Flight to Freedom (Flight Trilogy, Book 3) by Mike Coe Page A

wedding .
    He examined the room more carefully. It was definitely not the same room in the Buckhead condo where he had fallen asleep. He played along, knowing she was not going to believe anything he told her about the other life—at least not now.
    “That’s right,” he said, “I forgot. It wasn’t until you moved to California that you had the pleasure of meeting the wonderful Rex Dean.”
    Like a fog burning off with the rising sun, the more distance he put between his dream and reality, the more aware he was of his life. He desperately wanted to see if she recalled anything from the other life, but he had to be careful how he worded his questions.
    “Looking back, what would you say were some of the highlights that were special to you in the years that followed your move to California?” he said.
    She squeezed his hand. “Being with you was all I cared about…and still do.”
    “Can you be more specific?”
    “Isn’t that enough?”
    He put his arm around her and pulled her close, kissing her on the forehead. “You know it is. I feel the same way. But I was just wondering what special times or events stand out in your memory.”
    “Well…obviously our wedding at the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel was the highlight. It was any girl’s dream wedding. I loved how you timed the ceremony perfectly with a beautiful sunset over Monarch Bay. High atop the bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, it was the perfect balance of elegance, serenity, and grace. And then there was the icing on the cake with a dream vacation to Hawaii.”
    He faked a puzzled look and said, “How long had you been in California before we were married…five months…six months?”
    “Hmm…my transfer to L.A. was in July 1983, and we were married on Saturday, May 12, 1984, so that would make it nine months…no, ten months.”
    The fog in his mind had completely burned off. He was fully synced with the present. Even for him the details of their other life were slowly becoming a distant memory—a dream of what might have been.
    In his current reality, he and Keri had been married for nineteen years, and he was an airline pilot living in California, not Georgia They had escaped the nightmare of the other life where he had once been married to the man-eater, Emily Anderson, and Keri to the womanizer, Rex Dean..
    He said, “If you had to name one other event that stands out, what would it be?”
    “That’s easy, but it’s actually not just one event, it’s two.” She smiled. “David and Martha, of course…the day they were born, August 31, 1988.”
    He laughed. “I guess you could call it two events. I agree, the greatest day in our life, other than our wedding day, was the birth of the twins.”
    When she mentioned the children, his mind ricocheted off his other life—a life replete with pain and struggle—where their deaf son, David, had been conceived in New York before they were married. But worse was the horrid night when Keri and the kids were held hostage, while the lunatic, Samael Janus, sent Ryan on a mission of death.
    His body grew hot. Sweat beaded on his forehead. His heart began to race, pounding in his chest.
    Oh no ! If this is April 2003 , then the night Keri and the children are taken hostage has not happened yet . That didn’t happen until May 29th . That’s next month !
    “Honey, are you alright? Your face is beet red.” Keri put her palm on his forehead. “You are sweating.” She turned his wrist over and measured his pulse. “You’d better lie down.”
    As he put his head on the pillow he said, “I’m fine.”
    She got a damp bath cloth from the bathroom and placed it on his forehead. She took another pulse reading. “Almost normal now.”
    But wait ! If this is April 2003 , then the crash that occurred on July 11 , 2002 should have already happened . If so , Rex Dean’s wife , Emily , should be dead . Samael Janus murdered her that night .
    In the other life, Rex Dean’s jet was shot down on July