Seer Me Wrong ✔

Family Affair

Growing more and more bored with my ever growing book list, I hopped out of bed and paced the room, thinking I wish my papa or my poppop would come to visit and tell me what I need to know.

I start to think of all the good times I had with my papa, like when he taught me how to spread the hay bales around the barn correctly. He was always so patient with me, I was his little girl.

"Then he throws you away". said a small voice.

"He didn't want you; he knew what a freak you would grow up to be." The voice leered at me.

The wound I had started to poke at the other day was starting to bleed, and throb, the scab falling the rest of the way off.

My brain running to my heart's rescue tried to switch gears but it was too late, I was on the floor curled up in a ball, grasping my chest trying to hold my shattered heart in.

How does one fix the damage that is caused by the ones who are to suppose to love you unconditionally?

How do I stitch this closed? I was still on the floor, heartbreaking more and more by the minute. Tears are streaming down my cheeks when I felt the room get colder and my hands start to tingle.

Suddenly there was the man from the plantation he was kneeling in front of me, with a sad smile on his face; as if he sees this all the time.

"It would seem you to know the pain that is caused by your own blood's betrayal. You see, you and I are not so different. My family put me in this state, over a difference of opinions, but I am not here to ask you to help me." His face was still very handsome even under the bruises and the broken nose.

Up close I could really see just how badly beaten he was, a lot of hatred was taken out on him before he passed. Now I hurt for this man. Realizing I did not know his name, I sat up and stretched my hand out to him.

"Please excuse my rudeness, I'm Theresa and I am afraid I do not know your name. I don't believe we have been introduced." He grasped my hand and brought it to his lips, and gave it a soft peck. I was trying hard not to freak out that a ghost just kissed my hand. He placed my hand back in my lap.

"Then allow me to introduce myself, I am Jonathon McKay I was once the heir to the McKay fortune but alas I gave it and my life up for love." He cast his eyes downward, I was starting to piece together his story.

I think he was caught trying to help runaways, and I think those runaways were his lover and child. The only thing I don't understand is why he still here, according to the book they got away. As if reading my thoughts he shakes his head.

"I would like to tell you my story, you might want to get a pen and paper." He sat down at the table and signaled for me to sit across from him. Despite my heart still bleeding all over me, I got up grabbed my notebook and pen from the bed and sat next to him, I also turned the recording app Xander put on my phone. I wasn't sure if it would record him but at least I tried.

"I was fourteen when Mae first arrived, I thought she was beautiful the moment I saw her, I was having problems with other children. You see this was right after my baby sister died and my mother hadn't left her room in weeks. I had convinced my dad to let her live in the house and be my playmate. That was a difficult feat seeing as she had a terrible scar, along the length of her face. Most people didn't want to look at her, but I didn't care and if it keeps me out of my father's hair, he was fine with it." He smiles sadly at his hands for a moment.

"As the years went by I realized I had grown feelings for her when I was just 17 I confessed; I was so nervous I about fainted when she leaned forward and kissed me I knew then just like I know now she is the only one for me. We hid our relationship well for over a decade, she had a relationship with one of the field boys and I had a courtship with belle from another powerful family. Her father ran another oil company it would have been a great thing if our companies merged." He sighed and dragged a hand down his face.

"We even had a son together Mae and I, his name was Jon, it was her way of naming him after me." He had a genuine smile on his face.

"She told people it was to show gratitude. Once he got older, he started to look more and more like a McKay, people started to get suspicious so I came up with the plan that I was going to send them to the North, to be free." He lost his smile, a manic look starting to grow on his beaten face.

"I had it all planned, I would join them after my father died, leaving what I could to my brothers and sisters, taking only what I needed to give my family a good life. I trusted one other person with my plan and that person betrayed me causing this." With that, he gestured to his current state.

"It wouldn't have been so bad, to be caught that it if my father hadn't come home early just in time to see me disgrace our family's name. He ordered his boys, to beat my sweet Mae, among other things and he made me watch." His voice broke whenever he said Mae's name.

I could feel tears forming in my tears. I didn't dare let them fall. He has enough to deal there is no need to add shame to it.

Once he collected himself, he continued.

"He ordered for his own grandson to be killed, I will never forget how Mae looked while her heart laid dying on the ground and her helpless to stop it. I imagine she felt just as I did as I watch both of them go before me, I didn't even care when my father turned on me. He thought he was doing me the cruelest of things by taking my life with his own hands, but in truth, he was giving me mercy, he was allowing me to be with my beloved again. Only now she wants nothing to do with me and she refuses to leave the house or let my boy leave." His eyes landed on me.

"Which is why I was overjoyed when you showed up, I saw Jon make his presence known to you, he likes you and I think you can help him. You need to tell Mae to leave, that she is safe now. She is free, I don't care if she ever looks at me again I just want my son to be free of that place." He was pleading with me.

I looked down at my book and was amazed that I had written everything down. I looked at him, smiled slowly my words stuck in my throat so I just nodded. I cleared my throat several times before I was able to say I promise.

With my promise he left, leaving a ghost of a kiss on my cheek and a faint chuckle. My broken heart was all but a distant memory at this point.

I was still reeling in my seat with Casey came in. I told her everything and had her tell Xander, she confirmed everything Jonathon had told me, she had done a lot of digging to gather the information I got in a twenty-minute conversation.

Xander was over to our room in a heartbeat he didn't even bother knocking, he was immediately at the table reading what I had written and listened to the recording which caught every word. Hearing his voice made me replay the way he looked while telling his story, it had been nearly a hundred years since he walked this earth and he still felt just as he had when he was alive.