I don’t know what to say or if I believe her. There’s still so much that doesn’t make sense. “What about the letter you sent him? You told him you were sorry. Why?”
Meg’s lip trembles. “Stu and Mellie found out I told him. They read my texts when I went out for a jog. He wouldn’t speak to me after that.” She blinks as tears fall down her face. “It’s all my fault.”
I squeeze Meg’s fingers and rest my chin in my hand, blinking back tears. “That’s why he said it was a risk to come here after dark, why he gave his ID badge to Cal.”
“I’m so sorry, Goldie,” she says, her eyes closing as she lolls her head to one side.
“Meg?” She stirs but doesn’t say anything. I move my arm toward her but then a nurse enters the room, knocking against the doorframe.
“Seems like she needs some rest, dear,” the nurse says. “You should head back to your room.”
“But—” I say.
The nurse shakes her head. “Up, up.” She pulls at my arm and leads me out the door.
“I’m not—” I start, but she pushes me to the hallway and shuts Meg’s door behind me. I walk to my room slowly, trying to organize my thoughts, understand everything Meg revealed. But there’s something I can’t let go of, a murky realization that’s only now coming into focus.
I always wonderedwhyStu and Mellie helped me after the accident. Why they threw me a life vest when they easily could have let me drown. Now I’m curious why they did the same thing for Meg. There’s only one answer I can think of and it’s not an easy one to reconcile.
They actually cared.
Amid their lies, their acts of violence—Stu and Mellie wanted to champion the underdogs. Because in the end we were like them. Until one of us threatened their very way of life. In another world, Heller could have been one of their charges, another lost soul to take in and make whole again. But in this one, he was someone outside the gates of Alpine Lake. Someone who didn’t matter at all.
CHAPTER 59
Now
When I shuffle back to my room, I see it’s not empty.
Cal’s hopped up on the windowsill, a paper bag with the Café Cloud logo on it sitting next to him.
“Brownies,” Cal says. “Your favorite, right?”
It hurts to smile but I do it anyway as I climb back into bed. He hands me one and I sink my teeth into the fudgy center. “How’d you know I was here?” I ask, mouth full of chocolate.
He grabs one, too. “It’s all over the news.”
“Everyone knows, huh?” I ask.
“That the Alpine Lake owners killed Heller for trying to expose their financial fraud?” He nods. “Yeah. They know.”
I take another bite of brownie. “Good.”
Cal sighs and glances down. “Judah said he’ll find you soon. When he’s ready. To thank you.”
I sniffle, catching tears in my throat.
“You did it, Goldie.”
I look up at him, his eyes rimmed with red. “Yeah. I did.”
“Thank you,” he says. “Thank you.” He wipes the back of his face with his sleeve. “I’m ready to back you up, you know. I’ll tell the truth about the accident. Whatever you want.”
I start to cry then, the tears falling in big wet plunks on the brownie in my hand, ready to find out what it is exactly that I want all over again.
---
By the time the doctors are ready to release me, camp is over. The session has ended and all the parents came to get their kids, still in shock from the evil of it all. Ava and Imogen told me all about it. How some families came the very night of the fire, not wanting their children to spend another night in the place. And once word got out, it traveled up and down the East Coast so finally, every affluent parent who had dared send their kid to Camp Alpine Lake knew: its owners were liars. And murderers.
