My Midlife Crisis, My Rules (Good to the Last Death #4) - Robyn Peterman Page 0,1
spend time with her and get to know her, but risking her afterlife for my needs was not going to happen. “Are you ready to go into the light?”
“No, Daisy. I’m not,” she said.
Her answer terrified me and made me want to sob with joy.
“Alana,” Michael said, clearly as torn as I was. “It’s not safe for you here.”
Again, she tilted her head and smiled. “It’s never been safe,” she replied. “And that has never frightened me. What frightens me is that Daisy isn’t safe. Until the time she can live without looking over her shoulder like we always had to do, my place is with my family. Period.”
I grinned. My mom had lady balls—like me and like Gram.
And that’s when my happy story went horribly wrong.
“There you are, Daisy girl,” Gram shouted with glee as she flew through the wall of Missy’s house with Steve in tow. “I’ve been lookin’ all over tarnation for you people. Got worried when I went downstairs and no one was home.”
I glanced over at the ghost of my dead husband in alarm. Steve shrugged helplessly. “She wouldn’t take no for an answer, so I came along for the ride to make sure she could find her way back home.”
I nodded in the direction of my mother. Steve’s ghostly eyes went huge. He got the picture, and he got it fast. Gram had been dangerously brainwashed by Clarissa that my mom had committed suicide and went into the darkness.
“Gram,” I said quickly. My world was about to spin off its axis. I had no clue what seeing my mother would do to Gram, but I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be good. “I need you to go home.”
“Oh my God,” Missy said in shock. “I can see Gram and Steve.”
“You can?” Gram squealed with delight. “That’s just fandamntastic, Missy! Daisy, I’m pretty dang sure we had an earthquake or some prehistoric moles out in the yard. We got holes you could drop swimmin’ pools in, and I know them dogs couldn’t have dug ’em.”
“Yep,” I said, moving to stand in front of my mother. “Saw that. Maybe we should put in a pool.”
“Gram,” Steve said, trying to run interference. “I’m pretty sure The Price is Right is having a marathon this evening. We should get back home. Don’t want to miss the Big Showcase.”
“I think you’re right,” she told Steve, scratching her head. “But Missy here has a TV. Don’t you, darlin’?”
I shook my head at Missy. She read me correctly even though she had no idea what I was doing.
“Oh, Gram, my cable is out,” she lied. “I have a repair person coming tomorrow.”
“Bummer,” Gram said—right before she froze.
“Mama?” Alana said, floating out from behind me with a timid smile on her lips.
Gram gasped with delight and began to shake. “Alana baby?” she choked out.
“It’s me, Mama,” Alana said. “I’ve missed you so much.”
Gram’s smile turned into a pained grimace and her body began to convulse brutally. She became more transparent, and ghastly keening noises came out of her mouth from low in her throat.
“No!” I shouted as I pulled Gram from the air and held her tightly in my arms. “It’s okay, Gram. You’re fine. You were dreaming. You’re fine.”
“Your mama killed herself to follow her lover into the darkness. Suicide. Guaranteed ticket to Hell,” Gram said in a monotone as her thin body continued to jerk and contort in my embrace.
“What’s happening?” Charlie demanded. His eyes had turned silver and he became the badass Enforcer I’d witnessed several times.
“Mom,” my mother said weakly. My father quickly motioned for my mother to hide herself behind him. She followed the directive immediately.
“Your mama killed herself to follow her lover into the darkness. Suicide. Guaranteed ticket to Hell,” Gram repeated like a broken record.
“Yes, she did,” I told Gram, rocking her like a child in my arms. “That’s right.”
“Your mama killed herself to follow her lover into the darkness. Suicide. Guaranteed ticket to Hell.” Her voice was robotic and dead-sounding.
“What is happening?” Charlie repeated, alarmed.
“As we established, Clarissa planted the false narrative years ago. This is what happens when someone who has believed a vicious lie for decades is confronted with the truth,” Heather said.
“Can it be reversed?” I heard my mother whisper.
Gram heard her, too, and began having seizures in my arms until she literally passed out. What had been one of the best moments of my life was turning into one of the worst.