15 Minutes- The Complete Saga Boxset

by Jill Cooper

  My surprise takes her back and she tosses her head. “Yes, we were all back at Rewind. I didn’t remember she was arrested or in jail, just like I had no memory of you. None of us did. Patricia and Rex owned the place and boy did they throw their weight around.”

  I feel sick and pale. My hands start to shake and I squeeze them tight around my thighs to keep it from showing, but Delilah’s known me a long time. “No one told you,” she whispers, “did they?”

  I shake my head in agreement. “No one remembered me? Not even—” Not even Donovan? It was a big secret for my husband to be keeping from me. I give Donovan, Cassidy and Molly, the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he is trying to find a way to break it to me.

  “Molly did. She knew it was all fake and temporary. She knew something was manipulating us. I heard the whispers from Miranda, but then she…” Delilah’s eyes darken. “I think it’s best if you find out from your mother—or Molly.”

  My sister? Not even Molly had told me the truth. Mom has enough on her plate without me making her recant what had happened to her in the altered timeline. Something that, by all accounts, hadn’t happened because I’d reset everything. I couldn’t put her through that. It wouldn’t be fair. “You have to tell me. Please, Delilah.”

  She shakes her head. “Don’t ask me, Lara. Don’t put me in this position. It’s not my place to tell you what happened to your family.”

  Even if it’s not fair, I push on. “I need to know. Donovan didn’t tell me. No one mentioned anything to me.” But why wouldn’t they?

  “I can’t, Lara.” My request causes her physical pain, it’s evident in her voice. I’m sorry for that, but I can’t stop. I have to know.

  “We’re partners. If you can’t, who can?”

  Delilah nods. “Your mother was murdered once again by Rewind. She knew too much about Patricia and Rex. So, she was killed, and it was pinned on that girl Cassidy from your wedding. She seemed very important at the time. I don’t know why, but Patricia wanted her out of the way.” Delilah swallows and crosses her legs. Her face pinches together as if she’s sucked on a lemon. I can tell she knows more. A lot more.

  But she doesn’t want to tell me.

  I open my mouth to say something, but she holds up her hand. “Please, don’t ask me anymore. If you have questions, if you have things you need to know, talk to your family, Lara.”

  I can’t believe she won’t tell me anything else. I feel like I’ve been slapped. I feel like my best friend is betraying everything we have.

  “It never really happened. You fixed everything and put it back the way it was supposed to be, so maybe you should leave it alone. It hurt them as much as it hurts you now. I saw it on their faces, dear.”

  Delilah puts her hand on my shoulder, but right now isn’t the time for platitudes. I’m angry. “Is that why Donovan took me away? Because he knew eventually I was going to find all of this out?”

  “You’ll have to ask him.”

  I grunt in frustration.

  “I’m sorry, Lara. So sorry, but I can’t be the one.”

  “We run the TTPA together. We tell each other everything. If you won’t tell me—.”

  “Don’t say it,” Delilah begs. “Please, Lara, let this go.”

  “How?” I ask, eyes wide. “I don’t know what you think I need to let go, but I need to the truth. The truth is everything, that’s why we are running the TTPA together. You understand why I’m the way I am. You’ve always told me what was hard for me to hear and if you won’t do it for me this time…it scares me, Delilah. I’m scared.” My lip quivers and my emotion embarrasses me.

  Delilah touches my cheek. “Oh darling, please…”

  “Tell me what you know.”

  “Patricia and Rex worked hard to keep you from us, do you hear? They wanted no trace of you in the timeline. But they weren’t working alone. There was a young man I didn’t recognize.”

  Future Mike. That wouldn’t hurt me, that wouldn’t upset me.

  “But the other one, the one who knew everything and the one who pulled the trigger on your mother….it was Donovan, Lara. It was Donovan.”

  ****

  The air may as well have been kicked out of my lungs.

  “He wouldn’t.” I say it even though Delilah would never lie to me. She’d never make this up. Still, I grab my purse and I’m ready to bolt from the room.

  “The Donovan you love wouldn’t, but that Donovan…he didn’t have you. He only had his ambition and the desire to protect his mother.” Delilah pushes her lips together as if to will herself not to say anything else.

  And I feel like I’m sinking. Donovan didn’t have me so he was what? A male version of his mother? More like Rex than I realized? No, no. I refuse to admit such a harsh truth. I refuse to believe he could be that man.

  Even if I know…. Even if I’ve seen glimmers of it in other timelines.

  Delilah sighs and pats my hand. “Darling…none of it really happened. You can’t hold against him, or anyone, what happened in a timeline where our memories were removed. Deleted. Our very personalities changed. You can’t, Lara. Promise me you won’t destroy what you have because of what Rex did.”

  Delilah’s right on so many levels, but how can I convince my heart of that? I pick up my purse off the coffee table. “Thanks for the tea, Delilah, but I’m afraid I have to go.” I hurry for the exit and Delilah calls out for me, pain her voice.

  “Lara! Please!”

  Out in the hall, I slam the door shut to her office. My insides are screaming for closure and to take my anger out on someone, but there’s nowhere for my rage to go. I’d reset all of the actions Delilah spoke of, so there was no reason to make Donovan accountable for siding with Rewind.

  But I still wanted to. So, I call the one person I know will always tell me the truth. She honors it the most above all else.

  Cassidy.

  “Can I come over? I need to talk to you.”

  “Of course, you can.” Cassidy’s answer comes easy and she sounds worried. “Is this about your time travel ability?”

  “No…something else. I really need to talk to you.”

  “I’ll be here. Should I put the kettle on?” Her voice oscillates between curiosity and dread. I can’t say I blame her.

  I sigh. “Better make it something a little stronger.”

  Chapter Ten: Cassidy

  Lara sounds upset on the phone and it worries me more than I already am. I hang up the phone and turn in my living room toward the sofa. “She’s on her way over. You’re both going to have to leave.”

  Molly and Donovan sit side by side on my red sofa. Molly holds a glass of soda in her hand and Donovan looks like a wanted man whose time has run out. Behind them is a big, grand window that overlooks the Cambridge skyline. It’s a beautiful view but I can’t enjoy it now, not with how Lara sounded on the phone.

  Donovan stands and starts to pace. “We haven’t settled anything. We don’t know what happened to her powers and we don’t know if she’ll ever get them back. What’s our next move? We haven’t even begun here.”

  His frustration is evident. “She’s coming whether we’re done or not.”

  He gives me a level look and I try not to stare into his eyes. Our close relationship in the altered timeline is still too recent. He’ moved on faster than I had, but he has Lara. Who do I have other than a sixteen-year-old grandmother?

  I struggle to keep my voice calm. “Do we think Mike did this on purpose? With everything that Molly’s had to tell us about last night, it seems he hasn’t changed his mind about his parents. Did Mike strip Lara of her power?”

  The ice in Molly’s glass clinks as she takes a sip. “He’s not that powerful. He’s just a kid. Maybe Future Mike could’ve but he was already dead,” Molly says. “Mike’s confused but he’s not evil. He wouldn’t want to hurt Lara.”

  “How can we be sure Future Mike is dead?” Donovan asks. “No offense to you Molly, but people don’t tend to stay dead arou
nd here.”

  Molly throws him an agitated glance. “Mike wouldn’t hurt Lara.”

  Donovan shrug. “Except he did. He helped send her to another timeline, he helped wipe our memories of her. He thought our lives were just a game. Far as I’m concerned, he’ll do just about anything to get what he wants.” Donovan puts his hands on his hips and paces.

  At this point, I can’t say Donovan and Mike are too far removed—except they hold different agendas. He’s worried about Lara, I get that. I’m worried too, more than I can even put into words. Doesn’t change the fact I feel like Donovan is morphing before my eyes.

  Should I warn Lara? Do I even dare?

  “Do we tell her the truth?” Molly asks.

  “No,” Donovan answers quickly, harshly. “You heard what could happen if she knows. We might lose her forever. We’ve come too far to risk losing her now.”

  I hate his answer. Since Lara saved me from Rex, I’ve been nothing but honest. I’d do anything for family and now I’m being forced to lie.

  Molly’s eyes widen. “For how long? How long can we keep her in the dark? My sister isn’t stupid, Don. Neither are you. She’s going to figure it out. She’s going to know what we all did. She’ll hate us.”

  My worst fear. Molly might be right about that but there’s no way that Donovan is going to give in, not yet. “Let’s table this discussion for now. Don, head to work. Molly, school with you. I’ll talk to Lara and try to settle whatever nerves she’s feeling. Okay?”

  Donovan grabs his coat and I give Molly a quick hug goodbye. “I’ll work on him,” I whisper and a moment later she opens a gateway to the bridge to step through. Getting to school is easier when you have a portal to anywhere.

  I open the front door of my apartment and hold it open for Donovan. He gives me a hard glance, his eyes simmering. A few days ago, I was desperately in love with him despite knowing he was never mine. Now, I feel nothing but confusion when I look at him.

  Donovan leans in to whisper to me. “You do what you can to keep her calm. We might have only a few weeks, a month, to keep this up.”

  “And then?”

  Donovan shrugs. “I’ll beg for forgiveness, but I won’t lose her. Not because of Molly’s conscience and not yours. A world without Lara isn’t a world I’m interested in.” He storms off, angrily and hostile.

  Can’t say I really blame him. I don’t want to lose Lara, but the idea of stringing her along sickens me. I’m not sure who I blame for this mess other than Rex and Mike. They’re who I’m angry with and I think Molly knows I won’t help Mike unless I have to.

  I hurry around the apartment to tidy up and then grab a bottle of wine from the fridge—in case Lara was serious about needing a drink. By the time I set the glasses down on the coffee table, there’s a knock at my door.

  Lara.

  My breath quivers and shake out my long hair before pulling the door open. My glance falls on her distressed face and I feel terrible for my part in our deception. She looks withdrawn, tired. Worried. I want to make all that go away.

  “Thanks for seeing me,” Lara says as she steps inside.

  “Anything for you.” I close the door and steel myself as I turn around. “You want some wine? You sounded really upset on the phone.”

  “Do you have a beer? I could really use a beer.”

  Lara drinks beer? I’d always taken her for more of a wine person. “Sure, I have beer.” I rush across the way into the kitchen and grab two bottles from the fridge door. I twist the caps off and step back into the adjoining living room.

  She’s grateful as she sips her beer and sits down on the edge of the coffee table. Something I’ve never seen her do. Lara stares off at the wall and looks more lost than ever. I want to hug her and make everything okay.

  I want to tell her everything.

  I sit down in the chair in front of her. “What is it?” I whisper and touch her knee. It makes her jump and the reaction startles me. Lara’s never been jumpy, not even when I was trying to kill her.

  In charge, in control, that’s the Lara Crane I know. This Lara…God, I feel like I don’t know her at all. It makes me sick to my stomach.

  “Delilah told me some things today.” She starts off slow, like she’s barely in control of her emotions.

  “Okay.”

  Our eyes meet and I see equal parts rage and equal parts sadness. “The timeline, before I fixed it—”

  Oh god, she knows about me and Don. I want to curl up and die. Anxiously, my knees bounce up and down.

  “—she said Rewind was back. Patricia and Rex were running it and Donovan worked for them. Is that true?”

  “I…guess so? Future Mike rearranged our memories. Made us different people. We didn’t even remember who you were, Lara.”

  “That’s what Delilah said.” Lara’s hands are shaking so bad that she folds them together on her lap. “Is it true that he killed my mother and pinned it on you?”

  I pull back from her and my mouth hangs open. It’s all true, every word. How did we think we could keep everything from her when not everyone knew we were keeping it a secret? “Lara—”

  “It is true. I can see it on your face, you don’t have to answer me.” Lara’s crumbles under the weight of what she now knows. I can’t imagine how it’d affect her if she knew about me and Donovan—about how we put her consciousness into another woman’s body. I’m terrified and at the same time I want to beg her for forgiveness.

  “He whisked me away to the White Mountains because he wanted to sweep this all under the rug.” She licks her teeth and snorts with a toss of her head, anger rising to the surface.

  “You can’t blame him for things he did. Far as he knew, there was never a Lara Montgomery to fall in love with. He only knew he had to do his mother’s bidding. Rex designed it that way to torture us. To torture you. Don’t let him win.”

  “Even though he’s dead, he still wins.” Lara’s jaw clenches and tears pool in her eyes. “It’ll never be over even though he’s gone because he did this. How can I forgive Donovan fir something he’d never even done?” She covers her face with her hands.

  “He didn’t know who she was. He didn’t know—”

  “It shouldn’t matter!” Lara screams. “He killed a human being and pinned it on someone else all because Patricia James asked him to? What makes her so powerful?”

  “So, maybe Donovan was weak, okay? It doesn’t mean he’d really do it.” I’m hit by how hypocritical my words are. That’s precisely what we had done. We’d killed one Lara so we could have ours back. What we had done…there’s no coming back from that. And as Lara cries, I feel as if I’m watching everything we’ve worked for come undone.

  “I’m sorry, Lara.” I apologize for so much as I wrap my arms around her and place my head on her shoulder. “I’m so sorry.” I cry too because I need her to forgive me even though she doesn’t know what I do. But she will.

  It’s only a matter of time before she figures it out. That’s what Lara does. She’s off her game now, but that won’t last forever. I pray it won’t.

  After some time has passed, she wipes her eyes. “You remember, Donovan remembers, even Delilah, so that means my mother…” Lara squeezes her eyes shut.

  “She doesn’t know it was him.”

  “And that makes it better? C’mon, Cassidy.”

  I shake my head. “It was like the worst dream ever, but you can’t hold people responsible for dreams.”

  “This wasn’t a dream. His memories might’ve been rearranged, deleted, but he still had free will. He could’ve said no to Patricia, but he didn’t.”

  “He loves you.” I wish I could tell her how much, or how devastated Don had been when we’d thought she was lost forever. “He’d do anything for you, Lara. Don’t throw it all away.”

  “That’s what makes this harder.” She chews on her thumb. “I don’t know what I’ll say to him. Delilah will call and warn him, he’ll know I know, so what do I say?”


  I shrug. “That you love him? That you want to move past this? You do, don’t you?”

  “More than anything. In so many timelines, past and in the future, I’ve seen him so weak. I’ve seen him do things I will never tell him because I know how it’d affect him. He makes bad choices, I love him in spite of those choices, but this…” Her eyes are wide and innocent as she looks to me. “What would you do?”

  “I’d love him,” I say quietly. “If I could ever find someone that loves me half as much as Don loves you…I’d never let him go.”

  Lara nods and I feel like I’ve finally gotten through to her. “You’re right. I just wish he had told me himself.”

  I stroke her hair and hug her again. Truth is, I’m afraid to let her go. I’m afraid that whatever Donovan will say to her won’t be enough—or maybe it’ll be too much. “Take care of each other, Lara. No matter how bad things get. With your powers gone, you’re upset. I get that. Just let him explain.”

  “I will.” Lara puts her bottle of—mostly untouched—beer onto the coffee table. “I’ll see you later? Maybe we can grab lunch like normal people. Or a movie.”

  “Being normal is the latest thing, I hear.”

  Lara moves to stand up. “Oh man, worst brain-freeze in the history of brain freezes.” She squeezes her eyes shut and she grips her temples. I’ve seen her with headaches before, but never like that.

  “You okay?” A moment later, Lara’s body thrashes back onto the coffee table like she’s having a seizure.

  “Lara!” I grab her head to steady her and see blood flowing from her mouth. She’s bit her tongue, filling her mouth with blood, and her body won’t stop shaking. I reach for my phone and call an ambulance.

  “Hang on, Lara,” I tell her as the 911 operator answers.

  She’s still again, her eyes closed, unconscious. I don’t know if that makes me feel better—or worse. Whatever is happening to her, we may have caused it. We may have done this to her, and that’s the worst thing I can begin to imagine.