her that Sebastian had the answers. It didn’t necessarily mean he was guilty, but it likely meant he had information he’d kept from her all these years. That knowledge made her want to scream with frustration.
“Gigi?” Joy prompted again. “You don’t need to talk about this if you don’t want to, but we’re here for anything you need.”
“She’s right,” Grace said while Hope nodded her agreement.
Gigi glanced around at them. Although talking about her mother wasn’t something she ever did, for the first time in over twenty years, she felt the need to purge her soul. “It happened when I was eighteen,” she said, staring at her clasped hands. “It was just me and my mom. My dad took off years earlier. One day, she was at the house, then a few hours later she wasn’t. I never saw her again.” Pain sluiced through Gigi, and it took every ounce of will she had to get out the next words. “She was never found.”
“And Sebastian?” Joy asked.
Gigi gritted her teeth. “He’d come by the house to see me, but I hadn’t gotten home yet. He was the last person to see her alive. The authorities automatically blamed him, but they had no evidence against him.”
“Oh my,” Grace said, her tone hushed. “That’s… just about the most horrible thing I’ve ever heard.” Her friend moved closer and wrapped an arm around Gigi’s shoulders, pulling her in close. “I’m sorry, honey. No one should have to endure that. Not you or Sebastian.”
“Sebastian,” Gigi huffed out. “Right. That’s what I thought too until one of my ghosts told me he has the answers to what happened back then.”
“You can’t be serious?” Hope asked with wide, angry eyes. The wind picked up, tossing her black hair back, making her look like a wild witch, ready to take someone out. “You mean to say he’s had information all this time and kept it from you?”
Gigi shrugged. “I guess so. I don’t know how else to interpret the message. When Skyler and I were in the attic this afternoon, an invisible ghost animated my mother’s wedding dress and wrote me a message in the dust. It said ‘the one from your past has the answers.’ Seems pretty straightforward to me since he’s the only person around from my past.”
“Maybe it’s new information?” Joy asked, though she didn’t sound convinced.
“If it was, why wouldn’t he say something to me? It’s not like he doesn’t know where I live, right? Or that I’ve spent over twenty years wondering what happened to her.” Gigi’s anger was back now, and as far as she was concerned, that was a good thing. It was better to feel righteous indignation than crippling despair. At least her anger would propel her into action instead of making her want to curl up in bed for days on end. And since she had enough money that she didn’t need to work, that was a real possibility.
Hope leaned forward, her expression set into determination. “You need to invite him over and pull the information from him. Maybe have a cocktail party at the house. Have the three of us there. I can try to listen in on his thoughts. Maybe Joy will have another vision. And Grace…” She trailed off, eyeing the third witch in the coven. “Well, she can maybe see if she can suss out which ghost was playing dress-up in the attic.”
Gigi grimaced. “I don’t think I want to talk to him about my mom with a bunch of people over.”
“It won’t be people,” Hope clarified. “It will be us.” She waved a hand around the circle. “And our significant others, of course, so it doesn’t look like a weird ambush.”
And Skyler, Gigi thought. She couldn’t leave him out. If he saw all their cars in her driveway, he’d be wondering why he wasn’t invited. She could do that, right? He already had the CliffsNotes version of what had happened. She’d filled him in after the incident in the attic. She cleared her throat. “So I just call him up and invite him over?”
Hope gave her a strange look. “Uh, yeah. Why not?”
“I don’t want it to seem like a date,” Gigi insisted. There’d recently been a time when she’d entertained the idea of going out with Sebastian. But that idea was long gone, and she didn’t want him getting the wrong idea.
“It’s just a cocktail party, Gigi. Tell him you’re inviting friends over. That’s it,” Hope said.