You Betrayed Me (The Cahills #3) - Lisa Jackson Page 0,75

phone was charging on the small desk in her hotel room, and she snatched it up and scrolled through her recent calls. Reporter after reporter had left messages, the most persistent being Charity Spritz, but she was with the newspaper, and Rebecca thought her plea needed to be televised.

She imagined herself staring into the camera as she begged for whoever held Megan captive, if she were alive, to release her.

That would be effective.

Everyone, including James, would take her impassioned pleas to heart.

But could she go through with it?

Why did she feel like such a phony?

It wasn’t that she didn’t love Megan; she did. But she was tired of the theatrics, sick to the back teeth of everything revolving around her younger sister. When Donald had left, he hadn’t so much as said good-bye to Rebecca. He never called, not once. But he’d kept in contact with Megan.

And hadn’t Lenora doted on her younger daughter during that painful period? “She’s so sensitive, you know,” her mother had said, not thinking that Rebecca too was wounded and in pain.

In the following years, Megan had messed up her life so often, losing jobs and boyfriends and leases on apartments at a head-spinning rate. Yet each and every time, Megan had come running to Rebecca, expecting her calm, level-headed older sister to fix things, to help Megan pick up the pieces of her shattered life, thoughtlessly expecting Rebecca’s own life to be secondary.

There was the time Rebecca had come to her rescue when Megan had gotten caught in her own emotional trap and her live-in boyfriend had drained their joint bank accounts, leaving her with an unpaid lease on an expensive apartment and zero money. Rebecca had found someone to take over the lease, a soon-to-be-married couple and clients of A Vision in White, the bridal company where she worked. She’d also allowed Megan to move in with her while she licked her wounds and pulled herself together. Rebecca had helped out with the bills and offered her younger sister as much emotional support as she could. Megan had leaned on her hard and then finally moved on.

That particular incident had been nearly two years ago, before Megan had met James, but it wasn’t the only one. Each and every time Megan’s shattered life had been thrust upon Rebecca, she’d tried her best to pick up the pieces and glue them back together as best she could.

Until now. Until Megan had stabbed her in the back by taking up with James Cahill. She still remembered the day when Megan had admitted that she’d been seeing James.

They’d been in Rebecca’s condo in Seattle. It had been drizzling, raindrops sliding down the kitchen window over the sink. Megan had been nervous, licking her lips, picking at her sleeve, her blue eyes clouded. She’d come over with a message, and she’d refused to sit down. “There’s something I have to tell you,” she’d said and met the questions in Rebecca’s eyes.

“Okay.”

“You, um, you said that you thought James was losing interest in you.”

Had she? That wasn’t quite right. “I think l said, ‘James has been distracted lately.’ ” Rebecca saw the indecision on her sister’s face. “Why?”

“Well. I thought you should know that I’m moving to Riggs Crossing.”

“To Riggs Crossing?” Rebecca repeated, wondering where this was going. “Because James lives there and . . .” Oh! Her heart dropped like a stone. No! Megan wouldn’t . . . she couldn’t . . . but Rebecca saw it in her sister’s eyes. “Because of James.”

“Yeah.” Megan was nodding. “Look, I didn’t mean for it to happen—honest, I didn’t—but—”

“For what to happen?” Rebecca demanded. But she knew! She knew, damn it. Megan had somehow, someway wheedled her way into James’s heart!

“—but James and I . . . we fell in love,” Megan admitted, a little breathlessly, stars in her eyes as if she actually believed her lies. “I’m moving to Riggs Crossing to be close to him.”

“You fell in love,” Rebecca repeated, feeling the heat crawl up her neck. “With my boyfriend!”

“It wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“You got that right.”

“It has nothing to do with you!”

“It has everything to do with me, and you know it.” Rebecca was furious and sad at the same time. “This is a mistake, Megan.”

“I know you’re hurt, and—”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Rebecca cut in.

“But we love each other.”

“I don’t want to hear it! Just go. Go to Riggs Crossing. Go be with James. You’ll find out, but don’t come running back