Witched to Death by Deanna Chase Read Free Book Online Page A

her problems.”
    “Like an arranged marriage?” I asked, making no effort to hide my skepticism.
    “I guess. Not really. They were just strongly pushing it. Her parents were worried her reputation would be ruined. Mine decided a witch for the pack wasn’t a bad idea.”
    “Seems like a tidy little solution. What happened?” I blew on the piping hot coffee, wondering if he was feeding me a line of complete crap.
    “What happened is, no one bothered to consult me about this little plan. So when I got word that I needed to go back to New York, that’s when you and I said goodbye.”
    I raised my eyebrows, wondering what he expected me to say to any of this. Because so far, I hadn’t heard anything that was making me feel better. He’d still stayed in New Orleans and hadn’t told me.
    “But, a few hours before I was headed out, Ophelia showed up on my doorstep. She claimed wedding preparations were already well underway and that if I left town she’d be ruined. She made it sound like a huge scandal. That our parents had taken matters into their own hands and I ended up staying in town to deal with the situation.”
    “So you’re saying you were engaged, but that you never asked her to marry you?” I put my mug down and leaned in, narrowing my eyes.
    “Exactly. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to hurt you or drag you into it. Especially because Ophelia acted like she didn’t want to get married either. So we were trying to figure out the best way to discourage our parents. To make it all go away. It turned out that it was all lies. Ophelia had told her parents we’d made it official and that we wanted a wedding before I left. That’s when they involved my parents. In the end, she was sent off to Savannah to live with her aunt while I went up to New York. And the entire thing was never spoken of again. I never married her. And certainly never wanted to.”
    He reached out and placed his hand over mine. “Ida May, what I had with you was real. I even came back to New Orleans three years later. I looked for you, but you were already gone.”
    A profound sadness washed over him with those last words, and he started lightly tracing his thumb over my palm. Then he pulled the pocket watch out and placed it on the table. “I carry this with me because you were my first love. And we were good friends. I regretted our time was cut short.”
    I stared at the pocket watch, and memories of our time together came roaring back. My heart swelled and nearly burst. He was right. We had been good friends, then later, something more. But it had been innocent. Never going further than stolen kisses down by the river. He’d never cared how I made my living, understood that ladies without families didn’t have a lot of opportunities, and that I did what I had to do. But it hadn’t been part of our relationship and he’d never made me feel like it was an issue.
    What we’d had was sweet, and had I never spotted him with Ophelia, I’d have had warm memories of him all these years with no regrets. What had really hurt was the idea that he’d lied to me. That all along he’d had a thing with Ophelia. If he was telling the truth now, then I’d spent the last ninety-odd years being mad only because he’d been trying to protect me.
    “How do I know you aren’t making all of this up just to get me on your good side? So that maybe my forgiveness will get your shift back?” I asked.
    He let out an ironic chuckle, got up from the table, and grabbed a nearby laptop. After a few keystrokes, he passed it to me.
    “What’s this?” I scanned the page. It was a dossier on Ophelia going back the last one hundred and twenty years. All the places she’d lived. Known love interests. Her accomplishments as well as scandals.
    “The Witchy Way. It’s the sister site to Shifters Secrets. Nothing is private anymore. It’s like IMDB for paranormals.”
    “I see.” How did I not know about this? I guessed being a ghost meant I