Shattered: A Psychic Visions Novel (21 page)

“Are there links to my mother?”

“Yes.” He clicked it, and they both watched the single page on her mother’s life load. And it was mostly blank. Her date of birth and her position as Goodman’s wife from the date of their nuptials to her death.

Too much stark black and white information. The article missed out on the human interest side of the story. According to them she’d lived, gotten married, and she’d died. Nothing else was important.

As Hannah crashed back onto his couch and wiped her eyes, he could understand the melancholy in her voice. She knew her mother so much better than anyone else. “Remember to hold your memories close,” he murmured. With a quick glance at her, he clicked on the link of the first wife. And stared. She was the spitting image of Hannah.

Like, what the hell?

“W
ho is that?”
Hannah leaned forward, staring at the image on the screen. “That’s not me, but it’s close enough it could be.”

“It’s your father’s
first
wife.”

She stared at him, a choked sound coming out of her mouth. “What?”

“Yeah, hang on.”

She tried to read the page, but the laptop was twisted so she couldn’t see all of it. She gave up and leaned back against the couch and waited for him to read the rest. For all the shocks this one was the most confusing. That she hadn’t known about her father’s earlier family in a way made sense. He never spoke much to her about anything, and he talked to her even less after her mother died. But with her mother’s death, her father lost his second wife. Bad luck? Or by design?

Scary thought but there was a seed of suspicion. Had her father, who’d been unhappy anyway, rid himself of one or both of his wives? Surely not. He was ruthless, but he could have divorced either of them easily. And he had enough money to set everyone up in style and not give a shit.

Beside her Trevor gave a deep breath and relaxed. “Well…”

“What?”

“Your mother and his first wife…” he looked over at her. “Were sisters. The younger sister was the first wife and the older sister was your mother.”

How the hell did that work? She stared at him. “I guess that happens…”

“It does.” He nodded. “Likely more often than we think. Friends of mine have done the same. Only the older brother died and the younger brother married his brother’s widow.”

“I can see that.” In fact, she had no problem with it. It was just in her case there was an icky feeling to it. Or maybe it was that now her grandparents had lost both daughters. While her father was the common denominator. “Does it bother you?”

“I’m pondering a man who has lost two wives and whether a third wife would go the same route.” He lifted his gaze from the screen. “He never remarried though, did he?”

“Actually, no, he did say he never would years ago, but maybe he’s changed that attitude after years with Wanda. She’s clearly angling for a ring.” Her gaze instinctively returned to the picture on the screen. “I look a lot like her.”

“You do.” He studied the image. “There were only two sisters. So you have no other aunts or uncles.”

“I remember seeing my grandparents at the funeral,” she said, her brows pulling together. “But not afterwards.”

“Can you imagine going to both daughters’ funerals?” He closed the laptop and turned to her. “It would have destroyed them.”

“Can you find out if they are still alive? I’d like to contact them.” She snorted. “What kind of a person am I that didn’t do so any time in the last decade?”

“I think they passed on soon after your mother,” he said, frowning. He shifted and picked up his laptop. “I thought I remembered something about that.”

“Why would you?” she asked in surprise. “Did you know them?”

“It was a B&E that went bad. The media picked up the story because of your father’s connection.”

As she sat there contemplating how much of her history was missing, she remembered Dr. Maddy’s comment about blocks in her energy. “Were these blocks placed in my energy to help me? So I wouldn’t remember this stuff?”

“They could have been put there any time. And unfortunately once the first one is put in place and your system adjusts, it’s easier for other blocks to be built as well. Dr. Maddy puts in anchors for those patients that she needs to work with long-term. They aren’t blocks but are a type of marker that help her to see and work on someone’s system, but once the body has become adjusted to those then she has to do that much more work the next time.”

He studied the perplexed look on her face. “For example if someone was trying to protect you from the trauma of seeing your mother drown, they might very well have put the block in to help you until you could grow enough to get past it. But then if there was second trauma, they might be tempted to do so again. And then seeing as that worked so well, they might…”

“Do it again and again,” she finished for him. She reached up and massaged her temple. “I want the blocks removed. Dissolved. Zapped. Or whatever form the removal might need to take, I want them gone.”

“That can happen although it might be easier to do one at a time. There could be a flood of information and not only will that overload your senses and likely knock you out, there could be information in there that is very distressing.”

“Like reliving my mother’s death?”

He reached out and cupped her cheek. “Yes. Exactly that.”

“But other people don’t have these blocks, do they?”

He made a face. “Like these? Not likely. Different ones for other reasons, yes. They do. The blocks are intended to help people.”

“But not always. Or not long after they served their purpose. So what if my mother put the first block in place then after her death there was no one to remove it.”

“That’s possible but…” He reached out to brush a strand of her hair back. “Remember, some of the blocks are newer.”

“But if she did, and then she passed on, no one else has been available to remove them until now.”

“True, in that scenario, no one would know the blocks were there unless you saw someone like Stefan or Dr. Maddy. Or another practicing energy worker.”

“Stefan does this too?” She frowned. “So there are actually many people who know about this and work with it.”

“I belong to a group of specialists all who can do this work, but not so many that it’s a common ability among the general population.”

“Good,” she snapped. “I want them out. If that means Dr. Maddy then fine. Let’s ask her.”

Trevor picked up his phone, all the while studying her face. When someone answered at the other end, he said, “Maddy, Hannah wants the blockages removed. I figured we should start with one but not sure which. I don’t want her to be too overwhelmed all at once.”

The more Hannah considered the blocks in her head, the angrier she got. She reached over and tugged on Trevor’s arm. “I want them all out. Now.”

He grabbed her hand and stared in her eyes as he talked to Maddy. “Did you hear her?”

She frowned militantly at him.

He rolled his eyes. “Okay. Pull one now then I’ll call you back and see how she’s doing.”

“What do you mean, ‘pull one now’?” she argued when he closed the phone. “We need to go and see her and she can remove…”

Her head snapped backwards and like a tiny explosion, fireworks filled her mind and she actually saw stars.

She collapsed back onto the couch in shock. She knew her mouth moved as she tried to call out to Trevor but there was no sound. Just a gurgle of noise as images of high school showed up and conversations whipped around her. Fights with her father. Fights with Will. She’d wanted to date. That wasn’t allowed. She’d had trouble at school. That wasn’t allowed. And it went on and on and on. When the tears started she didn’t know why, but they didn’t stop.

In the background she could feel Trevor hauling her limp body into his arms, his warm soothing voice trying to comfort her.

“Just ride the wave, sweetheart. It will be over soon.”

Only it wasn’t. It seemed to go on forever. She stared up at him mutely, unable to voice the images and memories like a film on high speed replaying as it rolled through her brain. Not rolled out gently like a soft ribbon but like a railroad that had been held back way too long to stop now that the engine had finally gotten started. Friends and teachers, her father, his guards. The house she’d lived in, the school she’d attended. All of it as if she stood right there. Right beside them at that moment in time. Even though it was years ago. How could that be? How could anyone have all this stored in their head and not know. That made no sense.

No one could handle all of this – surely. If the colors weren’t so bright and the sounds weren’t so loud it would be easier. But this was the largest damn television in the world and she had her face pressed up to the screen. Her body started to tremble.

“Shit. Honey, easy. You’re going to crash. You need to just open up your mind and let it all in. Let everything wash in one side of your head and out the other side. Don’t try to watch it. Don’t try to listen. Definitely don’t try to understand. The images come in disjointed. They’ll leave the same way. Just let the waves wash through your mind. It’s the only way to get through this.”

He stroked her cheek, brushed her temple with his lips and rocked her.

The trembling got worse.

*

He should have
warned her.

What’s happening?
Maddy asked in his head.

She’s crashing. She’s in my arms and trembling so badly she’s going to knock out on me.

Feed energy into her system to help her stabilize. We can’t know what this block was originally intended to do, but I only removed a small one from the middle. Figured that would be one of the easiest for her to deal with. I suspect the one from so long ago deals with her mother’s death and that one is going to be tough.

And the others?

Not sure, but I am wondering how much the blockages have to do with the blackouts.

Meaning she has a blackout when the blockages are put there?

Possibly. Or the blockages allow someone to use a key word to bring on the blackouts.

That was a chilling thought.
Why would anyone…

No way to know
, she said with a heavy sigh.
But you know as well as I do that some people out there do things for the damnedest reasons
.

And often for no reason at all.

He glanced down at Hannah. Her gaze was locked on him, huge wells of pain. But he didn’t think she saw him. He held her close.
Damn it, Maddy. She’s an innocent in all of this. She’s hurting.

And she’s going to hurt a lot more if we can’t help her. If someone is using the blockages for their own purposes then we have to find them.

Hannah started to cry, not the tears of wrenching grief but the sound of deep agonizing pain.

It’s only going to get worse, Dr. Maddy warned.

What can I do?

There was silence.
I’m not sure there’s anything you can do
, she admitted.

No, that’s not good enough,
he said passionately.
I wish I could take her away from all of this
.

Then do. Find her a safe haven until this is all over.

Where? How?

If you mean to take her away while her body adjusts then take her to her grayscale. Or better yet, take her to yours.

He glanced up around the living room.
I never thought of that.

It will take her out of her physical body for the moment. She will still be overwhelmed, but it will be more distant. Give the memories time to settle then bring her back.

Trevor closed his eyes for a moment, prepping himself. Then he opened his eyes and gazed down at the woman in his arms. “Hannah, can you hear me?”

“Yes,” she cried. “Make this stop. I can’t handle it.”

“You can handle so much more than you know, sweetheart. But I can help…”

She stared up at him hopefully, her skin pale, wan. “Please help.”

“You have to trust me…”

“I trust you,” she said passionately. “Just please help.”