Page 239 of The Seven Rings
And even if they accomplished all that? What if Cleo’s plan to end it all failed?
Would it somehow start all over? How did it work?
And how the hell could she know?
With only hours left to wonder and worry, she paced her office while Clover played rah-rah songs.
She heard Imagine Dragons tell her she was “On Top of the World.” She wanted to tell Clover it wasn’t helping, but didn’t have the heart.
Downstairs, Jack bounced the ball for Yoda. Even the sound of the boy’s laugh, the dog’s happy yips didn’t cut through the anxiety.
She caught the scent—the familiar cologne—seconds before she heard the voice.
“You’ve got so much on your shoulders.”
She turned, thought: Collin, in paint-stained jeans, high-tops, hair tumbled. Then.
Everything leaped.
“Dad. Dad!”
As she rushed across the room, he held up both hands. “You can’t touch me. I wish, oh, baby, I wish I could hold you. I’m not altogether here. This isn’t my place. I’m just… a reflection.”
“I can see you. I can hear you. I miss you so much.”
“I’m sorry I had to go. Sorry I couldn’t be there with you, with your mom. I’m sorry you’re going through all of this, but I need you to know, my strong, clever, beautiful girl, I believe in you. I love you. My heart grew ten times bigger and richer the moment they put you in my arms. And every day I had you was a joy.
“I want you to do one thing for me.”
“Anything. I love you, Daddy. Anything.”
“Believe in yourself. Do that one thing for me, Sonya. Do you remember what I used to tell you about believing?”
“‘Believing is more than half the battle. You’ll never get there, you’ll never win, if you don’t believe you will.’”
He shot her the smile that made everything inside her light up.
“That’s my girl.”
She could see him fading, stepped closer. “Dad.”
“Part of me’s always with you. Remember that.”
When he was gone, his scent remained just a few seconds longer. While emotions swamped her, she breathed in that scent.
“That was a gift. An amazing gift. And I will remember.”
She heard the door open downstairs, and Mookie bark a greeting to Yoda.
She went out, started down. Trey glanced up, and his smile of greeting shifted into concern.
“Oh.” She patted her damp eyes. “No, gratitude tears. I saw my father. Or what he called a reflection. I talked to him.”
“Your dad, not Collin?”
“My dad. He gave me a kind of pep talk. It worked. It worked,” she repeated, and looked at Owen. “We’re going to do this.”
“Never doubted it. Cleo?”
