Across Eternity (Parallel, #4)

by Elizabeth O'Roark

now. His eyes taking me in as if he will never want to see anything else as long as he lives.

“Like nothing but you matters,”

My mother’s necklace glimmers in the light, nestled against the collarbone of a girl who was almost mine.

She’s done nothing to me whatsoever, aside from unwittingly stealing the worthless piece of shit I fell in love with, but I hate her nonetheless.

Have your fight so you can stop bringing it under my roof.

“I like Ted Bundy for a boy,” I reply, focusing once more on my stitches. “Tedbundy?” she asks, as if it’s all one word. “It’s an American name?” “Yes.” I’m not completely evil. I’d stop them if she actually considered it. Probably. “It’s really popular.” “What an odd name,” she replies. “I think I prefer Pierre.”

She looks at him for a long moment, so long that it’s awkward, but he’s watching her too. I get a chill up my spine. “I have to go now,” she says. She sounds wistful. “But my name is Quinn.” “I’m Nick,” the boy replies. I glance at the mailbox. Reilly, it says. Like Luna Reilly, the time traveler who tried to fight off Coron in 1918 and died for it. My hands grip the steering wheel. I want to tell myself it isn’t possible. But as I look at the two of them there, my daughter and this little boy, so spellbound by each other, I know what I’m seeing. Two of the first families in my daughter, and—I am guessing—the other two in him. Four pieces of the puzzle, in the same place at last.

We all, in the end, have to give up the things we love, and I am no exception. Even so, I would not change a thing.