“That’s not fair.”
“None of this isfair. You as a politician should know that life isn’t fair.”
“I’m trying to protect—”
“You’re protecting yourself.” The words came out before June could stop them, harder than she’d meant. “And maybe that’s the right thing to do. Maybe your career is worth more than—” She stopped, shook her head. “You know what? Forget it.”
“Say it.” Melissa’s voice was sharp now too. “Finish the sentence.”
“Maybe your career is worth more than I am.” June heard herself say it and watched Melissa’s face go very still. “That’s what it feels like. Every time you’ve pulled back, every time you’ve kept your distance in public, every time you’ve made sure nothing could be traced back to you—I understood it. I made excuses for it. But this—” She gestured at the phone on the counter. “You took that call in the middle of this conversation, Melissa. You stood right here and you took it.”
“I had to—”
“I know you had to. That’s exactly what I’m saying.” June wrapped her arms around herself. “I told you from the beginning I couldn’t be someone’s secret. I told you what I needed. And you promised—with your hands and your mouth and everything—you promised I wasn’t. And maybe you meant it. Maybe you still mean it. But right now you’re going to stand up in front of everyone and tell them I’m nothing, and the worst part is I don’t even know if you’re wrong.”
Melissa stood very still, her face pale. “That’s not… I never said you were nothing.”
“You didn’t have to say it.”
The silence between them was different now—not heavy with unsaid things but with things that had been said and couldn’t be taken back. June felt the shape of them, her own words sitting in her chest like swallowed glass.
“I should check on Lila,” she said.
“June—”
“I need some time. To think.” She looked at Melissa—really looked, for a moment, at the exhaustion and the fear and the genuine anguish in her face—and felt the complicated truth of loving someone who was failing you. “We can talk more later. I just can’t right now.”
She walked out into the backyard where Lila was still watering the sunflowers, humming something to herself, unbothered and golden in the afternoon light. June stood in the doorway for a moment, watching her, and thought about her mother’s voice:another situation where you’re the vulnerable one.
Maybe. Maybe that was true.
But she also thought about Melissa’s hand on the small of her back this morning, certain and warm. AboutI’m lying here thinking about you specifically.About the way Melissa had looked at her across their sleeping daughter in the candlelight, wanting and restrained and entirely present.
People could fail you and still love you. June knew that. She’d always known that.
It didn’t make the failing hurt less.
“Miss Hollis?” Lila called. “Can you help me with the hose? It’s being weird.”
“Coming, sweetheart,” June said, and made herself walk out into the sunlight.
Chapter 17
Break
Melissa
Sunday, August 2nd – Saturday, August 8th
The fight on Sunday morning was shorter than she expected. Colder.
Melissa found June in the guest room—her room—packing a bag. Not all of her things, just enough for a few days. She was folding a shirt with the careful concentration of someone who needed something to do with her hands.
“June.”
“I’m going to my parents’ house.” June didn’t look up. “Just for a little while.”
“We can talk about this—”
