Forever (16 page)

“That’s who I saw,” Anne said, “the one who killed my baby.”

Donna paused with fingers pressed against her mouth as though reluctant to speak another word about him. After a moment, she resumed her reading.

“He was powerful, wealthy, and for this he had the respect of others . . . no . . . fear, not respect. Most feared him. But Jacob did not. Ah, I see. I see. This evil man was Maggie’s husband and
she
feared him . . . oh, yes. So much fear. And hatred. Somehow . . .” Donna paused for a moment, then shook her head. “I can’t see how . . . but this man cheated Jacob, and Jacob challenged him on it. Is that when your husband killed him? I can’t see this situation clearly. In some way, Maggie was involved . . . she was cheated too maybe? I’m trying to get the name of her husband. Ben? Ben something? His spirit is so dark, and strong . . . very strong . . . and around you still today.”

It was almost as though Annie were hearing the words in her head a second before Donna spoke them, which gave the effect the psychic was only confirming everything she already knew.

Taking Annie’s hand in hers again, Donna said, “You already know some of this, and will know more. Your spirit—Maggie’s spirit—is trying to reveal it to you. Stop fighting. Just let it come. You need to understand
why
these things are happening to you. You have choices to make . . . and danger to avoid. It’s not too late to make the right choice . . . this time.”

Donna stood abruptly, and Annie realized the session was over.

“But—”

“No. Don’t ask me. You have to find these answers yourself.” With an arm around Annie’s shoulders, Donna guided her toward the door into the waiting room. “I will tell you only one more thing. It will help you to understand why Maggie has come to you.”

“Because of Tom?”

Donna shook her head and then hesitated, heightening the effect of her words. “The woman who came with you today was once Maggie’s infant son.”

Annie gasped so sharply that she stumbled. Without another word, Donna turned, disappearing into another room of her home. Annie fled through the waiting room and out the front door. Kate was beside her before they reached the car.

“I heard you yelling,” Kate said. “What happened?”

Annie didn’t respond. She started the car, barely giving Kate enough time to get in and shut her door, before she backed down the driveway.

“Tell me what she said that upset you.”

“Nothing!”

* * *

They rode in silence, and were halfway home before Annie regained her calm. A rumbling in her stomach reminded her it was supper time. To make up for refusing to talk to her, Annie detoured to Kate’s favorite Italian restaurant. Smiling, Annie reached over to pat Kate’s hand.

“I hope you’re hungry because I’m starving.”

Never one to keep quiet long, Kate couldn’t ask questions fast enough as they crossed the parking lot. “What did she say to upset you so much? Why were you yelling at her? Are you going to tell me what she said?”

Annie refused to reply to any of these until they were seated. “She told me I needed to find my own answers.”

Kate’s mouth dropped open. “You mean she didn’t give you a reading?”

“Yes. I mean, no. She only tells you what’s in your own head . . . or spirit . . . or something. She told me I could know more if I quit blocking it.”

“Hmm,” Kate said, puzzled. “I don’t think she does it that way with Sherry. I mean, Sherry tells me specific things the psychic told her.”

They paused until the waitress took their order and walked away. Annie picked up the conversation.

“She told me a few specific things too, but I knew them already. Most of them.”

Kate mimed pulling her hair out. “Tell me exactly what she told you.”

“She told me Jacob and Maggie weren’t married. Maggie was married to some evil old man. Can you believe that?”

“Wow. So when you were Jacob and Maggie you two had an affair just like—”

The waitress, serving their salads, interrupted Kate, but Annie had mentally finished the sentence and shot Kate a hard look. “It was my husband who killed Jacob,” she said after the waitress had gone.

“And what did he do to
you
?” Kate asked.

Annie took a bite of her salad, chewing while she decided how much to tell Kate about her previous life.

“I guess he didn’t do anything to
me
directly. At least, I don’t remember that.”

“Directly?”

Annie searched Kate’s face for any sign she might know the rest, might remember her brief past life. How could she? “My evil husband murdered my baby.”

“Omygawd.”

“He threw him in the river.” Annie pushed her salad plate aside. “Right in front of me.”

“Why would he drown his own child?”

“I think the baby was mine and Jacob’s. That’s the way he punished me, I guess.”

“How could someone be so cruel to do that to an innocent baby?” Tears welled in Kate’s eyes. “What did you do then?”

“He held me back at first, but when he let me go, I jumped in after the baby. I died too.”

“You both drowned.” Kate grew quiet for a moment, and then her eyes widened. “It was like the baby took you with him, so the two of you could be together with Jacob.”

Kate’s words chilled Annie, but she tried not to read too much into them. Surely, Kate didn’t know she’d been that infant.

“That husband in your past life reminds me of Gary . . . self-centered and cruel,” Kate said. She paused while the waitress served their entrées. “Hey,” she continued, “do you think Gary was the reincarnation of your past husband?”

Annie had ordered fettuccine Alfredo. Although she couldn’t resist it, the noodles came smothered in a sauce so rich it almost made her queasy. But tonight it wasn’t the pasta making Annie feel sick, it was the question Kate had asked. Just because she and Tom, and
maybe
Kate, were reborn, it couldn’t mean that everyone in her present life had also been in her past life. Because she was an abused wife in a past life, did that mean she deserved the same fate in this one? That’s not how karma worked, was it?

“Earth to Annie.”

Annie looked up to find Kate’s fork waving in front of her face, “Sorry. I was thinking about what you said. No. I don’t think Gary had the same soul as Maggie’s husband. Besides, Gary was nice at first. Something changed him. I think it’s just me and Tom who’ve come back.”

“So,
why
? That’s what you’re supposed to find out, right?”

Annie nodded. “I’d say we’ve come back here to love each other again, except there’s an obvious obstacle to that, isn’t there?”

Kate ate a couple of bites in silence before asking another question. “What does Tom say about his marriage? You never said.”

“I never asked.”

“But he says he loves you, right? What does your heart tell you? Is he sincere, or is he just playing you along to get you in bed?”

Annie’s eyes flashed. “Do you really think I’m that stupid?”

“I think you’re in love, and from past experience we know that makes you
act
stupid.”

“He’s not Gary. He’s not anything
like
Gary.”

“All right.” Kate held up her hands in a gesture of surrender. “I’m sorry. That was a cheap shot. So . . . do you think Tom means it when he says he loves you?”

Annie recalled the look in Tom’s eyes and the tenderness in his voice when he’d said those words to her on Friday. “He . . . yes, he loves me.”

“Well then, he’ll do the right thing.” Kate smiled, confident the problem was already solved.

Annie opened her mouth to respond but then froze. Her chair faced the entry of the restaurant where Tom now stood. As the hostess greeted him and that same blonde from the theater—his
wife
—he glanced toward their table. The shock of recognition shown on his face.

Kate had followed Annie’s stare. “Omygawd, that’s
Tom
, isn’t it?”

Annie responded with the barest of nods. Her heart raced. Blackness rimmed her field of vision. She wished she could be anywhere but here at this moment.

The hostess led Tom and his wife in her direction. He passed within inches of her, and she feared, for a split second, that he would reach out to touch her, but he moved on without incident to be seated somewhere behind her. Unable to stand even the sight of food, now, she laid down her fork and pushed her plate away.

Closing her eyes, Annie concentrated on her breathing. When her heart slowed, she opened her eyes and saw Kate staring in Tom’s direction.

“Stop looking at them,” she ordered, through clenched teeth.

“He’s facing away from us. And his wife—that
is
his wife, I assume—has her eyes on the menu. They don’t even know I’m looking at them.”

With trembling hands, Annie grabbed money from her purse, and threw it on the table. She fled on legs that seemed attached to her body by rubber bands. Her lungs burned as though she’d been holding her breath since the moment Tom stepped into the restaurant. Wildly, she wondered if she might be dying. She collapsed on a bench outside the entrance, chest heaving, greedy for air. Her heartbeat began to slow, but the uncontrollable shaking persisted.

Kate burst out the door, looking toward the car before she realized Annie was right there.

“Annie! What are you doing sitting here crying?”

Annie wiped away tears she hadn’t realized were running down her face.

“Come on. Give me the keys; I’ll drive us home.” Kate practically pulled her to the car and pushed her into the passenger’s seat. They started for home, but then Kate detoured to the Coach House.

When Annie realized where they were, she protested, “I’m
not
going in there, Kate. Take me home.”

“You
are
going in there. And we’re going to get you drunk. You’ve had a shock. Alcohol’s the best cure.”

Annie gaped at Kate. “That’s bull. Go ahead.
You
get drunk, but give me the keys, so
I
can go home.”

Kate jumped out of the car, dropped the keys in her purse, and strolled into the pub. Annie sat in the car fuming for several minutes before she followed her sister inside.

Annie found Kate sitting in a booth near the back. “Give me the damn keys, Kate.”

“Sit down. I’ve ordered sandwiches for us.” She looked up at Annie with an innocent smile. “We barely tasted our supper, you know.”

Although she had no intention of staying, Annie didn’t want to cause a scene, so she sat. “I don’t feel like being here, Kate, and I sure don’t want to get drunk. Just give me the keys to
my
car so I can go home.”

The waitress brought their order, and Kate promised to give the keys to Annie if she would eat something first. By the time they ate the sandwiches and drank the beer, they’d started talking.

Annie was crying again. “I feel like such a fool,” she sobbed.

“You’re no more a fool than anyone else who’s in love—unless that was another girlfriend Tom was with.”

“Oh, please don’t make me think
that
.” Annie knew Kate was teasing and was glad, now, they’d come here. “That was his wife. I didn’t look directly at her that first night, but I remember she had blonde hair like that. God. Blonds really mess up my life!”

Together they laughed at Annie’s dark joke. She didn’t protest when Kate ordered them each another beer, and by the time they finished it, Annie knew she would live.

June 14, part three

U
nder a sky tinted bronze by the early evening sun, Tom and Julie pulled into Delvecchio’s parking lot. He lucked out, finding a prime parking spot, and they walked hand in hand to the restaurant entrance. As soon as they entered, he felt a chill prickle his scalp and looked up expecting to see an air-conditioning vent stupidly installed above the door. He saw none, but the chill spread down his spine. Seconds later he understood why. The hostess greeted them and turned to lead them to their table. Tom glanced at the other diners and caught sight of Annie. A violent thud in his chest sucked his mouth dry.

Annie saw him and quickly looked away, but the red-haired woman with her turned toward him. As he followed Julie and the hostess, he passed only inches from Annie. When he saw that Julie was taking the chair on the far side of the table, he let out the breath he’d been holding. At least he could sit with his back to Annie. He sat too far away to hear their conversation, but he imagined she was explaining to the other woman why she’d suddenly gone deathly pale.

Tom struggled to slow his breathing, fearing Julie would notice and think he was having another anxiety attack—which he probably was. He pretended to focus on the menu. The words swam before his eyes, but not being able to read it didn’t matter. Nine times out of ten when they came here he ordered the lasagna, and the tenth time he usually wished he had.

“Look,” Julie said. “Isn’t that the woman from the Cineplex?”

He looked over his shoulder, scanning the tables behind him while avoiding looking directly at Annie. He turned back to Julie and infused his voice with all the indifference he could manage. “Is it?”

“She certainly looks like the same woman.”

“Could be,” he said. “The theater isn’t far from here.” He set the menu aside. “I guess I’ll have the usual. The appetizer’s your choice.” He was both amazed and dismayed that his voice sounded normal. When had deception become so easy for him? For a moment, he endured Julie’s scrutiny, but then she reached for her menu.

“I haven’t even looked at today’s specials,” she said. “Will we order a bottle of wine?”

A minute later, Tom heard a commotion behind him, followed by “Annie, wait . . .” It took all his self-control to keep from sliding out of his chair with relief.

He gave the waitress their order for the Cabernet they both liked, and then gulped half of the glass of water she’d set before him. By the time she returned with the wine and took their orders, Tom’s heart rate had settled into normal range, but he predicted Annie would linger around the edges of his thoughts for the rest of the evening.

As they sipped the wine, Julie reminded him it was time for Max’s vet check-up. Over salad, she complained about Lindsay’s procrastination on her college preparation, and he assured her things were on track. Finally, as they started on their main courses, she got down to the meat of the conversation.