Her mom’s car pulls into the driveway.

Go time.

She calls Cross. “You ready?” He asks, though he knows she’s not.

“I have to be.”

Her mom turns off the car and is getting out. Bell keeps the call going and puts her phone in her back pocket with the bottom sticking up.

“Hi, my Sweetie Bell,” her mom greets her, kissing the top of her head.

With her anxiety rising, she doesn’t want to lose her nerve. She has to do it now. “Mom, could we talk? I have something I want to say and then ask you.”

“Of course.”

Deep breath in. Deep breath out. “Ok. Cross is my soulmate.” To her credit, her mom’s genuine reaction appeared to be surprised, but that’s most likely the fact that Bell knows. “But you knew that already.”

“Excuse me?”

“I know Mom.” If her previous statement surprised her mom, this one shook her. “That you changed my memories and everyone else’s,” she elucidates further.

There’s something weird on her face. A mix of emotions that Bell can’t pick out. While the shock and panic is easy to guess, there are more complex feelings going on. Guilt for sure. Her hunched shoulders relax in…relief? Maybe because the secret is out.

“And don’t even think about altering my memories. There are physical notes and video evidence explaining what you did that I and others have.”

Even with the insurance, Bell feels uneasy. It was as if her phone was burning a hole into her skin.

“Why would you take that from me? Knowledge of my soulmate? You didn’t even know Cross. What could he have possibly done to make you feel like you had to change our memories?” She pleads, just wanting answers.

It is a double edge sword. She wants to know but how can she trust a single word her mom says? How does she know her mom isn’t manipulating her mind?

Her mom silently sits down at the dining room table and gestures for Bell to sit across from her.

Once they were across from one another, face to face, her mom begins. “Bell, it was nothing that Cross did. It has to do with me. It always did.”

“I don’t understand.” If it wasn’t about Cross, then why keep him from her?

The tenseness is back in her mom’s shoulders, eyes misty, hands shaky. She clasps her hands together to stop the trembling.

“When I was young, people always told me I would be a heartbreaker. You know, I was pretty, bright, and had a lot of things going for me back in high school, believe it or not.”

Fiddling with her fingers, her pointer and thumb spins her wedding ring. Bell knows her mom does that when she’s nervous. It is her anxious habit.

“Hai was all the same things. Everyone at school thought we were soulmates, saying we were the perfect couple.”

That last part sounded wrong to her. Thought? Were?

“But you and Dad are soulmates,” Bell interrupts, stating the obvious. Her mom’s features soften, eyes and lips turning down.

Her mom reaches across the table and takes Bell’s hands in her own. Both are clammy. The touch doesn’t feel familiar or comforting at this moment. “Bell, I want you to understand that I love your father. Nothing in my story changes any of my feelings now.”

“What are you saying?”

Like Bell did when she told her that she knows, her mom takes some deep breaths, letting Bell know that whatever she is about to say takes a lot of effort.

“Your father isn’t my soulmate.” That statement just hits her in the gut, but that wasn’t the end yet. “I was a selfish girl. I knew a good thing when I had one. With everyone’s speculations already and my family loving Hai, I didn’t want to give that up to some other girl who may pop into Hai’s life. So I used my powers. I made him believe that we were actually soulmates.”

The world could have exploded and she wouldn’t have even noticed it. Everything fell away. Bell couldn’t wrap her head around it. They weren’t soulmates.

People told Bell all her life about how her parents, Wren and Hai Sweet were the epitome of soulmates. True love. Ever since the beginning. And how they never were?

Her dad loves telling the story of how they met and found out they were fated to be together. It is this thought of her father that makes her heart crack. He doesn’t know.

“I began justifying it in my head. That we may as well have been soulmates. I love Hai and that wouldn’t change for me if we found our soulmates so I was just locking in what we both already felt.”

Her mom used her ability to manipulate Bell’s dad. Greta. Her. How can you live with yourself?

“Mom, you took away Dad’s choice. He could have chosen you himself! He may not have ever met his soulmate!” Bell is angry, eyes sharp, tone firm. Reflecting on herself and Cross, they both chose one another before knowing they were soulmates. Her mom and dad could have been the same way if her mom just let her dad have his own thoughts.

Finally noticing that their hands were still connected, Bell withdraws like they were fists of fire. Her mom’s face distorts for a second but then exudes an understanding. “I have said all of this to myself. While I wish, I did things differently, if it led to our family as it is now, I don’t regret it.”

Looking into her mom’s eyes, there is that same expression again. The one of mixed emotions.

“There’s something else. I can tell. You thought when I said that I knew, you thought I knew something else. I couldn’t have known about controlling Dad because he doesn’t know. What else is there?” Bell pushes. She needs to know the whole truth, tired of not really knowing herself and her family.

“That’s it. I swear.”

While everything in her being wants to believe her, she can’t help but doubt the truth to that declaration.

There’s still more.