“Souls,” Madame Zara continued softly, interrupting Sarah’s train of thought.

  “They find each other. In each lifetime. In each universe. They meet again and again. Sometimes as siblings. Sometimes as parents. In some timelines, they’re lifelong friends. In others… twins. Or soulbound strangers.”

  She turned to look at Sarah.

  “But not in Daniel’s original universe. Something went wrong there. A thread missed its knot. Maybe his Emily... or his Sarah, or Thomas… took a different path. A choice. A moment. A deviation just sharp enough to split the thread.”

  She took a deep breath.

  “Maybe they weren’t born yet. Or maybe… something happened to them?”

  A pause. Her voice softened further, as Madame Zara glanced at Sarah, her expression almost sympathetic, as she gazed at Sarah’s stomach.

  “In this universe…a thread was missed too wasn’t it?” she murmured, reaching out suddenly, gently placed her hand on Sarah’s stomach.

  Sarah stiffened in surprise, and then inhaled - feeling warmth enter her and envelop her for a moment. It did not feel like just body heat—it was something deeper, something reassuring.

  Like standing near a fire on a cold night. Safe. Comforting. Mysterious. Magical.

  She didn’t understand what she was feeling, but something about it soothed her. For a split second she felt herself in two worlds - a world that was and that could have been.

  Thomas shifted, a protective noise rising in his throat, but Sarah silenced him with a glance.

  “It is okay” she said with her eyes “It is safe.”

  Madame Zara withdrew her hand and sighed sadly - “You were unable to carry a second child in this universe, weren’t you?” she asked gently, almost tenderly.

  Sarah froze. She couldn’t breathe for a few seconds.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  She heard Thomas gasp loudly, shifting, staggering.

  “How do you know that?” she finally whispered, feeling her heart pound within her.

  “How…yes, I was sick, a rare type of cancer, and the treatment - I couldn’t... I couldn’t have children after that. But how could you possibly know that?”

  Madame Zara turned back to the window, her expression unreadable.

  Something between mystery and memory, sympathy and certainty.

  “I have my ways,” she said quietly.

  Outside, the mist swirled in slow spirals, dancing in the last of the setting light.

  A moment passed.

  “Have you considered Daniel being brought here…” Madame Zara finally continued, turning back to Sarah.

  “Perhaps this second chance wasn’t just for him? Perhaps, it was a way to balance the scales? For a thread to find its knot here? For you. For Thomas. For Emily? To return what… could have been. What was meant to be?”

  —

  The words knocked the wind out of Sarah instantly, tears stinging her eyes.

  She felt her knees weaken, her stomach churn - from something raw, something beautiful - the moment unraveling something inside her.

  Thread by thread.

  A memory flashed immediately - the time she had met Daniel in his adult form in the dreamscape for the first time.

  She remembered that pivotal moment, her conversation.

  "Hey Daniel” she had said “you’re like my child as Emily is, even if it took me time to realize it.”

  Tears spilled over as the memory continued.

  “I’ve come to realize that you’re just as much a part of me as she is.”

  She wiped at her eyes furiously as the memory came to the focal point that changed everything.

  “If you want to... you can call me 'Mom…once again'”

  It made sense, it had always made sense, this bond they had - right there, hidden in plain sight.

  He was meant to be with her.

  He was always meant to be hers.

  Meant to be theirs - soul bonded through time and space.

  She became aware of Thomas’s hand closed around hers—steady, grounding—but she felt it shake too. When she looked up at him, his face was stricken, lips quivering.

  His eyes too were damp, wide - looking like someone who had just found something, something he didn’t know he needed. Something that was his.

  They didn’t say a word.

  They didn’t have to.

  For the truth they had learned, was one too big to put into words at that moment, but already been living and thriving in their souls for a long, long time.