Norman:
A man has many wishes and many regrets. I had one too. Watching Jessica take her last breaths in my arms made realize one of my wishes would never co true. I wished Jessica had stayed my friend. We had far more potential as friends than as a couple.
I rember when she first brought the idea to her father, and he started pressuring my mother about it. My mother was so happy to be on board. Even though I told them, over and over from a young age, that I didn’t see her that way.
I rember when Jessica ca to and asked why I wasn’t entertaining the idea. I told her it was because I didn’t feel that toward her, and I didn’t want her to waste her life chasing when she could find her mate sowhere else.
I tried to be supportive, telling her I would always stay her friend. But she didn’t want to listen. She threatened with her life and gave the one excuse no one should fall for, that I should give it a try, that she wouldn’t be upset if I tried and later told her it wasn’t working.
Of course, that was just an excuse to start sothing and then make feel guilty for stepping back. She used that sa tactic on again and again. But I was angrier at her father and my mother, the ones who had planted all these ideas in her head from a very young age, and the ones who later used her, when she wasn’t in her right mind, to fake a mate bond with . My mother was the mastermind behind all the disasters that followed.
I took a deep breath and carried Jessica in my arms, just as she had asked. I started walking toward the well. My heart ached, not only from losing her but from rembering how she tried to take my daughter’s life, deciding my child didn’t deserve to live. That thought tore apart. The false hope had twisted her into soone vindictive.
When I reached the well, I took a deep breath and looked at her cold, lifeless body in my arms. She could have moved on. She still had ti, but she didn’t want to. She didn’t want to accept that one action could lead to her own demise. Then I tossed her into the well.
Her body hit the ground with a thud, and I clenched my fists. Losing a friend is never easy, but losing a friend to such cruelty is worse. A sharp pain struck my chest at once, my heartbeat reviving,and then it was gone.
I began to hear a strange overlapping of heartbeats. Placing my hand on my chest, I felt them rging into one. But there was one heartbeat still reluctant, and that was tied to Emt.
"Goodbye, Jessica," I said, turning around and walking away. Then I sped up, knowing soone was waiting for . Soone who could ease my mind.
With that, I returned to the mansion and found Helanie sitting at the entrance, waiting. The mont she saw , she stood and rushed into my arms, hugging . I held her close, rubbing her back.
"It’s okay. How is our daughter?" I asked.
She nodded against my chest, letting know she was fine and that she had cared for all the babies.
I finally broke the hug and held her face in my hands.
"She did this to herself," I reminded Helanie, before she could bla herself. In response, she only sniffled and nodded.
"How are you feeling?" she asked, her eyelashes wet.
"It’s strange, but I feel like my heartbeats are rging into one," I murmured, watching her eyes glow. It almost felt like good news.
"But what about Emt?" she asked sadly. "We don’t know how to help him."
He was still in the dream world. Many of the curses had escaped, but it wasn’t over yet. His own curse had to break. He would have to wait a few hours in the other world while the curse here faded. In the dream world, though, those hours would stretch into much longer. Days, maybe even weeks, in our ti.
"It’s okay. We’ll find a way," I told her.
"But how? We don’t even know how we can help him," Helanie said.
"Do you have anything in mind?" I asked, gently caressing her cheek. I noticed the way her eyes dropped, and I could already tell she had ideas.
"Tell . I’ll be with you," I pressed. Finally, she opened her mouth.
"It all started with your mother, Norman. I refuse to believe she doesn’t know more. We have to get our hands on her. We have enough evidence of her wrongdoings now," she said, reminding that even though the council was already investigating to get her arrested for good, we were running out of ti.
if we didn’t arrest my mother or catch her, she would keep pulling strings and hurting everyone. So it was decided. I gave Helanie a nod.
"Yeah, I think you’re right. It’s ti we finally confront her." I was determined this ti. And she nodded back with .
But as soon as we turned to go check on our kids and then tell Kaye and Maximus what we were planning, we saw soone standing there, staring at us with wide eyes, almost in shock.
"Lucy," I said, noticing even Helanie looked confused to see her.
What Lucy had done back in the woods, when she pretended to be the entity to fool the Zharn, had been helpful. But why was she standing here now, watching us with such a strange look?
"I rember everything," she whispered, fidgeting with her fingers and swallowing hard.
"Really? What is it that’s making you so uncomfortable?" Helanie asked, stepping forward and taking her hands.
Then Lucy spoke one sentence that felt like it pulled the ground out from beneath Helanie’s feet.
"I know who the fourth child of the Father is," she said, making our eyes go wide.
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