I take a few steps away from him, feeling doubly betrayed. Tears well in my eyes and I beg them not to spill over. I feel Charlie step closer to me. So close that I can hear him breathe and feel his chest rise against my back. He leans in toward my ear and speaks softly. “This place has taken a lot of who I am away. But I never let it take any of my memories of you. Not even the one I wish I could lose forever.”
I close my eyes and tears fall down my cheeks.
“Emma, I never stopped loving you. Not even for a second. It took every ounce of strength I had to say what I said to you that day. And not a minute has gone by that I haven’t regretted each and every one of those words.”
I slowly turn around to face him, my heart beating wildly in my chest. My eyes rise up to meet his gaze. His hands find their way to my face and come to a rest on either side of my jaw. He gently lifts my chin and lowers his face to within centimeters of mine. His warm breath falls heavily against my skin. “I never wanted to let you go,” he whispers before his lips collide with mine.
Heat radiates in my belly and explodes like a firework throughout my body. Every inch of my skin is on fire and tingling with every emotion I know, flooding me all at once.
The pendant hanging around my neck grows hot and nearly scorches my skin. A blinding white flash of light fills my mind and I'm thrown back in time to another life.
Charlie is there with me. Our bodies are pressed together, moving in a fluid motion around a dance floor. He dips me backward and everyone who surrounds us claps and cheers. The music we move in tune to drifts out. Charlie steps back from me and lifts my hand to kiss the back of it.
It takes me a moment to figure out where I am. He wears a black tuxedo; his brown hair perfectly gelled into a wave. I look down at myself and see a white satin and lace dress flowing around me. The people surrounding us look as though they are from another time. My mind places their appearance as early 1900s.
Charlie pulls me in close. “Well, Mrs. Charles Parrish, are you ready to begin the rest of our lives together?”
My memory abruptly changes. I am lying in a large four-post bed in a dimly lit room, writhing in pain. Three women stand around me. One wipes my forehead with a damp cloth as another begs me not to give up. I look down toward my legs and see an enormous belly. I'm having a baby? Another woman kneels at the foot of the bed, directly in front of me. With a thick Irish accent she commands me, “push with everything you have, ma’am. The babe is coming.”
Seconds later the screaming cry of a newborn fills the room. The baby is wrapped in a blanket and placed on my chest. “He is beautiful ma’am. What will you call him?”
“Charles. After his father.”
“I am sure he is here watching over you, ma’am.”
I turn my head to the table next to the side of the bed. A silver frame rests upon it, holding a black and white photograph of Charlie dressed in an Airforce uniform, posing in front of his plane.
The memory abruptly disappears and I am back in the forest, kissing Charlie. Startled, I pull away from him. “Emma? What's wrong? You’re white as a ghost.”
“I just … I just saw us … in another life.”
“I don't understand.”
“The pendant that my dad told you about, it holds memories. Memories only I can unlock. When I do manage to unlock one, it teaches me something about my past—a life I have already lived; or sometimes it’s the memory of another person that was somehow placed on this pendant to teach me something.”
“And you saw us?”
“At first it was our wedding day. Then it flashed forward. I was having a baby. You weren’t there. You were … dead. Charlie, my dad was right. We can’t be together until after this curse is broken.”
25. TWENTY-FOUR
“Emma, no. Please don’t say that. I can’t live another minute of my life without you.”
“Charlie, if we stay together, if I love you, then something bad will happen. One