by Jill Cooper
“Morgan and I are getting married.”
Chapter Five: Molly
Strange I hadn’t known Dad had been dating, let alone getting married, but he smiles at Morgan as he announces their engagement. Could something be blocking my ability to read not just Morgan, but Dad too?
His face lights up in a way I haven’t seen in years. He’s happy and the choices available to him come flooding to me all at once. I don’t know which road he’ll take, but the paths to pick from are clear. Dad is set toward happily ever after, but Mike casts a shadow on it.
“Should we congratulate you?” Mike asks, leaning back in his chair and crosses his arms.
“Michael…” Dad starts, anger and embarrassment simmering on his face.
“We don’t even know her. You didn’t bring her to Lara’s wedding. You’ve never said anything.” Mike gestures to Morgan, but I don’t like how he talks about her like she’s not even in the room. She’s sitting with us, and she watches the whole thing unfold in front of her.
“I didn’t think it would be appropriate. That was Lara and Donovan’s day, not mine. I know it’s a surprise—it was for me too—but you’ll treat Morgan with respect. I didn’t raise you to act like this.”
“You haven’t said anything,” Mike says to me. He scowls. “You approve of this?”
“If Dad is happy, yes. I’m happy for them, Mike. Just please—”
He snorts and looks away. No one says anything, and you could cut the tension with a knife. Morgan slides her chair back. “Why don’t I go powder my nose and then in a few minutes, maybe we can order something.”
Dad stands and takes her hand. Their voices are soft, but I can make out the words of apology from him to Morgan. I lean over to Mike. “What’s the matter with you?” I whisper.
“What’s the matter with me? What about you! What about Mom, our family. Everything we’re working toward.”
We were working toward nothing that I know of. “Mike, Mom is marrying John. You know that.”
“If we gave her time, she might pick something different. You know what we can do.”
Time travel? Manipulating people’s memories? “We don’t use time travel to get our parents to do things we want, Mike.”
“Why not? Isn’t that what Lara’s been doing for years?”
I’m taken back by the harsh tone of his voice, and the glint in his eye. I thought Mike had seen the error of his ways when we’d saved Lara and brought her back, but now I’m not sure. Hadn’t we convinced him that Rex and Future Mike had been wrong?
Dad sits down at the table. “Listen, Mike, I know this is my fault, okay? So, take it out on me, not Morgan.”
“You take us to the country club,” Mike interrupts. “The place you took Mom for anniversaries, the place you took us for our boring birthday dinners. This place means something to you, but it meant something to Mom once too.”
Dad sighs and shakes his head. “Maybe it was a mistake, but I was excited. I wanted you to meet her months ago, but the timing was never right. And then with everything that happened at the wedding, I knew I had to get it done. So maybe I rushed it. I’m sorry, Mike.”
He leans back in his chair and crosses his arms.
Dad sighs. “She’s a nice person and deserves a chance. We’re doing great things together, businesswise. We just click. I didn’t intend to meet anyone…it just happened.”
“She’s pretty young. Is she any older than Lara?”
Dad’s eyes narrow. “She might be younger than me, but she is not the same age as your sister. You can ask me whatever you want, son, but I’m your father. I expect a little respect.”
Mike shakes his head and pushes his chair back. “I won’t do this. I won’t sit here and pretend I’m okay with any of this.” He stands and glances at me and when I don’t follow him, he storms out of the restaurant.
Dad groans and puts his head in his hands. “Well. That could’ve gone better.”
Total understatement of the year. I put my hand on Dad’s back. “He needs to calm down.”
“You think?” Dad laughs and takes a gulp of water from his glass. “I didn’t expect him to be so upset.”
“You don’t know what’s been going on with him. He’s…having trouble adjusting to you and Mom moving on. He doesn’t approve of John and Mom’s remarriage.”
Dad’s eyes betray how he feels about it, too. He’s never said anything about disapproving of John, not to me or Lara. Maybe not even to Mom. But the flash of pain in his eyes makes it’s obvious how he feels. He’d take Mom back in a heartbeat. Maybe marrying Morgan while he’s still so in love with Mom is a bad idea.
I won’t say it. Dad deserves to be happy. If he thinks Morgan will make him happy, then he should go through with it. Mike and I should be behind him.
“He’ll get over it,” Dad says after he’s able to speak again.
“When’s the wedding?” I ask the question to switch topics.
“About a year from now. Your mom picked a date for her wedding first. I promised her I wouldn’t jump in front of her ceremony.”
“So, she does know.”
Dad nods. “She was happy for me. It hurt a little. Everything is bittersweet when it comes to moving on. I don’t think that can be helped. We’ll always love each other, and we’ll always have you kids, but we deserve some happiness too. Me and your mom.”
I rest my hand on his shoulder. “Of course, you do. Mike will see that. I’ll talk to him. He’s …volatile right now.”
“He reminds me of Rex at that age. It’s why Mom took him to Britain in the first place. She thought getting him out of the US and more to the rural countryside would do him good. Only thing it did was get him that phony British accent.”
His words chill me. Dad can’t know how close Mike had gottrn to becoming someone like Uncle Rex, and I worry Mike isn’t as far from the line as I had believed. I need to talk to Cassidy.
Dad sighs and glances at her watch. “She’s been gone awhile. I wonder if Morgan decided to ditch me, too.”
“I’ll go check on her.” I touch Dad’s arm and rise up from my seat. He smiles his thank you at me and I head to the women’s restroom. I weave between the tables, nearly bump into a busboy, and then push open the door to the powder room.
Something blocks the way, the door barely budges.
Hmm…I knock. “Hello?”
There’s a groan on the other side. Someone is down. Possibly hurt.
“Are you okay? Morgan?”
Another grunt and it makes me push on the door harder. I manage to shove the open enough so I can step through gingerly. My heels catch into a streak of blood and as I clear the door, the body of a woman fills my vision.
It’s Morgan. She’s been beaten, one of her eyes is swollen shut and there’s a river of blood flowing from a wound in her back. As I touch her, I’m flooded with a vision in time, of what happened to Morgan as it happened to her.
She was shot. She didn’t see her assailant as he smashed her face into the sink, but I can feel how hard the blunt force was, how his hand tightened on the back of her hair. Then he smashed her face into the mirror, shattering it. He tosses her body onto the floor, leaving her for dead. He took her purse when he left, stepping into the blood Morgan left behind on the floor.
And all I can see is what Morgan did; a pant leg and black, expensive Italian loafers.
“Morgan!” I crouch beside her and take her head in my hand. “Hang on, okay? I’m going to call an ambulance.” I’m already in my purse, finding my phone so I can call 911.
Her one good eye tracks my movements and she shakes her head. “Mike…” she whispers and my heart skips so fast it gives me chest pain; feels like it’s going to break through my rib cage.
Does she mean that Mike did this? He wouldn’t. He couldn’t.
Morgan’s lips part and her face scrunches up as if she’s going to sob, but then she falls silent. Her eye stares up at the ceiling as my 911 call is answere
d.
She’s dead. Murdered. And inside I’ve gone to ice.
Chapter Six: Molly
As the sun sets, the ambulance and police arrive. The place is put on lockdown. No one is allowed to leave or enter, and the police escort me into a small private conference room to question me and grab evidence There, my hands are swabbed to obtain Morgan’s blood sample. They take pictures and allow me to wash my hands and wipe the remaining blood on white towels.
I shiver at the sight of it all before they bag the towels, too.
I’m asked questions while Dad leans against the wall in front of me. His hands are in his pockets and he gazes up at the ceiling in despair. He’s lost one more thing important to him. Could this be the straw that breaks the camel’s back?
The police want a swab my mouth for DNA. Dad gets defensive. “She had nothing to do with what happened to Morgan. She’s a kid.”
It’s just procedure; I watch enough TV law shows to know that. If they could swab everyone in the country club, they would. “It’s okay, Dad. I know I didn’t do anything wrong. They can have my DNA.”
Dad sighs and goes back to staring off at nothing. I’m patient as I open my mouth when instructed, and then the police move on to swab Dad. He’s in the clear because I had been with him when Morgan was attacked. I tell the police that and they shift the questions.
“You arrived with your son as well, isn’t that right, Mr. Montgomery? Where is he now?”
“He went out to the car. He heard some news he didn’t like.”
“What news was that?”
“Dad,” I say and realize how worried I sound. God…I should’ve kept my big mouth shut. I don’t want to cast suspicion on Mike for this, but I know how it’ll sound.
The police officer gazes at me. “Is there something you’d like to tell us, Ms. Montgomery?”
Dad steps off the wall and gets between us. “She’s a kid, c’mon. She called the ambulance. She did everything she was supposed to.”
I really wish Dad would stop telling them things, but he’s upset. He’s not thinking about how it’s going to look for Mike.
“We’ll go out and fetch your son. Bring him in here. Did you use the valet parking?”
Dad goes through his pocket and hands the police officer his valet ticket. “If you’re going to ask him questions, I want to be present.”
There’s a knock at the closed conference room door. A moment later, it’s opened by a police officer and he escorts Mom in. She had been dressed for a relaxing night at home, her hair in a low ponytail at the nape of her neck. When her kind brown eyes fall on me, she reminds me of Lara.
She glances at Dad as I rush to hug her. “Mom!”
She strokes my head and keeps me close. “Oh baby, are you all right? The police told me what happened, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, Jax.”
Dad nods. “Mike’s outside. The police are going to get him and bring him in here. They might have questions for him.”
“Why is he outside?”
I squeeze Mom’s wrist. “Not now, Mom.”
“Family squabble or something, is it?” The police officer asks me, and I keep my mouth shut.
Mom gives me one of her knowing glances, but her lips turn down with a frown. “Do you need anything?”
“You. Maybe Lara.”
Lara. Just saying her name sends a shockwave into me, but I don’t know why. I hone in on her name and it repeats in my head over and over. But then a louder, more intense feeling nearly crushes me.
There’s something wrong with Lara. There’s something wrong with Lara and it won’t stop repeating. It won’t stop screaming.
Why can’t time leave us alone already?
Chapter Seven: Molly
There’s something wrong with Lara and I can’t ask her what it is. A detective Morris comes and escorts me and Mom into another room. On the way, an officer guides Mike into the room Dad and I had just left. My twin raises his eyebrows as he sees Mom. “What’s going on? Molly?”
I want to tell him not to say anything to the police officers, but I can’t say it out loud. If I do, they’ll hear and so will Mom. People will wonder why I want him to keep his mouth shut, and anything I say would make them more suspicious.
“In here, please.” Detective Morris opens a door to a private office with a desk and a sitting area. There’s even a filing cabinet in the corner, I didn’t realize people still used those. Mom and I sit at the two chairs in front of the desk. Morris perches on the edge of the desk, swinging his leg as if that’s somehow going to put my mind at ease.
“I want to ask you about Ms. Drake and the dinner you came here for.”
I swallow hard and Mom senses my anxiety. “It’s okay, Molly. Just be honest and tell the truth.”
Truth. Right. The truth is funny when you know what’s happening in other timelines and you see what’s happened in your mind. If I could name Morgan’s assailant, I would, but I didn’t see enough to pull that off. I didn’t see enough of anything to help.
I rub my legs through the dress, relieving some stress. “We came for dinner. Dad wanted us to meet Morgan. He said they are business partners. Seemed friendly.”
“Is that all they are?” Morris asks.
“They’re getting married,” Mom says before I can. “So, what’s your point? Jax wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“You mean like how he lied about your ex-husband, and kept evidence that would’ve released him from prison? Yeah,” Morris says as shock rolls on Mom’s face, “I’ve read up all about you Cranes and Montgomerys. Dysfunctional at its best. At its worst, lawbreakers.”
Mom rises and slings her purse over her shoulder. “This is over until our family lawyer gets here. Come on, Molly.”
Wise choice. I stand up and follow Mom toward the door.
The police calls after us loudly. “Better get your son his own lawyer. Word has it he stormed out of the restaurant angrily. Wasn’t too happy about getting a step-mom. Several patrons gave statements that he left the restaurant before the attack on Ms. Drake. Fits our timeline, Mrs. Montgomery.”
Mom’s expression drops and she glances at me. “It was probably a shock for him to find out. Mike’s a kid…kids get angry sometimes. I told Jax he should’ve told the kids before now.”
“He stormed out and wasn’t seen again. Ms. Drake was still in the restaurant and excused herself to the bathroom. Where do you think Mike was at the time? Outside, or stewing, waiting for his chance to talk to her? Convince her the wedding was a bad idea for everyone?”
“Mom,” I whisper. I want her to go, to open the door and get us out of here, but her hand pauses above the doorknob.
Mom shakes her head and she speaks with total conviction. “He wouldn’t. My son’s a good boy. We’re good people caught up in something we couldn’t control. Something we couldn’t stop, but it doesn’t make my son violent or a murderer. Come on, Molly.”
I duck my head so she won’t see the doubt in my eyes. I love my brother, but I know things about him that Mom doesn’t. I know what he’s capable of now, and in the future.
We head out into the hall and I hope to God I won’t have to answer any more questions. I pray to God this can just be over.
****
Mom and Dad talk. It’s hours later and I’m exhausted. I want to go home and just go to bed. Our home with Mom or our home with Dad, at this point, I’ll take anywhere with a bed. Instead, we’re in the grand lobby. I sit on the stairs beside Mike and he keeps splaying his hands, staring at his fingers. I wish I knew what he was thinking.
“Did they call Lara?” Mike asks softly.
I shake my head. “She’s still on her honeymoon. No one wants to bother her yet.”
We don’t talk about what we’ve done. How we took Lara’s consciousness and jammed it into another body. I think about it all the time and Mike must, too, but what is there to say? My choice had been made for me by Mike and Donovan. They’d taken away my choices.
“
They really think I hurt her. They really think I had something to do with it.” His voice shudders. Mike’s casts unsure eyes on me and his arms shake. He crosses them to hide the movements, but he’s scared.
“They’re looking for answers, grasping at straws. This place is where all the highbrow go. They’ll want to sweep it under the rug as fast as I can.” I swallow my doubt, pretend it isn’t there.
“Will you talk to Cassidy? Maybe she can find something out on the bridge.”
“Of course I will. And she’ll help us.”
Mike doesn’t look sure. “She’s not my biggest fan.”
“Well…” While that’s true, I can’t really tell Mike it’s his fault, not after the police are throwing so much suspicion his way. “You brought Lara back for us. I think that earns you a few brownie points.”
He smiles meekly but it doesn’t reach his eyes. I grow quiet as Mom approaches. “Your father and I talked. He’s going to need to pull himself together and he asked if I’d take you home.”
We stand up and head off the steps and I try to catch sight of Dad in the dining hall, but I’m unable to find him. “It’s okay, Mom. We’ll go with you.”
“I’m sorry. I know how much you were looking forward to another night at your dad’s. He needs time.” Mom puts an hand on Mike’s back and the other on mine and slowly guides us away.
As we move away, I twist my head around and finally catch a sight of him. Dad is staring at the floor, looking so small and lost. I hope he’ll be okay.
He’s going to need more than a little time. I think he’s going to need a miracle.
****
Mike and I go up to our rooms. Mom acts like we’re six-years-old again and tucks us in. She kisses my head and tells me tomorrow I can stay home from school, but that’s the last thing I want to do. When she leaves, I get out my phone and call Cassidy.
There isn’t an answer.
Frustrated, I sigh and head downstairs for a glass of milk. When I get there, I hear voices from the kitchen. Curious. John hadn’t been around when we’d come home, but maybe he’d snuck in after we were asleep, trying to give us peace. As I get closer to the kitchen door, I can tell one of the voices is Mom and the other…Dad?
