So Smith was on the mend, feeling high with Erin and his new family in his corner.
But Meg had no one.
She took the money, looking surprised he’d brought it. She handed him a thick manila envelope. “He passed away two months ago. But he left this for you right before you got back to the States, actually.” She gave him a mean smile. “Too bad he died before you could see him.”
“Too bad.” He agreed, not happy or sad about the fact. Unlike Cash, Smith had no emotional connection to the man who’d sired them. He knew Cash wanted to think at least Allen had been a decent guy, but Smith knew better.
He opened the sealed envelope and glanced inside to see it contained something from a law firm as well as a personal letter and a photo. So she hadn’t made up the letter after all. He’d taken a chance.
“It’s real. You can see I never opened it,” she snapped.
He nodded. Then he asked what he’d wanted to know for so long. “Why?”
She sneered. “Why? Why what?”
“Why were you so cruel to me? What did I ever do to you?”
“You were born.” She looked the way he’d felt when he’d unloaded on Cash and the others. All that toxic emotion came boiling out, and Meg seethed and shouted, her words making a sad kind of sense. “Angela and I fell for the same man—Allen. But he only had eyes for her. She was married. Already had a husband, one who would have married me if Angela hadn’t stolen him first.
“She married Charles, and then she stole Allen from me too.” Her bitter grief seemed to have frozen her tears, the woman unable to shed them. “She got pregnant with Cash, and I was never sure who the father was. I had no idea she’d carried on her affair with Allen for so long. My husband had died, and Allen and I were in love.”
“Why didn’t he marry you?”
“Because, you dumb shit, he was married to someone else. Rachel Wilson-Smith, of the hotel magnate Wilsons. He married money, a lot of it. But he loved Angela, was obsessed with her. And she knew it would crush Charles if he knew. So she kept Allen a secret, even from me. But Allen couldn’t stay away. We took consolation from each other, each of us mourning lovers we could never have. And then she had you, another mistake.”
Once that would have crushed him, but Smith was coming to realize the circumstance of his birth didn’t matter.
“She had you here, you know, so Charles and the boys wouldn’t find out. I couldn’t have a baby, so she gave you to me. A gift.” She snorted. “Please. You were hers and his. Not mine. Never mine. And the funny thing is, he never knew. He thought you were his andmine.”
Smith had wondered.
“He would visit, help me out with child support in cash, so his wife wouldn’t find out. And then he stopped coming. Just stopped, though the checks continued to arrive like clockwork.” Her eyes shone. “No more contact with Allen Smith.” Meg sighed. “I think maybe he knew you were his and hers. But I could never tell. And your paternity didn’t matter in bed. He wantedmethere, not her. Just me.” She no longer sounded angry but dispassionate. Detached from it all.
“Jealousy and infidelity. You should be so proud.” Smith shook his head. “The sad thing is, you’re all alone now. You have no one.”
“I don’t need anyone. Never have, never will.”
“You know, I feel sorry for you. I never thought I would, but I do.”
“Screw you.” She looked almost scared.
“I would have loved you and taken care of you. I would have helped you find some peace. We could have found it, together. But you ruined all that.”You almost ruined me. “I’ll move your things for you. I brought a moving van and a team.” He paused. “My family. We’ll move your things into your new home.”
“I’m dying. It’s an assisted living facility for the sick. Happy now?”
“Are you?” he asked softly.
Her lips trembled. So bitter. So alone. “I’ll be in my room. Move all this, and we’re done. I don’t want to see you again. Ever.”
“You won’t,” he promised.
It was a somber crew who moved Meg’s things. Smith took one last look at her before he left her house, the frail old woman sitting in a rickety chair in her otherwise bare room, staring at a photograph he couldn’t make out and didn’t want to.
They dropped off her things, setting up her new room with a care he’d have said she didn’t deserve. Erin watched him, nodding. Understanding. “This is for you. Not for her.”
He did right by Meg at the end. Then he left and didn’t look back.
They regroupedat Cash’s house, joined by Kenzie, Daniel, Naomi, and Jordan. Laughter and music filled the air, the house no longer Angela’s but a place full of joy and new beginnings.
