3:59 by McNeil Gretchen

Author:McNeil, Gretchen [McNeil, Gretchen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-09-17T00:00:00+00:00

3:59 A.M.

Her mom sits at the kitchen table. She rests her elbows on the laminate wood surface and holds a steaming cup of tea to her lips.

She closes her eyes and inhales deeply, relishing the aroma. “I dearly love a cup of tea,” she says on a breathy exhale.

“I know.”

“That woman only drank coffee. Bins of the stuff in the house, and not even a box of tea when I got here.” She stares lovingly at the box of tea bags on the table.

“Oh.”

“I can’t tell you how many mugs of that slime I’ve had to choke down at the lab.” She takes a long sip, then abruptly lowers the cup. “Speaking of, you’d better start making a list of what your other half did and didn’t do. We can’t have any suspicions if we’re going to stay here.”

“Stay here?”

Her mom arches an eyebrow. “Don’t you want to? You don’t really want to go back to all that, do you? The secrets and the lies. And the Nox.”

She shudders at the mention of the Nox, then shakes her head hesitantly. “No.” She pauses. “I don’t know. Maybe?”

“Don’t worry about your boyfriend,” her mom says sharply. “He’ll be fine.”

Jo’s stomach tightens up. “He’s not my boyfriend.” Not yet, she thinks to herself.

“We can’t go back,” her mom says with a nod of her head. “The mirror has to stay where it is. Besides”—her mom reaches across and pats her hand—“now that you’re here, I don’t have to worry about creating a new portal. That’s all I’ve been working on the last six months, you know. A way to bring you here.”

“Oh.” Jo tries to hide her anxiety. She doesn’t want to stay, not any longer than they have to. “Are you going to destroy the mirror?”

“I can’t,” her mom says. “Too dangerous. I have to find a way to close the portal first.”

“Oh.”

Her mom whisks away her hand. “It’s not so bad here, Josephine. I promise.”

Jo shivers. Her body feels suddenly cold.

“Get to know the other Nick,” her mom says. It’s like she can read her daughter’s mind. “Maybe you’ll like him.”

“I suppose.”

“Try,” her mom says. “Because once I figure out how . . .” She pauses and stares Jo directly in the eye. “We’ll destroy the portal. Forever.”

Josie’s eyes flew open and she pushed the sleep mask up over her head. They were still connected. She and Jo.

A hundred ideas flooded into her head at once. Her mom. The portal. Her mom.

Holy shit.

It had been Jo’s mom she’d been living with for the past six months. Jo’s mom who kicked Dad out of the house. Jo’s mom who seemed so cold and distant and spent twenty-four-seven in the lab.

Jo’s mom. Not her mom.

Which meant her mom was here.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.