Saving Meghan(45)

Color rushed into Becky’s pale cheeks. “Time? These people have my daughter!” she exclaimed. “They took her phone. I don’t have time to wait. I’m going up there now, right now, to get her.” Becky pointed out the window. “They’ve kidnapped her! Don’t you see? We need the goddamn FBI here!” Becky smacked her hand against the table, the sound punctuating her decree. “I don’t think I’ve made myself clear, Dr. Fisher. I’m not leaving here without my daughter.”

Carl shot his wife a hard look. “Maybe you should have thought all this through before you set off on your quest to make Meghan a medical cripple.”

Becky snapped her head around so fast, Zach thought he heard vertebrae popping. “You know what, Carl, fuck you.” Becky looked away in disgust.

Carl pushed his chair back. “I told you this meeting was going to be a waste of time,” he hissed, rising to his feet with a scowl. “I’ll meet you at the lawyer’s office.” He tossed his car keys onto the table with a clatter. “I’ll take a cab. I have a few hours to kill, so I’m going to go check on the condo job in Beacon Hill.”

“Aren’t you going to try to see your daughter?” Becky remained in her chair, her gaze directed once more out the window at the Mendon Building.

“We can’t see her, Becky,” Carl said, “or do you think the judge’s ruling is all bullshit?”

Zach thought if Carl’s voice carried any more bite, Becky would have suffered a puncture wound. “Listen, I understand you’re both extremely emotional right now, and that’s understandable, but I think for Meghan’s sake it’s important we form a united front here.”

“Really,” Becky said, glaring at Carl, who was putting his sport coat on. “Because our united front involved my husband throwing my computer out our second-story window.”

Zach thought it best not to press for details. “Listen, can we please sit and talk?” he implored.

“You sit. You talk,” Carl answered cuttingly. “But don’t you think you’ve done enough damage already? Stay out of this, Dr. Fisher. This isn’t your fight anymore.” And with that, Carl was out the door, the stamp of his heavy footsteps fading down the hallway.

Becky sat quietly for a moment. “I’m sorry,” she said. “That wasn’t fair of him—or me, for that matter. I know this isn’t your fault.”

“What’s happened between you?” Zach’s instincts told him not to press for information, but curiosity beat out his better judgment.

“Are you married?” Becky asked. She caught herself, embarrassed, as if she had remembered something, and decided against saying it aloud.

Zach wondered if he had told her about Stacy and Will, but could not recall.

“That’s personal, I shouldn’t have asked,” she said.

It took a moment or two for the tension to leave his body, and when it did, Zach shared, in brief, the worst moments of his life.

“Oh God, I’m sorry,” Becky said. “You did tell me that and it completely slipped my mind when I asked my question. I feel terrible for bringing it up.”

“It’s not a problem. And, hopefully, it helps to know that I understand all too well how a marriage can suffer under extreme stress. You have my sympathy.”

“I lost my son, too, you know.”

Zach didn’t know. His heart broke for her.

“SIDS,” she said. “I put him down for a nap, and when I went to check on him, he was gone.”

“I’m so sorry,” Zach said.

“It was eighteen years ago, but I still think of him all the time. I wonder where he would be today, what he’d be doing. He’d probably be off to college.”

“I can relate to everything you’re saying,” Zach replied, holding Becky’s gaze, feeling a long-forgotten tug on his heart.

“Even today, all these years later, just seeing a crib can send me back into that darkness. That’s why we had to move, to escape the reminders that were everywhere, that covered every inch of the town where Sammy died.”

“You and Carl have been through an awful lot,” Zach said, finding his words empty and unhelpful.

“What I need is to have my husband at my side,” Becky said.

“What happened last night?”

“Carl found me chatting with my friend Veronica over FaceTime, and he just lost it. He started screaming at me, well Veronica mostly. Blaming her for everything because she’s part of my online support group, but really he was blaming me for letting the group fill my head with a nonsense fantasy, nonsense in his view at least, that Meghan is actually sick. Then he tossed my computer out the window.”

“He’s wrong,” Zach said. “And Nash is wrong, too.”

To Zach’s complete surprise and astonishment, Becky reached across the table to put her hand over his hand. His body froze up like an engine grinding to a halt. He was not at all accustomed to touch.

Did the contact comfort her, or was she flirting with him? Zach was not sure, but he did notice her looking at him in a different way, and it made him feel incredibly uncomfortable. He pulled his hand out from underneath Becky’s, hoping his slow withdrawal would be viewed less harshly than if he had jerked his hand free, which was his initial instinct.