Came Back Haunted (Experiment in Terror #10) - Karina Halle Page 0,113
done. For all of us.”
She looks at Dex for support. “Dex,” she pleads.
“Just let your sister speak,” he says sternly.
I give him a grateful smile, then turn my attention back to them.
“Ada, I know that you think what Jacob did was wrong, and I think he’s wrong too. And I know how much it must suck to have to still work with the guy after he sent Jay away. I’m with you on that. I just don’t want you to keep what you’re feeling bottled up, because if I’ve learned anything lately, it’s that it can be destructive. Especially for people like us.”
“What do you mean, people like you?” my dad asks. He turns to Ada. “And how are you working with Jacob? Doing what? Did you get a job?”
Ada pleads with me. Don’t tell him.
I answer back. I have to.
“Dad, Ada and I see ghosts. And other stuff. This isn’t news to you, but I think now you finally get that we’re telling the truth. We have abilities with energy, with portals, with a whole bunch of crazy shit that we don’t even fully understand yet. We inherited this from mom, who you know was on medication to hide it, and she got it from Pippa, and we all know what happened to her.”
I’m shaking as I speak, but damn it feels good to let it out. “Ada was being trained by Jay, now being trained by Jacob, to put demons back in their place. Yes, literal demons, Dad.” I’m about to mention the big truth, that she went to Hell to get our mother, but that seems like a topic for another time. I don’t know how he’d handle it, knowing she was there, even if it was brief. Frankly, I don’t know how I handled it, but I guess that’s what Dr. Leivo meant about repressed trauma.
“I don’t believe this,” he mutters, his fork shaking. He puts it down.
“But you do believe it,” I tell him. “Because you’ve been seeing our mother regularly. You’ve been seeing her ghost.”
“What?” Ada squeaks, staring at him with her mouth open.
Now my father looks to Dex with about enough venom to bring down a horse.
“Don’t blame, Dex,” I quickly tell him. “He didn’t even tell me, though he should have. I saw your text on his phone and then I went through them all. Dex then told me what’s been going on. He kept your secret, but I have to say that you can never ask him to keep any of your secrets again, I don’t care who you think you have to protect. That’s unfair to put him in the middle. I’m his wife, he has to protect me first, he has to put me first. That’s what you’d want your son-in-law to do, isn’t it?”
He doesn’t say anything, just stares down at his plate.
“Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?” Ada says, looking between the three of us wildly.
I stare steadily at my father, hoping he’ll tell her the truth here so I don’t have to.
He closes his eyes, inhaling deeply through his nose.
We all watch anxiously.
Finally he looks at Ada. “I’ve been seeing your mother for a couple of months now. Her ghost. At least I think it’s her ghost.”
“Wait,” she says. “You knew I’d seen her ghost. I didn’t know you’d seen her too? Why didn’t you tell me? This is huge, Dad!”
“Because she’s been trying to pass me a message and I’ve been too scared to tell you what it is.”
Ada looks at me, brows raised, and then back to him. “Well, what’s the message?”
“Don’t let her,” he says, his voice cracking. “She keeps saying don’t let her, and I don’t know who she’s talking about or what she means. I just want her to stay and talk to me, I want her back.” He sounds so small and scared that my heart breaks into pieces. “I miss her so much, girls.”
Fuck. I get up from my chair and go around the table to him, hugging him from behind his seat.
He starts to cry, which in turn makes me cry, and then Ada starts to cry. She leans over, adding to our hug. I don’t think we’ve had a big family cry like this since mom died, and it’s been long overdue. That grief doesn’t vanish, it lives with you, and it’s been living in all of us, and we’ve all tried to push it away to no avail.