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“How was your Thanksgiving?” he asks.
“Odd, honestly. My parents showed up late, which is strange in itself. And of course my mom wouldn’t talk to me about the messages. So I came home, Brendan. I felt like I needed to be here, and I needed to draw a card to get some guidance on what’s going on.”
“So did you?” Then his glance falls on the table.
I nod.
He glances at the tower card sitting on my table. “Is that the card you drew?”
“It is.”
“Okay. Let’s sit down. Tell me about it.”
“I think my mother may be ill.”
His eyes widen into circles. “Oh my God. What’s wrong?”
“She hasn’t told me, specifically, but you do know she had breast cancer in the past, don’t you?”
“Yeah. I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”
“I don’t know if that’s what’s wrong. But this card… It’s the tower, and it usually indicates something bad. Like illness.”
“Have you drawn the card before?”
“Yes. Not for a while, but I have.”
“And then did something bad happen? Or were you expecting something bad?”
I shake my head. “I’ve always been able to put a positive spin on the card. It’s how I approach the tarot. Like when you draw the card of death. It doesn’t usually mean actual death. It usually means change of some sort. Like death of one thing in favor of another.”
“And the tower? What’s the positive spin on it?”
“Freedom. Liberation. Deliverance from the burning tower. But I’m not getting that feeling at all. I depend on my intuition to interpret the cards, and I’m a positive person, Brendan. I’m always able to see things as if the glass is half full, not empty. But this time…”
“This time you’re seeing it half empty.”
“Yes.” I choke back a sob. “And I’ve sat here for a while. I’ve tried to find the positive spin. I’ve looked inside myself, tried to listen to my intuition. But I’m not getting anything positive about this. And it scares me, Brendan. Not so much that I drew the card, but this card in relation to all the others I’ve drawn since getting that message.”
Brendan doesn’t reply. He has a pensive look on his face, and he rubs absently at the auburn stubble on his jawline.
Something is coming down for my family. I want to help them, but I don’t know how. My mother won’t speak to me, and—
Still, Brendan says nothing.
“You think I’ve gone off the deep end, don’t you?”
He takes my hand, squeezes it. “No, I don’t. Not at all.”
“Then why aren’t you saying anything?”
“I don’t know what to say, baby. I don’t know how to help you. I wish there were something I could say to ease your mind, but…” He shakes his head. “I’ve been having the same feelings.”
“Oh no. Is one of your parents sick?”
“No,” he says. “At least not that I know of. But it’s my father. My mother’s worried about him, and I wasn’t, but now, with you being so concerned about your own family, it makes me think. He went down a spiral years ago, before I was ever born. And now, he thinks he may be able to find new information about what happened to his uncle all those years ago.”
“The uncle that died at my grandparents’ wedding,” I say.
“Yes. He thinks perhaps these messages are related to that, since they’re coming to us and to your family.”
“It’s not nonsense. I mean, what other connection do the Murphys have to the Steels?”
“Just the lien on our property.”
“Right. But the property was conveyed with the lien, like you said. So this can’t be about that.”
“No,” he admits. “So it must have something to do with my uncle. What else is there?”
“Oh, Brendan.” I wipe away a tear. “Today is Thanksgiving. And I try every day to be so grateful for my wonderful life. And part of that wonderful life is my family. My mother and father. I can’t lose them.”
“There’s no need to worry until you know the facts,” he says.
“I know that. I’m not a worrier. Like I said, I always put a positive spin on things. But this…” I point to the card. “All I see when I look at this card is something…foreboding. Some kind of impending doom. And Brendan… I’m frightened.”
Brendan releases my hand and cups both of my cheeks. “What can I do for you?”
“Make me forget. If only for the next fifteen minutes.”
He grins, and my God, he’s so handsome. He strokes my cheek with his thumb.
“I assure you, Ava, I can last a lot longer than fifteen minutes.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
BRENDAN
I’m taking Ava to bed.
And keeping a secret from her.
I don’t feel good about it.
She’s right. Her intuition is on point. Her parents are keeping something from her, but of course I don’t know what it is. All I know is that it has something to do with Jeremy Madigan and the messages we’ve been receiving. I don’t think Ruby is sick again—I didn’t get that feeling at all earlier today—but I can’t ease Ava’s mind without telling her that her parents came to see me, which they asked me to keep to myself.
