“I’m so sorry, baby,” I said, swallowing the lump in my throat. I couldn’t bear it if he was still angry with me.
He sighed. “I’m sorry too. I was about to text you that yesterday, but then my phone broke.”
“How did it break? Rino stopped by to tell me you would call me from another number, but he never told me how it happened. Were you hurt?”
I could hear the smile in his voice when he replied. “I wasn’t hurt; it was simply an accident.”
“I’m glad to hear it, baby. When will you be back?”
“Hopefully soon,” he replied with a sigh that told me he was over his assignment too.
“I don’t like sleeping alone,” I admitted. “This home truly feels like a mansion without you in it. So big and empty.”
He laughed softly. “I won’t be gone for long. And Jackson?”
“Yes?”
“This will be my last assignment.”
I think I stopped breathing. “Really?”
“Yes. I belong by your side. But I need to finish this one first, okay?”
“Okay,” I agreed, forcing down my excitement of having him home forever after this. No more worrying. No more secrets between us.
“I need to go. Remember, I love you.”
“I love you too, baby.”
I was smiling wide as he hung up and I quickly added his new number to my phone. Then I added the cat bed to the check out and paid for next day delivery.
Chapter 27
Pete
“What?” I exclaimed; not sure I heard him right.
“The sister died there too,” Rino repeated. “They both died from scarlet fever along with their mother who passed just a week before them.” I finally got the ghost’s name, which was Alice White and her sister, who was called Louise. Since they didn’t have unique names, it had taken Rino a few hours to find the information, but considering we had the house they’d both died in, he eventually found it.
“But then… Where’s the sister? And why does Alice believe she left with the pearls?” I questioned. It didn’t make any sense. Alice acted like she and her sister had just died, she knew nothing about technology and seemed oblivious where most ghosts at least knew what was going on around them from new owners and TV. The house was hidden away from other houses, making it secluded, which didn’t help Alice at all, but still.
“I’m still working on that. But Pete?”
“Yes?”
“I fear this involves a cursed item.”
“Nope,” I replied. I was not touching that. Na ah. Nope. Not that.
“Pete….” Rino said, and his tone told me it very muchwouldbemyproblem too.
I gave up and let out a deep breath filled with all of mynopesand will to live. “Why do you believe a cursed item is involved?”
“If someone dies and latches themselves onto an object, like a pearl necklace, then they’ll lie dormant in said necklace until it is removed from the location the curse happened at.”
“You believe that’s why Alice is acting like it happened yesterday? Because she got freed when the necklace was taken?”
“That’s just my theory. But it would explain why the mother and sister aren’t here. The mother cursed it unknowingly, then Alice got the necklace but Louise was the last to own it, having stolen it fromher dead sister. I believe both Louise and their mother are cursed to the pearl necklace.”
