Saving My Mother Ten Years Ago

After witnessing the devastating wreckage of my mother’s marriage, I somehow fell backward through time. I woke up ten years in the past, staring into the eyes of my mother as she was then—young, hopeful, and entirely unbroken.

She looked at me with a breathless, desperate excitement. "Nicola," she whispered, gripping my shoulders, "tell me. When your father finishes his deep undercover assignment, does he finally give us the wedding he promised? Is it a beautiful church ceremony, or something on the beach? Did we manage to buy that house in the San Francisco school district?"