“There you have it.” John Brady slammed the end of his walking cane on the paving stone like a judge with a gavel, addressing the squire and magistrate. “He admits his own guilt. This piece of filth is a murderer and a thief.” He turned to Liam with a triumphant glare. “You’ll hang for this, by God. I’ll make sure of it.”
Squire McLeod stood speechless, mouth opening and closing like a stunned, dying fish. If he’d resorted to shouted obscenities and furious accusations, it would’ve made sense to Liam. He deserved nothing less. But the look of abject sorrow and pity coming from Cora’s father was soul-crushing. Liam wanted to sink into the ground until he was nothing but dust.
The magistrate began pulling Liam toward the carriage. “Come along, you. Don’t give me any trouble or I’ll knock you out cold myself.”
Liam didn’t struggle. His beloved Cora was gone and, along with her, every shred of hope and light left in his bleak heart. Nothing mattered anymore. In the days that followed, he was trapped in a nightmare of murky vignettes where nothing felt real. It wasn’t real when they threw him in the freezing jail cell. Not real when, a few days later, he was sentenced to the gallows, and not real when he was shoved up the wooden steps and they wrapped a rope around his neck. Even through the sounds of the jeering crowd, the ominoussnickof the trapdoor under his feet, and the sharp, blinding snap of pain, none of it was real. Because if he accepted it was real, then it meant he’d lost her forever, and he refused to let this be the way their love story ended. Somehow, no matter what happened next or where he ended up, he would find his beloved Cora again.
18
CORA LISTENED AS he finished the story, flinching when he recounted in a detached voice how he’d been wrongfully hanged. Blinking back tears, she ached at the thought of Liam dying like that—with no loved ones around, no honor, and no hope of justice. It was wrong on so many levels, and heartbreaking that such a vibrant, beautiful soul as he could lose everything in such a terrible way.
She was sitting cross-legged on the blanket facing him, holding his large hand in hers and squeezing tightly, as if she could siphon some of the pain from him through physical contact. She wanted to cry, but she refused to let the tears fall. Liam had just recounted a terrible ordeal from a past life, and if he’d had to endure that by himself, then the least she could do was be strong for him now and remind him that he wasn’t alone anymore.
He was rubbing his throat, grimacing through remembered pain. Cora had thought her own dreams were vivid, but his had to be even more so for him to have such a visceral reaction.
“That’s why you hate wearing ties, isn’t it?” she asked gently. “You gave me such a hard time when I tried to get you to dress up for that formal event back in June, but it all makes so much sense now.”
He nodded, blinking from the memories as if he were coming out of a dark cave into the light. “I can’t stand to have anything around my throat. I don’t like to dwell on the reason why, but that’s it.”
“Liam, how long have you been having these dreams of our past life together?” Had he been experiencing them longer than she had? All her dreams seemed to start after they’d first met, but from the way he talked, it seemed his visions were more intense, and he’d been having them for years. She’d been so confused by her dreams, never quite understanding what she was seeing, but now she was grateful for their ambiguity.
“They’re not dreams, Cora. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. I’ve actually lived through it. It all happened in the past, and I was given a second chance to come back here to make things right. You and I were never supposed to fall in love—not back then, and not now. Your destiny was with Finn. My goal was to try to get you and him together in order to redeem myself and help the world.”
Cora sat up straighter. “Okay, first of all, who told you my destiny was with Finn? And secondly, you can’t tell me how to feel.Ichoose. Is that why you’ve been trying to push me in his direction so hard?”
“I know it all sounds crazy, but I was...” He trailed off, running a hand across the back of his neck and stealing a glance at her from beneath his thick lashes. “I was visited by angels. They told me all of this.”
Cora’s eyes widened in surprise. “What, like you had a vision and angels spoke to you?”
“Aye, in a sense.” His brow furrowed in concentration, like he was struggling to find the right words to tell her things. Finally, he just shook his head. “I promise you, I’ve not gone mad, though sometimes it feels that way. Everything I’m telling you is true. Do you believe me?”
She nibbled on her bottom lip and picked at a frayed thread from the blanket as she considered what he’d told her. Of all the things Liam was secretly dealing with, she never would’ve guessed it was epic failure from a past life and visions, or visitations, from angels. But as unbelievable as it sounded—and it was truly far-fetched—the things he was telling her made sense when compared to the strange way he’d been acting toward her all summer. His overprotective behavior, as if she belonged with him. Those times when it was so clear he wanted more from her, but he never allowed it to go any further. And then there were those inexplicable moments of déjà vu where she’d see flashes of him from another time, or those vivid dreams where, now that she thought about it, their surroundings did seem like a rural place in Ireland. As crazy as it all seemed, she couldn’t bring herself to discount him.
“I want to believe you,” she finally said. “It’s just a lot to take in. I’ve built my entire life on logic and facts and weeding out the truth, and this is something way beyond my comfort zone.”
“Mine, too,” Liam said. “Trust me, ever since I arrived here in Providence Falls, nothing about this task set before me has been comfortable. Do you have any idea how hard it’s been for me, living day in and day out with the woman of my dreams, unable to show her how much I love her?”
A pleasurable heat rose in her cheeks, and her heart felt near to bursting. “Careful. A girl could get used to pretty words like those.”
He leaned forward and drew her into his embrace, nuzzling his face in the crook of her neck. “If I could find a way to spend the rest of eternity reminding you how wonderful you are, I’d do it.”
“Wait,” she said, leaning back before she lost herself to the intoxicating feeling of being in his arms. “The angels told you to get me and Finn together because it would right your past wrongs and help the world. What does ‘help the world’ mean?”
Liam’s face shuttered. “It’s...complicated.”
“It can’t be any more complicated than what you’ve already told me.”
“You and Finn,” he began, then stopped. Again, he appeared to be having one of those internal struggles until, finally, he said, “Every action we make in life affects the future and people in it. I’m not talking about small, everyday things. I’m talking about something on a grander scale.”
“Like the butterfly effect.” At his blank look, she explained. “It’s a theory that one small change can cause a ripple effect over time that eventually changes something in a monumental way in the future.”
“Yes,” he said with a firm nod. “That’s exactly it. If I’d succeeded in getting you and Finn together before the summer was over, then it would’ve...helped the future in good ways.”
“Why before summer’s end?” Cora asked, tilting her head. “Why not in a year, or two?”
Now he looked nervous again. He pulled away, and she instantly missed the warmth of his embrace. “I was only given three months to complete my task.”
“And then what, I live happily ever after with Finn, and you just go on your merry way?” She didn’t like that idea at all. Never going to happen.