“You have the advantage of hindsight. Don’t you know what happened to Livvy and me?”
“No. There is no record of what happened to you two. It is as if history had not yet been written. I only know—” Roys cut himself off as if unsure of what he was going to reveal.
“You only know?” Dale prompted
“My mother found out she descends from Olivia.”
Dale went still at this revelation. “Who is the father of Olivia’s offspring, then? Is it me?”
“We don’t know.” Roys paced the room, running his hands through his hair. “Do you see the far-reaching consequences of this now? What if we wipe out my entire family by doing this?”
That gave Dale pause. He gave it serious consideration, turning it over in his mind. “I think it is unlikely. It is more logical to think that either way, Olivia will have offspring. Whether or not I am the father seems irrelevant. And you guys already exist. People will not vanish into thin air.”
“I hope to God you are right.” Roys’s eyes were somber.
“Does that mean you will help me?”
Roys looked down and exhaled. “Against my better judgment, yes.”
Dale slunk low into his chair and stared out the window. He chuckled, a low, humorless thing. “Don’t worry, I’m going against my better judgment on this, too.”
Roys just threw him an annoyed sidelong glance and shook his head as he headed back to his equipment. “Let me do some research. The trip is postponed until tomorrow.”
CHAPTER 74 - How to save two lives
AS IT HAPPENED, SAVINGtwo people’s lives was the easiest thing they had done during this whole endeavor. They just had to travel to a time soon after the accident had occurred. After looking up all the details, they went back to the day of the accident and reported the drunk driver with an anonymous call to the police. The fellow was stopped and arrested before he could cause the accident.
Now they finally arrived on the day after Livvy had gotten back to her time. Dale’s nerves were stretched to the max with a mix of yearning and trepidation. At long last, he was going to be reunited with Livvy. He would hold her in his arms... or so he hoped. If the consequences of their interference had not changed events and everything was as it used to be.
It was the day of the auction and they had decided the estate was a good place to look for her, as they knew she planned to be there. They went to the same ruins from where Livvy departed with Roys’s parents and traveled to the day of the auction, then walked towards the house to look for her.
Dale’s first glance at his home in Olivia’s time was a punch to the face. He had not wanted to see it before now. Maybe it was a bit of cowardice, but he hadn’t wanted to be torn, didn’t want to feel a yearning for the past. To say that seeing his estate so changed and unkempt was a gut wrenching experience would be a massive understatement. But then everything was bizarre about this entire business.
He pushed thoughts of his estate aside. He would worry about it soon enough. Right now, the only thing that mattered was finding Olivia. He had come all this way for her. They hurried to the house, trying to catch up with her there. But by the time they arrived, the auction was over, and they didn’t find her or anyone who could give them information.
Undaunted, they continued looking for her through the nearby village. Fortunately, the town was not large. But that also meant it didn’t have a big inn or hotel where she could stay, which left a multitude of private homes to search. Roys looked up all the rental places in town and they went through them, one by one.
