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“I saw. It broke my fucking heart.”
“I wish my mother had shown me this years ago. It would’ve changed everything.”
He gently pulls me against his chest and strokes my hair. “It’s okay.” His deep voice soothes me. “Everything is going to be okay now.”
Is it? Can we really accept this—something so unbelievable? Can he?
I cling to him, feeling light-headed. My knees are weak with a myriad of jumbled emotions. “What does this mean to you, Alex? I have to know what you’re thinking.”
Staring down at me, he wipes my cheeks with the back of his fingers. All I see is love in his eyes. Not one shred of doubt. Emotion is raw in his voice when he finally speaks. “This is all so fucking surreal, I can’t make any sense out of it. I’m not sure what to think. But what I do know, no matter what, is that I’m in love with this beautiful soul in front of me. I always have been. I always will be. I don’t need proof or an explanation. I don’t care about anything except you and our happiness. I just need you. I need us.”
I go up on my tiptoes and kiss his lips, feeling as if a weight inside me is slowly liquefying and seeping into the floor beneath my feet.
“I love you,” I whisper against his lips. “I love you so much.”
“I love you, too.”
I bury my face in his chest, needing to be close to him and hear his heartbeat. His warm hands gently rub circles over my back, easing the worry and sorrow from me. When my breathing has calmed and the light-headedness has passed, I turn and close the lid of the trunk. “I can’t believe my mother had all of this for so long and never showed me. She just let me be confused and end up in that hospital. How could she do that?”
“I think she was scared and confused herself. When I talked to her, she really sounded as if she’s been battling what’s been happening with you for a long time. But it’s like she was being brainwashed herself by your father and the doctors to believe that you were delusional. No one would believe her.” I give him a skeptical look. “She admitted that’s why she always let you come over here to see me and Cherry. She believed you, she just didn’t know what to do about it. She felt scared and helpless.”
I let out a sigh. “I don’t know what to think. But I can’t deal with my feelings about her right now. I need to process all of this first. My head is spinning.”
He nods with understanding. “You take all the time you need. It’s a lot for you to think about.”
I smile and lean my head on his shoulder, wrapping my arms around him. All I want is to be close to him, and let this new, completely odd reality sink in. It’s all so unbelievable and incredible. “Thank you for showing me the trunk, Alex. I don’t know what to think, or how to explain it, but I suddenly feel such a massive sense of relief now.”
His lips brush across my forehead. “You’ve been fighting a battle inside yourself for a long time. I’m sure it mentally exhausted you. Now you have an explanation.”
I eye the trunk, feeling heartbroken for the confused little girl haunted by a life she loved and so desperately wanted to go back to and couldn’t have. “Can we just put this stuff away somewhere?” I ask. “I’m not sure I ever want to see it or talk about it again.”
He nods. “I’ll put it in the attic. If you ever want it, you’ll know exactly where it is.” He studies me, worry in the lines of his face. “I want you to be okay, Penny. I want you to be happy and know how much I love you.”
“I think I’m in a sort of shock. Can this be real, Alex?”
He leans back against his bench and crosses his muscular arms. “I asked myself the same thing, Penny. I was out here for hours today, watching these videos and looking at your drawings. I researched everything I could find on possible reincarnation.”
Reincarnation. The word makes me shiver. “And?”
I need him to believe it with me. I love that he loves me, that he doesn’t care if somehow I was Brianna in a former life or not. But I still want so badly for him to believe it; to feel it in his soul, like I do.
Nodding slowly, he says in a low voice, “Yes. I think it’s real. I felt it for a long time, just like you did. I saw the signs—the things you knew, the way you talked, all your mannerisms. That little nose scrunch you do. I felt the pull to you. The familiarity. The closeness. I kept trying to deny it, because of your age, and because it was fucking crazy. I thought it was just grief playing tricks on me. But I felt it in my heart, and in my bones, the moment you showed up that day. I think my soul recognized you.”
