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Confused, I was certain that I was only dreaming. This was just too unbelievable.
“It’s real, R.J. You have to believe. There can’t be any doubt in your mind. What I offer is a brief opportunity that likely won’t ever be repeated. It’s risky. This moment in time, it will never be recreated.”
Why not? If could bend time, why was now so critical? Why couldn’t I come back to this moment again?
As fi she read my mind, she shook her head slightly. “Sometimes specific circumstances can’t be recreated. This is one of those instances. Some pieces of the time continuum are rigid. They can’t be visited more than once.”
Then this moment was critical. I could sense the urgency.
“You must choose. Quickly.”
I just had one question. “Will I be able to save the ones I love?” Edge, Rae, Leah, Cara. The RRMC.
Green mist swirled around her body as she began to fade. “I can’t answer that. Only your heart will know. Choose wisely, R.J. I know you’ll do the right thing.”
The right thing? What the fuck was that?
“Come back!” I shouted as she disappeared completely, and I was left standing in the middle of the most ridiculous, beautiful, chaotic, and unbelievable place ever conjured into existence.
This was a disaster. I had no idea what to do.
Leaving a massive decision like this in my hands was just pure stupidity. I’d only fuck everything up. What if I destroyed the whole damn timeline? What then?
Sighing, I ran a hand through my hair.
When was the one moment that everything went wrong? What single choice pushed my life in this direction and affected not only me, but Pete, Rae, and everyone else that I cared about? Ron’s death? Mack’s exile? Patty’s sacrifice?
Was it that complicated?
Maybe I should think about it with simpler terms.
Was I supposed to stop Ron from going to the warehouse the day he died? What would that solve? Rae would have her father. Sarah never would have married Charles. She’d still be alive. That was significant.
I could help Rae. One possibility.
But what if it wasn’t Rae I was supposed to help?
What if I was supposed to stop Patty from dying and two brothers from losing their mother? The warehouse again. Was that it? Another possibility.
Pacing back and forth, I knew time was running out.
Wait. What about Cara? No one had suffered as much as she did because of Maxwell Forman. He beat her, used her, controlled her, and tried to break her spirit. A man like that never should have entered her life. Could I stop them from becoming engaged? Go back to the moment she said yes? Was that the answer? What if they never met? Could I prevent him from speaking to her at all?
A third possibility.
What if I was selfish? There was my own father’s death. My mother’s choice to marry a man who only acted with his fists instead of words. Her depression and drug use spiraled out of control. Could I save my parents? Prevent their destruction?
A fourth possibility.
Patty said I had one choice. That was it. One moment in time to do with as I pleased.
How could I possibly do that?
Blinking, it suddenly occurred to me that none of my friends, brothers, or those I cared about would be who they were without the experiences they had growing up. Life had molded and created who they were as individuals. Alter or change that in any way, and I could possibly change who they were and what connection we shared. There was no way of knowing that if I tweaked a single thing on the timeline that no one could be affected. It just wasn’t possible.
The outcome wasn’t guaranteed.
Which meant any decision I made had the probability of removing any single one of them from my life. Maybe more than one. It wasn’t acceptable. I wasn’t willing to sacrifice my life, Pete or Rae, and especially not Cara. She walked into my life at the exact moment we needed each other.
