She sat forward, shivering, and stared at the floor. “I go upstairs to pack.”

“Your mother’s coming to pick you up?”

Eyes squinting closed painfully. “She’s here. I hear the car in the driveway.”

“Okay. Bett walks inside. You’re upstairs and your parents are downstairs. They’re talking?”

“Yeah. They’re saying things I can’t hear at first then I get closer. I sneak down to the landing.”

“You can hear them?”

“Yes.”

“What do they say?”

“I don’t know. Stuff.”

“What do they say?” The doctor’s voice filled the room. “Tell me!”

“They were talking about a funeral.”

“Funeral? Whose?”

“I don’t know. But there was something bad about it. Something really bad.”

“There’s something else, isn’t there, Megan? They say something else.”

“No!” she said desperately. “Just the funeral.”

“Megan, tell me.”

“I…"

“Go on. Touch the place it hurts.”

“Tate said…,” Megan felt faint. She struggled to control the tears. “He called me… They were talking about me. And my daddy said.. She took deep gulps of air, which turned to fire in her lungs and throat. The doctor blinked in surprise as she screamed, “My daddy shouted, ‘It would all’ve been different without her, without that damn inconvenient child up there. She ruined everything!’”

Megan lowered her head to her knees and wept. The doctor put his arm around her shoulders. She felt his hand stroke her head.

“And how did you feel when you heard him say that?” He brushed away the stream of her tears.

“I don’t know… I cried.”

“Did you want to run away?”

“I guess I did.”

“You wanted to show him, didn’t you? If that’s what he thinks of me I’ll pay him back. I’ll leave. That’s what you thought, isn’t it?”

Another nod,

“You wanted to go someplace where people weren’t greedy, where people loved you, where people had children’s books for you, where they read and talked to you.”