Page 48 of Destiny Reclaimed
Chapter Thirteen
Jack woke, turned hishead, and stared at Gwennie’s long, caramel-colored hair fanned over her pillow. His fingers itched to touch the silky strands, but he knew he couldn’t—shouldn’t. She wouldn’t approve. His heart sank. Would he ever be able to touch her again? Love her again as a husband should?
For the past month, she’d made it clear she wanted nothing to do with him since she believed he was a time traveler and refused to travel back in time to change history—save her brother. But, he didn’t know how to travel on demand, so he couldn’t even attempt it if he wanted to. God, he wished she hadn’t found him out. If only Gary hadn’t told her, using the wordPreserver.
The few times she’d broached the topic over the past several weeks, he did his best to divert her. Only making her angrier. And the one time he’d messed up, nearly confessing, he’d switched gears taking the approach of trying to reason with her. Saying that even if he could do it, he shouldn’t, because of all that was at risk. He’d tried to explain the butterfly effect—how one little change to history could drastically change the present and the future. She seemed to be willing to take the risk, no matter the costs.
Though she was an emotional mess right now, he still loved her, and he assumed as time passed her grief would lighten and she’d return to normal, to the woman he fell in love with. Not the cold, angry woman lying beside him at present.
His Preserver role was just that, to preserve history, not change it. And if he were to travel back in time to save her brother—change historical facts, would the risk of the butterfly effect apply to only the time that followed the change, or would extend to a time before the change? Who knew what the future brought either way? He certainly didn’t. Were his children, grandchildren, or anyone else who could be affected destined to do great things? Would changing something that happened less than two months ago really impact much—enough to worry about?
Gwennie stirred, and rolled onto her back. Her eyes fluttered open as she turned her head in his direction.
Jack propped himself up onto his elbow and smiled. “Good morning,” he said in the most cheerful voice he could muster under the circumstances, all the while knowing full well she would still be pissed at him.
“Morning.”
Her monotone, obligatory response cut through his heart like a knife.
She threw the covers back, slid out of bed, slipped into her robe, and exited the room without so much as a backward glance.
Jack fell back onto the bed. So much for the happy life of a newlywed. For a moment, he wondered if her coldness to him was a punishment from the Gods for breaking the code—not fully denying he was a time traveler, rather than just deflecting her demand to travel back in time to save her brother. It couldn’t be, could it? It wasn’t like he’d simply come out and told her directly he was a Preserver.
He listened as her footsteps creaked down the hall, then he heard the squeak of the bathroom door. With reluctance, he rolled out of bed and threw on his robe while he waited impatiently for the bathroom. To avoid his wife, he considered using the downstairs facility, but then decided against it. He’d make her look at him whether she wanted to or not.
Slowly, he’d begun the move from empathetic to angry. Two angry people weren’t going to fix anything, but he couldn’t help himself. She was being unfair, especially when she’d informed him about their baby as she did. That was pure spiteful and uncalled for. He’d tried to hold out. Give her time and space, but when would enough be enough?
The door to the bedroom opened, his wife stepped in, and he stepped out. When he finished and returned to the bedroom, he paused outside the cracked-open door. His heart thudded as he watched his beautiful Gwennie study herself in the full-length mirror. She wore only a bra and panties as she glided her hand over the small swell of her tummy. It wasn’t much of a bump yet, but it was there. Strange, with as much weight as she’d lost in her depressed state, the swell was evident. Still, her cheeks and eyes sunk in, and her skin was pasty white with a gray hue. Her mental state wasn’t good for her physical state.
He sighed audibly—defeatedly.
Gwennie turned and flashed her gaze in his direction. In an instant, the softness of it transitioned to a cold, hard scowl. She looked away from him as she grabbed a shirt from the top of her dresser and thrust it over her head. Then, she pulled on a pair of pants and socks, slipped her feet into her shoes, and breezed past him without a word.
His heart splintered all over again. His child grew in a woman who could hardly stand to look at him. He swallowed hard. Would they—she—ever get past this?
In fear she’d never come back to him, he knew what he needed to do...but didn’t know how. After the way his father shut him down the last time they’d discussed time traveling on demand and changing history, he knew he couldn’t broach the topic again with him. If only he could find his Protector, maybe she could help, but he knew nothing of her other than her name. For all he knew, she lived halfway around the world, or in a whole different time frame altogether.
––––––––
Gwen held her breathas she passed by her husband. The hurt in his eyes about killed her, but she had to stay the course if she wanted to convince him to save her brother—change history. She had him close. She could feel it. The best way for her to stay on task was to not be near him—see him—peer into his pain-filled eyes. That way she wouldn’t weaken. No matter how agonizing this was for her and her husband, she needed to stay strong for Gary in order to get him out of whatever horrifying limbo he was stuck in.
She practically tiptoed down the stairs, hoping to sneak out of the house without seeing her in-laws as she was unable to face them without feeling a magnitude of remorse for how she was treating their son. Jack wasn’t a big talker or sharer, so she held hope he hadn’t filled his parents in on how she’d behaved lately. Did they even know their son’s secret? She sighed. Was there really even a secret to share? Jack never fully confessed. All she had to go on was the fact that during their heated argument, he’d said the wordPreserverbefore he clamped up abruptly. That action told her there was something more to say, but when he next spoke it was in an attempt to avert the conversation. Coupling this with what her brother had said to her in her dream, she knew it was true. He was a Preserver.
Her eyes watered. Ruth and William were smart people. Even if her husband hadn’t told them about either, they’d probably figured it out by now.
