Chapter 55
I burst into Magnolia’s bedroom, and the door collides with the wall with a bang.
She shoots upright with a yelp.
“Mama!”
She raises her eye mask off a single eye and squints at me. “What in good gravy...”
I drop onto the bed, inches in front of her, and gently pull the mask off her head. I take her face tenderly in my hands,
and as if I’m declaring it by proxy, I say, “He loved you.”
I feel her throat constrict in my hands as she swallows. “He left, honey. I’m as sorry for you as I am for me.”
I shake my head and drop my hands to the letter in my lap. “I found this. He thought... He was told lies just like you.
They intimidated him and threatened you. Here, read.”
Magnolia takes the letter and holds it up and out, squinting, so I grab her glasses from the nightstand. She mutters a thank-you
and I sit quietly to let her read. I watch her face go slack and tighten at the memories and new revelations. She gasps and
covers her mouth at the very part I knew she would, the part about the pregnancy ending . Her eyes well and overflow.
I reach out a hand and set it on her knee. After a few moments, she sets down the letter and looks back up at me.
“It’s a sort of peace, yes?” she says.
I nod, and I know she has the same odd feeling in the pit of her stomach. “He wasn’t perfect, but he cared,” I say. “Kind
of like you and me.”
Magnolia squeezes her lips, and she looks young with her hair loose across her nightgown.
“I’m so sorry, Mack. I’m sorry that this is the family I brought you into, and I’m sorry I haven’t done a thing to undo all
the nastiness from before. Hell, I didn’t even realize most of it until today.” She reaches over and pulls me into her. “It
was my job to protect you, and I thought that was what I was doing. Stupid is what I was, just like them. I thought I was
protecting you from the same heartbreak I had with your daddy, but instead I was just landing you in the middle of the exact
same thing, throwing around my money to keep the two of you apart.”
“It’s funny,” I say. “The same day you see that is the same day I understand why you’d think it was ever for the best.”
“It’s not fixed.” Magnolia tells me this like it’s permission.
And she’s right. There’s still a lifetime’s worth of hurts and struggle between us; it’s not something possible to remedy
in twenty-four hours, even if that long ago feels like another lifetime. I’m still angry with her. Also, I feel for her; I
see how she was wronged and hurt, and I see how inside her mind many of the things she did looked like love. I’ve never loved
her more.
“We have plenty of time,” I tell her. “We’ll make a way.”
Magnolia takes me by the upper arms firmly. “Starting now. No more meddling, no more lies. From here on out, we’re honest—even
if the truth isn’t pretty. Now, go get your man.”
I sputter a dry laugh. “Huh?” It’s the last thing I expected to hear from her.
“I’m dead serious,” she says, and she’s up on her feet and shoo ing me off the bed. “Where are your keys? Your purse? I’m casting you out, child—and for a good reason this time.”
I stand and suddenly a small thrill erupts inside me. “Really?”
“Is this not the most enthusiasm you’ve seen from me in your entire life?” She prods me out of the bedroom and toward the
front door and hands me my keys. “You can do it, honey. You’re a Magnolia.”
I smile. “I like the sound of that.” I turn to go, but something stops me. “I have to tell you something, but you might not
like it.”
“Lay it on me.”
“I’m not sure that once I leave this place I’ll be able to come back,” I say.
This town has twisted and throttled and let me down one too many times. Unlike all the people I still want to find a way to
love, I can cast this place aside and move on. It never felt like home for me, and now I have reasons to back up my gut sensation.
“I’ve never minded the drive to Charleston,” Magnolia says.
“You can leave it behind too,” I say. “If you want.”
I know now that this place has hurt her in all the same ways it has me. And perhaps in even more ways than I’m aware of.
Magnolia pats my hands. “Don’t you worry about me. Now, go on .”
I skip down the porch steps before she changes her mind and yank open the car door. I hop into my seat and tap the address
into my maps app.
ETA: 8:16 p.m. at Lincoln’s doorstep.