Chapter 4

I caught the man's hand almost before I knew I was doing it.

Marlin stared at me. "What's wrong? We've been apart three years. Don't you miss me at all?"

"Or is it that you still doubt me?"

His eyes burned into me, and a cold ran down my spine.

In the dim glow of the night-light his face looked, for one flickering instant, like something demonic.

"I don't doubt you. I'm just a little tired. Another time."

He watched me in silence, and just as the string inside me was about to snap, the man let go of my hand.

"Get some sleep."

He turned his back to me and lay down at my side, his breathing steady and even.

I turned my head to look and saw him curled up without thinking.

Whenever we used to fight and go quiet on each other, he would lie exactly like this, back to me, drawn into himself.

And by the next day, once we'd both cooled off, we would talk the argument out and clear up the misunderstanding.

Now the man lying beside me matched Marlin in every last detail,

and that was exactly what made it so terrifying.

It proved this thing knew Marlin inside and out, and I hardly dared let myself think about where the real Marlin was now, or whether he was even alive.

If Colin and Thelma accepted him, if I didn't go looking, would the real Marlin simply vanish for good?

That night I made up my mind. I would never abandon him.

The next day I stopped testing Marlin at every turn, and being around him grew as easy as it had once been.

Now and then he would stare at me and drift off, and I knew he was measuring whether I'd truly bought it.

Three days later I went to see Francis Sanchez, another traveler who had finished his mission.

After he'd heard everything I'd been through, he said, "I have a way for you to know for certain whether that man is Marlin or not."

By the end of our long talk, my hands were nearly shaking the whole way home.

But the moment I pushed the door open, I froze on the spot.

The house was packed and buzzing, nearly every Barnes relative there.

When they saw me come in, the room went quiet for a beat, and then Marlin's hot-tempered aunt gave a cold laugh.

"Look at the time. You finally decided to come home."

Her barbed words stopped me mid-step,

and the next second Thelma said, stone-faced,

"Caroline, have you been cheating?"

"I have not!" The denial came out of me on reflex.

Thelma glared at me. "Still lying! If you haven't, then why did you turn my son down last night?"

"Caroline Henson, don't you forget my son saved your life!"

At that the relatives chimed in one after another.

"That's right, we've all heard. Marlin ran himself ragged three years for you, and now that he's finally back, all you do is say he's changed."

"Isn't this just what happens when a couple's apart too long, the feeling goes cold? And if it weren't for you, Marlin wouldn't have had to be gone three years in the first place."

"This is exactly why a woman shouldn't be out working and socializing. Once she's out there her heart runs wild. Marlin left her all that money, and she still had to go get some job."

The Barnes relatives threw it back and forth, one line after another,

and my eyes settled on Marlin.

"Is this what you want?"

My voice was cold, and I stared hard at the man on the sofa.

He lifted his eyes to me, wearing a wounded look. "You're the one who didn't believe me first. You kept saying I'd changed."

"But Mom and Dad both say I haven't. You're the only one who stays on guard against me."

"Caroline, I gave up so much for you, and this is how you treat me. You really disappoint me."

He'd barely finished when

Thelma backed him up. "Exactly. What mother can't recognize her own son? I told you and told you it's Marlin, Marlin hasn't changed, and you still won't believe it."

She looked at me with such hatred, as if I were the enemy tearing her family apart.

Most of these relatives had no idea of the truth, so a few words from the man were all it took to stir them up.

"Shameless slut, and she still wants to pin the blame on Marlin."

"I said it, didn't I. What woman can stand three years alone? She's probably put more than a few horns on his head these years."

"Everyone, get your phones out, take her picture! Tomorrow we'll post it online and make her famous!"

The things they said, cornering me at the door, got uglier with every word,

and Thelma knew the whole truth, yet she still turned a blind eye to all of it.

Marlin took his chance. "Caroline Henson, let's get divorced."

His eyes were full of smug triumph, as if he was certain that once he divorced me, he could step completely into the real Marlin's place.

I looked at him and spoke slowly. "Fine, we can divorce. But I have something to give you first."

With that I took out the thing I'd been protecting so carefully all along,

and the instant he saw what was in my hand, the man's face changed.