Page 92 of Waiting For A Girl Like You (Haven House #4)
“I was thinking about that. Do you remember the photo they gave us? The one of Toby standing with Judy and Nick in front of the Christmas tree? Who took the photo? I always assumed it was Judy’s nurse, but she looked way too healthy in the picture.
What if it was Taylor? They said Toby was a lady’s man.
Maybe Taylor’s presence is what gave them that idea. ”
“I don’t know how you remember all that.”
“I have a big brain.”
“And a big—”
Liam swiftly cut her off. “My phone is connected to the car’s Bluetooth, Jamison.”
Jamison winced. “Oh. Hey, Holden.”
Will’s chuckle carried through the background. “Maybe take her off speaker.”
The connection clicked, and Liam’s suppressed laughter was all she heard. “Hey.”
“The gang’s all there, huh? Try to warn me next time.”
His laughter grew louder, and the sound warmed her from the inside out. “I didn’t know you were going to toss out comments on my male anatomy.”
“Maybe I was talking about your butt,” she shot back, smirking. “So, keep reading to me, my big booty man.”
“ Yeah, I do have a nice ass. Okay, let me find my spot again.” He adjusted the phone.
“Taylor’s real name is Brandy Carroll. She uses her middle name and is not really married to Toby.
They had some bullshit thing on a beach right after they killed Charlie Fairweather, but it’s not legal.
They made Cecilia stand as a witness with her father’s blood still on her.
The whole thing messed her up for years.
But don’t worry, Taylor will be dead by the time you read this.
If she gets away from me, I have people in play who will finish the job. Our family is safe.”
“His family is safe, but not ours,” Jamison mumbled. “Is that it?”
“Not even close,” Liam replied, and she could hear the excitement in his voice. “ Taylor’s father is Bryan Carroll. I know you don’t know who that is, but he’s a very bad guy. I’m telling you this so you can protect yourself. We’re going to handle him, too, but if we don’t, call Hayes. He owes me.”
“Hayes is the guy who was Michael's superior?”
“From what I understand, yeah.”
Too keyed up to continue sitting on the ground, she stood with a sudden urge to try on her wedding dress. No one would know, and she could see if it still fit while she worked out all this new information in her head. “Get back to the ghost stuff.”
“Alright, this is what I was looking for. Cecilia’s spirit said that when Toby showed up at our apartment, she told him about the fight we’d had, and Toby tried to use it as an opportunity to sway Cecilia to come with him.
He had already made the move to Hollingsdale and was working at the hospital there with plans to reintroduce himself.
Cecilia was pissed and asked how they were going to handle the whole Taylor thing.
You see, Taylor works at Fairweather. She claimed it was so she could scope out the family, but Cecilia and I always thought that was bullshit. ”
“This sounds like most of what Michael told me in his room,” Jamison said, trying to recall specifics. “But I thought he knew this information as facts and not something he made up.”
“Patience, beautiful.”
“Patience is not my strong suit.”
“Don’t I know it,” Liam shot back before continuing to read.
“ Toby then explained to Cecilia how he not only wanted to go home again, but how he wanted to be with Evie Fairweather. He was devoted to Taylor yet needed Evie to love him. I don’t know why.
He had basically accumulated a harem. Men and women.
We’ve talked about this several times, Mom, but I want to reiterate to you, and to whomever else might one day read this, that Cecilia and I never participated or had anything to do with that weird ass shit. ”
“That’s a very Michael thing to say. At least, I think it is after witnessing the type of personality he exhibited when it was just the two of us,” she tried to explain. “Is there anything about the baby stuff?”
“Yeah, I'm just getting to that part,” he murmured. “Taylor worked for Samuel Fairweather, and when he moved north for a new project, she signed on to go with him. This was also around the same time she and Toby discovered that children were off the table. Taylor blamed Toby because nothing is ever her fault, and Cecilia was sympathetic. Taylor was Cecilia’s rock for a big part of her life. They were best friends growing up together in the confined space of St. Thomas, and Cecilia felt as if she had no one else. Between all the shit she went through as a kid, then to have Toby as a brother and Taylor as a friend, I have no idea how my beautiful girl came out as sane as she did.”
Facing her wedding gown, Jamison smoothed the garment bag back from the dress. “But why all the insane drama to have a kid?”
“To put it bluntly, there was insane drama because Taylor is insane. If given the chance to study her, I bet we would have found not only narcissistic personality disorder, but probably a multitude of other mental health diagnoses.”
Jamison thought of Albie and his perfect little face, with his perfect little toes and his perfect little everything. Taylor would have robbed them of him. She would have robbed them of the kids in the family, including Claudia’s unborn baby. “Poor Claudia. Does Michael talk about Parker?”
“He does, and it’s pretty much what Bruce told you. Parker was one of their lackeys and wanted to impress Taylor.”
“I can’t even imagine what’s going through Claudia’s head.”
“Do you know how lucky we are with Madison?” Liam asked with a dark edge in his tone.
“We’re so fucking lucky judging by the timeline, and the only reason Taylor didn’t try to run off with her is because she didn’t deem Parker worthy enough in the beginning, making him constantly prove himself.
But if Madison had been a boy? That would have been it.
Sinclair goes on and on about how Taylor was never satisfied and wanted to have a mini-Toby. ”
Pausing in extracting the wedding gown’s train, Jamison screwed her mouth tight. She had promised to be more forgiving in the future, hoping the new attitude might displace all the bad karma that continued to chase them.
But screw it. The universe could make an exception here.
“I’m glad that bitch is dead.” Her bottom lip trembled, but she refused to cry over Taylor. “I hope Michael made her suffer.”
And the beautiful thing about Liam was that he didn’t judge her. Ever. “He did.”
She gave a small, satisfied nod, as if he could see her. “Go on with the rest. Tell me about CeCe’s ghost. Hearing it makes me feel less insane.”
“In the journal, Sinclair goes on to claim that ghost CeCe tells him how Taylor is planning something awful and that he has to be the one to stop it. CeCe doesn’t want people to get hurt, and it’s right about then that Sinclair starts to realize what’s happening isn’t real.
He freaks out, but when he tries to leave, CeCe stops him with a request. She says he needs to meet with Taylor and ask her a single question, and if Taylor gives him the answer that CeCe’s supplies, then it would prove what he was hearing from her was true. ”
“What was the question?”
“CeCe wanted him to bring up Taylor having a Fairweather baby and ask her what she would name it. She then told him what Taylor would say.”
“And Michael went and met with Taylor?”
“He was in the area, so yeah, he met her the next day.”
“And he asked her the question?”
“Yes.”
“Oh my God, William. You better tell me.”
“Taylor said she loved the name Rachel for a girl and thought Dane would be a perfect name for a boy.”
Remembering her talk with Taylor on the same subject, Jamison thought that perhaps she should sit back down.
“He could have heard Taylor talking about kids’ names before this.
You said he and CeCe kept in touch, and if Taylor ran her mouth like we know she does, Michael could have already heard her say what baby names she liked. ”
“I think you’re right,” Liam replied. “It’s easy to romanticize these journal entries, but really, there’s nothing supernatural here. The tumor was distorting his reasoning, twisting his memories. The man was sick, and that’s all there is to it. ”
She grinned at how pragmatic he could be at times. “I love it when you talk dirty to me.”
“Just wait until I get back.”
He yawned, and she almost said something since he’d been giving her grief for staying up late, yet he was doing the exact same thing every night, pacing the hotel hallways like a ghost himself.
“Sinclair was the one who leaked the blueprints to the guy who then sent them to your dad. Only he changed the large room on the second-floor to state that it was a nursery as a way to give a hint to what Taylor was planning.”
“CeCe’s library.”
“What?”
“The room that’s labeled on the blueprints as a nursery is actually a library he designed for CeCe.” She sighed wistfully. “He said she had always wanted one.”
“Hey, I thought we weren’t romanticizing this. He would have let us die in that house.”
“But do you have any idea why he would want to warn us if he didn’t care?”
“He empathized with your dad,” Liam admitted.
“He’d studied what happened at Haven House back when CeCe was alive.
And then there was Simone and Annabeth. He knew CeCe would never forgive him if they were hurt.
Like on the night they tried the first kidnapping.
Sinclair would have killed that Zanmi woman who attacked them if the forest hadn’t done it first.”
Michael had allowed Denise to die in the forest, whether it was by an animal or something else when he permitted her to lead the way through the dark trails. From what Jamison could recall, it had been horrific, but like with Taylor, she wasn’t particularly upset about the woman’s untimely death.
“Anything else good in the journal?”
“I wouldn’t say good, exactly. I’m starting to think of these journals as the strangest example of hearsay in legal history.”
Her heart fluttered as she traced a finger over her wedding gown’s bodice. She loved this dress, and seeing it again helped diffuse her anger. “Can I just say that Taylor turning out to be the total evil bitch in this story proves how my intuition is always right? ”
“I’ve never doubted you.”
“Because you’re brilliant. Now keep reading to me.”
“Are you sure? It’s late.”
She chewed on her bottom lip and decided to give in to the impulse to try on the gown. “I’m in the closet playing dress up.”
“Wedding gown?”
“You know me well.”
“That I do.”
She smiled, sliding her hands behind the satin train to free it from the bag. “Why us, though?” she asked. “Why was Taylor so weirdly freaking desperate to have a Fairweather baby?”
“Oh, you’re going to love this. With Toby’s blessing, Taylor attempted to seduce Samuel so she could have a baby who would share DNA with Toby.
Taylor is a disgusting monster that will allow anyone to do whatever they want with her body, but when it comes to things like having children, only someone with a worthy bloodline will do.
Yes, Mom. I know you just snickered, but that’s what I said.
A worthy bloodline. This woman’s father was spat out the back of a Roxbury alley, yet she feels the need to pretend like she comes from royalty.
She’s delusional, and so mentally unstable someone should have committed her a long time ago. ”
“Taylor thought the Fairweathers had a worthy bloodline? That’s a joke, right?
” Jamison’s hands stilled as she worked on extracting her wedding dress from the garment bag.
“And do you know how many criminals we have? Swindlers and thieves and God knows what else hanging on the branches of our family tree?”
“And let’s not forget Carter’s great-great-great grandmother, who was once a Fairweather and a murderess.”
“Leave that poor woman out of this. I’m sure she had her reasons.”