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Really.
We were so focused on Henry being the bad guy, I guess we forgot to account for her insane parents. Of course, up until five minutes ago we thought her mom was dead.
“Why’d you fake your death?”
She sniffs. “It was your father’s idea. You were with Henry, but you refused to speak on your father’s behalf. He had a parole hearing coming up, and they passed him by because I was the only one who gave a shit.”
Understanding dawns on Melody’s face. “You wanted me to tell them to release him? After what he did to me?”
“He should’ve been out already,” Jessica snaps. “And then he was framed with the prison riot murder and—”
“You can’t be serious.” I shake my head.
“And you were living the high and mighty life in California while I struggled to even get private visits—”
Jesus, she means conjugal visits, doesn’t she?
Tears fill Melody’s eyes. “I was not living thehigh and mighty life, Mom.”
Jessica suddenly raises the gun. “Don’t you call me that. I amnotyour mother. I haven’t been for a long time.”
Fuck.
This is derailing, and I scramble for something else to say. To distract her from her anger. And I land on… “You’ve been tracking Melody? You were the one, not Henry.”
Jessica glowers at her daughter, but she addresses me when she says, “She found me.”
Melody stills.
“Can you explain that?” I don’t know the best course of action, so I pick up the glass of whiskey and hold it out to her.
She ignores it.
“I was in Beacon Hill, and Melody was…” She waves her hand in another vague motion. “I don’t know. She saw me. She knew I was supposed to be dead. Henry had broken that news. We didn’t have a funeral, although I assume he told her we did. It would’ve been a lovely service.”
Melody sits suddenly, grabbing her glass and downing the liquor in one mouthful. If I didn’t want to stay alert, I’d copy her.
“I saw you,” Melody says. She closes her eyes and leans into me. “I saw her. I was…”
“Hysterical,” Jessica supplies. “Causing a scene in the middle of downtown.”
“I—”
“You are no daughter of mine,” Jessica repeats. “We’ve made that perfectly clear since you put Jack in prison for a mistake. A mistake he’s spent the lastseventeen yearspaying for.”
Melody laughs. “A mistake. He killed someone in prison,Mother.”
“He was framed,” she shouts.
I feel sick. “You tried to kill your own daughter?”
“Well, I didn’t actually do it.”
Melody’s got a tight grip on my arm. “When did you put a tracker in me?”
“In the hospital,” Jessica says. “You were out of it, and you didn’t recognize me.”
“I’m going to be sick,” Melody says.
