those caramel candies with the white stuff in the middle. She spends a lot of time at the library, although it’s usually so she can get on the Internet, mess around on Facebook. She used to beg me all the time to cook her favorite dish, lasagna...”
Melissa let out a little whimper, wiped at her eyes with the sleeve of her denim jacket. She shivered again as she turned to look at her father.
“She’s a great kid. You would love her.”
“I’m sure I would. I can tell she means the world to you.”
“I wish they knew how much it hurts, when they talk about why they think Sophie was the one who killed Eddie. It tears my heart in two. That’s why I didn’t tell you about Sophie’s phone call at first. I didn’t want you to think about me the way they do. Everybody in this frigging town, they look at me like I’m one of those piece-of-shit moms who knew what was going on but I turned a blind eye to it. I could never be like that. I cared a lot about Eddie, but if I thought for a second he was putting his hands on Sophie, I would have killed him myself.”
Nick said, “The good news is, Sheriff Mackey knows he was wrong now. He can start looking at this from a different angle.”
“I tried to tell him all along. Didn’t matter that they confiscated her diary, took every scrap of paper out of her bedroom—every note, every homework assignment, even the doodles in the margins of her textbooks—but they never found a shred of evidence suggesting that Sophie had been abused. It didn’t matter, ’cause they had her phone call. Ever since she called me from that payphone, Sheriff Mackey’s had his mind made up about how the whole thing went down.”
“You can’t blame him,” said Nick. “Until we knew what Leon saw that night, it’s all he had to go on.”
“I know.”
Nick eased to a stop at an intersection, looked both ways through the storm to make sure nothing was coming. Hoped for the best. He hooked a right onto Howard Street, which would soon turn into Route 30 leading out of Polk County. The road was slick beneath the Bronco’s tires.
They passed the Snake River, which bisected the town of Midnight into two near-perfect halves. The river resembled not so much a body of water as a black swath of nothingness beyond the trees that lined its banks. It wasn’t too far from here, Nick remembered, where his parents’ farmhouse once stood. He didn’t bother looking for it, though, as the property had been sold and his childhood home torn down many years ago.
“You know,” Melissa said, tossing her cigarette out into the rain, “after Mom died, I thought about ending it all. Not that I would ever have the guts to do something like that—I’m a wuss when it comes to pain, and can’t stand the sight of blood—but I don’t think that’s the only thing that kept me from doing it. Weird as it sounds, I think I knew deep down inside that I still had something important to live for. I think...I knew I was gonna come clean with Sophie. Eventually. And we’d build a life together.”
Nick didn’t say anything.
“I think part of it was you , too.”
At that, Nick took his eyes off of the road long enough to glance over at his daughter. “What do you mean?”
“I think I knew you would be here. One day. That you would come back for me.”
Shame devoured his soul. “I didn’t even show up for your mama’s funeral, sweetheart.”
“No. No, but you called. You sent flowers.”
That much was true. Thousands of dollars worth, he’d sent. They were delivered to the church that day by a fleet of black vans. Definitely not Nick’s finest moment.
She said, “That’s not my point anyway. What I’m trying to say is...I knew there would be a day when I would get to know you. I don’t know how I knew. But I can’t help thinking that I held on after the cancer took Mom ’cause you were still out there, somewhere. I still saw you once every few years, so I wasn’t ready to write you off
Melissa let out a little whimper, wiped at her eyes with the sleeve of her denim jacket. She shivered again as she turned to look at her father.
“She’s a great kid. You would love her.”
“I’m sure I would. I can tell she means the world to you.”
“I wish they knew how much it hurts, when they talk about why they think Sophie was the one who killed Eddie. It tears my heart in two. That’s why I didn’t tell you about Sophie’s phone call at first. I didn’t want you to think about me the way they do. Everybody in this frigging town, they look at me like I’m one of those piece-of-shit moms who knew what was going on but I turned a blind eye to it. I could never be like that. I cared a lot about Eddie, but if I thought for a second he was putting his hands on Sophie, I would have killed him myself.”
Nick said, “The good news is, Sheriff Mackey knows he was wrong now. He can start looking at this from a different angle.”
“I tried to tell him all along. Didn’t matter that they confiscated her diary, took every scrap of paper out of her bedroom—every note, every homework assignment, even the doodles in the margins of her textbooks—but they never found a shred of evidence suggesting that Sophie had been abused. It didn’t matter, ’cause they had her phone call. Ever since she called me from that payphone, Sheriff Mackey’s had his mind made up about how the whole thing went down.”
“You can’t blame him,” said Nick. “Until we knew what Leon saw that night, it’s all he had to go on.”
“I know.”
Nick eased to a stop at an intersection, looked both ways through the storm to make sure nothing was coming. Hoped for the best. He hooked a right onto Howard Street, which would soon turn into Route 30 leading out of Polk County. The road was slick beneath the Bronco’s tires.
They passed the Snake River, which bisected the town of Midnight into two near-perfect halves. The river resembled not so much a body of water as a black swath of nothingness beyond the trees that lined its banks. It wasn’t too far from here, Nick remembered, where his parents’ farmhouse once stood. He didn’t bother looking for it, though, as the property had been sold and his childhood home torn down many years ago.
“You know,” Melissa said, tossing her cigarette out into the rain, “after Mom died, I thought about ending it all. Not that I would ever have the guts to do something like that—I’m a wuss when it comes to pain, and can’t stand the sight of blood—but I don’t think that’s the only thing that kept me from doing it. Weird as it sounds, I think I knew deep down inside that I still had something important to live for. I think...I knew I was gonna come clean with Sophie. Eventually. And we’d build a life together.”
Nick didn’t say anything.
“I think part of it was you , too.”
At that, Nick took his eyes off of the road long enough to glance over at his daughter. “What do you mean?”
“I think I knew you would be here. One day. That you would come back for me.”
Shame devoured his soul. “I didn’t even show up for your mama’s funeral, sweetheart.”
“No. No, but you called. You sent flowers.”
That much was true. Thousands of dollars worth, he’d sent. They were delivered to the church that day by a fleet of black vans. Definitely not Nick’s finest moment.
She said, “That’s not my point anyway. What I’m trying to say is...I knew there would be a day when I would get to know you. I don’t know how I knew. But I can’t help thinking that I held on after the cancer took Mom ’cause you were still out there, somewhere. I still saw you once every few years, so I wasn’t ready to write you off
Similar Books
