Free Twin Flames: Soul Memory by Alix Richards Page A

Stacy’s features lightened, the strain
almost gone. “But you don’t remember me, do you?”
    Joy lowered her gaze.
    “ Bits and pieces come through, not enough to be sure.” Her
fingers played with the fringe on the corner of a decorative
pillow. “I sense more than remember. No threats or discomfort, if
anything I’m at ease around you.”
    “ Well, we are best friends.” Stacy lifted her cup and took a
drink. “We shared everything growing up. Our fathers are brothers,
we’re blood family. We’ve always stuck together.”
    That was what Joy figured. She had sensed the belonging and
acceptance.
    “ Did I ever mention a man?”
    “ You recall those conversations?” Stacy’s eyes widened and she
set the mug down.
    “ I’m not sure.” Joy lifted a shoulder hesitantly. “I keep
seeing a male and I know him somehow, but I haven’t located
anything to say for certain either way.”
    Her cousin inhaled, held her breath, then exhaled, and touched
Joy’s bent knee.
    “ We used to talk about the ones who matched us and laugh about
us being blondes and them having black hair.” Stacy’s gaze on hers,
watching. “They’re our mirror image, yet complete opposite. Those
little things we shared. Your fiery temper and his cold exterior,
your warm heart his standoffishness. You two really are two
different people, at the same time exactly alike.”
    “ Did I tell you when I met him?”
    “ You called me a week after you guys started talking
regularly.” Stacy’s mouth lifted in a familiar quirky way when they
talked of the ultimate relationship. Another piece slipped into
place. “You positively glowed in your happiness. Your voice laced
with awe at learning he was a real person. Then halfway through our
conversation you’d began to doubt. The contradictions between our
parents fed the fear and scared you. It took some doing but
afterwards your mindset went back to the cheery positivity
concerning him.”
    “ What about his name?”
    “ Yeah.” She chuckled and shook her head. “Do you want me to
tell you or would you rather gain that knowledge on your
own?”
    Joy lifted a shoulder, unsure how to answer
honestly.
    “ You two share the same first initial.”
    Could that be “Jairo”? The file she studied before her cousin
arrived?
    “ So because of my parents I’m uncertain?” She turned the
subject from the male, not ready for that revelation yet. The
twinges of brain-pain started, best to just leave the topic
alone.
    “ Yeah.” Stacy tapped her knee and winked. “But you were so
happy, Joy. You seemed determined to take what was offered even
with the intensity being overwhelming at times. You would call and
cry, then you’d rant, and finally you’d sigh and move forward. I
have to say he’s good for you. Even concerning your
mom.”
    “ What’d she do?”
    “ You and her fought two months later.” Stacy sat back and
folded her hands, glancing at them and then at Joy. “It was
horrible. Your mom threatened to have her church elders pray over
you or something like that, to get rid of the demons possessing
you. That was her reasoning for the way you acted. If your dad
hadn’t stepped in…I don’t know what would’ve happened.”
    Joy swallowed and tried to recall the conversation her cousin
spoke of, but drew a blank. Maybe it was for the best. Relaxing,
she forced her mind to stop searching for answers, knowing if the
twinges kept on their path, she would have another
migraine.
    “ You called and said you were taking a vacation.” Stacy’s
shoulder lifted and she smirked. “Your mom and mine were furious
you wouldn’t go to the family cabin in the mountains. Anyway, now
this is where we are. What happened? Do you remember?”
    “ No, just images I can’t fit together at the
moment.”
    “ You will.” Her cousin leaned toward her and patted her leg.
“It’ll take time, but you’ll gain all your memories back. I’m sure
even the ones you wished you could forget.”
    That