Souls Apart (Book 1 in the Lost Souls Trilogy) by Anna Pescardot Page A

I’m not busy.   Come in.”
    We followed her through the huge entrance hall and
into a room on the left which looked like something off Cribs.   It was amazing with its marble floors and
huge leather sofas.   The mix of the old
building with modern furniture worked well. She invited us to sit next to her
on one of the sofas.   I let Amber do most
of the talking.   She was hoping to be a
journalist and it would be good practice for her.
    “I’d like to as you about her,” Amber said, passing
the blonde woman a print out of the photo of Emily and Edward. The blonde
inhaled sharply and started to twist pieces of hair around her fingers. “That
would be my great grandparents,” she said. “Why do you want to know about my great
grandmother?”
    “It says in this article that she drowned but there is
talk in the village that maybe her husband did it? I know this is a little
sensitive for you but we’d be interested to know what you think about these
rumours.”
    She shifted in her seat and started to nibble on her
fingernails.   I thought this was strange
behaviour for someone who seemed so statuesque and composed. “I used to hear
people talking about it when I was at school but Mom told me to ignore the
gossip. That’s all it is.   She drowned.
I’m not denying they may have had a huge argument and that’s why she went to
the lake, but how could he kill his wife.   She’d not long given birth to my gran.”
    I felt a sharp pain in my chest.   I’d had a child with Eddie.   He hadn’t mentioned that “Where’s your gran
now?” I asked.
    The blonde looked sad. “She died; almost a year ago
now.   That’s why we had the attic sale;
we couldn’t bear to keep all of her stuff.   We wanted to get rid of the past and start afresh.”
    “So the gold dress I bought was your grandmother’s?” I
asked.
    “It was her Mom’s.” She looked at the photo,
“Emily’s.   She was wearing it the night
she died. I don’t know why Great Gran wanted to keep it. I’d have destroyed
it.”
    Things were starting to make more sense now but I was
still confused.
    “What happened to your gran’s husband then?” Amber
asked.
    “He got killed in the war. Gran was only twenty.   She lived here by herself the rest of her
life. She was a recluse in the end.   She
used so scare me a little.”
    I realized that it must have been her I’d seen at the
window when I was small.   How weird that
I’d given birth to her in my previous life. Why had she scared me so much?
Surely I would have known on some sort of level that she was special to
me.   It only just hit me that the blonde
was my relative too.   She would be my
great great grand-daughter.   This was
just weird.   This is probably why most
people don’t remember their past lives.   They can totally mess up your current life.
    “There’s just one last question,” Amber said. “I know
you might not feel comfortable answering this, so if you don’t want to I’ll
understand.   Is it true that your great
grand-dad committed suicide by jumping off this roof?”
    She took hold of the photo and started to trace her fingers
over his face. “That’s what Mom said.   Please don’t print this in your report, but Mom believed he still haunts
this house.   She told me she kept seeing
him everywhere and she even asked him to stop bothering her but she said he
wouldn’t go away.   None of us saw him so
we thought she was crazy like Gran…”
    “So where’s your mom now?” I asked.
    “I don’t know.” She wiped some tears from her eyes and
continued. “Pops and I were about to put her in a mental institution to get her
some help and so she could sleep without being scared but she found out and
just left.   Nobody’s heard from her
since.”
    “That’s so sad,” Amber said placing an arm around the
blonde’s shoulders.
    I went to join her. “What’s your name anyway?” I
asked.
    “It’s Sally.”
    Amber got Sally some tissues from on top