Mr. Byrne laughed drily. “Josephine, who do you think you’re kidding? You don’t have to go if you don’t want to. I won’t force you to, okay? I know how hard it is to visit her when she doesn’t know who you are.”
For the first time in almost forty-eight hours, Josie felt sorry for Jo. No wonder she was so desperate to get through the mirror and find a mom who knew who she was. Josie could hardly blame her for not wanting to come back. Though maybe missing her dad would precipitate a return? He seemed like a great father and clearly cared for his daughter tremendously. Between him and Nick, maybe it would be enough to lure Jo home.
Josie smiled. “I’ll let you know if I change my mind.”
“Deal.” He picked up his tablet and rose from the sofa, planting a light kiss on the top of her head as he did so. “Now how about you get to bed, young lady? Busy day tomorrow.”
He had no idea.
3:59 A.M.
Her mom sits at the kitchen table. She rests her elbows on the laminate wood surface and holds a steaming cup of tea to her lips.
She closes her eyes and inhales deeply, relishing the aroma. “I dearly love a cup of tea,” she says on a breathy exhale.
“I know.”
“That woman only drank coffee. Bins of the stuff in the house, and not even a box of tea when I got here.” She stares lovingly at the box of tea bags on the table.
“Oh.”
“I can’t tell you how many mugs of that slime I’ve had to choke down at the lab.” She takes a long sip, then abruptly lowers the cup. “Speaking of, you’d better start making a list of what your other half did and didn’t do. We can’t have any suspicions if we’re going to stay here.”
“Stay here?”
Her mom arches an eyebrow. “Don’t you want to? You don’t really want to go back to all that, do you? The secrets and the lies. And the Nox.”
She shudders at the mention of the Nox, then shakes her head hesitantly. “No.” She pauses. “I don’t know. Maybe?”
“Don’t worry about your boyfriend,” her mom says sharply. “He’ll be fine.”
Jo’s stomach tightens up. “He’s not my boyfriend.” Not yet, she thinks to herself.
“We can’t go back,” her mom says with a nod of her head. “The mirror has to stay where it is. Besides”—her mom reaches across and pats her hand—“now that you’re here, I don’t have to worry about creating a new portal. That’s all I’ve been working on the last six months, you know. A way to bring you here.”
“Oh.” Jo tries to hide her anxiety. She doesn’t want to stay, not any longer than they have to. “Are you going to destroy the mirror?”
“I can’t,” her mom says. “Too dangerous. I have to find a way to close the portal first.”
“Oh.”
Her mom whisks away her hand. “It’s not so bad here, Josephine. I promise.”
Jo shivers. Her body feels suddenly cold.
“Get to know the other Nick,” her mom says. It’s like she can read her daughter’s mind. “Maybe you’ll like him.”
“I suppose.”
“Try,” her mom says. “Because once I figure out how . . .” She pauses and stares Jo directly in the eye. “We’ll destroy the portal. Forever.”
Josie’s eyes flew open and she pushed the sleep mask up over her head. They were still connected. She and Jo.
A hundred ideas flooded into her head at once. Her mom. The portal. Her mom.
Holy shit.
It had been Jo’s mom she’d been living with for the past six months. Jo’s mom who kicked Dad out of the house. Jo’s mom who seemed so cold and distant and spent twenty-four-seven in the lab.
Jo’s mom. Not her mom.
Which meant her mom was here.
THIRTY-ONE
4:06 A.M.
JOSIE PACED THE ROOM, JO’S SILK PAJAMAS SWISHING with every manic step. Excitement coursed through her body as the pieces of what happened six months ago began to organize themselves in her mind. Things were starting to make sense. There was an answer to her myriad questions lurking just beyond the horizon. She just had to focus and the solution would present itself.
The first piece was obvious. The connection between her and Jo was still strong. Jo could secure the mirror against the basement wall, but she couldn’t close her mind against Josie. Good to know.
Second, the story Nick told her yesterday fit in perfectly with the changes Josie had noticed in her mom. Six months ago, at the same time as the explosion that killed Nick’s brother and left Dr. Byrne supposedly insane, Josie and her dad noticed the change in her mom. Her personality had become harder, less tolerant, less kind. Things she used to love, she suddenly hated. She pulled away from friends. She pulled away from her marriage.
Because it wasn’t her.