Chapter 41

3:14 p.m. Holy Saturday, April 3, General Hospital, La Crosse

“I’m losing them all, all the people I love. Jimmy...” Maggie gulped. “John’s...oh, Susan, I’m so worried—you should’ve seen him! He was…wild, making no sense.” She clenched her fingers. “I hated to leave him but…”

“She’s going to be fine,” Susan replied. “The doctors told us.”

Maggie stroked her daughter’s hair. Rachel was still unconscious, following surgery to repair her jugular vein and larynx. “I doubted her.”

Susan adjusted Rachel’s pillows. “We all have doubts, Maggie. Nothing immoral or criminal about that.”

“You don’t know,” Maggie replied softly.

“Perhaps you’d better tell me, then.”

“I... I told her about Jimmy. She’s my daughter! I’d lost her once... I wanted to prove I love her. Couldn’t bear the thought of losing her again.”

“You won’t, can’t you see?” Susan smiled. “She’s come home.”

Maggie broke down. Susan handed her a tissue and waited.

Finally, Maggie wiped her face, then said, “When... when the story broke, I... I thought she’d betrayed me... us. I, oh dear Lord forgive me, I even confronted her.”

“Had she?”

“I don’t know. She denied it but...”

“You don’t believe her?”

“I don’t know what to believe anymore!” Maggie lowered her voice. “She...she tried to commit suicide, for heaven’s sake. Doesn’t that mean guilt?”

“Perhaps.”

“You don’t think so?” Maggie’s voice rose with hope. “How else could that TV woman have found out?”

Susan’s soft face filled with sadness. “I don’t think we know the whole story.”