“I’m having some short-term memory issues. When did we last talk?”

“You came in for an appointment a few days after Karly’s funeral.”

“Was anything wrong with me?”

“Only the things I’d expect. Depression, anxiety, sleeplessness. Your blood sugar was elevated, which can happen as a result of stress, and so was your heart rate. You were grieving, and that takes a physical toll as well as an emotional and psychological one. Now, tell me about these memory issues.”

“I will, but first things first. When I saw you, did I say anything about . . . seeing things?”

“Seeing things? Like what?”

“Like my identical twin. A doppelgänger. Someone who looked exactly like me.”

Her brow wrinkled in surprise. “No, you didn’t say anything like that. Why, are you having hallucinations?”

I ignored her question. “Did I mention a psychiatrist named Eve Brier?”

Alicia frowned. “Yes. You told me you’d heard her speak at the hotel, and you’d read her book. You were planning to see her for therapy. I told you I wasn’t sure that was the right thing to do. Not therapy itself—I strongly suggested you talk to someone. But I looked up this Dr. Brier, and based on what I found, I had concerns about the kind of treatment she offered. Something tells me you went to see her anyway.”

“I think I did.”

“You think?” Alicia asked. “What does that mean?”

I ran my hands through my hair in frustration. Then I told her everything. The whole story. What I remembered and didn’t remember. What I’d experienced in the other worlds. What Eve had told me when I’d awakened in her office. Alicia took it all in and didn’t say anything for a while.

“You saw Roscoe?” she asked finally.

“Yes. In one world, he was a priest, but in another, he was a doctor, practicing here with you.”

Alicia glanced at the pictures of her son. “Well, I can see the appeal of what Dr. Brier is offering her patients. I can also understand your being reluctant to leave those worlds behind, if you were able to be with Roscoe and Karly again.”

“That’s the thing. I’m not sure I have left them behind.”

“What do you mean?”

“Those worlds felt every bit as real to me as this one does. How do I know this isn’t just another part of the illusion? I don’t trust what I see, Alicia. I look around, and everything in my life looks and feels right. But then again, it doesn’t.”

“Well, I remember your whole life, Dylan. If you’re asking me, this is the real world, but I don’t know if that helps you. I probably would have told you the same thing in those worlds, right?”