“And because, unlike you, my friendship was real,” he sneers.
I frown as my irritation rises. “Mark.” How do I say this? “Stop making yourself out to be the hero here. You were sleeping with Stephanie all along. You didn’t have my best interests at heart, either, so stop pretending that you did.”
His eyes hold mine.
I close my eyes as regret fills me, knowing that wasn’t needed.
“We were never going to work out,” I whisper. “I’m sorry.”
His eyes hold mine for an extended time. “Not as sorry as I am,” he murmurs.
I hesitate, and for the first time since arriving in London, I want to do something foreign. I want to hug him… but I wont.
“Goodbye.” I smile softly through tears and I head toward the door.
“Emerson?”
I turn back. “Yes?”
“He’s not good enough for you.”
My eyes meet his. “You are wrong, Mark. I’m not good enough for him.” I turn and without further words, walk back to my office. I slowly pack up my desk before my colleagues arrive for the day and as I walk through the front doors and out into the London street, I say goodbye to my old life.
I sit nervously at a table in the restaurant as I wait for Brielle. Alastar will be back in two hours and I know she will probably be long gone by then. She won’t understand this. Hell… I know I wouldn’t. Finally, she comes into view and takes a seat at the table.
“Hey, babe.” She smiles as she grabs my hand.
“Hi.”
She opens the menu straight up. “I am fucking starving. What are we eating?”
I watch her for a moment as she peruses the menu. What do I say to her?
What possible words could come out of my mouth to make this sound logical? Just come out with it.
“I have something to tell you.”
“You are not going home to Australia, so forget it,” she snaps without looking up from her menu.
I rub my lips together as I watch her. Shit. “You know how I have been having weird things happen to me?” “Uh-huh.” She keeps reading.
Will you just look at me?
She keeps reading.
“I worked out what they are. The pictures, the lights, the stories.” The waitress walks over. “Can I get you any drinks?”
“I will have a margarita, please,” I reply. Brielle’s eyes light up. “Oh, sounds good. Me, too.” Her eyes lift to meet mine. “Sorry, yes. What were you saying?”
“You know how I have been drawing and writing down my story about the young couple?”
She smiles. “Yes, my famous author friend.”
I swallow nervously. “Do you believe in reincarnation, Brell?”
She purses her lips and frowns. “I don’t know. I have never thought about it, to be honest.” She shrugs. “Why?”
My eyes hold hers as my nervous heart starts to pound. “I think…” I pause because I can’t believe the words that are coming out of my mouth. “I think—”
“You think what?” she interrupts.
“I think I may have been here before.”
She frowns. “Here we are. Two margaritas.” I sit back guiltily as the waitress smiles and puts them onto the table. “Thank you,” I reply.
Brielle looks at me in horror and leans into the table. “What?” she whispers. “Have you gone mad?”
“I remember things, Brell. Things that I shouldn’t know.”
She frowns.
“The letters I have been reading and the story I have been writing are about me.”
Her disturbed eyes hold mine. “What are you talking about, Emerson?”
“I remember who I have loved in my past lives.”
She shakes her head and tips it back as she begins to drain her margarita.
I shuffle around in my handbag and pull out the folder with the pictures of the stolen artwork. I start to pass them to her one by one. “See here, they are all wearing the ring. My ring.” I point at the ring in the pictures and she studies them one by one.
“It’s a strange coincidence, I will admit, but that’s all it is. A coincidence,” she replies.
“There are no such things as a coincidence,” I murmur. “I remember him, Brell.”
“Who?” She screws up her face. “Did that fucking nutcase Alastar put this into your head? Last thing I knew was that he had pictures of tombstones with your name on them all over his basement.”
I shake my head. “No, Brielle. But that is why he stole the artwork. He painted those paintings.”
She rolls her eyes. “So, he is the guy you remember from your past lives?”
I nod my head. “I know this is unbelievable.”
“Yeah, it is.” She cuts me off. “You know what? I think it’s time we get you to a doctor. You are scaring the shit out of me.”
I take her hand in mine. “Brielle, I know this is a lot to take in.”
Her eyes hold mine.
“But you are my best friend and I am scared and I don’t want it to be true. But it is.” My eyes tear up. “I need you to believe me when I tell you this, because I have no one else I can trust,” I plead in a whisper.
She stares at me across the table.