Page 136 of Time Stops With You

I tilt my head back and exhale angrily. What just happened? How did I end up here? Everything is happening so fast and none of it makes sense.

A marriage certificate?

Share transfers?

What the heck is going on?

“Are you okay back there, Miss Davis?” Roger asks.

“Please call me Nardi.”

“I’m afraid I can’t.” He smiles politely. “It’s part of the service.”

I groan. Great. Now not even Roger will treat me like a normal human being.

“Roger?”

“Hm?”

“When did Cullen contact your company?”

“I believe he reserved us a while ago.”

“A while ago?”

“Yes. He reserved a year’s worth of transportation services.”

“Do you know why he called you to start working now?”

“Unfortunately, I don’t,” Roger answers.

My chest squeezes tight. Maybe that’s where the unease comes from. I’m just as lost as the hired help. What happened to Cullen between last night and this morning?

A business trip? It doesn’t ring true. Cullen never mentioned having to go on a business trip before. If that were the case, why did Dr. Ko come to him? Why are all his employees coming to the office? How is he surviving on an airplane when he hates germs?

You’re overthinking it, Nardi.

With a deep breath, I slip out of the car, bid Roger goodbye and head back to my apartment where the contracts are deposited on my dining room table and I begin a thorough investigation.

The dates check out. These documents are proof Cullen has never wavered from his decision to make Josiah his legacy and to make me his wife.

The only one who’s changed… is me.

But what exactly are these changes? What exactly do I want from him?

Why do I, even now, care more about why Cullen is suddenly transferring shares than I care about all the money he wants to leave behind?

Roger continues to drive me and Josiah around. I still don’t trust the chauffeur with Josiah alone, but that’s nothing against him. I’m as overprotective of my brother as Cullen is over us.

The day after we meet Roger, Ashley comes by with a stack of containers filled with pre-cooked meals. I invite her inside and we watch a show together while eating oatmeal raisin cookies.

As the credits roll, I try to pump her for information about Cullen’s whereabouts, but she knows as much as Roger did. So that’s a dead end.

Next, I sit in Josiah’s after-school Python Club. The tutor Cullen hired to mentor my brother is a genius in his own right, but my brother keeps up with him, grasping things quickly.

After the class, I do some digging about Cullen’s whereabouts, but it leads nowhere. The only information I pry out of the tutor is how respected Cullen is in the programming community.

After hitting a wall in my investigation, I head to Cullen Tech to look for Asad but, unfortunately, the cheerful programmer is out sick.

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