When Josh had insisted on marriage her father had not convinced him otherwise. He hadn't been strident about it. When Josh announced that Ellie was pregnant, her father had not acted all that surprised. He had just stiffened in shock. Her mother was the one who had gone into histrionics.
Maybe because she had known the truth and was sorrowful that her son was the one who was going to be sacrificed?
No, that theory was ridiculous. He mother was not going to allow her son to take the blame for anyone's indiscretion. Or would she?
Addi couldn't lie down with all of the information running in her head. She had to run it by Randy. She flung open her door. And was about to head to the office when she saw Randy sitting in the settee with a newspaper in hand.
"You look like hell." He greeted her calmly.
"I think she knew," Addi said ignoring his comment on her disheveled appearance. "I think my mom knew about Ellie."
"Keep your voice down," Randy said lowering the paper. "Why would you say that?"
"Because," Addi walked closer. "Before, when Josh announced that he found the woman he was going to marry and said it was Ellie, my dad was not very surprised. He just told Josh to finish school. He was the one who probably told Ellie to go out with his own son."
Randy raised an eyebrow. "No. Just no."
"Yes." Addi nodded. "I think my mom knew about Ellie and was happy that her husband's mistress had moved on, so she encouraged it."
Randy folded the paper and was staring at her his hands folded on his chest a look of incredulity on his face.
"And then when she got pregnant my mom was devastated because she knew who was the father."
"I don't think so." Randy shook his head.
"They offered to take care of Nelson when he was born. They paid Josh's rent while he was married to Ellie and still sent him to finish university; they bent over backwards to help Ellie while she was pregnant. All without complaining. And one day I found my dad crying over Josh not getting his scholarship!"
"That just makes them parents." Randy sighed, "good ones. Not part of an insane conspiracy to trap Josh."
"No, I am right." Addi stopped pacing. "You know, I couldn't understand why they didn't know that Ellie was sleeping here at nights."
Randy watched her in fascination as she paced from one end of the living room to the other.
"I think you shouldn't jump to conclusions, Miss Sherlock."
"Everything is so obvious to me now," Addi whispered her voice hoarse.
"I hope it doesn't have anything to do with me, whatever it is," Sky said behind her. Addi spun around her cousin was standing there with a sheepish look on her face.
"I am back. Couldn't stay away from you for long. What's going on?"
Chapter Sixteen
"I hate when you give me the silent treatment," Sky said following her to her room.
Addi didn't answer. She headed straight for the bookcase where she was storing Sky's book and handed it to her.
"What happened in here?" Sky looked around.
"I am redecorating," Addi smirked. "If you were around you would have seen me doing it and you could have helped."
"Sorry. Nice color. In here looks bigger." Sky finally registered that she was holding the book and looked down at it. For Sky Porter's Eyes Only.
"What's this?"
"That is yours. You gave it to me in your will," Addi said sitting down on the bed and looking at Sky.
Sky clutched the book to her and grimaced at the word will. She sat down. "I kissed Rusty."
Addi groaned. "Really?"
"Yep." Sky nodded. "The earth didn't shatter and flowers didn't explode into bloom."
Addi chuckled. "Tragic."
Sky shrugged. "He lives near to Colleen, you know? That's why I went to stay with her so that I could see him. I hardly saw him though and then a couple of nights ago I was going to the shop for Colleen and he walked me home and after that he kissed me. I don't think the whole kissing thing is as interesting as the movies portray it to be."
"It depends on who you kiss." Addi wrinkled her brow. "Now are you ready to focus on the time traveling thing I told you about?"
Sky nodded. "Yes, I guess. It's crazy though."
Addi pulled out her pouch where she had stored some of her winnings from the betting pool and opened it.
"This is what I got from betting correctly on Bill Clinton's vice president pick."
Sky's eyes opened wide. "What the hell?"
"Yup. While you were away pursuing romance with Rusty, I was trying to get things done. You sent me back here to reset things! I don't care if you don't know that you did it, you are going to have to sober up and help me. It's time!"
"Okay!" Sky winced, "you don't have to shout. I am here aren't I?"
"Good." Addi snorted. "I really hope that you wrote something down in that book that can help us to figure out how to save Uncle Stan from being killed."
Sky's eyes widened. "Who killed my dad?"
"Rusty." Addi didn't temper the news. "He pushed Uncle Stan off the second floor of the Ingleside job site."
She watched as Sky seemed to quail when she heard the news, she slumped down on the bed and curled up into a fetal position.
"And we need to figure out which one of our father's is seeing Josh's girlfriend." Addi spat out, "because pretty soon one of them is going to impregnate her and then Josh is going to be left carrying the bag."
Sky whimpered.
"And we need to know what kind of secret you had this summer that was so bad that you sent me back to fix."
Sky looked up at that. "I don't have any secrets!"
"Not yet." Addi growled, she was showing Sky no mercy. "But you will have one. In the meantime stay away from murderous Rusty! I hope sleeping with him wasn't your secret."
"No way!" Sky exclaimed seeming to come back to life. "Well it can't be, not now, not if he killed my dad."
"Good. Keep it that way," Addi muttered. She was feeling militant, irritable and unaccountably angry. She shouldn't be taking it out on Sky. She wanted to take it out on either her uncle or her dad.
Silence reigned in the room while Sky digested all of the news she had just thrown at her.
"Tell me about Josh's girlfriend," Sky said quietly.
He recently started seeing her. Addi said, by the time she finished telling Sky about the previous timeline and what happened now.
Sky was shaking her head. "That's sick!"
"I know." Addi sighed.
"Maybe it's my dad," Sky said after a prolonged silence.
"Really?" Addi sat up and looked at her cousin. "Why?"
"Because he and my mom are arguing a lot lately. It's crazy. They think I don't hear but I do. They are both unhappy with each other. It was another reason why I went to Colleen's. My house is like a freezer. They don't talk anymore. It's like living with two robots who are pretending to like each other in front of me. I wouldn't be surprised if Dad is seeing someone else."
"That would explain the frigid atmosphere yesterday at Sunday dinner," Addi said thoughtfully. "Something definitely seemed off."
Sky groaned. "I could have told you all of this the other day but I had exams and then there was your announcement that you were forty and coming from the future."
"Focus, Sky. The sooner we solve this conundrum the better. It would make sense if it were Uncle Stan, Ellie had looked a little bit too drawn and sickly in October. She could have been grieving at the same time instead of being sick as we had originally thought."
Sky shuddered. "I need to meet this Ellie girl. Why don't we just accost her? Blurt out what we know. Point fingers. Crush her."
"No." Addi shook her head vehemently. "None of that. We are dealing with people here. Feelings and relationships. Gosh, my brother is so in love with her it's sickening.
"And if one of our fathers is the culprit then it would be a disaster for the family on a whole. Somebody's mother is going to be hurt. Josh is going to be hurt.
"
Sky sighed and then inspected the book. "I am actually feeling a bit scared to open this."
Addi shrugged. "You are the one who wrote it."
"And that is what makes it so strange," Sky muttered getting up. "But I'll read it. I'll tell you if there is anything interesting in it."
Addi nodded and then felt an overwhelming need to hug Sky. She looked so forlorn and burdened as if her young shoulders carried the weight of the world.
"Hey come here."
Sky looked at her wearily. "What?"
"I am happy you came back home now and that you are taking this seriously."
She hugged Sky and then stood back. "You know in the future I am taller than you."
"Rubbish." Sky sat down on the bed and then tried to open the taped edges of the notebook.
Addi watched her hardly daring to breathe. She wondered what Sky had written to herself. Would she finally know what the big secret was this summer?
"I need a scissors or something sharp to cut around this, she looked at the book in irritation. Why did I have to tape it so thoroughly?"
Addi got up and handed her a small paper scissors from her writing desk.
Sky slowly and methodically cut around the edges of the book and then opened it.
Addi breathed a sigh of relief. "Finally!"
"But there is nothing in here," Sky skipped through the book from the front to the back.
Addi looked over the thing. It was blank. What a let down!
"Why would you send yourself a blank book?" Addi sat down beside Sky and looked at the thing in consternation. "You made this whole production of leaving me a letter and telling me where to spread your ashes and then...this, nothing?"
Sky sighed and leaned back in the bed. "Something must have gone wrong when you time traveled with it."
"Yes," Addi muttered feeling peeved. She thought that this would have been the big reveal. She had been counting on that book to tell them what to do next.
"What would future me, have to say?" Sky asked looking at Addi.
"Lots," Addi muttered, "Knowing you, you would probably have stocks and share prices and when to buy and sell currencies. And maybe which guy not to date. And maybe who you are supposed to align yourself to for friendships and who to avoid in the business arena. Which deals are more profitable et cetera... et cetera."
"And how to wear my hair and which parties to attend and which fashion trends are going to be hot," Sky said salivating. "And sketches of clothes before they become a thing."
Addi laughed. "You are such a teenager. I keep forgetting that you are only fifteen and that you were... are fashion mad."
Sky sniffed. "I am a mature fifteen. And I am not fashion mad. I am going to be a designer."
"Nope." Addi shook her head. "You are good at business. You thrived in the cutthroat world. It is your domain. Men and women quake when you walk down the corridors of the glass partitions toward your office. You dress in nothing but Gucci and other brand names and you are lethal."
"And yet I killed myself." Sky sighed, "Somewhere along me thriving I was dying inside. Maybe you didn't know me quite as well as you think, Addi."
Addi looked at her sharply. It was an astute observation and very true. "You wrote me a letter saying that something happened this summer that was so secretive you couldn't tell me."
Sky nodded. "Maybe I should just lock up in my room and not come out this summer then. That would be a solution."
Or it would just let whatever happened before happen again. Addi felt little tremors of disappointment as she spoke. It was going to be up to her to navigate through this summer with her foreknowledge.
The ball was squarely back in her court.
She wasn't liking this one bit.
Chapter Seventeen
Addi spent most of the next morning and part of the evening in the music room cleaning out boxes of hardware junk, debris from their lives, and old broken things from years gone by that her father had placed in the room because he was going to fix. She even found a tricycle she had when she was five.
The work was slow going. The room was jam packed with things. The sewing machine was buried under the various odds and ends.
It had seemed like a job for more than one person but she had a system that was going pretty well.
She could hear the muted sounds of the Zorro television series Randy was watching and then she heard talking and laughing when Josh came home. He was home earlier than usual—Ellie must have had something else to do this evening.
And then Sky's voice joined the conversation.
She didn't mind the solitude so far.
Sky had gone to the dentist with her mother. Randy had some errand to run for her father and uncle and her mother had gone off to work earlier than normal to accept some new supplies.
She had carried over her radio and had a blast listening to the radio programs. Hearing the concerns of the day on the radio hotline shows, thinking that the more things changed, the more they stayed the same.
People were complaining about the same things in 92 that they complained about in 2017, quarter of a century later the issues were the same.
She listened to them and it prevented her from thinking too much. Even though for one second at around lunchtime, when it was time for the midday prayer on RJR, she had closed her eyes and felt overwhelmed.
The question had throbbed in her head: Was she the only resetter to have gone back in time?
How did the others handle it?
Had they even managed to change anything significantly or were they destined to live out their lives again with the same outcomes?
She had gone into introspection and had almost been bogged down with burdensome worry and then she had spotted a box filled with threads and needles and a gazillion odds and ends related to sewing.
She had gotten back down to the business of sorting through the music room.
"There is a piano in here!" Josh's voice broke into her reverie.
She spun around and looked at him. "Yup. That's why we call it the music room."
"I never realized that it was so big." Josh continued into the room and sat on the piano bench. "My word, it even has windows!" He stepped over boxes and bags and walked toward the window. "I can't believe it."
Addi rolled her eyes. "You want to help me take out some of these hardware supplies to the garage? I would be so grateful."
Josh looked at the boxes she was pointing at. "Hardware supplies?"
"Yep. A lot of them. Pipe fittings and electrical stuff. And curtain rods. And other stuff I can't identify."
"Wow." Josh looked at her appreciatively. "You have become industrious. What's that?"
"Game Boys," Addi said glancing at the box he was pointing at. A whole lot of them. I don't know if they were meant for sale or what. I haven't seen one of these in ages."
Josh whooped with joy. "I am taking two. Randy and I can have some mad fun playing."
Addi shrugged, "I remember that the last time when we cleared all of this stuff out, Daddy was declaring how we could have sold them at the store. He even said he found stuff that could be used on the site, so I am just moving up the timeline a bit."
Josh didn't respond, he was busy salivating over his newly found Game Boy.
"Just put the hardware stuff in the garage and the construction stuff in the office." Addi said pointing to the boxes. "I already labeled them."
Josh nodded and did what he was told. Randy joined him and they silently hefted box after box and cleared up quite a bit of space in the music room. Two single seater settees were revealed and bags and bags of old newspaper, some of them dating back to the early eighties.
Addi was tempted to keep them and read them but resisted the urge they took up too much space and it was dusty.
She hauled them through the kitchen and that was where she saw Sky sprawled out in the settee reading Gwen Fisher's diaries.
"Hello to you too." She growled. She knew Sky had heard h
er working in the music room and had deliberately not come to help.
"Hi," Sky looked over the book. "I have something to read to you."
"Not now," Addi mumbled, "I am busy. Besides, I read the first two already."
"They were in order?" Sky laughed, "I guess this is Book 4? She entitles it: Resetters And Their Special Gift."
Addi stopped and looked around. "Yes?"
"Go with your garbage, when you are done moving around I can come and read it to you."
Addi grunted and headed outside. When she returned Sky was in the music room, sitting on the piano bench.
"In here is great! And big! We can turn it into a CXC study room next school year."
Addi groaned, "I forgot about that."
"Why would you care?" Sky asked, "you lived it already. it should be a breeze for you."
"Yes, I did the subjects but I have not looked at the material in years," Addi muttered, "This is going to be tedious."
"Whatever." Sky chuckled. "Tell me what happened to Julia, Annette and Tariq?"
"Julia and Annette?" Addi looked at her blankly. "Oh, that Julia and Annette? Our friends from high school."
"You are going to be overbearing." Sky rolled her eyes. "Yes, them, our friends. Our current friends. You and Julia are so tight sometimes I get jealous."
"We lost touch in 95 when I left Jamaica." Addi panted a little, "Because of something in the future we called social media we got back in touch in 2010. She lost the weight. She owned a gym and has become health conscious. We envy her body. For a good long year that's all we talked about, how good Julia looks."
"Now and then we say hi to her on social media but we grew apart, have different interests and stuff."
"What happened to her this summer, again?"
"Went to the UK for holidays," Sky muttered, "and Annette went to the US."
"What happened to Annette?" Sky asked eagerly.
"Annette got married to a popular entertainer—had four kids for him. They are still together. They have a reality television show. She is like a celebrity of sorts. Her oldest girl is an international model. Whenever I see her on television I feel old."
Never Too Late (Resetter Series Book 1) Page 13