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“Is everything okay?”
Cassie met her eyes. “It is. Even just a year ago, that would’ve been difficult for me to say. But it really is.”
“We’re proud of you,” her father said.
Cassie went back to looking at the wall. She took a deep breath. This was it. No turning back now.
“One of the main reasons I pushed you all away after that first attack was because I started seeing things. I’m not sure how much you were aware of back then, how much I may have talked about it when I was heavily medicated, but everything changed after I almost died.” She cleared her throat. There was no easing them into this. “I started seeing ghosts. All the time, everywhere. The visions and the psychic feelings came later.”
Cassie forced herself to look her parents in the eyes. Did they believe her? Did they think she was crazy? Were they going to call someone to have her committed? She rushed on, hoping she could get out as much as she could before they carted her away.
“It sounds crazy. I thought I was crazy at first, too. But they’re real. I’ve helped a lot of people because of my abilities. Solved a lot of cases.” She swallowed hard. “When Connor died, Mom, I had a vision. I saw the person who shot him. I knew it wasn’t Anthony Lewis. Becaus
e of that, I was able to help the FBI figure out that it was Detective Davenport.”
Judy lifted a hand to her mouth. Walter’s mouth was slack. He looked at Laura. “Did you know about this?”
“About the vision? Yeah. Cassie told me right after she got it.” Laura held her father’s gaze. “About her abilities? I only learned recently, too. When I was in Savannah, right before we came here. I helped her solve a murder and a twenty-year-old cold case. It’s real, Dad, all of it.”
Whatever Cassie had expected her mother to say next, she wasn’t prepared for it.
“You were always special.” Judy lowered her hand. “You were always playing with imaginary friends, talking with people who weren’t there. You knew things you shouldn’t have known. It scared me. I didn’t know what it all meant.”
Cassie tried to keep the emotion out of her voice. “I’m sorry.”
Judy shook her head. “You have nothing to apologize for. I just didn’t understand. I thought something was wrong. That I did something wrong. And after Sarah went missing, things got worse. We went to that psychologist and soon it just all went away.”
“I repressed a lot of memories from back then. And I think my abilities went with them.” Cassie took out the duplicate of the photograph she’d given to Viotto and handed it to her mother. “My abilities came back after the attack. I think they got stronger. But the memories didn’t start resurfacing until I heard the name Sarah Lennox again. Going through my stuff from when I was a kid helped a lot. After you told me that story about that woman in the woods, Laura and I found her camera in her box upstairs. This picture was on the undeveloped film when we had it processed. Do you recognize her?”
Judy studied the face. “No, I don’t think so.”
She handed it to Walter, but he shook his head. He gave it back to Cassie.
Judy took a minute to compose herself. “Does it…hurt you? Seeing the things you see?”
“Sometimes.” She wanted to be honest, even if she didn’t have the answer her mom was hoping for. “But mostly it’s worth it. I enjoy helping people. It makes me happy.”
Walter stood. “I won’t pretend I understand, but I have to say it explains a lot of what we experienced when you were a kid. And as long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters.”
Cassie looked at her mom and saw tears rolling down her face, but she smiled through them. Cassie opened her arms, and her parents hugged her. Laura ducked through the forest of arms and wrapped herself around Cassie.
They still had a long way to go, but this was a good first step.
41
Cassie pulled the car into a parking spot at the Savannah airport and turned to her sister. “Ready?”
“To go back to work? No.” She stretched, and several joints popped. “To go back to California and sunshine and far fewer murders? Definitely.”
“Sorry about the murders.” Cassie smirked. “Occupational hazard.”
Laura pulled out her phone. “Mom’s calling.” She put it on speaker.
“Hi, girls.” It was their dad. “You make it okay?”
“Just pulled in at the airport,” Cassie said. “How’s mom?”
“She’s right here.”
