Her face was still unreadable when she said, “What do you want from life? Fortune? Fame?”
Her empty hand closed into a fist and opened again as she pretended to toss something to him. To his astonishment, several one-hundred-dollar bills appeared out of nowhere, flew toward him, and floated down all around the room like confetti. Astonished, Adam picked one up and examined it. It looked and smelled like the real deal. His eyes widened even as his blood ran cold.
“Do you want a mansion? How about eternal youth?”
She paused for a moment and waited, he assumed, for a response. He took a few more gulps of beer.
He whispered hoarsely, “How the hell did you do that? What are you? A witch?”
She smiled in spite of herself and said, “Well, I’ve been called a witch before, but no, Adam, there’s no such thing as far as I know.”
“Are you a magician or a sorcerer?”
She shook her head.
“Are you a superhero? I give up. What the hell is going on?”
Even though all of the things that he had just witnessed—and the other strange events that had revolved around Maddie in the past—went against what he knew of reality, he also knew he hadn’t imagined these things. She had just proved it. She could do things that were not humanly possible. Still, he couldn’t quite believe what he had just witnessed.
Adam repeated the question, “What are you?”
Her eyes looked to the ceiling as if deep in thought, and then slowly back to him as she said, “Well, if you have to give it a label, I guess you could call me a manifestor.”
“Manifestor?” Adam repeated, not sure if he had heard her correctly.
“I know you’ve heard of term ‘manifest.’”
“You mean like to make things appear out of thin air?” he said.
She nodded. “Right. That’s what I do. Whatever I think of, I can manifest. If I think it, I can make it real in this world. It sort of gives new meaning to the word ‘afterthought.’ Get it? After…thought.”
She laughed halfheartedly.
Adam didn’t know what to say. He was speechless. He just sat there and stared at her in amazement. He wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t witnessed it for himself. He tried to process everything that had just happened. It all seemed impossible. But at the same time, he knew deep down that this was the only explanation that would piece everything together. Now they were getting somewhere. Maybe she had saved his life that night on the mountain. Maybe she had saved his life at the nightclub. But there were still things that she hadn’t explained to him—so many unanswered questions.
As if reading his mind she said, “It’s a very long story, Adam.”
He shook his head in disbelief and said, “I’ve got as long as it takes.”
Chapter 20
Maddie picked up a tissue, wiped the remaining tears off her face and eyes, and sat down beside him. She appeared calmer as she slumped back into the cushions of the couch with her glass of wine. She sighed heavily and said, “Adam, I want you to understand that if I tell you the truth, I’m exposing you to the very thing I was trying to protect you from by leaving. There will be no turning back.”
Again, he felt chills run down his spine as he said, “I understand. I need to know, regardless of the outcome.”
She looked down at her hands as she quietly said, “I thought that I was making the right choice, or I would never have left and hurt you. I’m sorry. I truly am. I thought it was for your own good. I knew that you wouldn’t be able to make the right decision because you didn’t have all the facts.”
“Then give me the facts,” he said. “I assure you that—even after everything I just witnessed—there is nothing you can say that will change the way I feel about you.”
He took her hand in his, intertwining his fingers with hers.
Her eyes welled with tears again as she said, “I do love you, Adam. I couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to you because of me.”
“I love you, too,” he whispered.
He kissed her gently for reassurance and put his arm around her shoulders. Even though he was still a little angry with her, he couldn’t stand to see her in pain.
Maddie looked down at her hands again for such a long time that Adam thought she might have clammed up again, when she finally said, “Where do I even begin?”
Thinking the question was rhetorical, he waited.
After another awkward silence, he said, “Tell me about the fire and the avalanche. You claimed responsibility for those events. You said that being with you had exposed me to danger. How could those things be your fault? Why would you cause something like that to happen?”
She furrowed her brow and shook her head vehemently. “Not me. I never said that I caused those things to happen. I believe it was someone else.”
He still had no clue what she was talking about, but he was relieved to see that she was finally willing to open up to him.
“Who would do such a thing?” he said slowly.
“My ex-husband,” she said so quietly that it was almost a whisper.
Adam felt as if he had been dealt a physical blow to the gut, but he tried not to let it show. It was yet another shocker. He had no idea she had been married before. She had never mentioned it, and he had never seen any evidence of another man in her life. No old wedding pictures. No mention of him in conversation. No nothing. It made him bristle at the thought of her being married to another man, but at least she had said ex-husband.
She was studying his face as she slowly said, “I’m not the only one who has the ability to manifest. There are many people out there, like my ex-husband, who are manifestors.”
“How many others?”
“No one knows for
