Translucent

Chapter 39: The Unfinished Business

I laid still facing the window, barely sleeping. The rain poured heavily that night. My mind was as blank as the clear dark sky that moment as I still struggled to process everything that unfolded within the past twelve hours. The death. The discover. The solution.

It was over. Everyone knew about Cornelius, and our secret relationship. There was nothing else to hide now. Everything was too much to bear at this moment that I needed to clear my head. I walked down to the kitchen to brew myself a cup of tea. But as I was passing the living room, my feet froze as I saw Nathan sitting on the sofa with a glass of red wine.

"Hey, is everything okay?" He turned to me. There was a genuineness in his eyes. I slowly shook my head. "I'm sorry for what had happened."

I shrugged and I took a sip of my tea and sat next to him. "Sorry, I didn't tell you anything about...that."

"There's no need. I knew about it." My eyes widened. Finding a connection between Nathan and Cornelius was the last thing I expected to ever hear. "I suppose your mum told you how much I really wanted the house, didn't she?"

"More than anything."

"Exactly. What kind of a madman would purchase a haunted Scottish estate." Nathan tipped his glass. "Believe it or not, I've been constantly having dreams about this house since I was in London, and in my dreams, I saw a figure that lives in it–a lonely young lad that has existed for nearly a century. The dreams have kept coming ever since I parted with my sister fifteen years ago, and I thought, this has got to mean something. There was strong energy that this dream–and house–radiated, as though it was calling me.

"When I was looking for research material for my client presentation in London, I came across the picture of this house and I found out it was indeed, in Scotland. There was something drawing me about this house, as if I was meant to be there all along, that I started gaining my means to buy it. The locals, of course, warned me about all sorts of hauntings and stories  revolving the house, including, the tragic Haywood heir that...died in the war or committed a suicide."

"He did none of those." I corrected him. "He fell ill and died with a brokenheart."

"Well, that didn't sound any better." Nathan gulped. "Very well. I figured that the only way to buy my way to the locals' attention is, if I could promise them something. Then I pitched to Michael, my director, to open a branch of Pritchard Estate and looked through the possibilities we could develop here, and the business had been going well ever since. The name Haywood barely rang anyone a bell here considering their lack of nobility status, which made this estate even easier to acquire."

He paused and sipped his wine.

"I still don't know why I'm here. But one thing I've felt since I moved here, is that I feel like I have a purpose." Nathan's gray eyes were glazed now. "Lily and you made me feel what it's like to have a family once again, almost as if this house was meant for me to start everything anew and most importantly, brought us all together."

My thoughts reeled to the moments he brought my dad over with all of my relatives. He did have good means, but I always overlooked them. My empathy was too clouded with my impulse and hatred when I moved here.

"So you knew about Cornelius? You knew he's here all along?" I asked.

"Somehow I feel him here and there." He inhaled. "Sure I mentioned to you about the unusual cold, didn't I? I wanted to bring up more about it but you always brushed me off. I figured we could have bonded over it––investigating ghosts. But I thought you wouldn't be interested or worse, I might have spooked you."

Nathan lifted his glass and gave himself another sip. I fidgeted in my seat as I remembered how much I dismissed his suspecting the cold temperature to me in our early days in the house.