Daphne saw the headlights of the truck coming towards her, and felt the impact as it hit her, feeling the crushing weight on her body, and the warmth of her sticky blood on the ground. In front of her were the yellow mums and the woman’s red lipped smile.

  Daphne’s eyes shot open, her body coated in a cold sweat. She touched her face, and her chest, and wiggled her toes. Her breath was coming in pants, and started slowing down as she began to notice that she was in her apartment.

  It was just a dream. She held her hand over her heart. She looked at her watch, and noticed the date. It was November ninth. I’m still in the past. The accident hasn’t happened yet in this timeline.

  As she calmed her heart and her breathing, a realization hit her. Her stomach dropped and her heart started picking back up as she slowly brought her watch back up to where she could see it.

  It was seven thirty, and she was supposed to have had dinner with her mother an hour earlier.

  A lump grew in Daphne’s throat, and she could hardly breathe as she sat up on her couch, Tanpopo mewling at her from his hammock.

  Shit. She grabbed her phone. I’m so dead. She’s probably furious.

  She unlocked her phone, and notifications for several text messages and a handful of missed calls popped up. All of them were from her mother. She scrolled through them, noticing there was also a voicemail, something that made her heart jump and her stomach drop simultaneously. It was from forty-five minutes earlier…which was when she would have been fifteen minutes te.

  Fuck. I really screwed myself over by agreeing to this meal. It may end up being a long time before she forgives me…I should have never agreed to a dinner alone with her in the first pce.

  Daphne pursed her lips, trying to decide what her next move should be. Mother never leaves voicemails. It might be best to see what she said before I try to call her and apologize.

  Daphne gulped, opening the voicemail app on her phone. Her hand wavered over the py button, and she squeezed her eyes shut until she finally had enough courage to press it.

  The recording clicked on. “Are you ghosting me?” her mother’s voice rang out into the apartment. “After only a couple of short weeks as a happy family again, you’ve decided to ghost me?” Her mother’s voice was tight, and the recorded version of her let out an exasperated sigh. “What did I do to deserve this treatment? I apologized to you about the past, and every time something has come up since, I’ve apologized to you in the moment. Are you going to hold my behavior over my head for the rest of our lives?” Her mother’s voice was nearly shouting through the phone at this point. “I’m your mother, for god’s sakes!”

  Daphne flinched, her stomach churning from the words. She remembered how exhausted she had been from her workday as she’d sat down on the couch. It was never my intention to fall asleep. But of course…Mother just jumps to the worst conclusion when I don’t show up.

  On Daphne’s phone, her mother sighed heavily into the speaker. “I’m leaving the applebottom. Don’t worry about coming now, it’s too te. I won’t be there.” In her minds eye, Daphne could picture the look her mother may have had on her face as she’d said the words. It was a huffy one, and her mother most certainly had been rolling her eyes at Daphne’s perceived insolence.

  “If you think you deserve forgiveness after this,” the recording continued, “you better give me a call and expin yourself.”

  The recording clicked off. “End of message,” Daphne’s app informed her. She locked her phone, and put it down on the coffee table in front of her, her arms shaking. The feeling of not breathing had never fully gone away, but the pressure was cmping down harder on her in that moment. Daphne started shrinking down into her own body.

  Her heart ached. Fuck, I really messed up. She probably wouldn’t have been this upset if it had been longer than a couple of weeks since we reconnected.

  A wriggling part of her mind reminded her that there was a strong potential that the opposite might be true. It was equally as pusible that her mother may have been less upset now because they only recently reconnected.

  Her behavior never makes any sense. Daphne pced her face in her hands.

  After a few moments, she let out a heavy breath and grabbed her phone. She opened the text messages from her mother, dismissing the missed phone calls in the process.

  Are you going to be te?

  Are you coming?

  Daphne? Hello?

  Pick up the phone!

  There were several more, but Daphne let her phone drop onto the couch beside her. Her stomach lurched, feeling sick from the situation.

  She really hasn’t changed. She’ll probably never change. I don’t know why I have to learn this lesson the hard way so many times.

  She shook her head at herself. Still, though. I’d rather I had felt my cellphone going off while I was napping. Then I wouldn’t have had to worry about this at all.

  It was the first time since she had come back to the past that she wished she could go back into the past one more. If only this had never happened in the first pce.

  Daphne swallowed hard, steadying her breath, and grabbing her phone again. If I can find a way to fix things with Trevor, I can find a way to fix things with Mother.

  She opened up the call app, pulled up her mother’s information, and wavered as her hand hovered over the call button.

  Is it worth it? What am I gaining by having my mother back in my life? I haven’t gotten any happier…I haven’t gotten any closer at finding the killer…

  She shook her head, trying to clear the doubts that were clouding her mind. It’s only another month and a half until the day of the accident, she reminded herself. I can stick it out until then and part ways with her again once I know for sure that I’m safe.

  She pursed her lips, and hit “call,” and held the phone to her ear, the dialing sound ringing in her ear.

  Maybe she’ll ignore my call because she’s too upset. I can hope at least.

  On the st ring, she heard the click of someone picking up on the other side. Daphne’s heart dropped.

  “Expin yourself,” Kimberly growled through the phone.

  Daphne stood, and began pacing around her apartment. “Mom,” she said. “I’m so sorry, it was a complete accident. I didn’t mean to—”

  “I said expin yourself,” her mother replied gruffly “Not to apologize.”

  Daphne’s stomach lurched. “Right, sorry,” Daphne said, wincing as she heard herself apologizing again. “I got home from work and sat down on my couch. I guess I fell asleep unintentionally. I wasn’t trying to ghost you. It was an accident.”

  “Sure it was an accident,” Kimberly replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “It’s not like I’ve heard that one before.”

  “I’m really sorry, Mom,” Daphne said, rubbing her hand across her knitted eyebrows. “It was a rough day at work and I was completely exhausted when I got home.”

  Her mother sighed aggressively on the other side of the line. “Well, if you keep insisting it was an accident, you give me little choice except to believe you.”

  Some of the weight on Daphne’s heart was removed. “Thank you. I’m really sorry that this happened. Do you want to try to reschedule?”

  “Hah!” Kimberly replied, a sarcastic ugh biting into Daphne’s ear through the phone’s speaker. “Absolutely not,” Kimberly continued. “I’m far too angry at you right now. Maybe after a couple of weeks and Thanksgiving, if you py nicely, I’ll consider it.”

  Daphne’s heart dropped into her stomach and she shook her head at herself. It’s fine. This retionship is only a means to an end at this point.

  “Alright,” Daphne murmured. “Again, I’m really sorry that this happened. I was really looking forward to our time together.”

  “I was too,” Kimberly snapped back. She sighed again. “I have to go. Talk ter.” The phone clicked off, signaling the end of the call before Daphne got a moment to reply.

  Daphne let out a heavy breath, some of the tension in her chest relieving. She put her phone down on her table, grabbing her keys to her apartment. Her stomach was twisted up into knots. She looked over at Tanpopo, who was still ying in his hammock. “I’ll be right back,” she told him. “And then I’ll feed you dinner, okay, bud?”

  Tanpopo just stared at her with his gss like, gemstone eyes. She chuckled a little bit at his ck of response. “You’re just waiting for me to feed you, aren’t you?” she asked. She sighed, a smile on her face. “Sorry, bud. It will be just a few more minutes. I just need to walk a little.”

  She turned and left her apartment, walking down the stairs, to the mailboxes on the first level. It’s been a while since I got the mail.

  Each step she took barely loosened the knots in her stomach. At least it’s heading in the right direction. Hopefully I won’t feel like I’ve been kicked in the gut all night.

  She grabbed a thick stack of mail out of her mailbox, and then closed the box with her key. She began her climb back up to her apartment, each step feeling heavy as she went.

  She started daydreaming, thinking of all the things she wished she could change about her mother. There were more than she could count, and certainly more to think of than the amount of time it took for her to walk back up the stairs.

  She opened her apartment door, Tanpopo mewling at her from his bed. She smiled at him, and pced the stack of mail on her table, thumbing through it’s contents.

  She furrowed her brows as she noticed an envelope that had no return address, and simply had her name “Daphne Woods,” written on it. The envelope was thick, and she felt a shiver run down her spine as she pulled it out of the stack.

  How did this get here? It isn’t as though someone could just slip it into my mailbox.

  She swallowed hard, flipping the envelope over. It was taped shut, and she gently began to pull it open. As the tape released, the envelope began to rapidly expand, and glitter began pouring out of it into Daphne’s kitchen.

  What? She opened the envelope enough to see that there was a single sheet of paper folded up and buried in the bright red glitter that was now pouring into her kitchen.

  Daphne’s blood was ice, as she carefully pulled out the sheet, doing her best to pull out as little glitter as possible with it. She pced the glitter covered sheet on the table and turned and put the envelope and the rest of the glittery contents into the trash.

  She looked around at the glitter that was all over the area where she’d opened the envelope. Her stomach tightened and her blood felt like it was boiling.

  Who the fuck sends someone a glitter bomb when they have a cat? She peeled out of her clothes, careful to only drop the glitter where it already was in her apartment. The st thing she wanted was Tanpopo accidentally eating glitter.

  After cleaning up the majority of the mess, she turned back to the sheet, and a shiver ran down her spine as she realized that the shade of glitter was nearly the exact same shade as the woman’s lipstick.

  She swallowed hard. I don’t remember getting a glitter bomb before. Did I just miss it? Or has something changed?

  She gingerly opened the sheet, unable to ignore her gut feeling that the glitter bomb was most certainly from her killer.

  There was no handwriting to analyze, as the words were typed and printed onto a single sheet of printer paper.

  Daphne Woods—

  A thief, just like your mother. Can’t keep your hands to yourself. And you lie.

  Lie.

  Lie!

  Just like her.

  Will you be satisfied once you’ve destroyed everyone around you? Will you be happy if you kill me off right after you have a baby with a man who is rightfully mine? Just like your mother! You’re just like your mother, a whore, and a conniving little bitch.

  Karma is coming for you, Daphne Woods. For you AND your mother.