Spirits of Spring (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 4) (5 page)

“Here you go,” she said as she handed me the steaming
cup. “We forgot to introduce ourselves. My name is Stacy.”

“I’m Zach,” I said and took a sip of tea. The warmth of
the cup on my hands was welcome but I was still shivering
from my walk. I kept my hands on the cup to get as much heat
as possible from it, knowing that I would be heading back out
into the frigid weather again soon.

She must have noticed that I was trembling with cold
because she promptly pointed to a small fireplace in the living
room that I didn’t notice before. “Let’s go sit where it’s warm.”

I was about to protest that I was fine because I didn’t
want her to have to walk the whole way over there. Every step,
every breath seemed painful for her and I’d already
inconvenienced her enough.
Then I noticed something. Even
though she was dressed warmly and wrapped in a crocheted
blanket, she was shivering, too. My life felt like it was over but I
had so much more to be thankful for than Stacy. I nodded my
head and followed slowly behind her as she led me to the couch
across from the fireplace.
She took a seat in a wooden rocking
chair facing me. I sat down and looked up to thank her for her
hospitality and then that’s when I saw it—the picture that
changed everything.

It hung there centered above the fireplace, the only
decoration on the otherwise bare wall. If I’d been in anyone
else’s house, the picture wouldn’t have garnered the slightest
bit of interest from me—but I was in Lucas’s house. And in
his
house, a photo of two baby boys lying in a crib together was a
bigger
find
than
locating
the
wreckage
of
the
Titanic.
Sometimes fate puts you in the worst situations just to get you
where you need to be. My car wreck was a godsend.

“Stacy,” I said as I pointed to the photo, “The boys in the
photo—are they your sons?” My body temperature began to
rise but it had nothing to do with my close proximity to the fire.
Adrenaline once again coursed through my veins. I was about
to hear the truth, the truth Lucas had been hiding since the day
he moved to Charlotte’s Grove. Now, I longed for more than
five minutes before Lucas arrived. This was my only chance to
uncover all of his secrets.

“Yes, Lucas and Lee. That’s the only photo I have of
them together. Do you know Lucas? You’re about the same
age. “

My
leg
began to bounce up and
down
from
sheer
nervous excitement.
Did
I know Lucas? Apparently not well
enough. He acted surprised when Ruby told him about Lee and
the fact that he was adopted. He said he had no information
regarding
his
birth parents
aside from
the
fact that
the
adoption took place in Allegheny County.
Lucas said a lot of
things that clearly weren’t true.

“I’ve seen Lucas around school but I haven’t met Lee
yet.” I felt bad pretending not to know that Lee was dead but it
was the only way for me to get the information I needed. Even
if Ruby didn’t want to be with me anymore, she needed to know
that Lucas had been lying to her since day one.

Stacy gave a sad smile and said, “Lee died almost two
years ago.
Lucas only ever got to see him twice—the day they
were born and then again at Lee’s funeral.”

My head was swimming from just the few facts that I’d
learned. Lucas was at Lee’s funeral! Even Ruby herself never
made it there. Oh my God, if she hadn’t been in the hospital at
the time, she would have met Lucas right after Lee’s death. I
had so many questions that I just couldn’t figure out a way to
ask. Did Lee lie to Ruby about not knowing who is family was,
too? Or worse yet—has Ruby been lying to
me
the entire time?
It was like I had an all access pass to top secret CIA files and I
didn’t know which one to look at first. Roswell versus JFK’s
assassination, 9/11 versus
the first moon
landing—where
should I start?

“Oh, I’m sorry for your loss, Stacy. I don’t want to bring
up bad memories for you but if you don’t mind me asking, why
didn’t your sons know each other? They were twins, right?” I
swallowed the last mouthful of tea and
leaned forward in
anticipation of her next words. If I’d known what I would find
here in this tiny little house, I would have wrecked my Neon on
purpose months ago.

She
turned to look at the photo on the wall then
whispered quietly, “Yes, twins.”

Stacy paused for a sip of tea and I thought that was all I
was going to get.
I struggled to think of a way to keep the
conversation going without looking too suspicious.
This was a
once in a lifetime opportunity to get the truth—I couldn’t just
sit there, as Grandpa used to say, with my teeth in my mouth. I
always thought he was so weird when he said things like that
but I would give anything to hear him say that to me again. I’d
been getting better at keeping memories of him and the way he
died at bay lately. Why did I have to think about it now? As I
started to slip into that bad place in my head, that place where
you tucked away the things that were too painful to deal with,
Stacy
began
to
tell
her
story—the
story
that
changed
everything.

“I got pregnant when I was only sixteen years old. My
boyfriend and I were both scared but willing to take on the
responsibility of raising a child. Things were good until my first
sonogram
revealed that
I was
carrying
twin
boys.
Brad
panicked and
we broke
up.
My
mother suggested that I
consider adoption but I couldn’t bear the thought of never
seeing either of them again. That’s when Mark, my brother in
law, made a suggestion.
He and my sister Megan had been
trying to get pregnant for years without any success.
Mark
wanted children very badly and convinced Megan that adopting
my sons was the answer to all of their prayers.
I knew that
Megan was hesitant but it still seemed like such a good idea at
the time. The boys would get to grow up in a stable home with
a mother and a father and I would always be in contact with
them.”

“But a few weeks before my due date, Brad begged me
to forgive him and said that he was ready to be a husband and
father. I didn’t know what to do. It didn’t seem right to go back
on my promise to Mark and Megan and the thought of taking
care of two babies was overwhelming. Brad’s job at the factory
was barely going to keep three of us afloat, let alone four. After
much heartbreaking discussion, we decided that separating the
boys was the best decision for everyone involved. When they
were born, we gave them matching names—Lucas Seeley and
Lee’s full name was Seeley Lucas. Before she left the hospital
with Lee, Megan gave me a lecture about responsibility and
about how she wasn’t always going to clean up my messes for
me.
I had no intention of messing up again so I listened
halfheartedly.
Things
were okay
at first but
the already
strained relationship with my sister grew even more tenuous a
year later.”

Stacy rose out of her chair and pulled the blanket tightly
to her. “I just can’t seem to stay warm. Would you like to have
another cup of tea with me?”

“Yes,” I mumbled absentmindedly as I tried to wrap my
brain around everything she had just told me. Lucas was never
even adopted! He’d been living with his birth parents all along.
That trip to Pittsburgh
was
even
more of a farce than
I
suspected it was. Even if Ruby still wanted to be with Lucas,
she had to know what a damned liar he was.
He used that
whole story to garner her sympathy. I glanced at the clock and
realized that my dad would probably be at the accident site
soon but I couldn’t leave before I heard the rest of her story. It
was one more thing my dad would be mad about but he was
simply going to have to wait for me.

“What happened a year later?” I asked as I joined her in
the kitchen.

“I got pregnant again—accidentally, of course,” she said
as she poured the tea into my waiting cup. “When she found
out about it, my sister stopped talking to me. I tried contacting
her multiple times to arrange a meeting because Lee and Lucas
hadn’t seen each other since the day they were born but she
ignored my calls. Letters came back to me unopened. I had a
miscarriage when I was six months pregnant but even that
couldn’t melt her icy heart. Mark sent us photos of Lee for a
while but eventually those stopped coming, too.
Mark died in
Afghanistan but we didn’t hear about it until a few years later. I
had no contact with my sister until the day Lee died. Even then,
she delivered the news with barely any emotion. I don’t think
she ever let go of the bitterness she felt toward me for giving
Mark the one thing she couldn’t.”

“Lucas took it hard. He grew up knowing that he had a
twin brother and I always hoped that Megan would look past
her feelings for me for their sakes but she didn’t. A week after
Lee died, I found out that I had cancer.
Round after round of
chemo and radiation were unsuccessful. We spent every penny
we had on random treatments until we were left with nothing.
The last few years have been very rough for Lucas—my illness,
losing his brother, our terrible financial situation. We lost our
house and practically everything else but I wouldn’t let him
give up that car he loves so much. Every boy should have the
car he loves. We moved to Charlotte’s Grove so that I could
have a peaceful place to die but I’m afraid things have only
gotten worse since we moved here.
Leaving his girlfriend
behind was hard for him but he wanted to do what was right
for me. Oh God, how was I to know that she would follow him
here and end up getting murdered?”

Stacy
began to sob while I stood there even
more
dumbfounded than before. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I know I’m
probably boring you to death here but I’m too sick to ever leave
the house. I’m always alone—Brad works long hours at Wolfe
Industries and Lucas spends so much time working, too.
They
both seem to think that money is the answer but it isn’t. I’m
not going to get better but they don’t want to believe that. I’m
done with the treatments, I’m done fighting this. All I want to
do is enjoy what time I have left with them.”

Again, information overload.
Lucas had a girlfriend?
And she was murdered?
She had to be talking about Portia,
Jonas’s last victim. And where was Lucas working? The story
was even more twisted than I could have imagined.
Lucas
was
more twisted than I ever possibly could have imagined. I was
just about to apologize for upsetting her and leave to go meet
my dad when she dropped the biggest bombshell of them all.

“I’m just glad that Lucas found some measure of
happiness here. I’ve never seen him as happy as he is when
he’s been with Misty. She gave him a job and helped him get his
mind off of all the terrible things that have happened. I swear
that girl is an angel.”

I didn’t need to hear another word—I
knew
exactly
what job Misty gave Lucas.
She was paying him to drive a
wedge between me and Ruby. I dropped my manners and my
teacup at the same time and flew out the door without so much
as a goodbye.

5. Weeding Out the Truth

Just as I started to cry and accept the fact that I couldn’t
stop the horrible things that were about to happen to me, the
sound of hurried footsteps came floating in from the hallway. I
managed to shout out one word before Lucas clamped his hand
over my mouth.

“ZACH!”

The odds that he was even looking for me were slim to
none but he
was
the
one person I
wanted
to find
me.
Technically, it didn’t matter who was here to help me but on
some level, it did.
He was the one person in the world that
made me feel completely safe, the one person I didn’t mind
seeing me at my worst.
Zach was the one person I swore I
couldn’t live without.

The footsteps increased in sound and speed after I
called his name. I didn’t have to see his face—I knew in my
heart that it was Zach.
All of the fears that something bad had
happened to him faded away in an instant. It wasn’t too late for
us.
He cared enough to come looking for me and Fate was
allowing him to find me just in time. I was right from the very
start—Zach and
I were
made for each
other.
We
had a
connection that no one else could compare to, one that no one
else could ever understand.
My heart would never be led
astray again.

In a flash, Zach ripped Lucas away from me and threw
him across the room. The dressing table shattered under his
weight and smashed to the floor beneath him. Zach’s eyes were
full of rage—triple the amount I saw on the day he beat up
Ryan. Lucas, dazed and trying to shake off the hit, struggled to
get back onto his feet.
I wanted to see him pay for what he
tried to do to me but not at Zach’s expense. Desperately, I
reached out for Zach’s arm and begged him to behave.

“Zach, he’s not worth it! You saved me and that’s all
you needed to do! Please don’t let your anger control you
again! I love you and only you! I don’t want to see you get into
any more trouble because of me!”

I could see the internal struggle he was facing reflecting
in his expression. He wanted nothing more than to beat Lucas
until he was unconscious—that much was obvious. But unlike
that day in the hallway, he was weighing the options before
acting.
He was listening to my pleas.
I wrapped my arms
around his waist and held on tight. If he could resist the urge to
go after Lucas, I would know once and for all that his anger was
firmly in check.