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Chapter One

Michelle Bright had never loved a man as much as she loved Garret S love that she found herself hiding fro their annual fall barbecue Her own dear parents had guilted her into co that the last tiraduation celebration five years ago The saht Michelle had atteht he later hooked back up with his ex-girlfriend

“It would be rude not to show up,” she huffed,“The Smiths have been family friends since you were a baby We can’t disappoint the”

With a toss of her long dark blonde hair, she made a face She never could tell her mother no Even as an adult It was frankly pathetic

Her fingers lingered on the brass doorknob to the bathroom She’d asked to use it the moment they arrived, determined to bolt herself inside for the next two hours until running into Garret was no longer a threat But as she paused in the darkened hallway of the Shts turned to the old study she re in as a kid

Garret and his older brother, Joey, would dare her to go in, insisting that it was haunted by the souls of dead Civil War soldiers It had seee of twenty-three, the idea was laughable It would certainlyspot than the bathrooh her adult eyes And hosts that haunted her heart

She tiptoed over the old oak floorboards, feeling at once ridiculous and stealthy Everyone else was enjoying the warm November afternoon There was no one inside the cool, Victorian-style ho on Kansas-style barbecue, drinking chilled sweet tea, and talking about the recent rains

These kinds of events never changed Even though Michelle had been gone for five long years attending Brown University in Rhode Island, she could still predict ethers Sed Especially the ss, Kansas

The study was just ahead, at the end of the hallway She pushed the door open a foot and winced when it let out ainside, she shut it firasped at what she saw The roohosts or dark shadows Unlike in rand library than a stuffy office

The room traversed the whole side of the house Shelves upon shelves jutted from the walls and were stacked to the brim with old leather-bound books and randeur of such a roo the spines, her wide blue eyes taking in the golden embossed titles

“Civil War ghosts or not, I officially love this rooold wood tri They didn’t build houses like this anymore