Page 19 of The Soul Never Forgets

“History was changed. I know it sounds unbelievable but it happened. Frank no longer died in the penitentiary before his time. Augustina didn’t die when she was eighteen years old. The timelines shifted and our fates adjusted. The stars realigned and were made right again. That’s why you were in love with your fiancée one minute and then the feeling was gone the next, and you don’t know why. You were never hers to have because your heart belongs to me.”

You’ve always belonged to me.

“I made a promise to her.”

Yes and promises are broken every day.

It’s honorable that he feels compelled to keep his promise to her. That’s the kind of man he is, but it was a false pledge based upon erroneous beliefs. The promise he made to her was never his to give to anyone but me.

“Do you love her?”

“She’s…” The pause lasts one heartbeat. Then two. Three. Four. Five. “She is a wonderful person who is very loving.”

“Landon is a wonderful, loving person. Maybe I should marry him.”

There’s a soft growling sound beneath his breath. “No. You and Landon aren’t suited for each other at all.”

Like I didn’t know that. “Landon and I aren’t suited for each other because he isn’t my soul mate. You are my soul mate. And you didn’t answer my question.”

He looks at me, saying nothing.

“Since you don’t seem inclined to reply, allow me to rephrase. Are youin lovewith your fiancée?”

“Please don’t question me about my feelings for Devin.”

This woman, his fiancée, has a name.Devin. That makes her real.

“I don’t need to hear your answer. I already know that you aren’t in love with her.”

“We’ve been together for five years.”

It’s no fault of this woman’s but it makes me angry to hear that she has been in my place for so long.

“When did you propose?”

“Three years ago.”

“Why the long engagement?”

“Things kept cropping up.”

Yeah, things like me. Oh and that little thing called destiny.

“It’s been three years. You’d have married her already if it was meant to be. But you didn’t marry her because somewhere in your subconscious, you knew you belonged with someone who wasn’t her. And that someone is me.”

“I’m a therapist, Caroline. Rational thinking is my job. It’s all I know. I need you to take a moment and think about how irrational this sounds to me.”

Therapists and doctors and my mom have been telling me for twenty-five years that I’m irrational. Hearing that from my soul mate is the last thing I need or want to hear right now.

“Trust me. I know exactly how this sounds to you. I’ve lived through it with one therapist and psychiatrist after another for twenty-five years. So I need you to consider how irrational you sound to me. I moved the stars in the heavens to be with you, and you’re telling me that you’re obligated to marry another woman because you made a promise to her before you ever met me.”

“A schizophrenic patient that I met three days ago tells me we are destined to be together because she traveled back in time and changed history. Is it so wrong for me to need time to process, instead of dropping everything and running out to break an engagement to a woman I’ve known for years?”

He called me schizophrenic. “I wasmisdiagnosedas a schizophrenic. If you’re going to put a label on me, at least do me a damn favor and get it right.”

“Themisdiagnosedpart still remains to be seen.”

My next breath is a sharp intake. His words feel like the tip of a blade slowly sliding into my heart. “I can’t believe you just said that to me.”

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