The anomaly scan came back with a suspected finger deformity in the baby.
I called Geoffrey Finch in a panic, and somehow the line connected to a call from the future.
"Lorraine Swanson, your baby is fine, but you have to end this pregnancy!"
The woman on the other end had red-rimmed eyes, her voice twisted into a low, broken growl.
"Remember, you have to end it! Otherwise you'll regret it for the rest of your life!"
Staring at a woman who looked exactly like me, I instinctively went to hang up.
Her eyes were full of hatred, and she scrambled to stop me.
"Lorraine! Listen to me!"
"The woman Geoffrey is sleeping with is going to drunk-drive on Lantern Court tonight at eleven-oh-nine and kill Mom and Dad!"
"You have to save Mom and Dad, find the evidence that he's cheating and covering for Carol Delgado, and divorce him right away!"
"After the divorce, you have to land the female lead in Brendan Weiss's new film. That movie is going to blow up, and it's your only chance to turn everything around!"
She said it all in one breath, and in the last second before the line dropped, her whole face was wet with tears.
"Lorraine, promise me. You have to change the past!"
"Don't let us spend the rest of our lives drowning in regret…"
1
In the hospital bathroom, the call cut off.
The phone in my hand went back to normal.
I looked down at the time on the screen. Not a second had changed.
My fingers wouldn't stop shaking.
The shock hadn't even faded when the phone rang again.
"Lori, did the scan go okay?"
"Was the baby giving you any trouble?"
Geoffrey's low, gentle voice was right there against my ear.
I froze for a few seconds.
I didn't mention the suspected deformity on the scan.
Instead, my voice came out rough.
"Geoffrey, do you have a female employee named Carol Delgado?"
"No."
After three seconds of silence, Geoffrey denied it without hesitation.
I looked down at the search results on the screen, cold all over.
His company had a Carol Delgado on the roster.
Geoffrey had hyperthymesia since childhood.
There was no way he couldn't recall an employee's name.
He was lying.
The instant that landed, my head filled with a dull roar.
To be with Geoffrey, I'd given up everything I could give up.
I'd walked away from my career at its peak and let down every last one of my fans.
Five pregnancies in four years. Four miscarriages.
My figure ruined, thirty pounds heavier.
I'd thought love could get us through anything.
I never imagined I'd been living inside a lie the whole time.
Fighting to hold my body still, I sent Carol's name to my best friend.
【Claire Summers, can you do me a favor and pull Carol Delgado's hotel records?】
I sent it and waited a few minutes.
Then Claire's messages came flooding in.
【Lori, Carol Delgado's hotel records line up completely with Geoffrey's!】
【Starting from your first year of marriage all the way to now, there are over a thousand of them!】
A hotel once or twice could be a coincidence.
But more than a thousand times?
Staring at a list of matching check-ins so long I couldn't see the end of it, my stomach cramped.
Carol had only been at the company for three years, and she'd checked into hotels over a thousand times.
That worked out to once a day, every day.
I'd never once had morning sickness, and now I threw up until my whole body was trembling.
The woman's words kept circling in my head as I looked at the time on the screen.
Six hours until eleven.
Mom and Dad were traveling in the Maldives. There was no way they'd be back.
Maybe she'd made it all up.
I couldn't believe my parents would be killed by the woman Geoffrey was cheating with.
I tried to talk myself out of it.
But the very next second.
My phone rang.
"Sweetheart, your dad and I decided to come back early to take care of you."
"We're boarding now. We'll get to Metropolis City around… ten-thirty."
Mom's voice came through, word by word.
I went cold all over and had just opened my mouth to speak.
The call had already ended.
My fingers wouldn't stop shaking as I shoved the bathroom door open in a panic.
The nurse looked apologetic.
"Miss Swanson, I'm so sorry."
"One of our machines was malfunctioning. There's nothing wrong with your prenatal scan at all."
"If it would put your mind at ease, we can run the whole thing again, very carefully."
The nurse's words confirmed it one more time.
My heart was pounding, and the words came out on instinct.
"This baby. I don't want it."
