The Ghosts Of Her Past (A Completed, Steamy Romantic Mystery)

Part Forty Eight

I stared between the two and have no idea what's happening.

"Cassidy isn't the only one that has been living a lie I see." Blaine let go of my hand and pushed his way inside. 

"Where's Corey, Savannah?" Blaine started looking around the house and the woman didn't even acknowledge me. 

"He's out back, Blaine.  Calm down." She let the storm door shut in my face as she tried to chase Blaine down.  She's older than us, but not quite as old as my parents.  She has beautiful blond hair and big green eyes. 

I opened the door back up and stepped inside. 

"You've known all along?  You visited and looked Mom right in the eyes and lied?" Blaine is pacing.

Who the hell is this woman?

"Blaine, we were just trying to help." She said.

"Help?  You know she's dead, right?" Blaine is so pissed, I can see the veins sticking out on his neck. 

"Of course we know, please just have a seat and I'll get Corey." She pleaded with him to calm down. 

"Who else was in on this, Savannah?  My ex-wife and now my fucking Aunt and Uncle?  Who else Savannah?" He is screaming and a man appeared from somewhere.

That's when things got worse.

"You son of a bitch!" Blaine went for him, but the woman held his arm.

"Sit down!" The older man's voice bellowed through the house.

"Who else?" Blaine screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Just sit down and we can talk, if not, you'll have to leave." The man said. 

"I have to leave?  Really?  The last time I checked I was financing your pitiful lives!" He yelled again.

"Blaine, we were only helping Cassidy." The woman named Savannah said.

"Living under an alias just like her, then having the nerve to show up at Mom and Dad's house when you knew all along?" He looks defeated once again.

"I need you to listen." She said, and he crossed his arms, then his eyes drifted to me, and suddenly turned soft before he ran his hand down his face.

"I'm sorry you had to see this, Cora." He said, and the woman's head whipped around to me.

"Cora Ashley?" She asked.  "Cassidy's best friend?"

"Yeah, another person that was deceived by all your fucking lies!" Blaine yelled, and everyone gasped.  I almost laughed, but held it back.  When he drops the F-Bomb, you know its bad.

"You need to calm down right now, young man!" The woman demanded.

"The two of you were taking money from Cassidy and me both while keeping this huge secret?" He asked.

"Let's all have a seat. Cora, please come in." The woman said.

"Have a seat?  You're inviting me to have a seat in the home I probably bought?" Blaine asked. "I'm not sitting until I hear who else is behind this lie." He said.

Savannah took a deep breath.  "Your grandmother."

I gasped.

"Grandma?" He now looks emotional.

"If you want an explanation, then you'll sit." She said.

I walked over to Blaine.  "You deserve this explanation, so come, let's sit and get to the bottom of this before your nephew comes home." I coaxed him to the sofa. 

He sat next to me, and I took his hand, which earned some strange looks from the couple that sat across from us.

"I'm waiting," Blaine said in an unamused tone.

They looked at each other then to us.

"Cassidy showed up on my mother's doorstep with an infant.  My mom called me, and we went right over and found out what was happening in New York. Scipio seemed like a safe place, but Cassidy was paranoid.  We tried to talk her into staying with us, but she said she couldn't risk being found." She said.

"By who, the old man set her free." Blaine snapped.

"She wasn't ready to return to New York, and she knew if you found her, you would take her home.  She wanted to be with you and trusted her big brother, but she also felt ashamed.  She was paranoid about Bertinelli's enemies and wanted her baby to be safe." She said.

"I would never want her to feel ashamed.  I was proud of her and loved her, so why hide from me?  I could have protected her, instead, she enlisted Ciara and my own Aunt?" He asked in disgust.

"She knew that, Blaine.  She also knew you couldn't protect her from society.  My mom came up with the idea, and it was her that contacted Ciara.  She put this plan into motion, and we moved here to help with the baby.  For a year she spent every weekend with us in this house, but started to feel guilty and distanced herself. That's when Cora moved in, and we didn't see her as often." She said, which made me feel guilty.

She looked at me.  "When you took that job, she decided to start a new life.  We would be able to move back to Scipio, and she would have Willie in a new city."

"Are you saying she decided to move home?  She was going to follow me?" I asked.

"She was at first, but decided to go somewhere else when she got a call that scared her. She wouldn't tell us about it and told us she didn't want to see the disappointment on your face when she told you the truth.  She was going to kill Lisa Simmons and leave you everything after she took out the majority.  She knew that plan wouldn't work, so she changed her mind. We didn't know she passed until we had not heard from her and Corey went looking." She wiped a tear from her face.

"You lied to your own sister, and she never got to say goodbye.  My mom is devastated and can barely pull herself out of bed.  You could have done something." Blaine said.

"I went home to talk to my sister, to tell her the truth, but I saw how she was living.  You were cold and distant, my sister wasn't that free-spirited woman anymore, society judged everything you did, and Cassidy never would have survived in that world. She found happiness before she died, Blaine.  She battled over hurting Cora, but she also wanted to raise Willie. Cora, when you left, she was inspired to be a better person, a better mother, and she had a better outlook on life.  Starting over in Scipio made no sense, so she made other plans to disappear again." She said.

I'm guessing the child uses his middle name.

"She gave no hints who could have called and spooked her?" Blaine asked.

She shook her head. "No, your uncle tried to reason with her, but she wouldn't budge."

"You do know he belongs with us, Savannah.  That child needs his family." Blaine said.

She nodded.  "I know, and we have prepared him for that, because we were about to reach out.  We held off until we could figure out who called her that day.  We didn't know what to do, to be honest."

"You had years to reach out to us, you have deceived my family in the most terrible way.  You and Grandmother both have lost my mother.  What all of you did was cruel, and maybe unforgivable." Blaine said.