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“Everything’s fine. I just wanted a word with you if you have a minute.”
“Sure, of course.” She stepped back, signaling that Jo should follow. “I was just about to make some tea. Would you like some?”
“That would be nice. Thank you.”
Jo followed her down a long hall to a French-country kitchen.
“Please forgive the mess.” Chelsea rubbed a hand over her belly. “It’s hard for me to clean these days, and the maid doesn’t come until tomorrow.”
Jo glanced around, looking for crumbs on the counter or dust in a corner, but came up short—no small feat, since Jo was no slouch herself when it came to obsessive cleaning. She sat at the white kitchen table as Chelsea opened a cabinet.
“I’m doing peppermint since I can’t have caffeine, but I’m guessing your tastes run more to Earl Grey?” she asked.
“That would be perfect.”
Jo allowed silence to fall over them as Chelsea poured water from an electric kettle into two mugs, then carried them over on a tray. She handed one to Jo, then settled herself into a chair. “Well. This is a surprise. I never thought in a million years you’d come pay me a visit.”
Jo smiled wryly. “I thought we should talk.”
Chelsea set her mug down. “Okay.”
“Chris explained why he committed the murders.” Jo summed up the motivations as succinctly as possible without telling her she’d come terrifyingly close to being his third victim.
Chelsea’s hands flew to her belly. “All that just because he didn’t want to be a father?”
Jo sipped her tea and weighed Chelsea over the lip of the mug. She still couldn’t quite get a full handle on her. Was she self-centered or just naive and lonely? Was it some blend of both? “There’s a lot to unpack in all of it,” Jo said. “That’s what I want to talk to you about.”
“What do you mean?” Chelsea asked.
“Chris didn’t want to be a father, but there was more to it than that. He believed he loved Julia, and couldn’t deal with it when Julia didn’t love him. Julia loved Pete, and lashed out by having an affair when she realized he didn’t love her. Rick Moranto died protecting the woman he loved. And Madison gave up the thing she wanted most in the world, her education, to take care of the mother she loved so deeply. Love is a very powerful emotion, and it can drive people to do very unwise things.”
Chelsea stiffened. “You said Chrisbelievedhe loved Julia. You don’t think he did?”
“You don’t kill someone you love. We all get our hearts broken, that’s part of being human. And for all of us there’s a point where we can choose to accept that heartbreak with grace, learn from it, and move on to find the love we’re truly meant to have. Julia tried to do that, even if she made mistakes along the way. But she was stopped by someone who couldn’t.”
Chelsea sipped her tea, still silent.
“Do you understand what I’m trying to say?” Jo finally asked.
Her eyes narrowed. “You’re warning me to stay away from David.”
Jo shook her head. “I’m not. If you and David want to be together, you should be together. And if so, I’d rather you figure that out now than later.”
Chelsea froze, cup midway to her mouth. “Then whatareyou saying?”
“I’m asking you to think deeply and honestly about the situation, and about whether the two of you really are meant to be together, or if this is something else.” Jo paused to take a sip of tea. “You told my sister that you broke things off with David. But that wasn’t true, was it?”
Chelsea swiped at an invisible spot on the table. “I don’t understand what you’re getting at.”
“David broke things off with you, didn’t he? But when you told Sophieyoubroke it off, he tried to show you a kindness by not stirring up trouble between you and Sophie. And you’ve been trying to keep him on a close leash ever since, thinking you can change his mind.”
Chelsea pursed her brow. “I’m the mother of his child. Everyone has agreed he needs to be involved in the child’s life.”
Jo took another deep breath—she’d been hoping to avoid this. “Chris overheard you saying you tricked David into getting you pregnant by stopping your birth control.”
The brows wavered, then defiance burst in her eyes. “He lovesme. He wasn’t happy withher.”
Jo grasped her mug with both hands. “At the memorial, when you fainted, you didn’t want me to call him. I hoped at that point you’d given up. But you’d just changed tactics, hadn’t you? You pretended to faint, didn’t you?”
