Page 127 of The Me I Left Behind

“Yes. That’s right.” Her heart kicked into overdrive. She would not bail him out of some stupid situation in fucking Australia. “Until the divorce is final.”

His voice lowered. “I see. I’m afraid I have unfortunate news. Your husband…well he was….”

He rambled on, the words dipping in and out of his Australian dialect.

Maggie couldn’t grasp it all at first—unsure whether she just couldn’t hear him, wasn’t hearing correctly, or if her brain could not comprehend.Accident. Ravine.Air lift.The rest of his speech fell into an abyss of incoherent sentences and misplaced phrases.

Deceased.

A sharp pain pierced her left palm, and she looked down at it—blood. She was still holding the shell fragment, and she’d squeezed it so tight she’d cut herself.

Deceased?

For a moment, her world was quiet. Still. Frozen in time.

“Mrs. Oliver?” the man on the phone queried.

Then abruptly, her world spun, and all the breath left her lungs, exited her body, squeezing her chest against her backbone. Lights sparked behind her eyes. She looked at Chloe, still playing with water and sand. Paying no attention to her. She glanced at the cottage and saw Carol step off the porch.

“Oh, God. No.” Maggie fell to her knees in the sand. Had she screamed the words? Or were they only in her head?

Jason ran to her. “Mom?”

Peripherally, she saw Chloe sitting there, watching, staring.

Sam rushed up, calling her name. “Maggie! What is it?” He crouched in front of her, examining her left palm. “You’re bleeding.”

Julia shouted. “What happened? Mags?”

“Shell,” she said. “I’m. Okay.”

“Mom!” Carol’s voice came from behind Sam. “What’s happening? Are you okay?”

“I… I…” She met Carol’s gaze. How could she tell her?

How could she tell any of them? That their father….

She searched for Jason’s eyes.

“Oh, God… I’m so…sorry.” She whispered the words, almost choking them out… Couldn’t hold back her tears any longer. She wasn’t crying for her. Or for Max. She was crying for them.

Carol sat beside her. “I’m here, Mom. What is it?”

She held out the phone. “Australia.”

The look on Carol’s face told her she understood that something was wrong. Carol took the phone and put it to her ear. “Hello? Is anyone there?”

Maggie watched her facial expression. Her girl remained surprisingly deadpan.

“Yes,” she said. “I understand. No, no. That was my mother. I’m Max Oliver’s daughter.” Carol held her gaze while she listened for another minute or so.

Maggie wasn’t sure anything could break that connection.

Carol lowered the phone and looked at Jason. “It was…about Dad.”

“Oh, God,” Julia uttered, and hugged Maggie.

“What’s happening?” Jason said. “Carol?”

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