Chapter 20 - The Woman Who Remembered My Funeral|
For several seconds, I couldn't breathe.
The street seemed to go silent around us.
Cars moved past.
People hurried along the sidewalk.
Somewhere nearby, a taxi driver shouted at another motorist.
But all I could hear was Marlene Shaw's question.
Did you remember dying?
I stared at her.
“How do you know about that?”
Her face crumpled.
“Oh, June.”
I stepped backward.
“No.”
She reached toward me.
“Please.”
“No!”
My voice shook.
“Tell me how you know.”
Marlene glanced at the passing pedestrians.
“Not here.”
I should have walked away.
I should have called Nadine.
I should have protected the fragile peace I'd fought so hard to build.
Instead, I followed her into the quiet conference room of her foundation's nearby office.
She closed the door.
Then sat down across from me.
For a long time, neither of us spoke.
Finally, Marlene whispered:
“I remember the first life, too.”
My hands began trembling.
“What?”
She nodded.
“I died in January.”
I stared.
“January?”
“Three months after you died.”
My breath caught.
In my first life, I hadn't known what happened to Marlene after my death.
I knew only that she'd testified against me during the necklace investigation.
That she had believed the forged evidence.
That my conviction had helped protect the people who actually stole from her.
Marlene continued:
“After your death, I discovered evidence suggesting you'd been framed.”
My heart hammered.
“What evidence?”
“Vanessa Cole contacted me. She had heard about your case and recognized what had happened.”
Marlene looked down.
“I started investigating Colin and Roland.”
Her voice trembled.
“I found more of Elise's records.”
“What happened?”
“I confronted Roland.”
She closed her eyes.
“Two weeks later, I became very ill.”
A terrible chill crawled across my skin.
“Were you murdered?”
“I don't know.”
She looked up.
“But I know I died.”
Silence filled the room.
Then she whispered:
“When I woke again, it was October eighth.”
I covered my mouth.
The same morning.
The same impossible miracle.
Marlene continued:
“I thought I was losing my mind.”
A tear slipped down her cheek.
“I spent hours looking at the calendar. I called my attorney and asked questions about events that hadn't happened yet.”
I stared at her.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I didn't know whether you remembered.”
She swallowed.
“Then you called about the necklace.”
I leaned forward.
“And?”
Marlene gave a trembling smile.
“In the life I remembered, you never called me before the gala.”
My heart stopped.
She continued:
“You wore the emerald yourself.”
I nodded slowly.
“Yes.”
“Roland acted shocked when he saw it.”
“Yes.”
“And I testified that the necklace had never been released from collateral.”
Tears filled my eyes.
“Yes.”
Marlene covered her face.
“I believed the documents.”
I looked away.
For a moment, I was back in that courtroom.
Watching a woman I'd admired explain why I must have stolen something worth millions.
The judge listening.
The jury watching.
Colin crying.
Tessa lying.
And me realizing nobody was coming to save me.
I wiped my cheeks.
“Then you know what happened to me.”
Marlene nodded.
“Yes.”
“Three years.”
Her face crumpled.
“I know.”
“Three years in prison for something I never did.”
“I know.”
“And Colin came to my hospital bed with divorce papers.”
Marlene closed her eyes.
“I know.”
I stood.
For a moment, anger overwhelmed me.
“You knew what was going to happen, and you still let me stand in front of that necklace?”
She stood, too.
“June, I didn't know you'd be given the necklace so early.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“In the first life, I learned about it at the gala.”
She swallowed.
“This time, I had already contacted an auditor because I knew the theft would happen.”
I stared at her.
“Then why didn't you warn me as soon as I called?”
Marlene began crying.
“Because I was afraid the wrong person would find out what I remembered.”
I shook my head.
“That isn't good enough.”
“I know.”
Silence.
Then she reached into her handbag.
“There is something I haven't told anyone.”
I watched her remove a small envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
Elise Shaw.
But not the nineteen-year-old girl I'd seen in the family portraits.
This woman was older.
Perhaps thirty.
Her dark hair fell over her shoulders.
She wore a simple white blouse and stood outside a train station.
I stared at the picture.
“When was this taken?”
Marlene whispered:
“Yesterday.”
My blood turned cold.
“That's impossible.”
She nodded slowly.
“That's what I thought.”
I examined the photograph again.
The woman looked exactly like Elise might have looked eleven years after her supposed death.
“Who sent it?”
“An unknown number.”
“Did they say anything?”
Marlene reached into the envelope again.
She removed a folded note.
Her hands trembled as she opened it.
Three sentences.
Mother, I'm sorry I couldn't come home.
You weren't supposed to discover the necklace until after Roland was arrested.
And please, whatever happens, don't tell June Mercer why she was sent back.
I stopped breathing.
I read the final sentence again.
Then again.
Finally, I looked at Marlene.
“What does that mean?”
She shook her head.
“I don't know.”
But something about her expression frightened me.
She was hiding something.
I could feel it.
“Marlene.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Please, June.”
“What aren't you telling me?”
Before she could answer, someone knocked on the conference room door.
Three slow knocks.
Marlene went pale.
A woman's voice spoke from the hallway.
“Mom?”
Marlene staggered backward.
The voice came again.
“Mom, it's me.”
I stared at the door.
Then at the photograph in my hand.
Marlene covered her mouth.
“Elise?”
The handle turned.
The door opened.
A woman stood in the doorway.
Dark hair.
Bright blue eyes.
The same delicate features as the girl in the old photographs.
But she wasn't nineteen anymore.
She looked thirty.
And she was alive.
Marlene began sobbing.
“Elise!”
She rushed forward.
But the woman raised one hand.
“Mom, don't.”
Marlene stopped.
Elise looked past her.
Directly at me.
Her expression changed.
Recognition.
Fear.
Then something worse.
Guilt.
“You're June Mercer.”
I swallowed.
“Yes.”
Elise closed her eyes.
“Oh, God.”
I stared.
“How do you know me?”
She looked at her mother.
Then back at me.
“Because I've been trying to find you for eleven years.”
My heart hammered.
“What?”
Elise stepped into the room.
She looked exhausted.
As though she'd been running from something for a very long time.
“June, I need you to listen carefully.”
I couldn't move.
She took a shaky breath.
“In the life you remember, you died in prison.”
I nodded slowly.
“Yes.”
“And my mother died a few months afterward.”
Another nod.
Elise's eyes filled with tears.
“Then you both woke up on October eighth.”
I stared at her.
“How could you possibly know that?”
She didn't answer immediately.
Instead, she looked toward the window.
Then whispered:
“Because I've watched this happen before.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“What?”
Elise looked directly into my eyes.
“June, this isn't your second life.”
I stopped breathing.
She swallowed.
“It's your seventh.”
My hands went numb.
Marlene gripped the edge of the table.
“Elise, what are you talking about?”
But her daughter was staring at me.
Tears spilled down her cheeks.
“You don't remember the others.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
Elise nodded slowly.
“I know.”
Then she said something that made my entire world collapse.
“Every time you return, you save yourself.”
Her voice broke.
“But someone else dies.”
I stared at her.
“Who?”
Elise looked toward her mother.
Then back at me.
And whispered:
“This time, it's Marlene.”
The lights went out.
A sharp electronic tone sounded from somewhere beyond the conference room.
Elise grabbed my wrist.
“June, we have to leave.”
I pulled away.
“Why?”
Her face drained of color.
“Because the man who keeps sending you back has finally figured out how to follow you.”
Then my phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
One message.
WELCOME BACK, JUNE.
A second message appeared.
SEVEN LIVES. SEVEN FAILURES.
And then a third.
May you like
THIS TIME, YOU DON'T GET TO WAKE UP AGAIN.
TO BE CONTINUED…
