by C J M Naylor
"I always will," Melanie said. "I always will, and there's nothing you can do to take that feeling away from me. Who else is going to do it? It has to be a willing sacrifice. And I am willing."
"What is she talking about?" I asked.
Elisabeth sat back on the ground, sighing. "The part I didn't want to tell you about. In order to reverse the Time Line, to alter it so that you never did what you did in San Francisco, there has to be a sacrifice of three, willing to give their lives to save everyone else."
I shook my head. "No, there has to be another way."
"There isn't," she said. "There never is, is there? And your father, Henry, and I are going to do it."
"No," I said. "I won't let you."
"Dad," Thomas said, "is this true?"
I realized Thomas had walked up to us now and had overheard.
"It is, son," Henry said. "We need to restore order and let our children live their lives."
"Let me do it," Melanie said, grabbing Elisabeth's hands. "You shouldn't have to. Please."
Elisabeth shook her head, smiling. "Absolutely not. It was selfish of me, but after I gave you up, I had nothing to do but live my life. And I did. I traveled to different places, made friends with so many different people. I could have come to find you, but I didn't."
"Because you were trying to keep the prophecy from coming true," Melanie said. "Who knows what they would have done otherwise?"
"Perhaps," Elisabeth said, "but now I have the chance to give you the life I always wanted for you. And you're going to have it."
Elisabeth stood up, brushing off the dirt on her dress, and turning to address me.
"After you found me, I consulted with Mathias and Henry about how to reverse the Time Line. They volunteered without a second thought.”
"But this is my mistake," I said, standing up as well. "I have to be the one to fix it."
My mother stepped forward and pulled me into her, holding me tightly. And then she pulled away, placing a kiss on my forehead as she did.
"I am your mother," she said, "and it is my job to help you fix your mistakes. At the end of the day, this all comes back on me. And there is nothing you can do to change that. You two have each other now, and you'll have a bond that meant so much to me and my sister Eleanor. And Abigail, you have Thomas. Melanie, now is your time to meet someone of your own, to love and to care for, and to feel things you haven't been able to until now. This is the way it has to be. And that is all we are going to say on the subject."
She turned to look at the others.
"Oliver, Alma, and Perrine," she said, "I am going to have you use the Time Line here, after we have reversed time, to take Headrick and Ian back to the Central Headquarters. The stories my mother passed to me in my training state that Time will rewrite itself over the past month. The three of us will go back and change what Abigail did. It'll still be today when all is said and done, but Abigail won't have done what she did. Everyone that died as a result of what happened in San Francisco will be alive again, but everyone who died for any other reason, as in the case of Lucinda, will remain dead. Unfortunately, that includes your friend, Bridget."
She looked at me and smiled, but it was one of sadness. But I understood.
"Only the people in this room will remember what happened," she went on. "All other people, including Timekeepers, will only have knowledge of the way in which Time rewrites the past month. While all of you will remember what happened here today, you will also have this knowledge of how Time changes things. I'm sure, for example, it will come up with a different way for how Bridget died. Furthermore, it should also come up with a reason for why Headrick and Ian will be prosecuted. Finally, it will most likely remove all mention of the Forbidden Powers, now that the prophecy can no longer be met. Now, Oliver, Alma, and Perrine, if you'll wait here, I will take the others with me."
And with that, she led us further down into the Headquarters until we reached a wall. Elisabeth took the pocket watch I had returned to her and placed it into a whole in the wall. The wall slowly slid back to reveal an underground cavern. It was like we were standing on the sand of an indoor beach. The water stretched out for miles before me. But we were still inside, in a cavern. My mother, I now realized, wore the white dress I had always seen in the visions she had sent me, only her hair was much shorter now. She turned around to look at the five of us: myself, my father, Melanie, Henry, and Thomas.
"This is Time."
Her voice was firm. She extended her arm out before her to indicate the vast lake.
"Just as time is endless, so is the water."
I stepped forward and walked to the edge of the water.
"This is how you turn back Time?"
I stepped a bit closer, my foot almost touching the water, but my mother grabbed my arm.
"Once you go, there is no coming back."
She held open her arms to both Melanie and I. "Come here."
We both went to her and let ourselves fall in them. Being in my birth mother's arms like this for the first time made me feel complete. Her arms held me tightly and I felt a wetness on my cheek and realized she was crying. And my sister, my sister was with me, and she no longer had the darkness in her.
"I know you will not understand this," Elisabeth whispered, "but some day you will. Children make mistakes, and sometimes it is up to the parent to fix them. Yes, eventually the child must mature and learn to fix their own mistakes, but that day is not today. I will fix this for the both of you. And then you will be on your own in this world, but I'll always be with you in here." She touched one hand to each of our hearts. "My beautiful girls, together at last."
"I feel like I've let you down." The words came out uneven in my tears.
She smiled at me and shook her head.
"I couldn't be more proud of the woman you've become," she said. "We are all human. We all make mistakes. I made the mistake of trusting the wrong people, and I've paid dearly for it. I gave up a life with you and your sister to ensure you would be safe. I never dreamed it would end up like this, but I have the chance to make sure you are safe again, and if I have to give up my life to do that, I will. The three of us will."
"Remember, only those Timekeepers who were here today will have memory of the events that took place," she continued. "No one else will remember a thing. And I believe it is best they do not. The story of an original Timekeeper will continue to be a myth and nothing more, as it is meant to be. As original Timekeepers, both of you have more power than anyone else, but be wise with what you do with it. After I am gone, you will have the powers I have. But if you do not want to use them, that is okay. There are enough Timekeepers in this world that can enforce the laws. They do not necessarily need us anymore, and that was the intention when we passed along our powers centuries ago. All three of our deaths will somehow be written into the minds of those we knew that weren't here today, but the rest of you will know the truth. It is up to you what you wish to do. If you, Melanie, and Thomas no longer wish to be Timekeepers, then I'm sure they will find a suitable replacement.
"I am so very sorry your father and I were not present more in your lives, girls," she said. "And Abigail, I am so very sorry you were forced to grow up in a war that claimed the lives of those you love. The only thing I can say to that is that it is life. You have done so well with it and you will continue to do well with it. I love you both so much."
There was no more talking, only tears, and some laughter as Thomas and his father shared some memories. We all held our loved ones closely for as long as we could, until finally, it was time to say goodbye. Together, my mother, along with both of the men she loved in life, stepped into the water. They walked further and further in, until they were gone.
CHAPTER TWENTY
May 8, 1945
"This is a solemn but a glorious hour," President Truman said over the radio. "I only wish Franklin D. Roosevelt had lived to witness this day. General Eisenhower informs me the forces of Germany have surre
ndered to the United Nations. The flags of freedom fly over all Europe."
Thomas had told me it was coming, but I wanted to hear it for myself. Freedom. For all of the people Hitler had imprisoned. Justice, for all of the people he had murdered—my parents and Phillip included. Tears fell down my cheeks as I listened to the rest of the address, and, once it was concluded, I flipped the switch off.
The door to the apartment opened and Thomas came in.
"Did you hear?" he asked.
I nodded. He came over and sat down next to me on the couch, pulling me into him.
"How did your meeting go?" I asked.
"Well, Alma will be taking my place as Head of the American Headquarters."
"That's wonderful.”
"Yes, and now it's time for us to do our thing."
He kissed me on the forehead and then went to make dinner.
A lot had changed since my mother, Mathias, and Henry had reversed what I'd done. The Council found Ian and Headrick guilty of crimes to bring down the Council. Both of them had tried to tell the truth about the original family, but no one believed them. Aldridge, as it turned out, was not a Timekeeper in anyway, and after the events at the original Headquarters, he no longer remembered anything that had to do with the Timekeepers and went about his life, even though he didn’t deserve to. Melanie and I had spent several months together, working through her pain as well as my own, until she felt ready to go out into the world. She was currently living in London, where she'd always wanted to go, and writing me every few weeks. She worked the odd job here and there to support herself while she took classes. She was hoping to be a nurse. Thomas resigned from Timekeeping once we returned to San Francisco, but stayed on to train the new Timekeeper, which as I just found out, would be Alma. Timekeeping was not what he wanted to do and he knew it was the right decision to make. It was also not what I wanted to do. Thomas and I would both live the rest of our lives with these strange powers, and we would have to prepare our children for them and let them make the decisions of how they wanted to proceed with them, but for us, that was okay.
With the changed events, Bridget had been struck by a vehicle the day she left me at the San Francisco Headquarters to go to class. I knew there had been a funeral for her in this new Time Line, but Thomas, Melanie, Alma, and Oliver helped me with a private memorial for her upon our return to San Francisco. I was able to finally mourn her death properly, as well as the deaths of my mother, Mathias, and Henry, and move on.
As for the original Headquarters, now that Lucinda was dead, along with all of her children, it belonged to Melanie and me. We chose to close it off entirely. Only select people knew about it now, and that was the way it was meant to be.
Thomas began living with me at the Chambord building and later that evening at dinner, he stopped eating, and took my hand.
"I love you," he said.
He looked at me for a moment, considering me.
"I mean, I know you may still feel something for Phillip and—"
I cut him off.
"I love you," I said, "and I'll always love Phillip, but I love you just as much."
The worry on his face melted away. In less than a minute he was out of his chair and lifted me into his arms. Our lips made contact and moved against each other. He carried me to his room and we fell into the bed. He kissed my neck and my forehead.
Later on that night, I was lying next to him. He was sleeping quietly and had me pulled close to his chest. As I looked up at the ceiling, thinking about what had happened today, the end of the war in Europe, I spoke softly.
"Mum, papa," I said, "and Phillip, I know you are up there. I love you so much, and today you received justice. I know that will never bring you back, but I want you to know I will always hold you close to me. And while you'll always be there for me, I know I have to move on now. Completely. So I guess, well, I guess it's goodbye for now. Until we see each other again."
And with that, I closed my eyes, letting Thomas hold me close to him, and drifted off to sleep.
EPILOGUE
Four Years Later
Sleep had me in its arms. A deep, deep sleep. But something was pulling me out of it. The tip of a finger was tracing my eyebrows, over and over and over again. A nose, the edge of it, was rubbing against mine. Finally, I allowed myself to be pulled from sleep's arms. Opening my eyes, I saw Elisabeth, my daughter. She was smiling and prodding at me to wake up.
"Mama," she said, lightly tapping the edge of my nose, "time to wake up."
"It is," I said, smiling. I did my best to push myself up, but considering I was seven months with child, it was proving to be a difficult feat.
"What are you doing?" Thomas asked, walking into the room wearing an apron over his pajamas. "I told you to call me."
He lifted Elisabeth off the bed and helped me up.
"I still try to do some things on my own," I argued.
"Elisabeth Kate," Thomas said, attempting to chide but failing miserably, "I told you, mommy needs extra sleep."
"I want to play," Elisabeth argued.
Thomas laughed and picked her up, balancing her on his shoulders. Elisabeth had recently turned two. She had come along nine mere months after Thomas and I married. Upon marrying, we'd moved to Ireland. We were nowhere near the original Headquarters, but still close enough to keep an eye on the place. Thomas and I helped manage a library in a small village, and not to far from there we'd had a cottage built on the sea, and this was the home we had made for Elisabeth Annette Kate Jane, named after Thomas's true mother as well as both of my mothers, for the sacrifices they made for us all. Our plan was to use all of the names of those we loved in some way or another. I had no idea if I was going to have a boy or a girl with our next child, but I planned on calling him Henry Dean Phillip Jane if he was a boy. We figured our children would simply have to get used to having multiple names.
"It's a nice morning," Thomas said. "I thought I could bring the food out by the cliffs and we could have a picnic."
I smiled and nodded. "That sounds nice. I'll get dressed and take the blanket out."
Thomas took Elisabeth back to the kitchen and I began getting ready for the day. As I got closer to having my second child, I considered what it meant to make sacrifices for your children. I had never understood why my mother wanted to make the sacrifice she did for Melanie and me until I held my baby girl for the first time. And then it had all made sense. And I was forever grateful to both of my mothers and all they had done for me, along with both of my fathers.
I quickly bathed, found the white dress that reminded me of my birth mother, and put it on. And then I was out, walking toward the cliffs, with the picnic blanket in hand. Once at the cliff's edge, I laid it down, smoothing it out, and then walked a bit closer to the edge, looking out over the sea. The sun was halfway in the sky and the colors were beautiful.
The waves rattled against the seashore as I looked out at the ocean. Seagulls flew through the air. The whiteness of their feathers caught my eye. Suddenly, a light mist of sea waves sprayed me and I smiled as it touched my cheeks. I was getting the oddest sense of de ja vu. And then it hit me. Years ago, I had had a premonition when Phillip was still alive. It had involved another man and I was afraid—afraid because Phillip wasn't with me. But he had assured me he wanted me to move on if something ever happened, and I had.
And I knew now who that man coming up behind me was. It was Thomas.
"Abby," he said, placing his hand on the small of my back.
I turned my head around to face his and we kissed. Elisabeth was at his side and we all stood together as a family.
"Daddy," Elisabeth said, "I want to see it all."
Thomas leaned down and picked Elisabeth up again, once again placing her on his shoulders. And then he stood behind me, placing his arms around my waist and placing one hand on my belly. And we were a family. I let myself fall back into his embrace, his closeness.
The three of us stood together, as one family
, as the rest of the sun crept over the horizon. In that moment, there were no whispers, there was no war, no death, and we had enough time.
THE END
For the Readers
With any creation, a person needs critical feedback to get better at their craft. If you took the time to do any, or all, of the following, I would appreciate it:
1. Leave an honest review on Amazon. Reviews are important for an author, especially a debut author. If you took the time to leave a short and honest review, I would greatly appreciate it!
2. Leave a review on Goodreads. Click here to access the page for the novel.
3. Follow me on my website (www.cjmnaylor.blogspot.com).
4. Follow my Facebook author page (www.facebook.com/cjmnaylor) or my Facebook page for the trilogy (www.facebook.com/thetimekeepersdaughter).
5. Follow me on Twitter @cjmnaylor (www.twitter.com/cjmnaylor).
Again, thank you so much for taking the time to read this trilogy.
Best regards,
C.J.M. Naylor
Acknowledgments
The elation I felt after completing my first book was something I’d never felt before. But the elation I feel after completing a trilogy of books, well that’s something else entirely.
I wrote the first draft of The Timekeeper’s Daughter in early 2013, during my college years, on an old laptop and on many pieces of paper in many different notebooks. There were many times when, instead of listening to my professor lecture about British literature, I was tucked away in the back of the classroom, scribbling down ideas (a.k.a. “taking notes”) about Abigail Jordan and the adventures she would go on in the world of Timekeeping. Oh, spoilers ahead in case you’re some strange creature that reads the acknowledgements of the final book in a trilogy before anything else. You’ve been warned.
