Catching this remark, Matthew smirked. “The last thing I’m worried about is disappointing Walter.” Matthew opened the front door and stepped out, but then he turned back into the house for one more comment. “I hope your lack of trust in me isn’t as bad as the lack of faith I have in Walter right now. Are you sure he can be trusted? Can any of us be trusted?”
Matthew slammed the door behind him and ran out to the car. He wasn’t sure of his next move when he started the engine, but it came to him faster than he expected. He sped out of the driveway and set a course for the only person he trusted. He needed to find the trans-x charm, but he also needed to feel something. He needed something that he had missed since the day they arrived in 2016. He wanted his real family, but he knew that was impossible. He was looking for the next best thing: a trusted friend.
Back in the house, Amanda lashed out at Addie. “What the hell was that? Why would you even mention what happened this morning or the gray bag to him?”
Addie retreated for the first time. “Look, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything about any of it. He just pushed a few buttons and set me off.”
Amanda said, “I told you about what happened with Cameron in confidence. I thought we had an understanding.”
Addie had been a confidante of Amanda’s since they’d met, and she didn’t want to lose her trust now. “I didn’t tell him what happened. I think you should, but that’s up to you.” Addie took Amanda’s hand and continued, “I know this is all difficult for you, and I’m sorry I said what I said.”
“Are you going to tell me what your plan is for Saturday?” asked Amanda. “What are you going to do at Genesis?”
Addie turned back to the kitchen. “Why don’t you go on up and make sure Steven’s ready for bed? Bryan and I will take care of Saturday.”
Amanda walked away as confused as ever. She was almost at the top of the stairs when she heard Addie call from the kitchen. “It will all work out for the best. I promise you.”
Amanda wasn’t so sure, but she knew she didn’t have much of a say in the matter. Addie was in charge of the mission. She was in charge of the booklets that Walter had sent outlining the mission. She would be the one to make the tough decisions. Amanda’s tough decision had already been made. All she had left to do was follow through on it.
Addie and Bryan talked downstairs for several minutes. They reviewed the instructions that Walter had sent for their part of the mission, and Addie repeated a common theme from the papers. “We only have one shot at this. It has to be placed, and we have to get out without anyone knowing we were there.”
“Do you really think this is gonna work?” Bryan asked.
Addie pushed her chair up to the table. “If it does, it will change everything.”
Across town, Matthew pulled into the driveway of an old colonial-style home just west of the campus. The top of the Baylee College bell tower was visible from the front porch. He looked around the side of the house and saw only one car parked in the garage. That was a good sign. No other visitors were at the house, but that didn’t completely remove the uneasy feeling in his stomach as he reached for the doorbell.
A few bars of the Star-Spangled Banner bellowed from inside the home, and Matthew noticed a light pop on in one of the back rooms. The door was wooden but had a large glass center panel that made it easy to see into the front entrance.
Peeking through the glass, Matthew saw feet rushing toward the door. He backed away and forced a weak grin onto his face. He was hoping the dumb look would comfort the owner of the home, but it turned out it wasn’t needed. She was happy to see him, regardless of the time of night.
“Matthew, what are you doing here?” Cassie was clad in a long, pink, flannel nightgown. Her hair was pulled up, and any remnant of makeup had been removed much earlier in the evening.
Matthew stood outside the door and said, “I need your help, Cassie. Can I come in?”
Cassie moved from the doorway and took a quick look outside to see if anyone else was around. “It’s a little awkward to have a young man at my home this late at night. I hope the neighbors don’t see.” She offered Matthew a cold beverage and said, “Thirty years ago, all I dreamed about was you coming to my door in the middle of the night, and now here you are. The scenario is a bit different than I had dreamed of back then.”
Matthew took a seat in the living room. “You’re the only one I can trust. After all the time that’s passed for you since you last helped me, you’re the only one I can trust.”
Concerned, Cassie asked what had happened and wanted to know where Amanda was. “I’m sure you and Amanda can trust each other. You saved her life, for goodness’ sake. If she can’t trust you, who can she trust?”
Matthew explained that it wasn’t that simple. “I’ve really messed things up, Cassie. I’ve messed up with Amanda. I haven’t got a clue where the charm is, and my fake parents are planning something big on Saturday that they won’t share with me.”
Matthew stood up and walked over to the mantle above an old-fashioned wood-burning fireplace. “I need somebody on my side who I know has my back. I need you to have my back, Cassie.”
One of the great pleasures in Cassie’s life had been the time she and Jack had helped Matthew and Connor. Back then she’d felt important, special, and one of a kind. Now, though, she knew what was at stake. When they’d met again in Sandra Landrum’s chemistry class, Matthew had told her everything that was to come, and she knew this was her opportunity to recapture that old feeling.
All of the accomplishments in her adult life paled in comparison to what Matthew was trying to do. She felt it, and she knew it was fate. Fate had brought Matthew and Connor to her when she was fourteen years old, and now fate had brought him back to her thirty years later.
Cassie said, “Tell me what happened tonight.”
Matthew sighed. “Tonight just showed me how my own actions have affected everyone else. All of this really started back in 2185.”
Matthew recounted his talks with Walter and how he had pushed Amanda away. “She wanted me to tell her how I felt about her, but I just kept putting up a wall. I’m sure she thinks I’m some type of robot that has no feelings at all. I can’t really blame her for keeping secrets from me. I’ve been keeping a doozy of a secret from her.”
“What secret have you kept from her?”
“That I’m in love with her.” Matthew replied. “I can’t stop thinking about her. Every time I’m not around her, I want to be around her. It’s like she gives me a reason to push through everything going on around us. I want to save the world for her.”
“Have you ever told her any of this?”
Matthew shook his head. “How can I? Walter told me about what can happen when two people have feelings for each other but still have a mission to complete. He said it was a disaster waiting to happen.” Matthew crossed his arms and sat back on the couch. “He threatened to keep us apart if I had feelings for her. I can’t let that happen. If nothing else, I have to protect her. I certainly can’t trust anyone else to do that.”
Cassie took Matthew’s hand. “So, you’re holding all of these feelings in because this Walter person has scared you into thinking that your feelings could be harmful to Amanda. Did you ever think that keeping your true feelings from her is the thing that could be harmful to her?”
Matthew replied, “I just don’t want anything bad to happen to her. What if Walter takes her away? What if I can’t protect her? I couldn’t save her parents, and I don’t know what I would do if something happened to her. Besides, I don’t think she cares for me the way she did before.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Ever since we got to 2016, she’s pushed me away as much as I’d pushed her away. She had to get Cameron’s attention, and she did. I think she likes him more than she thought she would when all of this started. Between that and what Addie’s told me, I just think she’s over me.”
Cassie stood up and walked over
to a mirror hanging on the back wall of the living room. She stared into it and said, “You’re still a young man. I’ve lived three lives in comparison to your time on Earth. I am by no means an expert on love. I have loved my parents. I loved my brother dearly. Neither of those types of love matches the love that you feel when you find the one that you’re meant to be with.”
A small tear started to roll down Cassie’s cheek, but she caught it before Matthew could see it. “I had a love like that once, but I let others convince me that it wasn’t real. They convinced me that it was a bad fit. I allowed others to control how I dealt with the person that I knew in my heart was the one I was meant to be with. That person is gone now.”
She turned from the mirror. “Do you have complete faith and confidence in this Addie and Walter?”
“To be honest, I’m not sure who I can trust anymore,” replied Matthew.
Cassie got right up in Matthew’s face. “Are you going to let two people who don’t know your heart—and quite possibly can’t be trusted—control how you deal with the one you’re meant to be with?”
“What am I supposed to do?” Matthew asked. “Should I run into Amanda’s room and declare my true feelings for her? I don’t think I would be able to say the words. Besides, I can’t risk anyone finding out. All of this has to be over first.”
Cassie rose and walked into an adjoining office and emerged with a pen and some paper. “Write it down.”
A confused Matthew looked up at Cassie. He took the pen and paper, though, asking, “I don’t get it. What should I write?”
“Write down all the things you want to tell Amanda. At least you will know that she knows how you really feel, and no one else will be the wiser.”
Matthew placed the paper on the small coffee table in front of the couch. “I can tell her how I feel but also explain why I can’t show my real feelings until all of this is over.”
“Exactly,” Cassie said.
“You’re a pretty smart adult, Cassie.”
She replied, “I was a pretty smart kid, too. I’ll leave you alone while you write.”
Cassie left the living room, and Matthew stared down at a blank piece of paper for about ten minutes. He wasn’t sure how to start and threw away the first two drafts of his letter. It ultimately took him two hours to finish it, but he was content with the result. His letter to his love read like this:
Amanda,
So many things have happened since we met almost four months ago that it’s hard to believe we are where we are now. You have been through so much with the loss of your parents and the realization that the things of the world are not as wonderful as you had hoped they would be. I took you into the future to see the horrible things that will come, and when I got you there, I became one of those horrible things. I let others convince me that I couldn’t show how I really felt about you. Walter scared me into thinking he would take you away from me if he knew I had strong feelings for you. I convinced myself that I would be putting you in more danger if you knew how I really felt.
I know you have gotten close with Cameron because of the mission, and I understand that. I know that because of my actions, you probably no longer have the same feelings for me that I have for you. If that is true, then this will simply be my way of making sure you had all the information you needed to make a decision about what you feel. So here it goes.
I could tell you that I loved you the minute I saw you in the principal’s office of Eastview High School, but that wouldn’t be true. I did think you were the prettiest girl I had ever laid eyes on, but I wasn’t in love with you then. I could tell you that the first time we talked by your locker, I was hooked, but that also wouldn’t be true. It was clear that you had confidence in yourself, but that didn’t pull me in either. I could tell you that seeing you with Connor on the dance floor at the high school dance made me jealous and pulled me to you. That would be a lie as well. You looked amazing that night, and I definitely noticed it, but that wasn’t it.
It’s more than all of those things. I can’t explain it, but I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember. I loved you before we met. I loved you when we talked for two hours at the parade, and I’ll love you a thousand years from now when we’re both just a memory of this world. I wish I could explain it better than that, but I can’t. I think of you, I worry about you, and I want you to know that there is nothing in this world more important to me than you. This has nothing to do with alien pendants or charms that control the mind. This is just how I feel about you.
I’m sure you’ll see this and come to the conclusion that I am a complete lunatic and that you should avoid me at all costs, but I just couldn’t go on pretending that I don’t care about you or what happens to you. We have a mission, and it’s very important, but I don’t care about it as much as I care about you. I also don’t care what others think or what they threaten. I can only hope that you have a fraction of the love in your heart for me that I have for you. If you do, please come to me and just take my hand. If not, I can live my life knowing that at least I didn’t let you go without your knowing how I felt. I only recently started to believe that anything was possible. This is at the top of my list.
Love always,
Matthew
Matthew read and reread his letter to Amanda multiple times. He had said everything he wanted to say and was happy with the result. He had no idea how she would react to it, but that didn’t matter. He’d put down on paper all of the things he had wanted to share for months, and it felt good.
Cassie wasn’t able to go to sleep, so she kept peeking into the living room while Matthew wrote his letter. When she saw that he was done, she came back in. “How’s it coming? Will she melt into your arms?”
He sighed. “I don’t know about her melting, but I think she’ll understand why I’ve been acting the way I have. That’s good enough for me. If she tells me that she feels the same way, then that would just be the greatest thing ever.”
Cassie told Matthew that she was proud of him. “It takes a lot of guts to do what you’re doing and put your feelings out there. I wish I had been that brave.”
Matthew folded his letter and tucked it into his pocket. “I think you are an amazing person. You’re smart, clever, wise, and I’m willing to bet that you’re braver than you think.”
Cassie asked, “You mentioned that Addie and Bryan had something big planned for Saturday. What were you talking about?”
Matthew explained that he had met Evan Elliott earlier in the evening and also clarified that he would go on to become the Minister. He told her that Bryan and Addie were invited to the big announcement at Genesis on Saturday. “Walter’s cooked up some plan for the both of them that revolve around the new immunization shots Genesis is pushing.”
Cassie looked shocked and suddenly started to cry. Matthew was taken by surprise. He couldn’t understand this unexpected flow of tears. “What’s wrong?”
Cassie couldn’t get the full words out but spoke between sobs. “It’s my fault. I gave him the formula.”
“What do you mean? What formula?”
“I didn’t know that Evan Elliott would turn into that Minister you’re talking about. I was brought in to do a job, and I did it. I developed the technique that allows the combination of the substances for the new immunization.”
Matthew could see that Cassie was very upset. Anyone would be after finding out their great breakthrough was going to lead to the virtual enslavement of the entire human race.
“It’s not your fault, Cassie. You didn’t know. Maybe there’s some way you can stop it.”
She shook her head and said, “Genesis owns my process and procedure. There’s no way to get it back. It’s going to happen—unless Addie and Bryan can stop it.”
Matthew told Cassie that he didn’t even know what Addie and Bryan’s plan was. “They won’t tell me what’s going on, but that’s where you can help me.”
She told Matthew that she would do anything she could to
help him. Matthew wanted to show her a picture of Addie and Bryan that he had taken on his phone, but in his rush to leave the Chance homestead, he had left it at the house. “I need you to find them on Saturday and watch them. I need to know what’s going on and what, if anything, they’re doing. I need you to be my eyes and ears at the announcement. I’ll text you a photo of them when I find my phone.”
She wiped her eyes. “Absolutely. I’ll be there anyway. I’ll stick to them like white on rice. I’ll be on them like black on coal. I’ll be like their shadow.”
Matthew interrupted the barrage of comparisons and said, “I know you’ll do great. Now, if I could only find the trans-x charm, we could get this mission done and get out of here.”
“What do you know about it so far?” Cassie asked.
“Not much. We found out tonight that the Landrum family has no idea where it is or who has it. It sounds like Cameron’s great-great-grandfather was the last to have it. I have nothing to go on, and I can’t even go to Cameron to push him for information on it because he already said he’s never seen it.”
Cassie thought for a moment. “It’s strange that their great-great-grandfather was the one that had the charm.”
“Why is that strange?” Matthew asked. “It fits the timeline of when Liam was separating the charms.”
Cassie explained that the Landrum family was something of a legacy at Baylee College. “Their family has been sending kids to this college since it started up. A Landrum never has any problems getting accepted here. The reason I said it was strange that it was his great-great-grandfather is because, unless I’m mistaken, he was the one that started the cardinal and scepter tradition.”
Matthew thought for a moment. “You mean the tradition with the statue?”
“Yes. He actually designed the cardinal statue and had it built while he was a chancellor here. The scepter was a part of it, too.”
Matthew couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Everything started to make sense. He jumped up from the couch and grabbed Cassie in excitement. “I know where it is! I know where the charm is! It’s been right under my nose the whole time.”
Last Chance Volume 2 - The Legend of the Hathmec: Planting the Seed Page 24