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Chapter 13
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Twenty-Four Hours To Leave Him Chapter 13
Two years later, Matteo had just seen off a lawyer demanding payment on the mortgage when he heard the System for the first time in months.[Permission to observe has been granted. Opening a one-time viewing passage.]He stood at once, still wearing his coat. His bedroom faded, replaced by a bright hospital corridor. Several family members waited outside a room, and someone pushed a folded stroller against the wall.He saw Ian first. The man came out to accept a bag, thanked the person handing it over, and quickly returned. The door didn’t close all the way. Elena’s voice reached the hallway.“She doesn’t need another hat. She’s not cold.”Matteo moved closer. Elena lay propped up in bed, pale, with her hair loosely tied back and a baby in her arms. Ian sat beside her, adjusted her pillow, and gently touched the child’s cheek.She looked up at him and smiled without hesitation. Simple wedding bands shone on their hands.“Get some sleep,” Ian told her. “I’ll hold her.”“You didn’t get m
Twenty-Four Hours To Leave Him Chapter 12
At that same moment, in a private Boston hospital, Matteo sat in bed waiting for a woman who wasn’t coming. His heart had briefly stopped on the way to the hospital, but the doctors had brought him back.When he woke, he hadn’t asked the System to take him home. “Tell her I’m dead.”The System pointed out that this was no longer true. He insisted it send Elena the record from the moment his heart had stopped.He remembered how people had forgiven his father-in-law after Caroline died. He remembered, too, how readily Elena had once felt sorry for anyone in pain. If she believed he was dead, surely she’d cry. She’d want to see him. She’d admit there was still something in their past she couldn’t bear to lose.The System finally relayed the outdated record of his death. After a long wait, he received one line in return.[She has requested that no further information about you be provided.]Matteo swept the glass water bottle off the bedside table. A nurse recoiled, and the men by the door
Twenty-Four Hours To Leave Him Chapter 11
Six months later, I accepted Ian’s invitation to dinner. It was Valentine’s Day and, as it happened, the day my first project as lead conservator had passed its final inspection. He’d been clear: he wanted to celebrate with me, and he wanted it to be a real date.I didn’t pretend to misunderstand him this time.The restaurant was in a small hotel, its windows overlooking a rain-polished stone street. There was no extravagant bouquet on the table. Ian had brought a hand-drawn bookplate depicting the old ship’s log we’d restored together.“You said it deserved a new cover.” He slid the card toward me. “No design fee for this one.”I laughed. The waiter had just brought our roast cod when the System interrupted.[Message from your original world: Matteo Moretti is dead.]My knife touched the rim of my plate. Ian stopped talking and asked whether I felt unwell. I shook my head and asked him to get me some water.The System began to tell me what had happened.After returning to his world, M
Twenty-Four Hours To Leave Him Chapter 10
He’d lost weight, and his coat lacked its usual neatness. When he saw me, he started forward, then stopped, as though moving too quickly might make me disappear.I handed Ian the client’s file, confirmed our arrangements for the morning, and said goodbye. He glanced at Matteo without asking questions. “Call me if you need anything.”Once Ian was out of earshot, Matteo spoke. “You’ve already found someone else?”He kept looking at the paper bag in my hand. I’d wondered whether seeing him again would leave me unable to breathe. Now that he was here, I only felt tired.“That’s none of your business.”“Lena, we’re still married.”“Your wife died in Providence.” I met his eyes. “You arranged the funeral, didn’t you?”His expression changed as though I’d struck him. “Don’t say that.” He came closer. “I held your hand. I thought I’d never even get the chance to say goodbye. Now you’re here. Come home with me. Please.”When I turned away, he caught my arm from behind. The familiar strength of
Twenty-Four Hours To Leave Him Chapter 9
It took Matteo two weeks to find a way to reach me. During those weeks, I rented a south-facing apartment in Edinburgh and found work restoring old books. Each morning, the woman at the corner bakery asked whether she should set something aside for me the next day.For the first time, I could make plans without wondering when somebody else would come home. Tomorrow belonged to me, and the small arrangements I made for it no longer needed to fit around Matteo’s return.This was the world my mother had been born in. Years earlier, she’d traveled with the System to Boston and met a young Vincent Walsh. He hadn’t owned his docks then, and his name hadn’t made people step aside. He’d only had a failing freight business.My mother had stayed through the hardest years. When her assignment from the System ended, she chose to remain in that world. Eventually, she had me. She never trusted my father’s promises in business, but she believed the ones he made at home.The first time she discovered
Twenty-Four Hours To Leave Him Chapter 8
The Morettis searched apartments, private airfields, and docks across Boston. Matteo even called rivals whose favors he normally refused to owe.Nobody had seen Elena. She hadn’t withdrawn money, taken clothes, or booked a flight. There was nothing to suggest she’d packed up a life elsewhere, and nothing he could follow to her.At night, he stayed in their bedroom, leaving her side of the bed untouched. The slightest noise downstairs brought him to his feet. He sent their travel photographs to photographers and retouchers, but none could explain why he was alone in them. Eventually, he stopped turning off the lights.After leaving the hospital, Violet began looking for Elena, too. She had no intention of taking the blame for the man who’d fathered her child, but she knew people would listen if she made herself pitiful enough.She filmed herself crying and uploaded the video.“I only found out later that he was married. I went to his wife to apologize, and she had people hurt me. Her fa
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