Chapter 2

Nolan’s lips pressed into a line. He was quiet for a moment before agreeing.

On the way home, I emotionlessly pulled out some of Jackson’s hair. Jackson was the name Nolan had given the child we had brought home in the previous timeline.

Mrs. Volescu, under the pretense of heading out for groceries, passed the hair sample to my trusted assistant, Sam.

I was busy taking care of Lucy. Meanwhile, the new nanny was clumsily feeding Jackson. She was doing such a bad job that Jackson nearly choked.

“You’re so clumsy. Are you trying to choke him and kill him?”

Nolan frowned and hurriedly pushed her aside. He was gently burping Jackson.

He did not spare Lucy a single glance.

I watched all this coolly.

It was all so obvious, but I had not noticed it in the previous timeline, because I had taken care of Jackson even more closely than he had.

Jackson had the same birthmark as Alex. Moreover, he sounded exactly like Alex and could recount all of Alex’s memories from his five scant years of life. At least, the voice we heard in our heads could.

I had believed that Jackson was Alex reincarnated.

However, I was proven wrong when Angela Harper poisoned Lucy and me.

She had looked down on me and told me the truth, as if giving alms to a pitiful beggar. “Never thought that Jack’s my child with Nolan, did you?”

Even then, I had carried some meager hope. I had hoped that Jackson, the “reincarnation” of Alex, would avenge me and Lucy.

However, before I was completely gone, Jackson, who had just learned to walk, stepped on my arm on his way into Angela’s arms.

He called her “Mom” so sweetly that there was no way he was my Alex.

My gaze was icy cold as I carefully watched Nolan burping Jackson.

Suddenly, I spoke up.

“Nolan, do you still hear anything from the child?”

Nolan was caught unawares but managed to say, “Of course!”

He answered so quickly, as if he was terrified that I would not believe him.

“Alex is telling me that, on the day his boat capsized, he shouldn’t have snuck out of the cabin to watch the dolphins. He’s terrified of being alone and really regrets not listening to us.”

My heart thudded painfully in my chest.

The boat had capsized in the middle of the night. I had found a Post-It note with Alex’s childish handwriting saying, [Mommy, Daddy, I’ve gone out to see the dolphins. Don’t worry about me.]

Afterward, I had spent a lot of money trying to dredge something up. But all that was found was a tattered corner of Alex’s shirt.

I covered my face, eyes wet with tears, and yelled, unable to handle it anymore, “Send him away!”

Nolan was shocked.

I croaked out, “There’s no such thing as what you’re saying. How could you hear Alex’s voice in your head? You just miss him too much. You’re having hallucinations. It’s better to send him away.”

“It’s real!”

“Then why are you the only one who can hear it?”

Nolan was stumped at that, too. He did his best to salvage the situation. “I don’t know. Maybe I can get him to say something more?”

I heard that child’s voice in my head again. “Mommy! Can you hear me?”

I acted as though I had heard nothing. My expression was nothing but calm.

Nolan kept on trying.

In the end, the child’s voice became Nolan’s low and grouchy one. “What in the world is going wrong?”

I clenched my fists and said impatiently, “If you say that this is Alex reincarnated, then where was he before this?”

Nolan’s jaw dropped. “Um. He was in heaven, of course!”

I almost believed those words.

“What’s heaven like? Was he happy there?”

“Of course, he was happy. There’s a lot of great candy in heaven. He had kind angels taking care of him.”

Candy.

Alex had inherited my taste in food. He preferred spicy food and never ate candy when he was alive.

“Alright.”

I stopped Nolan from continuing to prove that the voice was real. I said wearily, “I’m tired. I’m going to bed.”

I closed the door and sent my assistant the coordinates to a certain location.

“Call off the search team in Shoreton. Send people to search this location in Somerville. Do a complete sweep!”