Page 63 of Intersect
32
QUINN
It’s just after 4:00 a.m. when my mothercalls.
She knows London is six hours ahead. She wouldn’t call right now unless it was anemergency.
Despite that, I don’t want to pick up the phone. Over the past months I’ve been remembering so many things from a life with Nick that isn’t this one. Warnings. I’m not sure what happened, but I know she tried to keep us apart somehow, and I know the pregnancy is why. That’s why I’ve kept it a secret thistime.
“What have you done?” she asks. She sounds as if she’s beencrying.
She knows. Why did I think we could hide this from her? I press my hand to my stomach. The twins are so big I can no longer see my feet when I look down. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I replycoolly.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. Your twins visited me, Quinn,” she says. “I know everything. And I know they’re born a month fromnow.”
My twins time travel. Which means if the Rule of Threes she’s harped on forever is real, one of us will die, and it will probably be me since my spark hasfaded.
“Did you know?” I whisper. “Is this why you always pushed me so hard to time travel?” In my entire life it’s the only thing we ever really fought over. She’s begged and argued for well over a decade, but I always sensed a danger in it I couldn’t put into words. Maybe the danger was what I did to Ryan in that other life I remember. Or maybe the danger is that when I give birth to twins, it will kill either my mother or myself—and I couldn’t let it beher.
“Yes,” she admits. “I’m sure you’ve figured out by now this isn’t the first time we’ve been through this. You and Nick grew up together, until I changed things, and you got pregnant in high school. I did the only thing I could to saveyou.”
I rest my hand on my stomach. I already love my daughters. It’s far too late for her to convince me to take it all back. “Leave me alone. It’s my life and you have no right to decide how I spendit.”
“I’m your mother. Do you really think I’m going to just let you die? I’ll reset your timeline and we’ll try itagain.”
I remember this panic. It’s what I felt in that dream, the one where I was standing outside a convenience store, talking to her on the phone. Looking at Nick inside and knowing we were going to be torn apart. Except it wasn’t a dream, it really happened. And she really did exactly what she threatened todo.
“You will fail again,” I tell her. “No matter how many times you try to keep me from Nick, I’m going to findhim.”
I hear the sound of something shattering. She’s breaking pottery, which is what she does only when she’s at her angriest. “Your love for him is your Achilles heel. You won’t act on your own behalf, but for him there’s no depth to which you won’t sink. And don’t think I won’t use that to myadvantage.”
I stop breathing. “Use ithow?”
“By making you take my spark,” she repliescalmly.
I sink onto the bed.“You can’tmakeme dothat.”
Her voice is steady now, determined. “Of course I can. I’d just have to convince you to killme.”
33
QUINN
I’mcold.
Ice pricks the surface of my skin, pins and needles that begin at my neck and work their way down my arms. A hand is holding mine, and then I find it pressed to something wet and warm. Sound then…the gurgle of strainedbreathing.
“Good girl,” a voice whispers. “Good girl. You finally did it.” She sounds as if she is proud of me, like I’m a child who’s taken her firststeps.
My eyes open. It’s Sarah clutching my hand, pressing it to herchest.
Images explode in my brain. Scenes in which this woman I thought I hated was the person I once loved most. I’m a child playing in the woods behind my house and Nick is theretoo.
“I think I’ll marry you when I grow up,” he says. She’s the one who smiles at me in the darkness when I tell her this. She’s the one I’m hiding from in London, because I know she will stop me somehow if she discovers I’m pregnant withtwins.
My mother. The woman who kept changing the timeline, refusing to let me die. Who begged me to kill her in order to save my ownlife.
“Mom?” I cry. The word is choked, horrified. I want to stop this, save her, but I still can’t seem to move. “Oh my God. What didyou…”