By
Brynn Morgan
Copyright © 2023 by â Brynn Morgan â All Rights Reserved.
It is not legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited.
Chapter 15
Lainie and Emily were both contemplative as they left the assisted care facility. This talk of (The Girl) had them shaken up, and Lainie had never heard anything about the girl from her mom before that day.
There was still some time before they met Clarissa at her apartment, so they went to a quaint coffee shop in town, sat down in the air-conditioned space, and had espressos and lemon muffins.
"Had you ever heard about the girl?" Emily asked Lainie.
Lainie stared out the shop window at people passing by on the sidewalk. "No. I never have. It came as quite a shock to me to hear her say that. I must remember Emily, that mom has dementia, and she is not a reliable source of information."
"She sounded pretty certain to me, Lainie."
Lainie took a sip of her coffee and shook her head.
"I am really trying to remember any conversations about the girl being mentioned by her, but I don't remember a single one."
Pulling her pad out of her bag, Lainie added (the Girl) to her list. "There is something that Mom said that really did bother me, though."
Emily looked at her questioningly. "What is that?"
"She said that the girl liked Bella and was angry when she was taken away."
"Right. I remember her saying that."
Lainie pinched some of the muffin top with her fingers and popped it into her mouth. "Now that I am thinking about it, I remember that Tristan had a fit with Bella before she died. Tristan lived there full time at the house with Bella because Majorie's health was going downhill, and she did not want to be alone. She liked Bella being in the house. She said that Bella was a breath of fresh air and chased away the shadows."
Emily got a chill, and it was not from the air conditioning.
Lainie's eyes widened. "Oh, my God." She said in a whisper.
Emily looked at her.
"I remember this one time that I went over to the Hastings House to pick up Bella for a doctor's appointment, and when I walked in, she was sitting on the bottom step and talking to someone like little kids do. I asked her who she was talking to, and she said she was talking to her friend. I figured that it was like an imaginary friend or something."
Emily was listening intently, and Lainie continued.
"I told her that we had to go, or we would be late for her doctor's visit, and she pitched a fit and ran out the door saying that she wasn't going, and she wanted to play with her friend."
"What did you do?" Emily asked.
"Tristan chased her down and forced her to get in the car that day. She was screaming and crying the whole way to the doctor's office. I was so stressed when I finally got her there."
Lainie was quiet as if she were thinking hard.
"Bella was making it hard on Tristan there for those few months. She flew into a rage one night when she made her go to bed early, and she scratched Tristan on the side of her face, drawing blood. She told her she was a mean mommy and did not want her to be her mommy anymore. I remember that Tristan called me crying. She did not know what to do with her at that point."
"So, what happened then?" Emily asked curiously.
"She decided it would be best to move in with Davis and me. Bella was becoming too much for her to handle, and she needed our help," Lainie told her.
Emily could only imagine how hard this must have been on Tristan. She remembered when Isla wanted to act up on certain days. It wasn't easy.
"So, she stopped Bella from going to the Hasting's house altogether?" Emily asked.
"She used it as leverage. If Bella was good, she was allowed to go to work with her for the day because she was out of school for the summer, but if she were bad, then Tristan would not let her go."
Emily strummed her fingernails on the tabletop as she processed all Lainie had said. "Did Bella ever mention the name of this friend?" She asked
"No. I never heard her mention a name."
"Do you think that Bella would be able to tell us? "
"About her friend?" Lainie looked so sad. "I wish you could have known Bella before all this happened with her mom, Emily. She was the most active and mischievous little girl full of life and had the most contagious giggle." She spoke with great sadness in her voice. "She brought so much joy, and then she just changed. She became quiet and withdrawn for a period there, and the only time she perked up was when Tristan would cave in and let her go to work with her. After we lost Tristan, it was like we lost Bella, too."
Emily took a moment and then said. "Have you thought about a therapist for Bella? Someone that could help her resurrect the memories of her mom?"
She approached this subject cautiously because she did not know how Lainie would take it.
Lainie nodded and softly tapped her empty cup on her upturned palm. "Davis did suggest it, but it was too traumatizing to subject her to that. He even found someone in Charleston willing to take her as a patient. But I never took her. We have about an hour before we have to go to Clarissa's, so I thought I could take you on a tour of the homes downtown, and then we will head that way. Sound good?"
Emily nodded, standing up from the table.
"Sounds good."
***
Summerhill was a lovely town known for its picturesque gardens and beautiful azaleas. The shades of pink, white, and red made the manicured lawns pop with color, and the old homes lined the streets with massive old oak trees that hung over driveways like emerald canopies. The homes came in various sizes and colors, mostly different shades of brick, and some of the homes were covered with aluminum siding. Lainie pointed out the house where the town mayor lived and some other important residents. Emily leaned her head back and listened as Lainie pointed out how stores, restaurants, and businesses had come in and revamped the town to draw in more tourists over the last few decades. It brought life back to the area.
A charming park in the middle of the town was bustling with children running around the playground. Moms and dads pushed children in strollers around the park's edges on the sidewalks.
Emily saw the cutest little toddler holding on to his grandfather's hand and the other holding a giant chocolate ice cream cone that was melting like crazy all over his fingers.
Hot tears stung the backs of her eyes, and she closed them and bowed her head to block them out. The bells started ringing from the Episcopal church down the road, announcing that it was six o'clock.
"Time to head that way," Lainie said.
They arrived at Crown Mallard apartments, painted white concrete structures with pastel shutters in different shades to resemble Rainbow Row, and Lainie put in the code Clarissa had provided them. The sun was going down, and the air was becoming cooler. There was a balmy breeze coming from off the river.
They found the apartment quickly, and when they pushed the buzzer by Clarissa's door, they heard some commotion inside and Clarissa's voice.
"Get away from the door y'all!"
The door slowly opened, and a ginger cat peeked out; his yellow topaz eyes were wide with curiosity. Clarissa swooped down and picked the large cat up in her arms.
She looked very relaxed in a black linen caftan that hung loose on her slim frame, and her red hair was up in a loose bun with tendrils framing her heart-shaped face.
Emily was immediately drawn to the beautiful moonstone necklace that hung from her neck in the shape of a half-moon. It caught the light beautifully and had brilliant flashes of blue and green fire that caught her eye.
"Hey, Lainie and Emily. I hope y'all are not allergic to cats!" she laughed as the cat protested loudly and moved in her arms.
"Mozart, stop!" Clarrisa ordered. She was quite comical with the cat and dropped him like a hot potato when his claws came out. He fell to the ground with a loud thump and scurried under the white sofa. Another cat that looked just like Mozart started circling Lainie and Emily's legs, purring. He was a beautiful ginger cat with dark green eyes, and his tail swished back and forth.
"And this is Beethoven, Mozart's brother. He is the lover, and his brother is the curious one but very skittish," she said.
"They are beautiful cats," Lainie said.
Clarrisa giggled.
"They are lazy and full of themselves, both of them, but they are my babies. I adopted them from the shelter in town, and they are spoiled rotten. Y'all come on in." she said, holding the door open.
Clarrisa's apartment was a cozy space with gray laminate flooring and white walls, except for one navy blue contrast wall in the living room. On this wall were a series of prints depicting the moon in its various phases. This display looked beautiful against the bright furniture and glass and chrome tables.
She motioned to a couch in the living area and said, "Go ahead and take a seat." Then she disappeared into the kitchen.
"I am making pizza. Are y'all hungry? I have a supreme pizza, and the other one is Hawaiian with pineapple and bacon." Clarrisa informed them.
As if on cue, Emily's stomach rumbled. She was hungry.
"We would be on board with that," Lainie said.
Emily and Lainie took in the raw gemstones on the coffee table and end tables on either side of the sofa. Emily recognized Moonstone, Rose Quartz, and a Smoky Topaz stone that was huge. The curtains on the windows were deep navy blue and blocked out the sunlight.
A small wooden altar sat in the corner of the living room, adorned with white candles aglow and incense sticks, burning. A resin image of three women, with a large full moon in the center, was placed on it delicately.
Clarrisa brought in a tray carrying two pizzas and a few paper plates and placed them on a café table with high chairs. The ladies joined her at the table and dined on pizza and bottled water.
Once they finished eating, they cleared off the table, and Clarissa brought out the folder with all the information she had gathered about Hastings House.
She opened the folder, looked through a few pages, and flipped back to the front.
"I remember how badly I wanted an A for this report." She chuckled. "I worked hard for it, but I got that A." she bragged.
Lainie folded her arms on the table, and Emily leaned back in her chair, eager to hear what Clarissa had to say.
"So, Hastings House was built circa 1842. The original owners were James and Elizabeth Hastings, who hailed from Massachusetts. The house was a wedding present from Elizabeth's father. James had money as a wealthy banker's son. Still, Elizabeth's father was a steel tycoon, and he commissioned Asa Fielder to execute the building of the Antebellum mansion, which took two years to complete. They chose South Carolina as the place to build because Elizabeth was frail and tiny and suffered from aches and pains, which we would now know was rheumatoid arthritis, but it was not well known back then. She hated the cold New England winters and wanted to go to a warm place.
They moved with all their servants, ten to be exact, and James decided to raise Morgan Horses and have a world-renowned stable." Clarissa flipped to the next page. "James and Elizabeth had four children, and then with his second wife Catherine Hastings, he had four more children."
Lainie's eyes widened.
"He was a busy man." Clarissa giggled.
She reached into a manilla folder and pulled out some sepia pictures of the Hastings House and family.
The first picture was the wedding photo of James and Elizabeth that had been painted by a commissioned artist who caught the cocky personality of James and the timid expression of Elizabeth. Her dark eyes stared directly at the artist, and her black hair was pulled back severely from her white face. She looked so unhappy to Emily as she stood in front of a large brownstone mansion.
The following picture was of James and his second wife, Catherine. She was the exact opposite of Elizabeth. She was regal, beautiful, and fair. She beamed at the artist and seemed incredibly happy to stand beside her husband.
"She is completely opposite from Elizabeth," Lainie commented.
Emily looked at family photographs of the Hastings children and saw some photos of the girls, but then she noticed that the girls disappeared from the pictures as time passed.
James held one little girl in his arms in a seated position, and Elizabeth held another little toddler in her arms, and the child leaned forward with the most startling eyes that were mesmerizing even in the painting from the eighteen forties.
"So, James and Elizabeth had four children born to them. Georgia, London, Paris, and their son that did not make it through childbirth, and neither did Elizabeth."
Emily felt so sad for Elizabeth.
"James spent no time mourning. Within a year, he had married the gorgeous Catherine Snow from Wales, and when they returned from their honeymoon in London, she was already expecting a child. They had four children as well."
"Jesus. Lainie exclaimed. "He wasted no time. Elizabeth was barely cold in her grave."
Clarissa pulled out more photos of the family and showed them some newspaper articles.
"This is where things get odd for me," Clarissa said.
She pulled out a brown leather-bound book that said Hastings in gold leaf print. She flipped through it.
"I went through the family line for decades, and did you know that Georgia, London, and Paris all died extremely young, and their cause of death is nowhere to be found? It was never decided. I went and visited their family cemetery."
Lainie and Emily's mouths fell open in astonishment.
"What?"
Clarrisa nodded and turned the book around for them to see what she was referring to.
"Georgia died of mysterious causes at the age of fourteen. Paris passed at the age of twelve. London died at eighteen when she returned home from finishing school. All the daughters of Elizabeth Hastings died tragically young. So, I thought that was weird. I searched further. Catherine ended up moving out of the house after London died because she was afraid for her life and the lives of her daughters. She had twin girls with James. Ann and Elise. James let her go but did not let her take his sons. The only girls born into the Hastings family from that point forward that survived were James and Catherine's two girls, and she never let them return to Hastings House. There have been deaths at Hastings through the generations, not just the family. There have been servants and guests that have fallen mysteriously to their deaths. There have been reported sights of strange lights on the property at night. The many clocks inside the house will all stop at a certain time each day and must be restarted, and strange occurrences in the house have been seen. One house servant was rumored to have gone completely insane by something she saw in the house."
Emily felt overwhelmed by all the information. All these girls had died there. What in the hell was going on? She wondered.
Lainie sighed, exasperated.
"I just want to know what happened to Elizabeth's daughters. That is just terrible. She had no legacy. They were all taken."
Clarrisa pulled a piece of paper out from the back pocket of her folder.
"Take this folder with you for your research. I passed on this years ago," she said, handing Emily a piece of yellow paper listing Elizabeth's journals. "Elizabeth Hasting had a series of diaries; journals were donated to the county library years ago. I was going to rent them out and read them but passed on them and just did this instead, but I bet it would be an interesting read."
Emily looked down at the information.
"This has been beneficial information, Clarissa, and we will check this information out," Emily said, and Lainie nodded in agreement.
They left Clarissa's apartment after that and decided to get their hands on Elizabeth Hasting's journals that next day. Hopefully, they would still be available.