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The room went awkward again with the interruption, everyone conscious of not belonging there, of not knowing how to smooth over the strangeness of the situation.
It wasn’t the glorious reunion Katie had hoped for, but it was a start. Definitely Judah’s best apology so far. She kind of wanted to give him a hug, but the complete lack of ease in the room made that impossible. She was just beginning to wonder whether she ought to try to engineer an escape for all three of them when Melissa said, “You’ve got a lot of nerve.”
The woman rose to her feet, her shaking hands clutching and unclutching at her skirt. “You ruined everything for him,” she said. “Everything. And now you come to our house and say ‘sorry’ like that makes up for it? Like we’re supposed to believe you’ve been crying yourself to sleep over this for years?”
Judah’s lips parted, but Melissa cut him off before he could reply. “We know what you’ve been doing. Ben keeps buying magazines with your stupid face on them, and I’ve seen the pictures. All your women. Touring in Europe and the Middle East. And Ben’s just been—he’s been—” She gestured around the small room, her mouth twisted with disgust. “Stuck here.”
“Mel,” Ben said, his voice carrying a warning.
“No, Ben,” she said. “He ruined your life. He deserves to hear it, and if you’re not going to tell him, I’ll tell him.” She turned on Judah again. “Ben was going to be an officer, just like our father, and you took that away from him. He lost years of his life moping around Pella, and Dad wasn’t the same either, and they never talked again, never. I tried to make them talk, tried to fix it—but I couldn’t. Someone had to take care of Dad. I never got to do half the things I was going to do—”
“Mel,” Ben interrupted quietly.
“He ruined your life,” she repeated.
“No, he didn’t.”
“Of course he did.”
“I like my life.”
She made a face. “It’s not what you deserved. You lost West Point, and Dad …”
“Dad was a lost cause.”
“Not if you’d gone to West Point.”
“Even then. He was never going to come around. I was always going to be a disappointment to him.”
“Ben, he disowned you.”
“He made me choose,” Ben said. His eyes fixed on Judah. “I chose. That’s all.”
The room fell silent again, and Katie became aware of Melissa’s breathing. She was sucking in deep, ragged breaths, and her skin was ghostly pale.
“Are you all right?” Katie asked.
Ben looked at his sister. “You need a paper bag?”
Melissa shook her head.
Ben got up anyway and went into the kitchen. He returned with a brown sandwich bag and handed it to Melissa, who sat down in her chair and held it over her mouth. Which was a relief, because she’d started to whoop a little on each inhale. “She hyperventilates,” Ben explained unnecessarily. Melissa breathed into the bag.
“And she’s probably the one who’s been threatening you,” he added.
Melissa’s eyes widened. The room filled with the sound of collapsing paper as she inhaled. Exhaled. Inhaled. After a minute or two that felt like a month, her breathing began to calm.
Ben turned his back on them and hunkered down in front of his sister, his hand on her knee. “Nobody knew what happened at Dad’s house but me, you, Jude, and Dad, and he’s long gone. If somebody’s been threatening Judah over that night, it has to be you.”
He glanced over his shoulder at Judah. “Unless you told somebody?”
Judah shook his head.
Ben looked at his sister. “Mel?”
The bag dropped away from her mouth as she lowered her chin and closed her eyes. Somehow, her body conveyed the answer Ben was looking for. He let out a deep exhale and dropped his head, a weary disappointment settling over him.
“She lived with Dad,” he said quietly. “Until he died. That was a couple of years ago, and she hasn’t really been … She’s had a hard time since then.”
