Family Secrets (Brannon House Book 2) Read online

  In the cramped office, my aunt and I sit across from the nurse at a small but tidy desk.

  “What’s going on?” Kenzi demands.

  The woman clears her throat and plays with her collar.

  Usually, the nurses don’t get nervous. This can’t be good.

  “Just spill it. I know my mom can be difficult. Do I need to pay for damages to something?”

  “Your mother escaped.”

  “What?” My aunt leaps up. “How did she get out? What are you doing to find her?”

  My heart races.

  “It’s okay. She’s in her room right now.”

  “What happened?” Kenzi demands.

  “Have a seat, please.”

  “No! This place is supposed to be secure. A woman with dementia shouldn’t be able to just walk out unnoticed!”

  The nurse’s brows draw together. “You’re right. We have strict protocols in place and numerous security features. But somehow, she got out.”

  My aunt leans on the desk. “Tell me everything.”

  “Last night, one of our janitors found her outside. He recognized her as a patient and brought her in. Notified the head nurse on duty right away.”

  Kenzi’s face reddens. “How did she get out?”

  “We’re still working on that. Somehow, she avoided the cameras, so we don’t know.”

  “How is this possible?”

  “I don’t know, but I assure you we’re looking into it.”

  “This is unacceptable!”

  The nurse nods in agreement. “You’re right, it is. We’ve fired one night staffer and have begun a full investigation. We are also tightening our already stringent security measures.”

  My aunt paces for a moment before turning back to the nurse. “Maybe we need to find a better facility—one that can actually take care of my mother!”

  “That’s an option, yes. But I’ll advise you we are the highest rated in the area. Your sister picked us because there is none better.”

  Kenzi snorts. “Right. Well, thank you for telling me what happened.”

  “That’s not all.”

  My stomach drops. Did Grandma get hurt on her little outing?

  Nurse Nancy takes a deep breath. “I’ve had the head of security scrutinize our video footage. It appears last night wasn’t Regina’s first unsupervised outing.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Spittle flies from my aunt’s mouth. I’ve never seen her so furious.

  “No. She’s come and gone several times in the last few weeks—that’s as far back as our footage goes.”

  “Let me get this straight. You’re telling me while under your watch, my mother has been sneaking out like a teenager, and this has possibly been going on for a long time?”

  “We can’t say how long.”

  “She’s been sneaking in and out. That doesn’t sound like typical senile behavior.”

  The nurse shakes her head. “No, it doesn’t. An attempt to get out is typical. We stop those often. But successfully going in and out is not normal. I’ve already put in a request for her to be re-evaluated.”

  They go back and forth some more, but I tune them out and try to make sense of the situation. How on earth could my grandma be capable of that?

  The only explanation is that she really has been faking her memory loss.

  16

  Kenzi

  My mind is spinning out of control. I don’t know who I’m more furious with—my mother or the facility. The staff should have caught on to her escape attempts long before they did. What was she thinking? More importantly, what was she doing?

  This has been going on for who knows how long. A senile woman isn’t capable of such a calculated thing. Not even close. Which makes me wonder—again—exactly how sick she was.

  “Are we going to get out of the car?” Ember’s voice brings me back to the present.

  I stare at our house in front of us, unable to remember driving there and horrified at the fact. “I don’t know what to make of the news.”

  “She has to have been faking her memory loss.”

  “But why?” I hold my niece’s gaze. “What’s the point? She could’ve been living here in the house all this time. Instead, she’s been living at that facility for the last five years. It makes no sense.”

  “I have no idea. We should’ve tried talking to her before we left.”

  “Not while I’m this angry. I need to calm down and think about what to say first.”

  Ember’s stomach rumbles loudly. “Let’s eat, then we can figure out what to do.”

  “You haven’t eaten today, have you?”

  She shakes her head no. “I woke up right before you picked me up.”

  I have to take care of her first. My mother can wait, and she will.

  We go inside, and I stick some frozen pizzas in the oven while Ember showers. It’s all I’m capable of making at the moment. I pace the kitchen, feeling the walls closing in on me.

  I really need to calm myself. If I don’t, I won’t be able to think clearly. And I need to make sense of the situation.

  A child’s laughter sounds from down the hallway.

  “Not now, Billa!”

  I’m losing it. I really am. Now I’m yelling at my imaginary friend. Again.

  Thankfully, the shower sounds upstairs. My niece isn’t witness to my insanity. I need to be careful before I find myself in a facility again.

  And if my mother has her way, that’s exactly what’ll happen. Given that she has to be faking her dementia—who does that?—she’ll be more than eager to get rid of me.

  The woman is crazy. Certifiable. And that’s her ‘right’ mind.

  If I don’t stop thinking about her, I’m going to lose it myself. I take a few deep breaths then check on the pizzas, which are almost done. We’re going to need something to drink with that. I dig around in the fridge and find some root beers. They’re in glass bottles, and I don’t know where a bottle opener is. I ordered plastic bottles, but the store didn’t have any, so they gave us these.

  Everything is against me today.

  I leave the pop on the table and rifle through some of the drawers, finding nothing. Bottle openers are the type of thing Dad would’ve had on hand. He’d have kept them in his office along with his stash of drinks. That was where he kept everything important to him, which is also the room I was hardly ever allowed inside.

  Pulse drumming, I march down the hall to his office and fling open one drawer after another until I find what I’m looking for.

  Then I stop cold. Goose bumps form on my arms.

  Books lay on their side on a bookshelf.

  They hadn’t been that way before.

  Maybe Ember was in here looking for something. Or she could’ve bumped them when she was in here putting everything back after my mom wrecked her havoc in here the other night.

  My mother.

  The woman who escaped from a secure memory care facility and who already had showed an interest in this room.

  Tiny hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Could she have come in here on one of her escapades?

  No. That’s ridiculous. Impossible, even. Between the distance and the security system on the house, there’s no way. Not a chance. The system is so sensitive, Ember and I have both accidentally set it off. It has video and alerts us to every unusual movement.

  I’m losing my mind. This house is actually making me crazy.

  “Kenzi?” Ember’s voice drifts down from the hallway.

  “In the office,” I call.

  She comes in. “I took the pizzas out.”

  “Thanks. I didn’t hear the timer.”

  My niece leans against the doorway. “You okay?”

  Not even close, but I don’t want her to know that. “Have you been in here?”

  “That doesn’t answer my question, but I’ll play. No, I haven’t been in this room since Grandma broke the picture frame. Why?”

  I gesture toward the bookshelf.
r />   She turns, then her hands fall to her side. “How did that happen? Those weren’t like that before.”

  “Exactly, and that’s what I want to know.”

  “You didn't knock those over?”

  “Nope. And if you didn’t, who did? Has anyone else been in the house since then?”

  Ember finally looks at me. “I haven’t had anyone over.”

  “And neither have I. You didn’t see your grandma come in here after that, did you?”

  “No. We purposefully kept her away from Grandpa’s office.”

  “She had to have found a way in. That’s the only thing that explains her escapades.”

  My niece looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Even if she’s faking her memory loss, that doesn’t explain how she could get here and get in unnoticed. She doesn’t have a key. We changed the locks, remember? And besides, there’s the security system. It’s tricky.”

  “She watched me input the code each time she’s been here.”

  “But she doesn’t have a key. It has to be ghosts.”

  “There are no ghosts!”

  Ember lifts a brow. “That’s why you’ve been telling the giggling girl to shut up when you think I can’t hear you?”

  My face flames.

  “See? Even you know this place is haunted.”

  “Your grandma has to have been getting in here somehow. Maybe she knows a way in that we never considered. An entrance that didn’t get a new key—because we don’t even know about it.”

  She folds her arms. “That makes less sense than a ghost.”

  “We both know the woman isn’t senile. There’s no way she could pull off multiple escapes if she were.”

  My niece and I stare each other down.

  Ember straightens her back. “Where is this supposed secret entrance, then?”

  Her eyes widen and her mouth drops open.

  Realization hits me like a punch to the throat.

  We speak at the same time. “The mirror.”

  17

  Kenzi

  My hands shake as I stare at the mirror. Could my mother actually have been entering through there to get inside the house? Or am I truly losing my mind?

  I don’t even know which option I prefer. Which is scarier.

  “Do you want me to push the button?” Ember asks.

  “Maybe we should wait.”

  She turns to me. “Wait? Are you crazy?”

  “I’m thinking about safety! Behind this mirror, or door, or whatever it is, is a room not on the blueprints. There are rumors of science experiments and murders. And do you remember the smell?”

  Ember throws her hands in the air. “Fine! I’ll go down there if you’re so worried.”

  “No! If anyone’s going down there, it’s me.”

  “Then go.” Her brows draw together.

  This would be so much easier if I weren’t in charge of her. “Okay, I will.”

  She looks at me expectantly and tugs on her ear.

  I want to ask if something is wrong with her ear, but that would be procrastinating. I’ve noticed she plays with her ear sometimes when she’s nervous.

  Taking a deep breath, I turn my attention away from her, stare down the mirror for a moment, then push the button. I half-expect, or perhaps it’s just desperate hope, nothing will happen. Maybe we’re both remembering wrong and it never opened before.

  Creak!

  The mirror pulls open like a door. Because it is a door. It’s been there my whole life, and I never once suspected it. Did my parents know the entire time? It sure fascinated my mother the other night.

  I step closer, my heart thundering. The musty odor gets stronger. Something is still dripping.

  It’s so dark in there. The steps are so narrow and steep, they make the stairs to the third floor look like a luxurious walk in the park.

  My skin crawls, my breath hitches. I’m primed to run the other way. But if I flee, then Ember will go down there on her own. The fact that she went up to the third floor alone proves as much. Besides, I’m no chicken.

  Or maybe I am. I did move to California and never looked back.

  But it doesn’t matter. I’m here now. I’ve stepped up to the plate, and I’m raising my niece. I’m taking care of an enormous house, which now includes a secret room. Could there be others?

  And I’m about to enter. What hidden secrets am I about to expose? Will what I learn be more traumatic than what I’ve already been through this summer? Could it be so awful that I won’t let Ember come down?

  I feel around for a light switch, and not surprisingly, I don’t find one. Then I pull out my phone and shine the flashlight down the stairs. Can’t see anything beyond the stairs. I’m not even sure I can see all of the steps.

  After one step, I turn around. “Wait until I tell you to come down.”

  She shakes her head. “I’m coming with you.”

  “It might be dangerous.”

  “Then we’ll face it together.”

  My mind races for a reason to keep her up here. “There might not be cell service down there. If I scream, I need you to call for help.”

  “I can come back up here and do that.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  She folds her arms. “What do you expect to find? It’s not like Grandma’s hiding a dragon! How bad could it be?”

  “Is that what you told yourself before going to the third floor?”

  Her eyes narrow. “You’re being ridiculous, I hope you know that.”

  “Better ridiculous than dead.”

  “Fine. I’ll wait, but not very long. In fact, you have a minute.”

  “A minute?”

  She glances at her phone. “Starting now. Better hurry.”

  Who’s calling the shots? Me or her?

  I spin around and step down. The board groans under my weight. I reach for the doorway and hold my breath, hoping it doesn’t give out.

  It doesn’t.

  My pulse drums in my ears, momentarily blocking out any other sound. I put my other foot on the stair. It holds me. I take another step. Then another, and another.

  I’m surrounded by darkness. My phone’s light doesn’t illuminate much. The walls press on me. They’re damp and narrow.

  I place my foot on the next step, but it slips out from under me. I fall on my butt, scraping my back on the step behind the one I landed on. My grip loosens and I drop my phone. It bounces down the rest of the stairs, seemingly in slow motion, finally sliding, bouncing, and stopping out of my sight.

  That could’ve gone better.

  “Are you okay?” Ember calls down.

  “Yeah, fine.” I rise and dust myself off. “Just slid. Everything’s damp.”

  “Gross. Can I see?”

  “Wait.” I press my fingertips on the walls on either side of me and take the most careful steps I can manage. My foot starts to slide again, but I catch myself before falling. I’m keeping my attention on the light down below.

  I’m getting closer, closer.

  Finally, I reach the bottom. The smell is even more pungent than before. It makes my nose sting, my eyes water.

  But I don’t see anything I expect. I’m not in a room. There’s no secret laboratory. There’s literally nothing.

  It looks like a tunnel.

  I have to let go of the wall to reach my phone. Then I shine the light everywhere. The darkness seems to overtake the brightness. It feels like it could swallow me whole.

  “Kenzi?”

  “Just a moment!” I take a few more steps away from the staircase and look around as best I can. The walls are made of packed dirt, and water drips down in places.

  I go a few more feet. It doesn’t show any signs of ending.

  Could my mother have been using this tunnel to get in here when she sneaks out of the retirement home? I shine the light onto the ground. The dirt is so packed, I’m not even leaving footprints. If anyone else has been down here, they haven’t left any either.

/>   Has this place been abandoned for decades? Maybe it was used for Prohibition. Or something more sinister.

  A shiver runs down my spine.

  Something brushes against my arm.

  My breath hitches. I freeze. Flash the light around.

  Nothing.

  “Hello?”

  Silence.

  I take a few more steps before stopping. Going farther would be stupid. What if the walls crumble? I’d be stuck, possibly without an air source. There’s no telling how far the tunnel goes, where it leads. If it even has an exit.

  Whispers sound down at the far end.

  I’m done.

  Drip, drip, drip.

  Wheeling around, I nearly jump out of my skin. Definitely had enough.

  I burst into a run, making it up the creaky, groaning steps in record time, struggling to breathe the whole way. At the top, I nearly crash into Ember.

  She steps back, her face paling. “Did you actually see a ghost?”

  I can’t find my voice, so I shake my head no.

  “What’s down there?”

  “It’s a tunnel.” I gasp for air, my mind spinning out of control.

  “A tunnel?”

  “Looks like it might go pretty far. It has to go at least beyond the main part of the backyard. I don’t know where it ends. The woods? Farther?”

  Ember steps toward the doorway. I’m ready to grab her and yank her back, but she doesn’t go down. She turns back to me. “Why would there be a tunnel to our house?”

  “I’m thinking Prohibition. But this place was already so far out of the way, I don’t know why anyone would bother. I’d have to look into the town’s history back then.”

  “If it’s not that, then what was it used for?”

  “I have no idea.”

  She plays with her ear. “Slaves? You know, that might explain the servants being treated so badly.”

  “This isn’t the south.”

  “To keep them safe? To hide them?”

  I rub my temples. “I have no idea. Let’s close the door for now. We can try to figure it out later.”

  “Later? This isn’t something we can just walk away from!”

  “That’s exactly what we need to do. We won’t find answers now, and it sure isn’t safe to check out.”