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“Because it happened at the exact same time Lily walked out of Murphy’s Law.”
“And you care about this because?”
“You’re leading the witness.”
She crossed her arms.
I sighed. “I care because I like her.”
“In that way?” She sounded like we were in third grade, hiding under the slide on the playground at recess.
“Good grief, Em, yes, in that way.”
Her smile almost extended past her ears as she reached out to snag a chocolate chip cookie. “So who was the girl?”
“The one I was with the night before I met you. The night Michael came to rescue me. I didn’t even remember her name.”
“Not knowing her name does not make it better. Why didn’t you go talk to Lily right that second? It’s afternoon already. Why haven’t you tried to talk to her today?” she demanded. “Why are you ignoring her?”
“I’m not ignoring her. Ow!” She grabbed a few leg hairs and pulled, and I was quickly reminded that tiny and irritable didn’t make the best combination.
Especially when you poked it with a stick.
“I didn’t. I avoided her because I didn’t know what to say. Did she tell you anything?”
Leaning over conspiratorially, she whispered, “You want to know what she said about you?”
“Emerson.”
She sat up. “Fine. She said that the two of you had a weird conversation about feelings, and she told you she wanted to bite you?” At this, she raised her eyebrows. I nodded. “Oof. No wonder seeing you with that girl on the street hurt her.”
“It hurt her?”
“Why do you think she was so mad?” She asked the question like I was an idiot. Which, apparently, I was.
“I don’t really understand how this stuff works.”
“I love you both. You know that,” Em said.
I nodded, and a little bit of the fire in her voice died down.
“If I’ve learned something from all this crap with Jack,” she continued, “it’s that living anywhere other than in the moment is a mistake. Like Michael always says, the future is subjective. The past could be a lie—not just my past—but all of our pasts. Even Lily’s.”
“You still don’t think Lily’s being here is a coincidence.”
“No. Because every time I think I’ve dealt with Jack and all the ways he’s screwed with me, I prove myself wrong.” She shook her head. “Do you have any idea how much it kills me that so many of the good things in my life are there because of him?”
“I’m so sorry I didn’t stop him when I had the chance,” I said. “I’m sorry I didn’t take my dad’s files before he stole them, before he could find you.”
“Where would I be now if you had?”
I sat up and put the plate of cookies on the table, frowning at her.
“If you’d taken the files before he could get to them, Jack wouldn’t have known about me and my ability to travel to the past. I’d still be a crazy lump in a bed. Lily could be living somewhere else. Your dad would be dead.” She gave me a grim smile. “You could chase the circles of consequence for days. If this had happened, then this wouldn’t have. Vice versa. It’s mind-boggling.”
o;Yeah. Predators always go for the weakest animal.”
Ava was so broken on the inside. I wished I could dissect it all, help her figure out the truths and the lies.
