Page 95 of Undoing

Cass stopped, her nostrils flaring with anger at the accusation in Willamena’s tone.

“Yeah, I did.”

“I thought we agreed to take things slow.”

Cass whirled around. “What’s wrong, Dr. Woodrow? Shouldn’t you be happy that your niece got her memory back?” She stepped closer. “Rebecca wanted to go. She wanted to speed things up. And since she’s an adult and my wife, who I’d do anything for, I did as she asked. It worked. Look, maybe you wanted to play it safe to give you a second chance at taking care of her instead of jetting back to New York like you did the first time. But I’m not going to play games with my wife’s well-being to satisfy your guilt.”

Willamena was stunned by Cassidy’s words. That’s not what she was doing at all. Was it? “If I wanted to keep Rebecca from remembering, I wouldn’t have done everything I could to bring you two back together.”

Cass shook her head. “There are two sides to every coin, Doc, but you need both for that coin to be valuable. You wanted Rebecca to need you again, but you knew she needed me, too.”

Cass held her hands up, done with this conversation. She regretted everything she said. Hell, she didn’t even know if she actually believed what she said. But Cass’s emotions were getting the best of her, and they were too high and volatile to be in the room with anyone at the moment.

“I’ll be in my studio. I’d prefer not to be disturbed.”

Once again, Cass hurried away.

It took Willamena a moment to gather herself and go out to see her niece. What Cass said to her shook her. She would have to evaluate it later. Right now, she needed to see Rebecca and make sure she was okay. She opened the sliding glass door and stepped out.

“Hey, my sweet girl.”

Rebecca lifted her head from her hands, wiping tears from her cheek. “Hey, Aunt Wills.” She smiled tremulously.

Willamena pulled a chair close to Rebecca and sat down. “Are you in pain?”

Rebecca laughed sadly. “Yeah, but not in my head. Cassidy is mad at me.”

Willamena sighed. She just had a taste of Cass’s displeasure, and it wasn’t fun. She could only imagine what Rebecca felt when this should be a time of celebration.

“Do you remember when you were six years old, your mom and I took you shopping for new clothes?”

Rebecca furrowed her brows, wondering what that had to do with Cassidy being pissed at her. “I was six. I may have gotten my memory back, Aunt Wills, but it only goes so far.”

“Fair enough,” Willamena chuckled. “Well, I remember it very well. Gwennie and I were looking at cute little dresses for you. One minute, you were yelling no at everything we showed you, and the next, you were gone. We turned our backs for two seconds, and that was enough for you to disappear. We looked everywhere. We had the entire staff of the store looking. Oh, Gwennie was so scared. We both were!”

“Obviously, you found me.”

Willamena nodded. “After twenty excruciatingly long minutes, your little smart butt jumped out from under a table of clothes yelling ‘BOO!’. You laughed and laughed, thinking that’s what had scared us. Gwennie was just so happy we found you, safe and sound, that she hugged you and kissed you all over your little face. But once things settled down, that’s when the anger came. ‘Don’t you dare do that again, Rebecca Aisling Cuinn!’.”

“‘You scared me to death!’” Rebecca quoted, the memory of that day vaguely coming back to her. “Was that your long, drawn-out way of telling me that Cassidy is in her anger stage?”

“I’m saying she was scared of losing you, Becca. She was afraid you’d never remember how in love you two are. And now that she can breathe and feel something other than fear and loss, it’s hitting her hard.”

“What should I do?”

“Are you afraid of her?”

“No,” Rebecca answered immediately. There wasn’t an ounce of doubt that Cassidy would never hurt her.

“Then talk to her. What was it that you told me she did for you? Exorcise your demons?”

Rebecca nodded. “It’s my turn to return the favor. Do you mind if we do this later? I don’t want Cassidy to agonize over this any longer.”

“Not at all. Let her talk, Becca. She needs to know she can be candid with you without losing everything.” Willamena smiled, trying to appease the apparent anxiety in Rebecca. Every time there was discord within her relationship with Cass, Rebecca was thrown off-kilter. The quicker they get over this bump, the better. “Now, before I go, have you told the others that you’ve regained your memory?”

Rebecca shook her head. “You’re the first. Could you tell them? I need to fix things with Cassidy. That’s my priority right now.”

Willamena got up, bringing Rebecca up with her and kissing her on the cheek. “I got it covered. Would you be opposed to having a little get-together?”

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