Agnes, wild-eyed and trembling, stood in the doorway. Ron was behind her like some sort of guardian over his berserk wife. He put a hand on her shoulder as if reining her in.
Perfect.
“I couldn’t believe it when the Alistairs said you were here,” Agnes said, her white lips barely moving.
“Well, surprise,” Julia snapped.
“You never dreamed she’d be in my house,” Jesse said quietly over her shoulder. His acceptance of Ron and Agnes’s blame and anger infuriated Julia even more.
“No.” Ron wiped the corner of his mouth. “We never thought she’d be living with you.”
Suddenly Julia wanted nothing more than to clear the record. To make the Adamses understand what they’d done to Mitch and especially to Jesse with all their blindness and blame. And if Jesse didn’t have the guts to do it, she did.
The old Julia, the one who’d arrived in New Springs, wouldn’t have been able to stand up for the man she loved against the parents of the man she’d married. She would have tap¬ danced, made promises, placated and compromised. She would have denied herself, buried her wants deep in places she’d forget about, just to keep the peace.
She wasn’t that Julia anymore.
“You mean the man that killed Mitch, don’t you?” Julia asked, deliberately goading them. If Jesse wouldn’t fight, she would. She would fight for both of them.
Ron shook his head. “I understand war better than my wife. I know there was no way you could have caused that crash.”
“Why so mad then, Ron? Is it because Mitch followed Jesse into the army?” Julia asked. “That he didn’t go to school and become a doctor or a lawyer? Was it the trouble they got into high school? Your son was the car thief, not Jesse. He was the one who drank too much—”
“I know what my son was,” Ron nearly yelled. “You think I didn’t raise that boy and see the trouble in him. But we had it under control. We were in control until you came along.” He pointed at Jesse. “You came along and helped him, you took the blame and listened to his lies and let it all happen. You let him be the worst of himself and that is how you killed him!”
The ensuing silence was thick. Ron knew, was all Julia could think. He knew about Mitch. She turned to face Jesse, who seemed as dumbfounded as she was.
“And you’re going to do it all over again with Julia and her boy,” Ron said. “She’ll never go to school, she’ll never want more for herself with you here. You are just like your mother, Jesse. And look what she did to your family.”
Anything Julia might have said was crushed under the terrible injustice of what Ron saddled Jesse with. In one fell swoop he’d labeled both of them lost causes.
She opened her mouth, but Jesse, who’d taken all of their abuse, stepped forward in her defense before she could make a single sound.
“I’m leaving, Ron. You don’t have to worry.” He moved to shut the door in their faces, but Agnes came to life and stepped farther in the doorway.
She held out a shaking hand, a letter clenched in her fist. “Here is your blood money. I am curious to see how much the government thinks Mitch Adams was worth. More than you, you whore. Your husband is dead and you’re playing house with the man who killed him!”
Jesse stepped between Julia and Agnes. Her protector and she wanted to weep. Too late, she thought. It’s all just too late.
“Your fight is with me, Agnes. Not Julia.”
“You.” Agnes breathed fire. “You have always wanted what Mitch had. You’ve always been jealous of my boy.” She turned back to Julia. “He doesn’t really want you,” she snapped. “He just wants you because you were Mitch’s.”
“That’s not true,” Jesse whispered. Julia’s eyes met his and she could read the truth in them, the utter devastation of his feelings for her. “I’ve always wanted you for you. Mitch has nothing to do with it.”
He touched her cheek and her ebbing confidence flowed back into her, along with the fresh sense of what she was losing in Jesse. Grief sliced through her that Jesse would rather lose her than defend himself.