CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The following morning, Meg buckled her seatbelt and stowed her tote bag under the seat in front of her as she prepared for the flight to LaGuardia Airport in New York. She retrieved her cell phone from the seat back pocket in front of her, and composed a text message to Sky:
I’m taking a quick trip home for a few days. See you when I get back. xoxo
She hit the “send” button. When she saw that the text message was delivered, she put her phone in airplane mode, plugged in her headphones, and closed her eyes. Sorry, Sky, but this is one thing I have to do alone.
When the plane touched down two hours later in New York, Meg picked up the rental car she had reserved, and drove east on the Long Island Expressway. “It’s funny how it all comes back to you,” she said aloud, as she took Exit 70 and turned south towards the entrance to Route 27.
Chills ran down her spine as she rounded the sharp left curve, remembering the photos she saw of the crash that took the life of her cousin’s first husband. He was a bad guy, but no one deserves to die that violently.
She continued driving east, and felt her body tense as she crossed over the Shinnecock Canal onto Long Island’s east end. It was as though she was passing through a black hole and time-traveling to another world. The changes to the town landscape, such as a new townhouse community on the highway, caught her attention. “I guess Jen can’t single-handedly stop all development,” she said to herself. “But at least it wasn’t farm land.”
Meg turned off the highway and followed the back roads she knew so well from her childhood. She pulled the rental car into the driveway of a modest gray clapboard home, and cut the ignition. It looks the same as always, she thought as she exited the car and stretched her long legs. Nothing ever seems to change here.
After climbing the three steps up to the covered porch, she dug into her tote bag for the old key. She slipped the key into the lock, and entered the house. “Dad?”
“In here, honey.”
Meg followed the voice to the kitchen, where she found her father seated at the table with a sandwich and an open bag of potato chips in front of him. “Hi,” she said.
Victor Novak stood and took his daughter into his arms. “It’s been too long, Meg.”
Meg shrugged out of his arms. “You know I always come back this time of year.”
He closed his eyes to block out the pain. “I hate to see you torture yourself. This isn’t what your mother would want you to do.”
She winced at the reference to her mother. “I know it’s hard for you to see me, so I arranged to stay in the guest house at the farm. Aunt Grace said…”
Victor cut her off. “Meg, it’s not hard for me to see you. You’re my daughter, and I love you. You know you’re always welcome to stay here at home.”
She shook her head. “Nashville has been my home for nearly ten years now.”
“I wish you hadn’t run away. Southampton is your home. We all miss you, and we all love you.” His eyes became watery, and he swallowed hard. “You’re my baby girl, Meg, and always will be. You’re all I’ve got. When are you going to let this go?”
She saw the sadness in her father’s face, and the tears welling up in his eyes. She shook her head, and replied, “Never.”
Her father sighed. “Would you at least join me for lunch? I can make you a sandwich, if you’d like.”
Meg started to answer, but was interrupted by the sound of “When I Met You” coming from her cell phone, announcing that Sky was calling her. She declined the call, silenced her phone, and tossed it back into her bag.
“Aren’t you going to answer it?”
“No…it was just my boyfriend. I’ll call him back later.”
Her father took the cold cuts out of the refrigerator and placed them on the table, along with bread and mayonnaise. “I watched the ACM awards show. You looked beautiful, but I was worried about you.”
“I texted you and the family to let you know that I was okay.”
Victor sat at the table, and gestured to a chair. “It would have been better if you had called.”
Meg bit her lip. “I’m sorry, dad, that you were worried. But I was fine, and there was a lot going on.”
He nodded his head. “The gossip rags are reporting that the shooter might be pregnant with his child. Is that true?”
“Yes and no. She is pregnant.” She sighed and shook her head, before continuing, “The tabloids couldn’t wait to print that story. The paternity test should be back in the next week or so.”
Victor watched as Meg assembled a turkey sandwich on rye bread with tomato and mayonnaise. “Is he good to you?”
“Who? Sky?”
“Yeah.”
“Yes, he’s good to me. He treats me well. The tabloids make him out to be a real bad boy, but he’s not. He’s a good, solid guy. I feel bad for him that he’s caught up in this mess.”
“I feel worse that a crazy person has tried to kill you twice, and I had to learn about it through the press.”
Meg shrugged. “She’s in custody now, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
“Does he know you’re here?”
She couldn’t meet her father’s eyes. “I sent him a text message this morning to let him know I was going home for a few days.”
“Does he know it’s your birthday? Or anything else?”
“No.”
Victor’s face fell. “Why didn’t you tell him?”
Meg felt her stomach churn. “You know I don’t celebrate my birthday. It’s not a day to celebrate anything.”
Sky stared at his cell phone. “Goddamn it, why won’t you answer my calls,” he said, as he listened to Meg’s outgoing voicemail message. After the beep, he said, “Meg, it’s me. Please call me back. I just want to know that you’re okay. I just want to talk to you.”
After setting the phone down on the counter, he paced back and forth in the living room of the log cabin, before going back into the kitchen to grab a beer from the refrigerator. He carried the beer into the living room and took a deep sip. “Jesus, baby, I miss you. I wish you’d call me. I’ve never felt so alone.” He closed his eyes and conjured up a mental image of Meg, when he heard his cell phone ring.
Jumping up from the sofa, he ran to answer the phone. “Meg?”
“Hey Sky!” Jack and Becky shouted out in unison.
“Why are you guys calling from Australia? Shouldn’t you be enjoying your honeymoon?”
“We are,” Jack said.
“But we just wanted to wish our girl Meg a happy birthday,” Becky chimed in. “Is she there?”
Sky’s blood ran cold, and he froze in place. “Her birthday? What are you talking about?”
“God, Jack,” Becky said, exasperated. “I told you that her birthday was tomorrow, because we’re one day ahead in Australia.”
“Yeah, you must be right. I’m all confused with the time change and the International Date Line thing. But is she there? Can we wish her happy birthday a day early?”
Sky’s heart was beating rapidly as he sank down onto the sofa and took a deep sip of his beer. “It’s her birthday?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Becky said. “You don’t know when her birthday is?”
“No. She never mentioned it. How do you know?”
“One day when you guys were busy with interviews and rehearsals last week in Las Vegas, we went to have our horoscopes done. I made a note of it when she told the astrologer her birthday,” Becky said.
Sky pounded his fist on the coffee table. “Shit.”
“Well, you have plenty of time to make plans for tomorrow,” Jack offered.
“She’s out of town,” Sky said in a weak voice. “She texted me this morning to say that she was leaving town for a few days. She went home.”
“Buddy,” Jack said. “You know what you have to do, don’t you?”
Sky sighed. “Yeah, I do. I’ve gotta track her down.”
Meg’s alarm sounded just after the sun rose. She peeled off the covers and stumbled into the shower. Despite the numbness she felt, she managed to go through the motions of her morning routine, as she blew her hair dry and pulled on her clothes.
She closed the door of the farm’s guest house behind her, and noticed the lights on in the main house. “I guess Aunt Grace arrived after I went to sleep last night,” she said to herself as she got into her rental car.
The early morning mist became thicker as Meg drove towards Southampton village. She brought her car to a stop in front of Our Lady of Poland, and paused to look at the memorial bricks on the ground in front of the church until she found the one with her mother’s name. She said a silent prayer before walking inside.
The elderly parish priest greeted her as she entered the church. “It’s good to see you, Meg.”
“It’s good to see you too, Father.”
“Are you okay?”
She shrugged. “I’m never okay this time of year. Will you hear my confession?”
He gestured towards the last pew. “No need to go into the confessional.”
Meg knelt and recited the familiar words as she made the sign of the cross. “Bless me Father, for I have sinned. It’s been one year since my last confession.”
“Talk to me, Meg.”
She looked into the priest’s kind face. “I’ve missed Mass most Sundays,” she said. “And then there’s my boyfriend. We’ve been…”
“Intimate?”
Meg closed her eyes and hung her head. “Yes.”
“No need to go into details. Anything else?”
Her voice shook. “Yes. I’m very sorry about my mother.”
“That wasn’t your fault. We talk about this every year.”
“I still feel guilty, and responsible.”
The priest sighed. “I can forgive your sins, Meg, but I can’t absolve you of your guilty feelings. That’s something only you can do, and you should do. No one blames you, except yourself.”
Meg nodded her head. “I know. But I still feel responsible.” She closed her eyes and recited the act of contrition as the priest placed his hands on her shoulders and said the prayers of absolution.
“As your penance, say a decade of the rosary. Mass will start in ten minutes.”
“Thank you, Father.” Meg stood and moved to the first pew in front of the altar. She pulled her mother’s rosary beads from her bag, and began to pray.
She heard the interior doors of the church open behind her as other people entered, but she didn’t turn around until it was time to share the sign of peace. Her father was in the pew behind her, and she kissed him on the cheek, before greeting her Aunt Grace, cousin Jennifer, and Jennifer’s husband Drew.
After Mass, she was surrounded by her family. “Would you like some company today? Jennifer asked.
Meg turned her down. “No, thanks. I appreciate your offer, but this is a day I prefer to spend alone.”
Jennifer pulled her into a tight hug. “I understand, but I want you to know I’m here for you. We all are.” She released Meg, and walked with her towards her car. “I hope you’ll join us for dinner tomorrow night at Almond. Gina is coming out for the weekend, and my father and Pete, too. It would be nice to have the whole family together.”
“That sounds good.” Meg gave her cousin a quick squeeze before opening the car door. “Thanks, Jen, for coming to Mass this morning.”
“Anything for you, Meg. I love you. We all do.”
The private jet touched down at East Hampton Airport just after noon. Sky slung the duffel bag over his shoulder and shook the hands of the crew before picking up a rental car. He exited the airport and followed the GPS directions to Montauk Highway. As he drove west, his stomach tied up in knots as he recalled the conversation with Jack and Becky the previous day. Why the hell didn’t she tell me it was her birthday?
At a red light in Bridgehampton, he checked for the hundredth time to make sure Meg’s birthday present was in his bag. This says everything I’ve been too chicken shit scared to say. God, I hope she likes it.
The GPS lead him north of the highway to the driveway of a gray clapboard house with a wide front porch. He exited the car and took a deep breath before bounding up the steps. He raised his hand and was about to pound on the door, before realizing, this is her father’s house, and she might not even be here. I probably should use the doorbell instead.
He waited, and when no one answered, he rang the doorbell again. He pulled out his phone to double-check the address, and jumped when the front door opened.
“Yes? Can I help you?”
Sky removed his sunglasses, and came face to face with a tall, thin, middle-aged man with graying blond hair and blue eyes. “Mr. Novak?”
Victor’s eyes grew wide when he recognized his visitor. “Yes. Are you Sky?”
Sky extended his hand. “Yes, sir, that’s me. I decided to surprise the birthday girl. Is she here?”
“Come in. And call me Victor,” he said, as he grasped Sky’s hand in a firm handshake. He led Sky into the kitchen, and gestured for him to sit. “How do you know it’s her birthday?”
“I actually learned about it yesterday, completely by accident. She never told me.”
“Yeah. Well, I’m not surprised.”
“Why?”
Victor shook his head. “She doesn’t celebrate her birthday.”
Sky was confused. “Why not?”
“It’s better coming from her.”
Sky looked around the kitchen. “Where is she? I don’t understand.”
A sigh escaped Victor’s lips. “I’ll take you to her,” he said. He stood and grabbed a set of keys from a bowl on the counter. “Let’s go.”
They drove in silence until Victor turned his pick-up truck through the gates of a cemetery.
Sky fidgeted as he looked around. “Why are we in a cemetery?”
Victor glanced at Sky. “Again, it’s better coming from her.” He brought the truck to a stop. “She’s over there.”
Sky looked in the direction Victor was pointing, and saw a figure seated on the ground in the distance. “That’s her?”
“Yeah.” Victor crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I don’t want to go over there, because she usually prefers to be alone. But you should go to her. Maybe you can talk some sense into her. I’ll leave the two of you alone.”
Sky exited Victor’s truck, and began walking towards Meg. He ran his hands through his hair and thought, what the hell is going on?
Meg heard footsteps behind her, but chose not to turn around. As the footsteps came closer, she sensed a certain familiarity in the gait, and her heart began to race. She closed her eyes and whispered, “No. It can’t be.”
Sky came to a stop behind her. “Baby, what are you doing here?”
Butterflies fluttered in Meg’s stomach as she whipped her head around. “Sky! How did you find me?”
He sat next to her on the ground, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. He pulled her close, and kissed her on top of her head. “Never mind that. Happy birthday, baby. Why didn’t you tell me?”
She shook her head. “My birthday isn’t a reason to celebrate.”
He wrinkled his brows, and his voice was full of concern. “I don’t understand.”
“It’s just…we have more in common than you know.” She hung her head and sighed.
“What is it?” Sky pushed the hair out of her eyes. “You can tell me anything. You know that.”
Meg could barely bring herself to utter the words. “Look,” she said, pointing at the tombstone. “I killed my mother too.”