Adrian seemed to realize something. His hand around his phone had gone white at the knuckles as he replied to the person on the other end of the line.
"I'll be there."
"Great, then it's settled. I'll be waiting for you," Tina said cheerfully.
Before the call disconnected, he thought he heard Tina say smugly to someone beside her, "See, honey? I told you he'd come back. Nobody could resist our daughter."
The voice cut off abruptly, and Adrian's heartbeat stuttered along with that final dial tone.
He pulled a tattered diary from the bookshelf.
The handwriting on its pages had faded with time, but the words remained perfectly legible.
"I pray that 20 years from now, when we meet again, I won't have to marry you."
That sentence had once pierced him with pain every time he read it, but
