Page 42 of Parallel

“Because only females can jump. I’m not sure how, but it appears linked to the X chromosome. Men can carry the mutation, but that’s it. So, your husband here might carry the markers for it to pass on to your children, though it would be incredibly unlikely, but nothingmore.”

“Dr. Reilly is not my husband,” I remind him. Nick is tense beside me, ready to walk out the door. “Forgive me for my uncertainty, but this is a lot to swallow. How did you, um, come up with this theory about time-jumping?”

“It’s not a theory. It’s a fact,” he replies. His eyes soften and he looks almost vulnerable. For the first time I see a bit of who he was in those wedding photos. “My wife…she was one ofyou.”

“Was?” Iask.

“Time travel is far more dangerous than you can begin to imagine,” he says, frowning at his desk. “She jumped back to check on something and neverreturned.”

Ah. It’s easy enough to see what happened and my heart aches a little for him. This poor guy was left by his wife—maybe he was already crazy, or maybe her leaving made him so—and he’s created this whole myth to justify the fact that she’sgone.

“I’m so sorry to hear that,” I reply. I pick up my purse to signal the meeting’s end. “Well, I guess that’s about it. I appreciate you taking a look at the images and seeing us on such shortnotice.”

Dr. Grosbaum shakes his head. “You don’t believe me, but you should. Jumping into another timeline, inexperienced as you must be, must be deadly. It’s shearing your brain as surely as I could with a pair ofscissors.”

I still don’t believe him, but a part of me wishes I did. I want to think there’s a way to stop what’s happening in my head. And he seems so damn sure of himself when he saysit.

“Okay,” I reply, sinking back into my chair. “So how do I stop doing it then? I have no interest in these dreams, orjumpingif you want to call it that. So tell me how to make itstop.”

“You don’t stop. You get better. You embrace your abilities instead of repressingthem.”

“Are you saying that wouldhealmy tumor?” Iask.

“It could,” he says. “I can’t promise you that, obviously. But I can promise you that repressing them will only make thingsworse.”

Nick’s knee is bouncing and I can tell he’s five seconds from calling this guy out for the quack he is. And I’d agree with that assessment. Despite the fact that there have been incidents in my life I can’t explain, I don’t think I truly have some kind of paranormal ability. Certainly nothing as extreme as the ability to travel throughtime.

I rise. “You’ve given us a lot to thinkabout.”

Grosbaum jumps up, blocking my path. “I’d love to run a quick DNA test before yougo.”

Nick, already standing close, steps slightly in front of me. “I don’t thinkso.”

“You’re not doing her any favors, young man,” Dr. Grosbaum says, his voice tight. “Whoever is resetting the timeline will continue to do so until she gets what she wants from your wife. If the resets don’t kill her in the first place, thatis.”

“Quinn is not mywife.”

Dr. Grosbaum throws his pen down in disgust. “And she never will be if the two of you refuse tolisten.”

* * *

We cannot getinto the Jeep fast enough. Nick holds the door and I practically leap inside, feeling like the good Dr. Grosbaum could, at any moment, come running after us with a meat cleaver and a tranquilizer gun. And yet…as impossible as they are, Grosbaum’s theorieswouldexplain everything. If only they’d been slightly lessbizarre.

“I think I see why he’s not permitted on the Princeton campus anymore,” Nick says, backing out of thedriveway.

I feel like an idiot for bringing him up here. If Grosbaum’s theories were hard for me to buy, to Nick they must seem outrageous. “I’m so sorry I dragged you into this,” I tellhim.

His mouth stretches into a grin. “I forgive you,wife.”

“Yeah, what was up withthat?”

He laughs. “I have no fucking clue. So, are we safe to go eat lunch or do you think the crazy time-jumping lady, who wants to stop you from destroying the world, willinterrupt?”

I grin. “I think we’re safe. Besides, the impression I got from him is that this is aboutyou, husband. Some woman wants to steal you away. Bitches be crazy and allthat.”

“You should explain to her what a dud I was on our honeymoon. Maybe that will dissuadeher.”

I curl up in my seat to face him. “I never said you were a dud. I said I don’tremember.”

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