Lost in Time(80)

“How much?”

“Twenty thousand.”

“Hiro…”

“I’m at the Bellagio. Ten to pay my marker, and ten so I can win everything back.”

Adeline sat up in bed.

“You know I’m good for it,” Hiro said. “I’ll sell you some of my stock.”

“You’re not selling any stock. I’ll send the money, but promise me: when it’s gone, you’ll come home.”

“If it’s gone.”

“If. And when. Do we have a deal?”

That became a pattern, with Adeline serving as Hiro’s financial firewall and Vegas giving him the release between long work sessions.

Constance periodically left for medical treatment and to visit someone from her past, to notify them of her medical condition and provide any assistance she could, including financial and moral support.

In the days leading up to those trips, Constance always looked stricken, as if the disease was overtaking her. Adeline soon learned that it wasn’t that—it was the anticipation of what was to come, of delivering what might be a death sentence to someone from her past.

Many of the people she came into contact with had already presented with symptoms of the disease. A small number hadn’t. And some tested negative.

Adeline could tell how the visits had gone—the person’s outcome—just from Constance’s demeanor upon her return. HIV was slowly destroying her immune system, leaving her vulnerable to a deadly infection. But it was what Constance had decided to do about her past that was killing her. And Adeline admired that—her courage and her honesty and her sacrifices. In fact, it made Adeline feel guilty for ever suspecting her of murder. Constance was perhaps the most selfless person she had ever met.

*

In the months that followed, Adeline caught glimpses of the other secrets the Absolom Six were keeping.

Outside the door to Elliott’s office, she heard him pacing, talking on the phone, sounding exhausted.

“I don’t care if he hates the counselors. You tell him we moved heaven and earth to get him in there. If he leaves, that’s it—he’s cut off.”

A pause. Elliott sounded even more helpless when he spoke again. “Well, what choice do we have? If we don’t draw the line, he will keep pushing our boundaries, Claire. We talked about this. We’ve got to take a stand. For our sake and his.”

*

One morning, at the team’s weekly check-in, Sam was late.

“I’ll go get him,” Adeline had said, rising and leaving the conference room before anyone could object.

She found the door to his office cracked. Her father was sitting in a desk chair, swiveled toward the window, a phone held to his ear.

“I’m going with you, Sarah. I told you—”

Adeline pushed the door open slowly, but he didn’t see her.

“I’m well aware that I’ve started a new job, and if I get fired, so be it—I’m going. I want to be there to advocate for you.”

He turned suddenly, realizing Adeline was in the room.

She held her hands up, backed out, and closed the door.

He opened it a minute later.

“I’m sorry—”

“No,” Adeline said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have barged in.”

“The meeting slipped my mind.”

“You’ve got a lot on your plate.”

“I need to ask for some time off.”

Adeline stepped into the office and closed the door behind her. “You don’t have to ask for time off. I’m not your boss, Sam. I’m your partner. And partners take care of each other. You need time off. You take time off. I also have something that might help.”

Adeline’s father raised his eyebrows.

“A NetJets card. Traveling with a sick family member is tough enough. This will make it easier. And you can schedule the return flight when you’re ready. Just in case you need to stay longer for more treatment or recovery.”

Adeline realized another thing about time and families then: if you live long enough, the role of who takes care of whom gets reversed.

That wasn’t the only role that had reversed. In Absolom City, after her father had been sent into the past, Adeline had been the one in the dark, racing to try to unravel everyone’s secrets.

Now she was the one with the secrets. She had the power. She was pulling the strings. She was controlling the past. Which led her to a question she hadn’t entertained before: how much the past had already been changed. By someone else. If she was an agent acting on the past, had there been others?

Finding out wouldn’t be easy. But she had all the pieces she needed.

*

A week after he returned, Adeline’s father leaned into her office and said, “Thanks again for the jet.” He laughed and shook his head, as if still in disbelief. “It was amazing.”

“You’re welcome. Glad I could do it.”

“Sarah would like to finally meet you—and say thanks. Are you free for dinner one night soon?”

“I am. Any time.”

Adeline had been expecting the invitation at some point. She had been both looking forward to it and dreading it.

In so many ways, she was finally going home, to the place where she had grown up and where her mother had grown sicker. It was the place where they had become a family and where that family had been shattered.