“What kind of hard time?” Sean asked.
Ben looked at his sister. “Is it okay if I tell them? I probably have to. It sounds like you could be in some trouble for this.”
Her eyes filling with tears, she nodded.
“She’s struggled with anxiety for a long time, and sometimes it’s bad enough that it’s almost paranoia. It got worse after my father died, and the doctor she was going to kept throwing pills at her. Xanax and sleeping pills and something for schizophrenia. Way too many pills. I didn’t know, or I would have …”
He shook his head. “She overdosed on the sleeping pills. Took a whole bottle. I went down to the hospital and brought her home, and she’s been living with me ever since. But I had no idea …”
Again, he turned away to look at his sister. “What’s this all about, Mel? What did you think you were doing?”
She swallowed. “He ruined your life. Both of our lives. And he was gloating about it.”
But her voice came out thready and weak, her conviction gone as thin as tissue paper.
“When was he gloating?” Ben asked. “We hadn’t seen him.”
“In that interview. Talking about you—like he cared about you, when he doesn’t. He never cared about either of us.”
“So you threatened him?”
“I wanted him to know that somebody remembered what he’d done.”
“You wanted him to suffer.”
“Like you suffered.”
“I haven’t suffered, Mel.”
She sighed and looked out the window. “We both have.”
Ben looked at Judah. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“It’s not your fault.”
He raked his hand through his hair. “I guess not, but Jesus.”
Everyone sat still, and a clock ticked in the silence. Ben crossed back to his chair and took a seat. He rubbed his hands over his knees.
Slowly, Ben’s gaze moved over the room and stopped on Judah. “For the record? I have a good job that I love. A house in a place that I like a lot. I have friends. I’ve had lovers. My life didn’t end when you walked out of that jail.”
“I’m glad,” Judah said.
“But I wished you hadn’t gone. I wished that for a long time.”
Judah inhaled. Exhaled. Finally, he sucked in a deep breath and said, “I wished that, too.”
Silence again. Melissa sniffed quietly and wiped at her eyes.
“Were you ever going to kill him?” Katie blurted out.
Probably not the world’s cleverest question. Caleb had told her more than once that in real life, criminals didn’t confess the way they did in the movies. But Katie wanted to know, and there was Melissa. Why not ask?
The woman shook her head and started to cry.
“She wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Ben told Katie. “She can’t even kill spiders.”
It felt like the truth.