Page 16 of Hidden Truths

Megan pushed the mask down to reveal a pretty face, worn by worry and grief. “You don’t understand what he’s really like. I was a cleaning lady in his office. I was doomed to be a cleaning lady. My mother had never been more than that. My father was… I don’t know who my father was. All my life everyone told me I was never going to amount to anything. I believed them. I worked for Harrison Industries. He was always there late, in his office, and he saw me. He talked to me. He asked me what I was doing, how old I was, what I wanted from life. I was twenty-three and no one had ever asked me that. But I knew the answer. I knew. I said I wanted to be a nurse. He said, ‘Not a doctor?’ and I said no. When my mother was dying—lung cancer, she smoked—I remember the hospice nurses. Mom wasn’t ever a nice lady and when she was suffering…” Megan exhaled. “But the nurses never judged. They never reproached. When she died, no one from our family was there, but they were.”

The immensity of the tragedy she hinted at made the nurses and Dr. Clift exchange glances, and broke Kellen’s heart.

“Before I knew it, Harrison had me taking tests, working with a tutor so I could get into school. He said… He said his success had been him, fighting, with never a hand out to help him, but I didn’t need to do it that way. He had a reputation as a tough man, but I couldn’t help falling in love with him.” Megan touched the ring finger on her left hand. She was a nurse—she wore no jewelry—but a tan line encircled the finger.

She exuded misery, love, hope.

Harrison really was a bastard.

“He loved me. At least, he said he did. I didn’t think he’d want to marry me. He was so rich and handsome, and I was training to be a nurse.” Hastily Megan added, “Which I was proud of, but I had never worn designer clothes or real jewels or dined in five-star restaurants. I didn’t want to marry him, but he convinced me it would work.” As she remembered and reminisced, she smiled. “And it has. Ten years. The occasional fight over what show to watch or where to go on vacation. But, you know, a good marriage. Then this, and he won’t even…” She swallowed. “I tried to talk to him, to explain I don’t care, that his arms aren’t who he is, that he can learn to use the prostheses and we would go on. I told him I loved him. He told me to leave. He told me… He took all the things he knows about me and my past, and mocked me. He hurt me. I never wanted to see him again. And I didn’t. Not for months.”

“What changed?” Kellen asked.

“What changed?” Dr. Clift asked.

Megan said, “I realized that whether he loves me or not, I love him.”

Dr. Clift exhaled in exasperation. Kellen heard his thoughts clearly; he’d just gone through a third bitter divorce. He didn’t believe in love, but he could hardly argue with Megan’s devotion.

Yet the simplicity of Megan’s declaration caught at Kellen’s heart, made her think of Max, made her hope she could do something for this woman before it was too late.

She looked down at her pale fingers.

It had better be soon. “I have to sleep now,” she told the medical staff, and returned to her body.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

OFCOURSE, MAXOVERSLEPT. Cursing viciously, he barely showered, flung on his clothes and headed out into the already blazing desert morning. He could see Warden Arbuckle and Korthauer telling him he couldn’t see Mara Philippi because he was too late.

He parked in the prison parking lot. The guards at the gate half-heartedly checked his identification and searched him for weapons; they’d now seen him often enough to be bored with him.

He went through all the checkpoints at a good pace, and only somewhat listened to the directions to the warden’s office. He knew how to get there.

He approached the outer office and looked in. A short middle-aged woman with huge breasts and that McFarrellville family look to her sat at Assistant Warden Korthauer’s desk. She looked up at Max. “Mr. Di Luca?”

“That’s right.”

She offered her hand. “I’m Corrections Officer Winifred Rinaldo. Something came up and right now, Warden Arbuckle and Assistant Warden Korthauer can’t take you on the tour of the facility.”

Max was damned sick of getting the prison runaround. “What do you mean, they can’t take me on a tour of the facility? We have an appointment, and not for a tour. I’m here to visit Mara Philippi.”

“Oh. You’re the one.” Officer Rinaldo eyed him up and down. “I didn’t realize… You know Mara Philippi is one of our most dangerous prisoners. Crazy, cruel and manipulative.”

“That would be her.”

“Gossip in town says you’re one of the people who captured her and brought her to justice.”

“For once, gossip is right.”

“Your wife also played a hand in it.” Her tone hinted at admiration and compassion.

Max began to think this woman wasn’t part of McFarrellville’s good ol’ boy network. “A very big hand in it.”

“And she’s dying.”

“Yes.”

Officer Rinaldo said, “Humph.” Her eyes narrowed on him; they were honest and clear of guilt, and she didn’t mind looking him in the face. “Humph.”

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