Big Lies in a Small Town - Diane Chamberlain Page 0,93
a blanket. He spread the blanket over me and put the basin on my lap.
“You are a little green,” he said.
“I can’t stop shaking,” I said, my hands on my thighs now.
“It’s probably from the medication they gave you.”
I shook my head. I knew what was freaking me out. I wished we were in a different cubicle, and I wished they could help that poor woman who was in agony on the other side of the curtain.
“I just need to know how the girl we hurt is doing,” I blurted out, surprising myself. I looked at Oliver.
His eyes were serious behind his glasses. “There must be a way to find out,” he said.
“I’m sort of afraid to.”
“But it sounds like you can’t really rest easy until you know. You said you can’t find her online?”
I shook my head. “She’s not on social media,” I said. “Or maybe she is and keeps it all private. Or maybe she’s in such bad shape, social media is the last thing on her mind. Or maybe she has no mind. Maybe she ended up with brain damage.” I squeezed my trembling hands together. “I know she was paralyzed, but who knows what else is wrong with her?” I said. “When I Google her name, I just get the newspaper report of the accident. That’s it.”
He pressed his lips together as I rambled on, sympathy in his face. Then he reached over and wrapped his hand around both of mine where they were locked together on my lap next to the basin. “I’m so sorry, Morgan,” he said.
I looked at him. “Do you know about the ninth step in AA?” I asked.
He hesitated. “Something about forgiveness?”
“Not exactly. It’s about making amends.” I shuddered. “I think about it a lot, but I don’t think I could do it. I don’t think I could ever face her.”
Oliver let go of my hands as the doctor interrupted us, pulling open the curtain to my cubicle. She greeted us with a smile. “Good news,” she said. “No break. Just a grade one sprain. The nurse will be in with a compression bandage and walking boot for you. Ice it. Keep it elevated. Should be good as new in a week or two. I’ll write a prescription for the pain.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want anything for the pain,” I said. I wasn’t going to trade alcohol for opioids. No, thank you.
She hesitated, her quizzical look giving way to understanding. “Are you in recovery?” she asked.
I nodded. I felt myself blush that Oliver was hearing this, not that it was news to him.
“See how you do with acetaminophen or ibuprofen,” she said. “I’ll give you the scrip, just in case, and you can talk to your regular doctor about it.” She held the slip of paper out to me, but I didn’t reach for it. Oliver finally took it and slid it into his jeans pocket.
We were quiet as we waited in the cubicle for someone to bring me the walking boot, but after a while, Oliver broke the silence.
“What’s her name?” he asked. “The girl you … your boyfriend … hurt? Where does she live?”
“Emily Maxwell,” I said. “Somewhere … I don’t know. The accident happened in Raleigh. Why?”
He shrugged. “Maybe I can track her down,” he said. “I have friends in high places.” He winked at me and a lightning bolt of panic pierced my chest.
“I don’t want to talk to her,” I said quickly. “I can’t. But I really wish I could just know how she’s doing.” I bit my lip. “You wouldn’t try to contact her or anything, would you?”
“Of course not,” he said. Then he smiled at me. Squeezed my hands again. “That, Morgan Christopher, would be your job.”
Chapter 40
ANNA
February 28–1940
Anna awakened with a weight on her chest that made it hard to breathe. She knew that weight. It had been with her off and on since her mother’s death in November, and she knew why it was so heavy and breath-stealing this morning: today was February 28. Her mother would have turned forty-four today.
“Why, Mom?” she whispered into the air above her bed. She wished she could wind back time and do everything differently. It seemed she should be able to do that somehow, if she could only figure out the secret. If only she could go back to that argument with Aunt Alice, she could turn the horror of what happened on its head. She would still have her mother with her.