Page 16 of When You Got a Good Thing (Misfit Inn 1)

Kennedy dropped into a chair. “Even if Mae finds her parents, she doesn ’t want to go back to them. They left her. There’s no evidence they wouldn’t do it again.”

“I think we can all agree that it’s best for Ari if she’s kept as stable as possible. But the fact is, with Mom gone, there’s no other option for her in the Ridge. The nearest placement would be in Johnson City.”

“We’re not shipping her off to Johnson City,” Athena snarled.

“None of us wants to do that. But let’s look at reality. My life is in LA. Yours is in Chicago. That leaves Pru, and as capable as she is, I don’t know that she’s ready to take on a daughter.” Maggie shifted her gaze. “Are you?”

Before Pru could answer, Kennedy interrupted. “Excuse me, it doesn’t leave just Pru. I’m here.”

Athena sneered. “Oh, excuse us for not automatically assuming you were going to be a contributing member of this family.”

Kennedy absorbed the lash of anger, clenching her jaw to keep from fighting back in kind.

“Athena, that’s enough.” Maggie’s warning tone did nothing to dim the hostility radiating through the room.

“No.” Kennedy straightened. “You know what, it’s fine. This is good. Obviously there are things you all want—probably need—to say to me about this. Maybe it’s better to say them and clear the air.”

Pru looked from one sister to the next, worry etched on her pretty face. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

“I’d rather have it all laid out at once than put up with this sniping. So go ahead, Athena. You need to vent your spleen about whatever you’ve been carrying around. Do it. No holds barred.”

Her sister’s hands curled to fists, a muscle in her jaw ticking as she stared Kennedy down with gray eyes, cold as steel. “You left us,” she bit out.

Expecting the accusation didn’t make it sting any less. She knew well enough what she’d done. Who she’d done it to.

“You left Maggie in the middle of the biggest upheaval of her life.”

Maggie wrapped both arms around her middle in an uncharacteristic show of vulnerability. “Athena, stop it. I don’t want to drag this up again.”

But Pandora’s box had been opened. Kennedy couldn’t not address i

t. “I didn’t know you were pregnant when I left.” But looking back, she’d known something was going on with her sister. The mood swings. The change in appetite. It had been her intention to sit down with Maggie after graduation and get to the bottom of it. Then her life had hit a land mine.

“Right. Of course you didn’t.” Athena nodded. “Because we couldn’t even find you for two months to tell you about the baby. Never mind we were all worried sick about you. And when you did find out, you couldn’t be bothered to come home.”

“I didn’t have the money to come home.” It was a weak defense, but it was all Kennedy had. By that time, she’d made it to the West Coast, and her waitress’s wages and tips were barely enough to keep a temporary roof over her head. There’d been no money for a bus ticket, and even if there had, she’d been too afraid of what would happen if she violated the terms she’d agreed to.

“Because you were too busy living your self-indulgent, grand adventure. Alone. And what the fuck was that about, leaving Xander behind? Do you know what that did to him?”

“We’re not talking about Xander,” Kennedy snapped. She could only cope with so much of this at once. “I did everything I could to support Maggie from where I was.”

Across the room, Maggie’s cheeks went white. “Do you really think phone calls and emails made up for anything? I needed you, Kennedy. If you’d really wanted to, you could’ve found a way home, the same way you found a way to leave.”

They had no idea how much she’d wanted to come home, how much she’d wanted to be there through all of it. Especially after Maggie lost the baby. But nothing Kennedy could do would remove the axe hovering over the back of her neck. Part of the deal she’d made was never telling anyone the secret of why she’d left. Her sisters didn’t even know there was a danger to her coming back. If she’d come home sooner, the whole house of cards would’ve fallen, and the family wouldn’t have recovered.

Throat thick with all the things she couldn’t say, Kennedy rose from her chair. “I swear to you, I’d have been here if I could.”

“Oh bullshit,” Athena snarled. “You made a choice. You chose yourself.”

“Athena!” Pru’s censure did nothing but pull their sister’s glare to her.

“What? It’s true.”

Kennedy swallowed. “Is that really how all of you feel?”

Pru’s brown eyes were full of hurt and worry. She pressed her lips together.

“Go ahead,” Kennedy told her.

---