Page 6 of Ghost Girl

‘Mom, life is about more than just money, you know,’ I reminded her, the argument one we’d had many times over the years. It was practically scripted at this point.

‘It’s not about the money, dear, it’s about how one presents oneself. Your little friend does not meet the standards of the family. We are esteemed members of our community, and we cannot continue to be associated with the riffraff. Not after…’

She didn’t have to finish for me to understand. She had always been uptight about the people I was friends with, constantly pushing men and women of a certain pedigree my way, and Ashe had never been categorised as high class. It was what I loved the most about her. But ever since Kali had gone missing – and eventually pronounced dead only a few short months ago, each month like a hot knife digging deeper into my soul – Mom’s distaste for anyone who could be considered beneath us(according to her standards) had increased tenfold. She figured that their smaller bank accounts meant they were criminals, ready and waiting in the shadows to snatch another one of us up.

Just like what we believed had happened to Kali.

Seven years later, and we were still no closer to answers. Her disappearance remained a mystery, but there was no denying that she was no longer with us. Evidence or no, we could all feel it in the core of our beings. She was dead and had been for a long time.

‘I just think you’d be better off with some real friends, with real jobs. You need a wife, Chance. Everyone is beginning to think you’re…gay,’she whispered the last word like it was some sort of sin. If Blake had come out as gay, everyone would have clapped him on the back and offered up their gay friends as tribute. But he was the Golden Child. More than that, he was the youngest. As the oldest, it was expected of me to fall in line, marry first, produce an heir to our family’s empire, and continue on the legacy of greed. But that just wasn’t me.

My interests were obscure, and my career even more so. I wasn’t highly paid, but my trust fund was more than enough to ensure Ashe, Mike and I had the equipment and the funds we needed to continue our research. Research many considered bogus, but I’d had enough experiences with the occult to know that it was real. I just needed proof.

Proof that had eluded me, just what had happened to Kali.

My heart clenched as her face flashed in my mind. So open, sweet, and innocent. Dark lashes framing big blue eyes. Pink, pouty lips that pulled back to reveal perfectly straight, white teeth, and flawless skin that just begged to be touched. She was a stunner in more ways than one, and I couldn’t understand how Blake had moved on so damn quickly. She was everything to him once upon a time, just as he had been to her.

And now there was another woman in the house that Kali had picked out for them with the intent to raise a family. A family that had never even had the chance to exist.

‘Mom,’ I said, my tone firmer now that my best friend was being insulted and the memory of Kali had been brought up. ‘Ashe isn’t going anywhere.’

‘You should find a woman of your station, Chance. Before it’s too late,’ she continued to push.

I sighed, the sound long-suffering. ‘How many times do I have to tell you? Ashe is gay. We’re not together.’

But it was clear she wasn’t listening and didn’t intend to. She bulldozed right over my announcement, one I had made countless times over the years, ever since Ashe finally came out when she’d found her now-wife, Gloria. But, alas, when my mother had made up her mind about something, the truth no longer mattered.

‘Just think about it? For me? You’ll be forty before you know it, and I’m still waiting on grandbabies. Lord knows Blake has been through enough, and you know that Dakota is having fertility issues. You’re my only hope.’

I didn’t know that, actually, but my heart went out to her. Dakota and Blake were constantly talking about what they’d name their kids, how they’d decorate a nursery, the type of toys they’d buy, etcetera, etcetera. It was sickening, but only because that was Kali’s dream, once upon a time. She’d always wanted kids. Wanted them with Blake. And now another woman was attempting to live out that dream, except she was struggling with it, too.

Blake sure did have bad luck that all the women he chose ended up with fertility issues, but that was alsomybad luck. I was the only screw-up allowed in this family. If he couldn’t produce the heirs Mom wanted and Dad demanded, then I wasonce again dragged back under the spotlight. A spotlight that highlighted everything they detested about me.

The disappointment.

The black sheep.

The freak.

‘Well, I need you to be there for the charity luncheon. Dakota is going to be there, but Blake can’t make it. He has a big case at work. He’ll be in surgery forhoursperforming a groundbreaking new procedure. Understandably, he’ll be too preoccupied to attend, which means you need to step up, son.’

Ah, she was pulling out the big guns. She only ever called meson, a reluctant acknowledgement of our familial ties, when she wanted something from me. And that something usually meant putting on a suit.

‘I’ll be there, Mom. I already promised I would be.’

‘You’d better, Chance. Someone will be there that I want you to meet. She’s from a very prominent and well-respected family, and I expect you to make her feelverywelcome,’ she informed me, her tone dripping with insistence and expectation. I pulled the phone away from my face so she wouldn’t hear me sigh. Great. Another one of her schemes.

‘I will be pleasant and welcoming toallthe guests, Mother,’ I said, refusing to call her Mom when she was in one of her fix-it moods. I didn’t think I needed fixing, but my mother’s wants were the only ones that mattered, according to her. Overbearing didn’t evenbeginto cover it.

I couldn’t allow her to respond, however, or I’d give her an opening to keep shoving her demands down my throat. So, I politely informed her that Ashe was calling, and that I needed to go, then I hung up before her voice could become even more shrill.

The phone clattered to the table in front of me as I buried my face in my hands, fingers rubbing at my temples to soothe thethrobbing headache that was forming. The one that hadn’t truly gone away since I’d gotten that call all those years ago that had brought me back home.

Home. It was such a strange word. And even stranger concept. What did it even mean? I’d heard some people consider it a place, like a town or a house, something tangible. I’d heard others, like Ashe, consider it a person or a group of people. A family. It didn’t matter where she went, as long as she was with her people, she was home.

For me, I’d never found any sort of home, either in a place or with people. The closest I ever got was with Ashe and Mikey as our crew travelled the world documenting and researching the paranormal. I’d always felt a sense of wrongness, like I didn’t quite belong, or like I was missing something vital to my being. That sensation grew from a small gap in my heart to a gaping hole in my soul the first moment I realised the Kali was never coming back.

Losing her was like losing a limb, not that anyone understood the scope of my feelings when it came to her. Kali Foster was my friend long before Blake had ever entered the picture, but no one seemed to care, or even remember that little fact. She was the one person on this planet who had grounded me, made me feel safe and wanted and secure. She’d never once condemned me for my interests, obscure as they were. Instead, she’d sat with me for hours while we mapped out the stars and their meanings. She’d researched local places that were said to be haunted, or urban legends with no explanation, giving me something to focus on when things were bad at home. She was patient with me when I went on one of my tangents, though she never once made me feel like I wasn’t worth listening to.

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