Page 87 of Darling Obsession

She also wants to achieve their shared dream.

But there’s no reason she can’t do both.

“You’re not going to let the boats go by, Quinn,” I tell her. “You’ll get your bakery, if that’s what you set out to do.”

I’m not even sure if she hears me.

She seems to have fallen asleep in my arms.

I know this dream well.

It has the familiarity of a well-worn nightmare, one that never changes.

But it’s still deeply disturbing every time.

I’ve just come home from school.

I’m standing in the foyer of my family’s home. I’m alone. But I can hear sounds in the distance, coming from upstairs—a door closing. Then the muffled voices of my siblings. My mom.

More than I can hear them… I can feel their sorrow.

I’m supposed to be there, with them.

I climb the stairs to the second floor.

When I get to the top, I see the door to the room where the terrible thing is going to happen, and I know they’re waiting for me.

I walk toward it.

When I finally reach it, I start to open the door.

But before I can see what’s inside, I wake up in a panic. I feel the whole bed shake as I jolt awake, panting.

“Hey. Harlan?” It’s Quinn. Her soft, sleepy voice next to me in the dark.

I swear and rub my hands over my face. “I was just dreaming,” I mutter, disoriented. “I was in my house. The one I grew up in. I haven’t been there in years. In my dreams.”

I don’t know if I’m making sense. The dream is still so vivid in my head and my body. That crushing feeling, of being too late…

“Just try to breathe,” she says gently. She sounds concerned.

I take a deep breath and try to relax.

My heart is racing.

I feel her warm body against me, and it’s grounding.

“What happened?” she says. “You had a nightmare?”

“Graysen still lives there,” I try to explain. “But… the house was different back then. It feels different, in the dream. It sounds different. My mom is… crying.”

When I don’t say anything else, she asks softly, “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay.”

The dream was the same as it used to be. It was always the same. How can it be exactly the same, after all these years?

She slides a hand over my chest, maybe trying to soothe me, and I reach for her. I roll toward her, right on top of her.

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