Page 193 of Waiting For A Girl Like You
“The gang’s all there, huh? Try to warn me next time.”
His laughter grew louder, and the sound warmed her from the inside out. “I didn’t know you were going to toss out comments on my male anatomy.”
“Maybe I was talking about your butt,” she shot back, smirking. “So, keep reading to me, my big booty man.”
“Yeah, I do have a nice ass. Okay, let me find my spot again.” He adjusted the phone.“Taylor’s real name is Brandy Carroll. She uses her middle name and is not really married to Toby. They had some bullshit thing on a beach right after they killed Charlie Fairweather, but it’s not legal. They made Cecilia stand as a witness with her father’s blood stillonher. The whole thing messed her up for years. But don’t worry, Taylor will be dead by the time you read this. If she gets away from me, I have people in play who will finish the job. Our family is safe.”
“His family is safe, but not ours,” Jamison mumbled. “Is that it?”
“Not even close,” Liam replied, and she could hear the excitement in his voice. “Taylor’s father is Bryan Carroll. I know you don’t know who that is, but he’s a very bad guy. I’m telling you this so you can protect yourself. We’re going to handle him, too, but if we don’t, call Hayes. He owes me.”
“Hayes is the guy who was Michael's superior?”
“From what I understand, yeah.”
Too keyed up to continue sitting on the ground, she stood with a sudden urge to try on her wedding dress. No one would know, and she could see if it still fit while she worked out all this new information in her head. “Get back to the ghost stuff.”
“Alright, this is what I was looking for.Cecilia’s spirit said that when Toby showed up at our apartment, she told him about the fight we’d had, and Toby tried to use it as an opportunity to sway Cecilia to come with him. He had already made the move to Hollingsdale and was working at the hospital there with plans to reintroduce himself. Cecilia was pissed and asked how they were going to handle the whole Taylor thing. You see, Taylor works at Fairweather. She claimed it was so she could scope out the family, but Cecilia and I always thought that was bullshit.”
“This sounds like most of what Michael told me in his room,” Jamison said, trying to recall specifics. “But I thought he knew this information as facts and not something he made up.”
“Patience, beautiful.”
“Patience is not my strong suit.”
“Don’t I know it,” Liam shot back before continuing to read. “Toby then explained to Cecilia how he not only wanted to go home again, but how he wanted to be with Evie Fairweather. He was devoted to Taylor yet needed Evie to love him. I don’t know why. He had basically accumulated a harem. Men and women. We’ve talked about this several times, Mom, but I want to reiterate to you, and to whomever else might one day read this, that Cecilia and I never participated or had anything to do with that weird ass shit.”
“That’s a very Michael thing to say. At least, I think it is after witnessing the type of personality he exhibited when it was just the two of us,” she tried to explain. “Is there anything about the baby stuff?”
“Yeah, I'm just getting to that part,” he murmured.“Taylor worked for Samuel Fairweather, and when he moved north for a new project, she signed on to go with him. This was also around the same time she and Toby discovered that children were off the table. Taylor blamed Toby because nothing is ever her fault, and Cecilia was sympathetic. Taylor was Cecilia’s rock for a big part of her life. They were best friends growing up together in the confined space of St. Thomas, and Cecilia felt as if she had no one else. Between all the shit she went through as a kid, then to have Toby as a brother and Taylor as a friend, I have no idea how my beautiful girl came out as sane as she did.”
Facing her wedding gown, Jamison smoothed the garment bag back from the dress. “But why all the insane drama to have a kid?”
“To put it bluntly, there was insane drama because Taylor is insane. If given the chance to study her, I bet we would have found not only narcissistic personality disorder, but probably a multitude of other mental health diagnoses.”
Jamison thought of Albie and his perfect little face, with his perfect little toes and his perfect little everything. Taylor would have robbed them of him. She would have robbed them of the kids in the family, including Claudia’s unborn baby. “Poor Claudia. Does Michael talk about Parker?”
“He does, and it’s pretty much what Bruce told you. Parker was one of their lackeys and wanted to impress Taylor.”
“I can’t even imagine what’s going through Claudia’s head.”
“Do you know how lucky we are with Madison?” Liam asked with a dark edge in his tone. “We’re so fucking lucky judging by the timeline, and the only reason Taylor didn’t try to run off with her is because she didn’t deem Parker worthy enough in the beginning, making him constantly prove himself. But if Madison had been a boy? That would have been it. Sinclair goes on and on about how Taylor was never satisfied and wanted to have a mini-Toby.”
Pausing in extracting the wedding gown’s train, Jamison screwed her mouth tight. She had promised to be more forgiving in the future,hoping the new attitude might displace all the bad karma that continued to chase them.
But screw it. The universe could make an exception here.
“I’m glad that bitch is dead.” Her bottom lip trembled, but she refused to cry over Taylor. “I hope Michael made her suffer.”
And the beautiful thing about Liam was that he didn’t judge her. Ever. “He did.”
She gave a small, satisfied nod, as if he could see her. “Go on with the rest. Tell me about CeCe’s ghost. Hearing it makes me feel less insane.”
“In the journal, Sinclair goes on to claim that ghost CeCe tells him how Taylor is planning something awful and that he has to be the one to stop it. CeCe doesn’t want people to get hurt, and it’s right about then that Sinclair starts to realize what’s happening isn’t real. He freaks out, but when he tries to leave, CeCe stops him with a request. She says he needs to meet with Taylor and ask her a single question, and if Taylor gives him the answer that CeCe’s supplies, then it would prove what he was hearing from her was true.”
“What was the question?”
“CeCe wanted him to bring up Taylor having a Fairweather baby and ask her what she would name it. She then told him what Taylor would say.”
