The Déjà Glitch by Holly James

Author:Holly James [James, Holly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2023-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

10

Gemma stopped outside the black gate guarding her father’s stone driveway. Her heart trilled somewhere near the base of her throat, and she found her hands sweating from more than only the heat.

She stood in a wonderland of memory. An alternate reality of what her life could have been had the adults in it made different decisions. Had her parents not split, she would have been raised in the hills. She would have been gifted a brand-new car at sixteen; gone to beautiful, superficial parties; danced on the periphery of fame—she might have even become famous, who knew. She did know that had they stayed, she would have grown up with a warped sense of reality. Certainty that she was better off having escaped that life filled her as she gazed at the mansion in front of her with its circular driveway, fountain, and jacaranda tree dripping purple petals like confetti, and saw it for what it was.

There had been a time she resented her mother for taking her and Patrick away from the life the house in the hills promised. She had felt deprived of a privilege she hadn’t even known the full extent of back then. It wasn’t until she was older that she realized her father was the one she should have been disappointed in, and her mother had had all the courage to stand up for herself and her children. She had protected them in a way that took Gemma many years to recognize.

She took a breath and pressed the call button at the gate. The video screen mounted into the gray bricks came to life, and a familiar face filled the panel.

“Yes?”

Gemma’s tongue had grown heavy and dry. “H-Hi, Elena. It’s Gemma,” she said to her father’s housekeeper. The woman was in her sixties and had been taking care of Roger Peters for most of Gemma’s life. Of course he didn’t marry Summer Hart and live happily ever after. He lived alone, and Gemma chose not to keep track of his love life.

Elena gasped a sharp sound and leaned toward the camera, enlarging her face on the screen. “Gemma? What a lovely surprise! Is your brother along with you?”

She couldn’t fault Elena her surprise; she usually lurked in the background while Patrick did all the talking. Her heart took a tumble at the reminder that she was alone. “No. Only me.”

A dog barked on Elena’s end, and Gemma heard the click-clack of nails on marble flooring. A second, much deeper imposing bark followed, and she couldn’t help the upward twitch in her lips. One thing she and her father had in common was their love for dogs.

“Duke, Cash, shush!” Elena called. “Sorry, dear. I’ll open the gate. I’ll let your father know you’re here.”

“Thank you,” she said, but the video had cut off over sounds of excited barking.

The gate swung open, and before Gemma even made it halfway up the driveway, the two dogs barking came barreling out the wide front door.

Duke, her father’s Great

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