It was little compensation that Liam seemed to be as stunned to see the woman as Baba was. His face was the color of the faintly green institutional walls behind him, and his large hands were balled up into fists. She could see the tension in the ropy muscles in his neck and shoulders, like the supple human flesh had been replaced by badly carved marble.
Part of her wanted to go up and stand behind him, supporting him with a discreet touch. The other part of her wanted to kill him on the spot and bury his dead, dismembered body where no one would ever find it. Unsure of which impulse would win if she moved, she stood where she was and simply watched as his world fell apart.
Liam’s mouth opened and closed, as if he was struggling to find the right words to say and discarding all the available options. In the end, he simply asked flatly, “What are you doing here, Melissa?”
The redhead’s shoulders were tense too, and a flush darkened her pale cheeks. Whatever was going on here, this was no joyful reunion. The knowledge made Baba feel not one iota better. Her stomach clenched in anticipatory dread, shards of jagged glass churning at her core.
“I heard about what happened,” Melissa said in a low voice that still managed to carry across the room. “I had to come.”
The silence was deafening as everyone there turned to watch the unexpected drama. From where she stood, Baba could see Maya, seated at the deputy’s desk, leaning back with her shapely legs crossed and a faint satisfied smile on her face, as if she were watching a play from the comfort of a cushioned throne. Alarm bells went off in Baba’s head, but she felt helpless to do anything but watch with the others and see what happened. Whatever it was, if Maya was smiling her crocodile smile, Baba could be quite certain she wasn’t going to like it.
“Heard about what?” Liam was asking, two parallel lines appearing between his brows. “And how? Where the hell have you been all this time, Melissa?” Frustration warred with concern in his voice. Like Baba, he could clearly sense a sizable and devastating shoe about to drop. Plus, of course, he was confronting his long-lost wife.
Melissa shook her head sadly. “I didn’t go that far away; just far enough to be safe, and to deal with my problems. And I’ve always kept tabs on what was going on here in Clearwater County.” She looked around the room at all the people she used to know, giving them each a private little smile, as if to say, I missed you the most.
Nina could be heard to mutter an indelicate word under her breath, but others smiled back hesitantly, responding to the woman they’d known and liked before tragedy had changed her into a wild and pitiable stranger.
“So why come back now?” Liam asked in a harsh voice. “Why now instead of anytime in the last two years?”
“Because you gave me no choice,” Melissa said, wiping a tear away with one white, trembling hand. “I had to come forward, no matter how frightened I was, because I couldn’t live with myself if someone else was going to take the blame for what you’d done.”
She smiled tremulously up at Peter Callahan, who put one arm protectively around her shoulders. Next to the tall man, Melissa looked tiny, vulnerable, and delicate, as if she might blow away with the smallest breeze.
“I contacted Mr. Callahan because, as someone new to the area, he had no preexisting loyalties to you, Liam. And I thought he would be powerful enough to protect me.”
Liam scowled and crossed his arms. “What on earth are you talking about, Melissa? Protect you from what? Are you still on drugs? Because if you are, we can get you to a treatment facility, but right now I’m in the middle of something that just can’t wait.”
She blinked big green eyes at him, as if amazed he was pretending not to understand her. “Liam, I know what you’ve done. I kept telling myself it wasn’t you; that if it was, you’d stop on your own. I admit it—I was too big a coward to come forward before.”
Melissa turned to Clive Matthews and those gathered around him, including a number of deputies in her glance. “Liam murdered our baby three years ago,” she said, spelling it out plainly. “And he said it was Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. I was afraid, so I covered for him, but the loss of my poor little Hannah, and the knowledge that the man I’d married had done such a thing, well, I’m ashamed to say it made me turn to alcohol and drugs.”
Baba felt the whole room sway in stunned distress. Or maybe that was just her, and the others were simply standing still as her world shook around her.
“I’m clean and sober now, and I’ve found God. I know I need to tell the truth, and get this whole horrible thing out into the open.” The petite redhead gazed beseechingly at Liam, tiny streaks of salt water glistening on her perfect cheekbones. “I’m still your wife, no matter what you’ve done, but I can’t let this go on. You’re sick, Liam. You need help. When you killed our baby, shaking her to get her to stop crying, it was an accident. Killing all these other children won’t bring our baby back. You have to confess and clear your soul. And you have to stop blaming that poor innocent woman for the crimes you committed.”
*