“Your parents are living on a fixed income. And they spent their entire savings, even their retirement money, on your defense. They can’t help us indefinitely. Who knows how long it’ll take you to heal, how many months before you find work? Who even knows what that work will be?”
“They used me to fix teeth in prison. It’s not as if I had the chance to learn a new trade!” he snapped.
The furrows between her eyebrows deepened, and Oliver realized he was seeing the expression that had formed all the lines on her face.
“You say that as if…” She waved impatiently.
“As if what?”
“As if the government owes it to every prisoner to reeducate him. Prisons aren’t built to serve people who break the law. Prison is supposed to be a punishment, a deterrent to future crime.”
“But I didn’t do anything wrong to begin with.”
“You went home with her, didn’t you?”
The bitterness in her voice shocked him. “Who are you?” he asked at length. “I don’t know you anymore!”
Her eyes narrowed. “So? That’s not nearly as frightening as the fact that I might not know you!”
He glanced away because he didn’t like the ugliness in her face. “So, after everything I’ve been through, you’re going to doubt me? Is that how it’s going to be? I haven’t suffered enough?”
They glared at each other. Then, deflating like a punctured balloon, Jane covered her face with her hands. “I-I’m sorry. I’m tired and—and worried, that’s all. And that detective. He’s getting inside my head.”
“What detective? Willis?”
“Who else?”
“Has he been harassing you?”
“Not really. He’s just so…certain.”
A moment earlier, the pain from his knife wound had made it impossible to lie in any position except one. Now Oliver was so preoccupied he could scarcely feel his injury. “You used to be just as certain I was innocent.”
“I still am.” She smiled, but there was no commitment in her voice, no faith in her eyes.
Suddenly, he wanted her to leave, to get out of his sight. When had she gotten so hideous? “Can you find my spiral notebook?”
“It’s in the trunk of my car, with your other belongings. But…you’re hurt. Do you think you can write?”
“I have to write. It helps me sort out my thoughts.”
“Yeah. I remember.” She shrugged wearily into her coat and placed the strap of her purse over her shoulder. “No problem. Anything else?”
How about a little loyalty? And some gratitude for the money and social status I provided before Skye managed to bring it all to a grinding halt? “No, thanks.” He smiled despite the anger surging through him, which wasn’t that difficult. He prided himself on being able to hide what he was really thinking and feeling. He could fool just about anyone, even his parents.
“I’m sorry, Oliver,” she said. “I—I know you’ve been through a lot. Prison must’ve been terrible.”
Eager for more pain medication, he pressed the nurse’s call button. “I’m glad to be out.” He allowed some of his disappointment to show because he knew it’d heighten her guilt. “You’d think having me home would be a positive thing for you, too.”
“It will be. I mean…it is. We’ve got a lot of time to make up for, that’s all.”
“I understand.” He poured enough warmth into those words that she finally nodded.
“Okay, I’ll run and get your book.”
“Can you turn on the TV before you go?”
“Sure.” She changed channels until she found the local news, then bent over the railing of his bed to kiss him in a rather awkward brush of the lips. “I’ll bring your notebook in a few minutes.”
“Thanks,” he said. Then he made a face at her back and turned to the television, hoping it’d entertain him until a nurse arrived.
A short brunette wearing a blue smock responded to his summons shortly after Jane had brought him his notebook, but by then he wasn’t feeling much pain. He was preoccupied again. And not with writing.
“Good morn—”
“Shh!” He lifted a hand to indicate absolute silence. The announcer had just started talking about something Oliver didn’t want to miss. A delta woman had shot and killed an intruder last night.
Her picture flashed across the screen before the announcer could give her name but Oliver didn’t need to hear another word. He recognized the woman instantly: It was Skye Kellerman.
“How are you feeling today?” the nurse asked when his eyes, if not his thoughts, shifted back to her.
“Better,” he said. “I’m ready to go home.”
“I don’t think I can do this.” Jane’s voice shook as she held her cell phone with one hand and the steering wheel with the other. She’d left the hospital twenty minutes earlier, was on her way to Sacramento, but she’d had to wait to call Noah until he reached his office. She’d used the plugged-toilet excuse too many times. And everyone in Oliver’s family knew she wasn’t at home, anyway. “How am I going to get through the next year? Two years, five years…”
“What do you mean?” he asked. “Surviving Oliver’s prison term—that was supposed to be the hard part. Now you’ll have some support.”
“It doesn’t matter. This is worse. There’s nothing left. I—I don’t love him anymore. I don’t want to…to be his wife. I—”
“Don’t say that,” he interrupted. “He just got out yesterday, and he couldn’t even go home like we expected. This is a stressful time for everyone.”
“No kidding.” Even Noah’s loyalties were split. She couldn’t win. She sobbed, a little hysterically, then noticed that the woman driving the car next to hers was watching, as if a crying woman was some kind of carnival act.
Jane’s stomach twisted. Hadn’t she already endured more than her fair share of unwanted attention?
“Yes, I’m a freak,” she shouted, even though the woman couldn’t hear her. “My life is shit because my husband’s a f**king murderer!”
“Jane!” Noah yelled. Obviously, he was appalled, but she had no idea whether it was her burst of temper, the obscenity or the slight to his brother that bothered him. She didn’t care. She couldn’t have him. She couldn’t break up his family, add more pain and stress to the lives of those she loved. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to steal him, even if she decided to put her own needs ahead of everyone else’s. And that called into question Noah’s love for her. Something she’d been relying on that might no longer exist. Oliver’s release was changing everything.