Page 96 of Since She's Been Gone

So Dr. Siegel was right. I do have a half-sister out there, who I might have the chance to know if I can find her. But why don’t the Cadells want me to know about her?

“Unfortunately, Sally died a day after she was born at the hospital.”

I barely register Carla’s words. “What?”

“SIDS.”

The pain hits me, thinking about the half-sister I just learned about that I’ll never have the chance to know. A tear clips my cheek, adding to the countless tears I’ve shed in the last twenty-four hours.

“I’m sorry,” Carla says. “I always wondered if the stress the Cadells put Irene under did Sally in. I tried to protect her when the Cadell thugs came by here, harassing her. By the end of her pregnancy, I made her sleep in my extra bedroom so they’d leave her alone. Billy was useless—he always followed his dad’s orders.”

“Thank you,” I say quietly.

“After Sally’s death, Irene couldn’t get out of bed for days. She eventually broke up with Billy before leaving New York for good. I followed the lawsuits against TriCPharma through the years, always rooting for the Cadell family to be taken down. Years later, I made Henry search for Irene online since I’m old and not good with computers. I wanted to know what happened to her. He somehow found her obituary even though she had changed her last name, and I read about you and your dad. I was sad to learn she had passed but happy to know the pain of losing Sally hadn’t stopped her from becoming a mom.”

I close my eyes, but the tears still dribble out.

“Are you okay?” Carla asks me.

I nod, swiping the tears away.

“It’s just a lot, learning about all of this.”

“I understand. Just know you were wanted and, I’m certain, loved,” she says.

“Thank you for sharing all of this with me. I have to get back to LA now.”

“I’m so glad we got to meet.”

I leave Carla’s apartment, walk down the stairs in a daze, and step outside the building.

The sun is rising with a sharp glare. I left my sunglasses in my car in LA, so I shield my eyes with one of my hands.

I take out the burner Special Agent Jason gave me and text Eddie.

My mom had a baby with William Cadell, Jr.: “Baby Sally.”

She died of SIDS a day after she was born in the hospital.

The Cadells don’t want me to know about her. Not sure why.

Please let Paul know. Maybe he can find out why.

On my way to the airport.

I slip the phone into my bag and flag down the first taxi I see. It’s still a ways down the street and one lane over.

As I watch, the taxi begins to veer out of control. The driver quickly changes lanes and nearly hits another car in the process. He’s fast approaching me.

My last thought before everything goes black is that this is it—the moment the Cadells will take me out.

PART IIIIntervention

We have met the enemy, and he is us.

—Walt Kelly

CHAPTER51

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