Destiny's Wrath (Destiny Series - Book 3) by Straight, Nancy (read full novel .txt) 📗

I reached for the top drawer of the armoire, struggled against the long forgotten piece of history and wrestled it open. Wrapped in several sets of linen coverings, tied up with a length of twine was a quilt of bright colors. It had nearly disintegrated over the years, but small pieces of the cloth still shown through the linen. The quilt had been hand-stitched by me. I felt what was left of the material, lovingly made of bright vibrant colors.

Max walked behind me and slipped his arms around me. “This place waited for us to return. Two people more in love than any other two in the world. No one else could live here, no other couple loved each other enough for this to be their home. All these years, through the wind and the rain, it waited.”

A series of flashbacks hit me quickly. A picture of Max with his arms outstretched to me, love pouring from his eyes, as I looked down at myself with a swollen belly. A roaring fire was in the fireplace. I had been pregnant - really pregnant. We were starting a family. I could feel the emotion of the moment in the flashback, and it nearly brought me to my knees. I was unsure how many years ago this had taken place, but I knew, without a doubt I was seeing a part of our history. Ours. This image faded out and another faded in.

I was lying on the bed with Max kneeling beside me. With worry on his face, his hands shook and tears stained his cheeks. This one was vivid, and I could hear his pleas, “Don’t leave. Stay with me. Please, honey, you can’t leave me.” I reached for his hand; I could feel his calluses and his weather-beaten hand grip mine hard. It was childbirth, and I could feel my own weakness. In this moment, I knew my body had given out. I could feel myself leaving the body, floating over the scene, hearing his frantic pleas turn to wails. “Don’t leave me!”

I floated over the bed for several minutes; he was distraught, this Max from long ago. Wrapped up in a blanket next to my lifeless body was a baby. I had died after childbirth.

Max’s arms had been around me when the first of the flashbacks took me over. Looking at present day Max, I could tell that somehow he had seen them, too. Max tightened his arms around me, as if the emotion I had just felt hadn’t happened a lifetime ago, as if it were still happening. I was sure I knew the answer, but asked anyway, “Did you see that?”

Max nodded, leaned over and kissed the top of my head, and whispered, “Lauren, I don’t know what kind of new powers you got this time, but I could see it and feel everything. I could feel my heart breaking, the emptiness when I knew you were gone.”

We stood there for a long time, Max’s steel arms wrapped around me, my face tucked into his chest. Neither of us knew what to say. It was painful to watch, and excruciating to have lived through, twice.

Just as Max began to loosen his hold on me, I felt another flashback, this one, one of Max’s. A grave marker outside the cabin, near the fence, bore the name, “Catherine Meyer, Beloved Wife and Mother, Born 1861, Died 1882.” Max knelt beside the grave, holding the baby as tears streamed down his face. “I miss you, Catherine. Joseph is healthy. He’s beautiful. He has your eyes. I’ll tell him about you every day for the rest of his life. If he didn’t need me, I would have already left this place to be with you. Wait for me, Catherine. I know you can hear me. I can still feel you here. I’ll find you again. We’ll be together, I know it. I promise you, I will find you again.” I knew this promise, that Max made to me over a hundred years ago, was the reason he found me in my dreams this lifetime.

That image faded out as one from years later took its place. Max was talking to a tall, handsome teenage boy, at least sixteen years old, as they both sat on the front porch of the cabin. “Joseph, pretty soon this is all going to be yours. You’re man enough to take care of yourself, and I’m not going to be around much longer. You have to promise me, no matter what, never sell this land. You understand? You can move away from it. I know most boys your age are moving to the city. You go chase your dreams. You find your wife and live a long healthy life together. But, no matter what, promise me you won’t sell this land.”

Joseph nodded, “Where are you going?”

A wide smile stretched across his face, “The doc says I’m going to be with your mother soon.”

Joseph’s eyes took on a glassy look as he struggled to hold back the tears. “No!”

Max smiled a warm, fatherly smile at Joseph, “It’s what I want. Promise me, Joseph.”

Joseph, still holding back tears, choked out, “I promise. I won’t sell.” I watched the emotion in Joseph’s eyes.

“You know, I built this place for your mother. It’s the only place . . . it still feels like . . . like she’s here. I can’t help but think when I pass on, the two of us will be together, here.”

I watched as Joseph won his fight to hold back his tears. His jaw set, “How much time do you have left?”

“Days, weeks maybe. It doesn’t matter. I’ve done my part. You are the only reason I kept going when I lost your mother. You were the reason I knew I couldn’t join her sooner. But you’re a man now. You don’t need me anymore. You’ve got a life to live and dreams of your own