The moment Nate hung up the phone, he felt guilt blossoming in the pit of his stomach. Was he right to hide Meredith from her parents? He glanced over at her, where she sat on the couch biting her bottom lip and listening while Miguel spoke to her in a low voice.
Nate knew in his gut that Meredith needed to go public with what she knew. Too many lives were at stake if what she had told him was true. Nate worried that if she reconnected with her parents, they would squirrel her away somewhere, allowing her to succumb to her own fears. No, keeping her isolated was good, at least until Nate could convince her that he was right. Once she agreed, then he’d call her parents back. Nate’s mental gymnastics did little to relieve him, however, as he kept hearing Rob’s worry torn voice in his head, saying, “We need your help.”
Nate shoved his phone in his pocket as if it were the very guilt he was trying to keep at bay. Returning to the living room, he murmured an apology for taking the phone call and sat back down in the chair.
“I know it’s hard, Mere,” Miguel was saying. “But you gotta find those same feelings that convinced you to come to the hospital and save me.”
“That’s completely different. I was able to come save you without exposing myself as a magician,” Meredith protested.
To Nate, Miguel asked, “Is there any way to go public anonymously?”
Nate considered it. “I don’t know how effective it would be. A claim as outlandish as this one… we’d need proof or we’d be relegated to the cheapest of tabloids, if even that.”
“I can’t give you proof,” Meredith said. “I told you, I don’t know how.”
“But you know someone who does,” Miguel pressed.
“I’m not telling him who she is,” Meredith said with a pointed look in Nate’s direction.
Nate had thought that she had chosen to trust him, but apparently it wasn’t enough that she would reveal the nurse’s name. Nate respected her reticence, protecting her source, so to speak. He would have felt the same way. “Hey, I’m not going to tell anyone,” Nate said again, shaking his head and laying a hand over his heart for emphasis. He had to offer her as much reassurance as he could, since the nurse was the key to being able to bring everything that Meredith knew to light. “I promise, I won’t report on a single thing until you tell me it’s okay.”
“No,” Meredith said firmly.
They seemed to be at an impasse, silently eying each other warily.
Miguel tried again. “Meredith, what are we going to do? Flee to Mexico and get jobs serving margaritas on the beach? Are we really going to give up everything we’ve worked for?”
“I don’t want to do that,” Meredith said forlornly.
“We need a plan, Mere, and we need help. You’re gonna have to put a little faith in someone.”
“I already have!” Meredith protested. “I told you the whole story.”
“It’s useless if we can’t prove it, Mere!”
Nate wisely remained silent, seeing that Miguel was slowly putting cracks in Meredith’s resolve. He watched her thoughts play across her face as she debated with herself. She seemed so torn as to whether she would concede that Nate really had no idea what she would decide until she spoke again.
“Swear,” Meredith said quietly.
“Swear what?” Miguel asked gently.
“Not you, him.” Meredith pointed to Nate before her eyes followed, meeting Nate’s gaze resolutely and without flinching. “Swear you will not divulge anything you learn unless I agree. Swear on whatever it is you care about. You look me in the eyes and you swear to me that you will not betray this trust.”
Nate swallowed hard, unnerved by her direct manner. There was a strength to her that drew him in, making him want to understand everything about her that had made her that way. “I swear, Meredith.”
She paused as her eyes scoured his face once again, searching for any glint of betrayal. At long last, she said, “Okay. We need to go see the nurse from the hospital. Her name is Eleanor.”