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“The entire town didn’t hate you.”
She wrapped her arms around her waist. “Please don’t patronize me, Lucas. I was there. I lived it.”
She was right. It was no secret how the people rallied around him and vilified her. Only aware of half of her crimes that night. He didn’t want to think about their reaction had they known everything.
He had hated her for over a decade for what she had done. Now, history was repeating itself, as he found he was, once again, drowning in her self-imposed sorrow. Giving her the benefit of the doubt instead of harboring hatred toward the woman who betrayed him in the worst possible way.
Then again, wasn’t he and the town of Wayward somewhat culpable?
It was a well-known fact Shelby Wellborn had lost her mind and was likely abusing Birdie, a consideration eventually dismissed upon seeing Maisie doing so well and doted on by her mother. As opposed to Birdie, Maisie was liked by the kids in school and critical of her older sister’s questionable behavior.
Enough for an entire town to turn a blind eye. Assuming the burden of proof landed on Birdie, and she did nothing to convince them otherwise.
Lucas didn’t know the extent of that abuse, but he had suspected it. Yet had done nothing about it.
“You know, it was always as if you preferred it that way.”
“Preferred what?”
“Preferred the town think badly of you.”
“That’s because the town thinking the worst of me was better than the alternative.”
So fucking cryptic. What did that even mean?
“So, why not tell me about Mia later? After your parents had passed and things had settled?”
“What? Come back to Wayward to dredge everything back up again? After getting married and getting my life together, going to college, starting my own company, and raising a relatively stable teenager? You want to know why I didn’t risk it all by telling you the big news?”
“So, instead, you told Mia I didn’t want her?”
Teeth went to work chewing on her bottom lip. “I… I’m sorry for that. I didn’t tell her that exactly, but I didn’t clarify when she came to that conclusion. Chalk it up to another fear-based decision. I figured if she thought you didn’t want her, she would never try to hunt you down.”
There were so many questions bobbing around in his head. But this wasn’t the time. Especially not in a public restroom.
“What do you think Mia is expecting from all of this?”
She sighed heavily, shaking her head. “I’m not sure what her expectations are, or why she went to so much trouble to make this trip… alone. She lost her father a couple of months ago and we were about to move to another town. She probably felt adrift, unanchored. Looking for something or someone to hold on to. She left me a note saying she just wanted to know who you were. Meet you. I’m sure, now that she’s accomplished what she set out to do, we’ll be on our way and out of your life in no time.”
He nodded, his chest feeling at once constricted.
Birdie and Mia leaving was probably for the best.
* * *
Birdie scratchedaround her neckline and dragged her nails down the sides of her dress. There was no telling what germs or other microscopic bacteria had begun to propagate, using her dress as a convenient cocoon for their offspring.
It hadn’t gotten past her that some of the most disturbing conversations she’d had with men over the last couple of weeks had been in a ladies’ toilet, next to a tampon machine and soap dispenser.
“Let’s get you cleaned up,” Lucas said, lifting the strap of her purse from her shoulder and navigating her through the bathroom door and into the lobby. “You can take a shower and change at my house before the Chief drops Mia off later this afternoon.”
She followed him, her independent streak managing to find its way past the discomfort. “So you know, I plan to get a room in town for the night. I won’t be an imposition.”
He pushed open one of the hulking double entrance doors, holding it open with one hand. “You should know the inn on Woeful Street has a new owner.”
She breezed past him as if she didn’t smell of sewage water. “Oh, yeah? Who owns it now?”
“Erma Jeffries.”
