Page 61 of Saving Meadow

“Yeah. Meadow, Nick has some stuff he needs to tell you; we’ll give you privacy.”

My own fucking uncle threw me under the bus.

Goddammit to hell.

28

Veronica Venus

“Why do you keep apologizing? It’s not your fault.”

I was trying to be patient, but now I was getting annoyed. Nick had apologized no less than five times in the last thirty minutes since his uncles left.

“I should’ve gotten to you sooner.”

“Really? How? With your psychic abilities? You guys found me; that’s all that matters.”

Sheesh. Enough with the guilt already!

“She drugged you, and…”

“Stop. Enough. I know what she did Nick. I was there. I drank the coffee. I am the one who should’ve known better than to drink anything she gave me. She probably spit in it too. She hated me and didn’t hide it. Why I thought it was a good idea to take anything from her is my mistake. Now, please just tell me what her second phone had to do with how you found me, and why it’s a big deal?”

“Fuck, Red. You remember how she told you she had listened to you whine about your life for the past five years, and she knew everything you told Veronica Venus?”

“Yeah. She had to have hacked my phone or something.”

“No, baby, Beth is Veronica Venus.”

“What?”

How was that possible? Veronica Venus lived in South Dakota. I met her after my attack on a message board. That didn’t make any sense.

“Beth was pretending to be a survivor so she could get close to you and keep tabs in case you remembered anything. We were also able to isolate messages from Veronica Venus and pings on her cellphone that she had been following you a long time.”

“That’s not possible. How would she know what message board I belonged to, or my handle?”

“When did you start messaging with Veronica Venus?” he asked.

“I don’t know; after my attack, I joined the message board.”

“Right, but when did VV21 pop up on the message board? Had you gone back to work?”

Holy shit.

“She said I should’ve been more careful using company computers. When I went back to work sometimes on my lunch break, I would sit at my desk and log in to the message board.”

“Why would she do that?” I cried. “Oh God, Nick, I told her everything.”

I didn’t care that Beth knew I’d called her names behind her back. If I’d been strong enough at the time, I would’ve said them to her face. It was all the other stuff I told her. I’d spilled my guts to the woman who hurt me, all of my thoughts and feelings about never having children, not feeling worthy of love or a man, and how I felt less of a woman. Oh, my God. I poured my heart out thinking she was my best friend; she knew everything about me. Everything.

“I’m sorry, Red, come here.” Nick tried to pull me closer to him, but I recoiled. I didn’t want him touching me, or feeling sorry for me - poor stupid Meadow.

“Don’t. Please just leave me alone.”

“No, Red…”

“Leave Nick. I don’t need your fucking pity.”