If She Only Knew Read Online Free PDF Page B

medication that helped her drift in and out of consciousness but kept her groggy definitely had its pluses.
    â€œWhat if she doesn’t . . . you know . . . remember . . . or the scars don’t go away or . . . she’s not the same?” Cissy whispered, and inwardly Marla cringed.
    â€œYou’re worrying again. From here on in she’s going to get better and better.”
    â€œI hope so,” the girl said fervently, though there was a hint of disbelief in her voice. “Will she need more plastic surgery? Dad said she already had a ton.”
    â€œJust enough to repair the damage. Now, really, we shouldn’t talk about this any more.”
    â€œWhy? Do you think she can hear us?”
    â€œI . . . I don’t know.”
    There was a pause, but Marla sensed someone edging closer to her bed, felt warm breath waft over her and realized she was being studied much like a single-cell organism under a highpowered microscope. Again Marla struggled to lift a finger. If only she could indicate that she was aware.
    â€œShe can’t hear nothing—”
    â€œAnything, ‘she can’t hear anything,’ is the proper way to say it,” Eugenia was quick to reprimand.
    â€œOh, is it?” the kid countered, and Marla figured the girl was jerking her grandmother’s chain. “I’ll try to remember, okay?”
    â€œJust remember, your mother’s lucky to be alive after that nasty accident,” Eugenia intoned. “And of course she doesn’t look the same, but you’ll see, once she wakes up and they take the wires out of her jaw and the swelling subsides, she’ll be good as new.”
    â€œWill she be able to walk?”
    Marla’s heart nearly stopped.
    â€œOf course she will. Nothing’s wrong with her legs, you know that. As I said, she’ll be fine.”
    â€œThen why doesn’t she wake up?”
    â€œIt’s what the body does to heal. She needs this rest.”
    Cissy snorted softly, as if she didn’t believe a word her grandmother was peddling. “She never liked me anyway.”
    What! No way! What a horrid idea and a wrong one. So very wrong. It was just a teenager’s warped perception. Surely she would like, no, love her daughter.
    â€œOf course she likes you.” Eugenia laughed nervously. “Don’t be ridiculous. She loves you.”
    Yes!
    â€œThen why did she want a baby so bad? A boy? Why wasn’t I good enough for the both of them . . . oh, just forget it,” she grumbled, moving away from the bed.
    â€œI will because it’s nonsense,” Eugenia said as if through pursed lips.
    There was a loud, long-suffering sigh as if the girl thought all adults in general, and her grandmother in particular, were idiots. “I don’t know why I’m even in this family. I just don’t fit in.”
    You and me both, Marla thought, though her heart went out to the girl. Had she been so cruel and thoughtless to her own daughter?
    â€œYou try hard not to fit in, but you, you just have to apply yourself. Everyone before you was an honor student. Your father went to Stanford and then to graduate school at Harvard and your mother was at Berkeley. I went to Vassar and—”
    â€œI know, Grandpa was at Yale. Big deal. I wasn’t talking about being a brainiac anyway, and what about Uncle Nick? Didn’t he drop out or something?”
    There was a tense moment. Marla sensed Eugenia bristling. “Nick took his own path, but let’s not talk about him now,” the older woman suggested. “Come on, it’s time to meet your father . . .” Eugenia must have shepherded the girl out of the room, for Marla was left alone. She relaxed, heard a nurse enter the room, then take her pulse. A few seconds later that warm, familiar haze of comfort seeped into her veins, chasing away the pain, the anxiety, the fear . . .
    She dozed for a time . . . how long, she