“You’re neighbors,” she said. “You have coffee every week. His girls call you ‘Aunt Amelia.’”
“I thought about moving away,” Amelia said. “Getting some distance from all this. But something kept me here. Even after our falling out, even when we weren’t really talking. I cared about him. I still do. And his girls too. But also…”
“What?” Melissa prodded.
“There’s something about Thomas that I’ve never quite understood,” Amelia said. “A hidden part of him I’ve never solved. I know him so well—but also, he’s a mystery to me. Maybe that’s what keeps relationships going for so many years. Even complicated ones. Messy ones. Another person presents us with a mystery. And the people we keep closest are the ones who stay mysterious.”
They entered into a long silence. Melissa thought about Thomas’s proposal at the pier. Did he ask her to marry him because she was a mystery he wanted to solve? And did she fall for himbecausehewas a mystery? His outburst of violence against Carter wasn’t exactly something she expected, wasn’t something she knew he had inside him. Did she want to see the rest? Did she want to discover everything he’d hidden away in the secret parts of himself?
“I’m no threat to you, Melissa,” Amelia continued. “Is that what you really want to know? I’m not going to steal Thomas from you. There was a time when I wanted him. Maybe I even wanted to take him from Rose. But that time has passed. Thomas is all yours. You can have him. And I hope you’re happy together. I do. You deserve that. Both of you.”
Melissa sighed, suddenly feeling a huge weight on her shoulders—the burden of the decisions she’d have to navigate in the days ahead. Thomas’s arrest and arraignment, but also Carter and his threat to sue her for full custody of Bradley. She was sure everything that had happened would help Carter’s case against her, his claim that she was marrying someone who would pose a danger to their son. Melissa wanted happiness more than anything—but she wasn’t sure if it was going to be possible for any of them. If this story would have a happy ending.
Lawrence came in from the dining room. “Everything’s cleaned up. We’re heading home. Will you be coming too?”
Melissa glanced at Amelia. “Who’s going to stay with Rhiannon and Kendall?”
“I’ve got it,” Amelia said. “Aunt Amelia to the rescue. You go. Try to get some rest tonight.”
Melissa left and walked upstairs to get Bradley from the den where she’d put him down in front of the TV. On the way there, she passed Rhiannon’s room, the door open a crack. She paused, lingered, heard voices. Kendall was inside, the two sisters whispering to each other. Melissa was sure they were terrified for their dad, unsure what would happen next, and as she stood there, she wondered if she should walk in, try to say something to comfortthem. But then she heard Rhiannon’s voice, clear on the still air in spite of her whispering.
“She’s not Mom…”
They were talking abouther. She backed away from the door, then walked the rest of the way to get Bradley, who’d fallen asleep on the couch, an episode ofBlueyplaying at low volume on the TV, his face lit up in intermittent flashes of colored light. Then she stole out the front door of the house with him hot in her arms, put him into the car. She thought about what she’d heard all the way back home, Rhiannon’s one-sentence rejection of her, finding her wanting, lacking—the cause of everything that had gone wrong.
She’s not Mom.
***
Back home, Melissa laid Bradley in his bed still sleeping, manipulated his limbs to get him out of his dress-up clothes and into pajamas. Back in the living room, she kicked off her shoes and fell on the couch. She was exhausted too. She grabbed for her purse with her phone inside—she’d left it at Thomas’s house when they went on their walk, and then didn’t look at it while she and Amelia cleaned up in the kitchen. Now she found the phone lit up with dozens of notifications, social media tags, and mentions in comments.
She sat up straight, her body suddenly taut with dread. Her fingers quivered badly enough that she had to put in her passcode twice before the phone lit up.
It didn’t take her long to find the source of all the notifications blowing up her phone. Somehow Carter had gotten the video on Facebook. Melissa doubted he uploaded it from the hospital—Thomas had knocked him out, and Carter might not even have been conscious yet. No, he must have been streaming when he took the video, like Melissa suspected, and after the stream was cut short,it uploaded automatically, as live streams on social media always did. She watched the video through her fingers. It was somehow worse than experiencing it the first time around, maybe because she knew how it was going to end. Carter coming upon them with Thomas on one knee and her hands up by her face in shock, about to sayyes. Then Carter’s taunts, accusing her of spreading her legs for a murderer. It was all completely nauseating. Then, suddenly, the picture jostled, the phone dropped on the dock, and all she could see anymore was the sky. From there to the end of the video it was only sound: the gasps of the crowd, the wet thudding of Thomas’s fists against Carter’s face, and then Melissa’s scream at the end: “You’re killing him!”
The video had hundreds of comments on it, and it was a second before Melissa realized Carter had streamed it not to his main feed but to the Justice for Rose Danver group.
A circuit closed in her mind, and fury lit up inside her like an electrical current, practically crackling from the tips of her fingers.Kelli Walker.She was responsible for this. Pretending to be on Melissa’s side, acting like she was only concerned for her safety—when all the while she was bringing Carter back into her life, hurting her and Bradley and putting them in more danger than she knew. Melissa scrolled back in the Facebook group’s timeline, looking for evidence of what she already knew in her gut.
And there it was. A comment on the photo of her and Thomas kissing, the one that started this whole mess.
I know this woman. She’s my ex-wife. But who’s the guy? And who is Rose Danver?
Carter must have found the group when Kelli Walker tagged her in the photo. Melissa saw Kelli’s reply to his comment, explainingwho Thomas was, the accusations against him, the reasons the group had for believing him guilty.
Carter had commented in reply.
This is disturbing. Melissa is an adult, and she can make her own choices. But she has my son. I’m worried about his safety with a man like this.
Dozens of women chimed in with their support.
I’d be worried too if it was my son with this psycho!
I’m so sorry Carter. Praying for you.
If she wants to date a killer she should at least give up custody to you!
The prejudice against dads is insane. You’re obviously a fitter parent than she is! Why is she the one who gets to raise your son?