Page 107 of The Defiant Curse

“The pages were scattered around, and we found them randomly through the remodel,” Graham stated. “The only place not checked is the ballroom. That’s the last place on the remodel list for now.”

She sat there.

Michael honestly believed things happened for a reason. He was a big believe in fate. Look at how both he and Graham ended up working for the Blackhawks. Then, they found each other again.

If that wasn’t fate, what was it?

“Maybe we can work this, as a family, and figure it out,” he said. “It might be fun.”

Both Elizabeth and Graham stared at him like he’d lost his goddamn mind.

It made him laugh.

“Hey now! Don’t give me that look. You showed up, and it set something off for a reason. I don’t drive the fate bus. I’m just a passenger. You came here, Elizabeth, to find you, and do you think the dead woman who looks just like you, coincidentally also lost a part of herself here, is a fluke?”

She hated that he was right.

“YOU KNOW THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS COINCIDENCES.”

He laughed.

“I know.”

Well, shit.

Elizabeth couldn’t believe she was going to do this. Had someone told her that she’d go to a haunted castle and play investigator while she was trying to recover from being an investigator, she would have slapped them stupid.

Only, they made a compelling argument, and she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t curious.

When Ian and Gryphen had told her about the place, she’d been fully enthralled with hearing about it.

Now, she was being given the opportunity to solve a very old mystery in a castle they all owned. Fate did drive the bus, unfortunately.

“What do you say?” Michael asked. “Want to play investigator with us?”

She laughed.

“You realize how batshit insane this is to investigate a haunting by a dead woman who has been gone for centuries, right?” she asked.

Just as she said it, the lights by her bed turned on.

They all looked up.

“Rats,” Graham said, knowing that wasn’t the cause.

Elizabeth closed her eyes.

“I came here NOT to go insane, and here I am, clearly going insane.”

Neither man spoke.

It was all up to her.

Finally, she made up her mind.

“Okay, let’s find the dead woman’s heart. Where could this possibly take me? The looney bin? I’m already there, so at least it will be a very short trip into bedlam.”

Michael gave her a kiss on the cheek.