Saving Meghan(117)

“That might have been it, her last hurdle, but Zach got his biopsy thanks to Meghan, and so she had to go and sabotage that. I guess she messed with the data entry so that the lab techs would do the wrong stain or something.”

“So twisted.”

“Tell me about it.”

“But I thought Carl didn’t want the second biopsy done?”

“He didn’t. He had broken things off with Nash after the kidnapping, but he still trusted her medical opinion because he didn’t trust me. He had no idea what she was up to, but somehow she had convinced him that for Meghan’s mental health, he had to do anything and everything in his power to prevent that second biopsy from taking place. That’s why he paid off Kelly London from his corporate account and told her to betray me. I guess everyone has a price, even lawyers.”

“How’s Meghan taking it?”

Becky knew Sabrina was talking about the results from the second biopsy that showed the ragged red fibers that were a clear marker of mitochondrial disease.

“She’s doing remarkably well given her diagnosis, not to mention all that’s happened,” Becky said. “But we have a long road ahead of us. Mito is a terribly, terribly debilitating disease. We’re still not sure how many of Meghan’s organs are affected. A lot depends on the severity; we just don’t know yet. But she’s taking it all in stride, going day by day, because that’s all we can do.”

“Meghan’s an amazing girl.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Becky said.

“I should know,” Sabrina said tellingly, and Becky understood. Sabrina needed to come east. They were family. They were all each other had now.

“Can I confess something?” Becky said.

“Anything,” Sabrina said.

“I’m not sure they were wrong.”

“Who?”

“Nash, Singer, Carl, the whole lot of them. There’s truth to what they said about me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve been talking a lot to Veronica, a friend from my online group, about my past, what happened, and it got me thinking. Part of me wanted Meghan to be sick.”

Sabrina did a poor job of hiding her “I told you so” face. “That’s not easy to admit,” she said.

“No, it’s not,” Becky replied assuredly. “When Meghan got sick, I think I understood Cora better than I ever had. She didn’t just get money faking her disability. She got attention. That was how I connected with her. Attending to her fantasy. With Meghan, I felt like … like…”

“Like you got to be Cora? You got the attention finally, not her—is that it?”

Becky nodded. “I think you were right, Cora’s cancer brought up a lot of issues for me. With Sammy, you know. There’s a lot of loss in me, and as I was losing Mom, a part of me felt that loss of Sammy all over again, which made me hold on even tighter to Meghan. So I think part of me secretly wanted her to be sick. I think what Carl said was true, that I thrived on it. I became like Mom, filling up on the attention.”

“Our mom was not a healthy person,” Sabrina said, stating the obvious.

“Maybe I wasn’t healthy either.”

“Honestly, I think you were confused, struggling, but I don’t believe you have Munchausen, if that’s what you mean,” Sabrina said. “At least not a typical case.”

Becky exhaled a weighty sigh. “Maybe I do, maybe I don’t. But I am sure I don’t have it now. With Cora gone, I feel like I can finally move on. I feel a million pounds lighter—and before you judge, I know that’s a terrible thing to say.”

“Don’t feel bad for not feeling bad,” Sabrina said. “It’s unbecoming of you.”

Becky leaned in so that their shoulders touched. “Ironic, isn’t it, that Nash’s plan to use Zach to get me out of the picture might have helped to save Meghan—that is, if the doctors can ever find a cure for that damn disease.”

“They will. Have faith.”

Becky fixed her gaze on the rolling waves. “Cora loved the ocean. It was one of the gentlest things about her.”

“You can let go now,” Sabrina said. “She’s gone.”

Becky focused on a seagull lazily riding the draft of the steady ocean breeze. “Nobody is ever really gone,” she said. “We leave marks on this world, as invisible as the trail of that bird out there. Cora, Carl, even Amanda Nash, will always be a part of me. But there’s a difference between letting someone into your life and letting them define it. I know that now. And, yeah, I finally feel free.”





EPILOGUE





ZACH


Dear William: Dad here.

I’m writing you on what would be your nineteenth birthday to let you know that I’m getting married. I met her two years ago, through some rather unusual circumstances. You’d love her, Will, and I know you’d approve.

I want you to know that I miss you every single day. I never stopped fighting for you, same as I never stopped blaming myself for your death. But I have to stop now. If I’m going to be a husband again—and a stepfather to her amazing daughter, Meghan—I have to move forward with my life. I can’t stay stuck in limbo anymore. So that’s why I’m writing you this letter, which I will put in an envelope but sadly never mail, to let you know that while I’ll never forgive myself for what happened to you, I won’t use it as an excuse to stay trapped in the past. You were dealt a bad hand in life—the worst. Sometimes life simply isn’t fair. But good can come even in the darkest times if you keep your heart open.