the music box back down and sits at the edge of my bed, her back uncomfortably straight. “They’ve always cared, but my family never gave them a reason to worry. They’d offer a large sum of money for their silence, then quietly strip them of their extra gifts and everyone would turn a blind eye.”
I can hardly stamp down my anger at that. Cowards—all of them. No wonder Finley has latched onto me so tightly. Who knows what sort of offenses he’s witnessed against his bloodline from his own descendants?
“But you couldn’t.”
She slowly shakes her head. “No, I couldn’t. The Landry family wouldn’t leave me alone. They were angry that they’d been betrayed for so long by people of their own blood. When I came around and they realized they could communicate with me, they wasted no time ensuring I knew everything.”
“That had to have been hard, juggling those two sides.”
She drops her chin into her chest, her foot tapping against the floor nervously. “I know you’ve been able to speak to spirits here and there and you’ve read the journals, but don’t expect to speak to any of them. They don’t like to be disturbed.”
I purse my lips. It appears she’s feeling possessive over the Landry ghosts. “Actually, Finley has been coming to me almost every day,” I admit.
If I’m going to expect her to start being honest with me, I have to do the same.
She blanches. “He has?”
“Is that so shocking?”
“No, it’s just . . . Finley has always been the most elusive.”
Elusive? He’s certainly eager to show up for me.
She sighs. “Then I’m sure you know that the Landrys have access to gifts from all six bloodlines.”
“Yes, not the Mirranes,” I agree, remembering what Quinn had said before. Ironically, Finley has been the least helpful when it comes to providing information about exactly where we come from. Unless it gives him the opportunity to complain about all who have wronged him.
Which I get. But at some point it’s like...move on, man.
He can never know I said that.
“No, they’re separate,” she confirms. “In the nearly two centuries since the Landrys were murdered, there hasn’t been a descendant whose gifts fully matured. Not in the way yours have. Do you understand what that means?”
I shake my head. “Not entirely. I thoughtyouhad gifts from multiple bloodlines.”
“I do, but not all of them. Not like you’ve demonstrated.”
“O-kay.”
