Page 112 of Beneath Pearly Irish Skies
Chapter Twenty-Nine
She’d run.
The moment Bets and her father had gotten into it. The last thing she heard before she left was Bets telling Patty they needed to find someplace else to stay.
Everything was in shambles.
Liam still had Ollie, thank God. She needed some time. If she could just lie down for a while to help calm her pounding head…
The cottage was quiet when she entered it, and she headed to her room. Tears started to fall again, and she flung herself onto the bed, sobbing. She’d ruined Kade’s life. All because she was stupid. So stupid.
She buried her head in the down comforter, agony needling down to her bones.
How could he love her after this?
She knew how. He really was St. Kade. Wouldn’t a normal person be mad at her? Perhaps, but he’d accept her with open arms, which meant she’d need to be the one. That she’d need to…
A chill hit her, and she pulled the comforter on top of her, curling into a fetal position. She lay there as depression stole over her. She could feel it covering her, stealing any hope she had that she had changed. That she’d made a new life for herself and found a man who could love her for her.
Her Dream Jar, sitting on the table by her bed, looked empty of all its magic.
She sat up, trying to fight back. If she kept lying down, she knew what was next. She wouldn’t have the energy to rise. Depression leached everything good. She didn’t want to succumb to it again.
Her mouth started to tremble, and she pressed a hand over it. Her whole body hurt. Was she really going to break things off with Kade?
Sorcha appeared at her bedside. She startled. “My God!”
“No, only Sorcha,” the woman in white said with a soft smile. “As for Kade being better off without you, doesn’t he strike you as a man who knows what he wants?”
Megan shivered for a different reason. “You read minds?”
“When needed.” Sorcha clasped her hands together in her lap. “You didn’t answer my question, Megan.”
She sniffed, wiping her nose. “He does. He always does.”
“Then you know he loves you and wants to be with you,” she said with a firm nod. “You’re here and not with him because you don’t yet know your own mind. Are you the girl your father scolded today? Or are you the woman you were yesterday? The one who sold some of the most beautiful pottery this county has ever seen and raced with wild abandon in her first horse race. The woman who planned to marry Kade Donovan and live out her days here in Ireland with her family.”
Megan balled the comforter in her fist. “I want to be that woman.”
Sorcha reached out her hand as if to touch Megan’s face, but it was only a whisper of wind as it neared her cheek. “Youarethat woman.”
“But I felt like that girl again.”
“I imagine you did, hearing such cruelty from someone who’s supposed to love you.”
“I don’t know how to let go of that girl,” Megan said softly.
Sorcha smiled. “It’s simple. Say goodbye to her. I’ll leave you to decide. Only know this is the last time we’ll see each other. So this is me saying goodbye to you, Megan.”
“Goodbye, Sorcha,” she said as the woman gave her a final smile and vanished before her eyes.
Decide. Liam had told her something similar when she’d first arrived. He’d talked about moving forward. He’d talked about changing. And she had, hadn’t she?
She opened her dresser drawer and pulled out her journal. Then she read. Her transformation into the woman she’d been yesterday colored the pages she leafed through. When she finished, she pressed the journal to her heart and let it fill with new light.
Then she stood up and walked over to the mirror. She touched the short hair that she loved and looked into her big brown eyes, the ones that sparkled now. The tears and white complexion she knew. They were from the old Megan.
Pretty. Girl. Smile.
