Emma’s legs buckled and gave out before she knew what was happening.
One minute, she was gawking at her parents.
The next, she felt a pair of arms slide around her shoulders and prop her up against the nearest tree. Then, Jack was kneeling in front of her, holding a water bottle up to her lips. She kept her eyes on his kind and familiar face and took a few long sips of the cool drink, hoping it would drown out the roaring in her ears.
What was happening?
What mixed-up alternate reality had she wound up in?
And why hadn’t her parents just been honest with her?
Was it just because they were incapable, or did they really believe deception and trickery were the only ways?
“I think we all need to give her some space to breathe,” Jack said, raising his voice to be heard over the arguing. “This is all a little too much.”
Henry’s voice cut through the fog and the dim chatter around her. “Emma, do you remember how you and I used to spend hours in the backyard, and you wanted to learn about the stars? Remember what I taught you about the great big universes out there and the planets that inhabit them?”
Emma pushed the bottle away, swallowed, and looked directly at her father. “What are you talking about?”
“I know I shouldn’t have lured you here under false pretenses, but I knew you wouldn’t resist digging into the truth about the eclipse,” Henry continued, smiling when Marie wheeled him closer. “I hoped that after you learned the truth, you’d stay to help me change your grandfather’s legacy.”
In spite of Jack’s protests, Emma pushed herself up to her feet, her head still swimming. “What I don’t understand is why you felt you couldn’t tell me the truth. Why did you feel like you had to sensationalize the whole thing just to get me to stay?”
Why had they found her lacking, the way they usually did?
She pushed her hair out of her eyes and folded her hands over her chest. “Why wasn’t I good enough for the truth, huh?”
Silence settled over the group, and everyone shifted from one foot to another.
“Why don’t we all go see the eclipse from across the street? I heard the view is much better.” Marley linked her arm through Jules’s and tugged. She offered Emma a sympathetic smile as Jack approached Kyle and drew him into conversation. Once they were far out of earshot, Emma covered the distance between them and stopped directly in front of her parents.
But she didn’t even know where to start anymore.
Suddenly, after weeks of chasing theories and pouring over maps, whatever was in the ground didn’t seem to matter anymore.
It didn’t have any kind of appeal for her.
Even as the minutes ticked, drawing the location of her grandfather’s research ever closer, Emma didn’t care anymore.
“I know you’re upset,” Marie began in a soft voice. “But this had nothing to do with you being good enough. Your father just wanted a chance to make amends.”
Emma made a choked sound and threw her hands up in the air. “Andthisis how you chose to do it? What happened to just asking for help?”
“Would you have come?” Henry’s eyes moved over her face; his pale features illuminated by the dim lighting from a nearby streetlamp. “If I had told you about the eclipse from the beginning, would you have still come?”
Emma dropped her hands and cleared her throat. “Well, yeah. Maybe not right away, but I could’ve made time.”
Especially if it meant bridging the distance between them.
The crushing weight of it had been pressing down on her, making her question things long before the letter came in the mail.
She hadn’t needed some elaborate plot to get her home.
Why hadn’t her parents seen that?
“I wasn’t sure it would be enough,” Henry whispered, shaking his head. “I couldn’t take that risk. You had to be here on time, or we would’ve missed our chance.”
Emma frowned. “So, you tricked me into coming here because you didn’t want to miss the chance to uncover more of Grandpa’s legacy? It’s always about the research, isn’t it? It’s never about what’s happening down here on Earth. I hope you’re happy, Dad.”
