Chapter 3
Ronan
Ronan stood on the deck cleaning the grill.
He’d fired up ribeye steaks for dinner. Everly had enjoyed hers with ketchup, a sin Ronan wasn’t sure he could forgive, while Ezra chomped his down like a dinosaur, roaring after every bite.
Tennyson ate his entire dinner for the first time since his arrest. Ronan was so relieved, he felt like he could cry.
Over the last few weeks, Tennyson had been sullen and quiet, even with the kids, which worried Ronan more than anything else.
Ten had been the strong one every time Ronan ended up in the hospital or was injured in the line of duty.
He’d been the same when the kids were sick or had hurt themselves.
This was the first time Ten had been the one in the danger zone and Ronan hadn’t dealt with it very well.
According to Jude, Carson was still giving Ten hell at work and Ronan wasn’t quite sure how to handle that ongoing problem.
“Hey, you!” Ten opened the screened door and stepped out onto the porch.
“There’s something I need to talk to you about.
I put a movie on for the kids.” Ten pressed a kiss to Ronan’s cheek and went back into the house.
This was one of the rare moments when he wished he could read Ten’s mind, to gauge where his husband was emotionally.
Finished with the grill, Ronan went back inside and washed his hands. He was drying them when Everly walked into the kitchen and took a seat at the table. “I’m ready to talk about Amanda.”
“Who’s Amanda?” Ronan asked, looking back and forth between Ten and Everly.
“Dad’s gonna tell you all about her.” Everly beamed at Tennyson, who looked excited for what felt like the first time in weeks.
“Okay, let’s hear about Amanda.” Ronan sat down and focused his attention on Tennyson.
“I had a reading today with a woman named Natalie whose baby died at birth. She’d been under sedation at the time of the delivery and when she woke up, the baby was gone and the nurse told her it had died.”
Ronan’s eyes widened as he listened to Ten speak. “Honey, I don’t think this is a conversation you should be hearing.”
Everly giggled. “I’m fine. Let Dad finish telling you the story.”
“Sorry for interrupting.” Ronan winked at his daughter. “Go on.”
Ten grinned at Everly before continuing. “This happened in 1972 at the St. Agnes House, here in Salem, which was a home for unwed mothers.”
“What does unwed mean?” Everly asked.
“Unwed means unmarried. The house was for women who got pregnant without having husbands,” Ten said, looking a little uneasy.
“You mean single moms?” Everly asked, sounding incredulous. “There are three kids who have single moms in my class.”
“Right,” Ten agreed. “Back in the olden days, women were looked down on if they got pregnant and didn’t have a husband.
Teenage girls were often sent to places like the St. Agnes House to have their babies in secret, so that the neighbors and no one in their family would know how shamefully they had acted.
Back in the 1970s having a baby without a husband made the parents of the teenage girl look bad. ”
Everly wore a confused look. “People were weird in the olden times.”
Ronan wondered if this was the kind of conversation Everly should be involved in. He was about to say as much when Everly beat him to the punch.
“People need to mind their own business, Dad. That’s what’s shameful, not a daughter having a baby.” Everly rolled her eyes in a perfect imitation of Ronan.
“You’re right, honey,” Ten said, “but that’s not the way things were done back then. A lot of the girls who had babies at these kinds of homes gave them up for adoption and went back home to their old lives.”
“What? Woofie and Aurora were adopted because their parents died. Why would you give your baby away if you were alive to love them?” Everly looked more angry than confused.
“It was so that the girls could go back to school and have a chance to build a life for themselves.” Ten looked as if he was uncomfortable with the turn the conversation had taken.
“A life? Being a mommy is having a life, Dad.” Everly turned to Ronan. “What do you think?”
At first, Ronan had thought Everly didn’t belong in this conversation, but now, he felt like he didn’t either. “You’re seven years old, honey. Do you think you’d be ready to be a Mommy in eight years?”
“No way!” Everly said, with conviction. “I’ve got too much to do, Daddy! I’m gonna learn how to drive the Mustang and be prom queen with Aurora and go to college and travel!”
Ronan snickered. He’d make sure to remind Everly of this conversation when she was asked out on her first date. “That was the point of the St. Agnes House. The babies born there were adopted by good, Catholic families, and the girl gets to go back home and do all the things you just mentioned.”
“Do they get their babies back later on?” Everly asked.
“No, honey. Adoptions are forever.” Ronan’s heart felt like it was being squeezed in a vice grip. This was undoubtedly the worst conversation he’d ever had with his daughter.
“So the baby never knows their Mommy?” Everly’s green eyes glittered with unshed tears.
“That’s right,” Ronan said gently.
“That sucks.” Everly swiped her eyes. “People suck.”
“I can’t argue with that.” Ten handed Everly a tissue.
Ronan couldn’t help but think this was just one more instance of Everly’s innocence slipping away. “What does the St. Agnes House have to do with Amanda?” He wanted to get the conversation back on track before Everly thought to ask if he and Ten would ever give her and Ezra away.
“Amanda was the name Natalie had picked out for her baby if it was a girl. She came to see me today to connect with her daughter. Natalie didn’t want to give Amanda up. She had plans to stay in Salem after the baby was born, to raise her daughter and work as a nurse.”
Anger stirred in Ronan’s gut. If the woman came to Ten to speak with her long dead child, why the hell did Everly need to know the backstory of teenage pregnancy and giving babies up for adoption?
“Take a breath, Ronan. I’m getting to why the entire story was necessary.” Ten grinned at his husband. “When I tried to contact Amanda, I couldn’t reach her. Natalie gave me the blanket her daughter had been wrapped in and I still couldn’t connect with her spirit.”
“I don’t understand. There are a lot of spirits you can’t connect with. I’ve asked you to reach out to James Dean a dozen times and you told me you can’t find him.” Ronan had questions for the long-dead hunk. Questions, and a little bit of flirting to do.
“Exactly, I couldn’t reach him,” Ten agreed.
“Neither of us are related to James Dean and we don’t have an object that belonged to him.
On the other hand, I can reach out and connect with your mother because we’re family.
” Ten shot Ronan an expectant look, as if he were waiting for him to figure out something important.
“If Natlie is the mother and you had the baby’s blanket, you should have been able to reach her spirit…” Ronan trailed off, as he figured out what Ten was driving toward. “Holy shit! You think Amanda is alive?”
“Yeah, I do. Carson and Cope couldn’t reach her spirit either.” Ten smiled brightly for the first time in what felt like weeks.
“This is a miracle! We have to find Amanda! Reunite mother and daughter.” Ronan shook his head. He couldn’t believe what Tennyson was telling him. “What are our next steps?”
“I’m glad you asked. We need to do some research on the St. Agnes House.
Find out if there were any scandals associated with it and maybe see if we can speak with mothers, like Natalie, who gave birth there.
Natalie is going to take a DNA test and upload the results to Ancestry and 23 and Me.
I’m hoping Amanda will pop up in her results as a DNA match, the way my brother, River, did in mine.
Natalie said she watched her daughter’s casket be lowered into the ground and knows where the grave is located.
We’re going to go there to see if we can find Amanda that way. ”
Ronan shook his head. “You always say spirits don’t hang out in the cemetery waiting for their family to visit them.”
“That’s true,” Ten agreed. “But we’ll be able to tell if there’s a body in Amanda’s grave. I thought you might want to come.”
“Of course I’ll be there,” Ronan said. “It goes without question, I’ll do whatever I can to help you find out what happened to Amanda.”
“I was talking to Everly,” Ten said. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s a terrible idea!” Ronan said, before he could think better of it.
“Take a breath, Daddy.” Everly set a hand on Ronan’s shoulder. “I knew there was a case you were going to work about a baby. It’s Amanda, I’m sure of it. I want to help. Can you imagine how sad you’d be if a doctor told you I was dead?”
Ronan gasped so hard, he started to choke. The idea of not having Everly in his life was more than his heart could bear. “I wouldn’t have survived.”
“That’s how Natalie felt,” Everly said. “We go to the cemetery every year on Mimi Bertha’s birthday. Cemeteries aren’t scary, Daddy.”
“Did you ever check to see if Mimi is in her grave?” Ronan asked, unable to help himself.
Everly nodded. “She’s there, in that ugly polka dot dress.”
Ronan wasn’t sure what to say. His seven year old daughter had just told him she’d checked Bertha Craig’s grave for her remains. “Why did you do that?”
“Because Kenny P. brought his grampa for show and tell last year,” Everly said.
“What does that have to do with checking graves at the cemetery?” The more Ronan heard about the infamous Kenny P., the more he hoped the family would move out of Salem.
“Daddy, Kenny’s grampa was in a jar.” Everly grimaced. “I wanted to make sure Mimi Bertha wasn’t in a jar too.”
“He brought his grandfather’s remains for show and tell?” Ronan asked, feeling stunned. What the hell was wrong with kids nowadays?
“Yup! Mikey wanted him to open the vase to see what was inside, but the teacher wouldn’t let him.”
“Thank God for that.” Ronan could well imagine the chaos that would have ensued if they’d opened the urn and Kenny’s grandfather spilled out all over the floor.
“We’re gonna go to the cemetery on Wednesday, right, Dad?” Everly asked.
“Yeah, before school, so we’re gonna need to get up early.”
“Okay!” Everly said, hopping off her seat. “Can you bring me and Ezzie movie snacks?”
“In a little bit,” Ten agreed.
“Okay, thanks, Dad!” Everly scampered out of the room.
“I don’t know what to say.” Ronan felt like his head was spinning.
“I didn’t either, to be honest. At first, I thought my gift wasn’t working. Sometimes it goes wonky when I’m upset, and let’s face it, this hasn’t been an easy few weeks for me.”
“True,” Ronan agreed. Not an easy week, was a gross underestimate of what things had been like for Tennyson, but he seemed to be feeling much better at the moment.
“Anyway, I had Cope and Carson come verify what I was seeing and they both agreed they couldn’t find Amanda either.
Of course Carson thought the blanket Natalie brought might not have been used to wrap the baby, but is willing to go along with my suggestions for Natalie to do a DNA test and for us to research the St. Agnes House and go to the cemetery. ”
“Is Carson still giving you a hard time?” Ronan asked. Ten and Carson had been the best of friends for as long as Ronan had known them both. Carson had been a bit frosty toward Ten in the aftermath of the Autumn Miller situation.
“He was during my reading with Natalie, but then Cope told him to cut the shit and Carson started to cry. He’s having a hard time with my arrest too. He’s not sleeping or eating much and is scared every time he hears police sirens.”
“Carson’s worried he’s going to be arrested like you were?” Ronan hadn’t considered that Carson might be suffering from PTSD after seeing Tennyson be brutally arrested and hauled away.
Ten nodded. “I’ve been so far down that I hadn’t noticed Carson was struggling too.”
“I’ll have a little chat with him. We had a meeting with Cisco last week about what happened to you and what our response would be if someone wanted to press charges against a psychic here in Salem.”
“What’s Cisco’s plan?”
“No psychic is going to be arrested for giving readings that fail to come true. Vance and the Danvers police department twisted the fraud by psychic statute to have you charged and arrested, but, from now on, Cisco is going to make sure it’s used properly, like in cases of extortion or theft.”
“That’s good news. All the psychics will be happy to hear that. Maybe you could come by and talk to all of us.”
“I’d be happy to, if that means all of you sleep better at night.” Ronan got up from the table and pulled Ten to his feet. “Speaking of sleeping better, I know the perfect cure to make sure you get some real rest.”
“Does it have anything to do with Huge Jackman?” Ten waggled his eyebrows.
Ronan would never admit it, but he loved when Ten used that nickname for his dick. “Uh, huh. Maybe we skip bath time tonight and put the kids to sleep earlier.”
Ten snickered. “We can’t send our kids to school dirty. Let’s give them quick showers, one story, one song, one drink of water and then it’s game on.”
“Works for me!” Ronan squeezed Ten tight.
The last few weeks had been some of the hardest in Ronan’s marriage. He’d watch Ten suffer and lose his spark, but now, after the promise of a visit from Huge Jackman, Ten seemed to be on the road to recovery.