His silence gave her courage. “Russell Hebert didn’t kill Aunt Rhonda.”
Her father’s gaze jerked to meet hers, fire lighting his eyes. “Watch your mouth.”
“It’s true, Dad.” Now her whole body was shaking. But it had to be said. All of this had gone on long enough.
“You don’t know anything.”
“I know that a man who wasn’t there isn’t responsible for someone else’s car wreck.” She infused a strength she didn’t know she had into her voice. “He made bad decisions that night but so did Aunt Rhonda. Everything that happened was the result ofbothof their choices.”
“So you’re siding with the Heberts now? Abandoning what’s left of our Bergeron family name?” He ran one hand over his head and released a short breath. “I can’t believe you. First your mother, now this.”
Elisa froze. “What about Mom?”
“She always thought this feud was ridiculous.”
“Itis. It’s not even about the land so much anymore, is it? It’s about Aunt Rhonda.”
He turned and grabbed for his full coffee mug. “Life’s not fair, Elisa. The Heberts took things that weren’t meant for them. And they profited off it, making the rest of us sacrifice. Then that jerk’s affair with my sister.” He practically spit the words. “To me, this is poetic justice.”
“So to get revenge, you’re going to let a good man and his father sit in a jail unjustly?”
“It’s not unjust. Russell did hit me.”
Elisa narrowed her eyes. “You hit him first.”
“Life’s not fair, remember?” Her father raised his coffee mug to his lips, his expression tight.
She bit back a frustrated sigh. She wasn’t getting anywhere, and meanwhile, Noah was sitting in prison. Because of her. Because of her family.
Regret thrummed through her veins, sending a wave of nausea coursing through her stomach. If she hadn’t told her dad about the hunt when she did, he wouldn’t have gotten so upset. Maybe none of the fight would have happened.
She’d never know for sure, but she could do everything in her power now to fix it. She could speak up for once.
She could be a good girl bynotcalming down.
“Fine.” Elisa lifted her chin, matching her father’s haughty tone and returning his glare. “If that’s how it’s going to be, there’s nothing else I have to say to you right now.”
“You need to calm down, Elisa.” He frowned. “You’re making too much of all of this. Let it play out.”
“Me?” she shouted the word, and the release felt freeing. In fact, it felt amazing. She shouted louder. “I’m not the one who started a fistfight on a ball field!”
He glared at her. “Watch your tone, young?—”
“That’s just it, Dad. I’m not young. And I don’t have to cater to you anymore. All of this is wrong, and you know it.” She bit down on her lower lip, then released the next words begging to be spoken. “Mom would be very disappointed in you tonight.”
Then she spun on her heel toward the entryway, her heart pounding and hands trembling. But the block that had been sitting on her chest for the past half hour was gone, and she could breathe. She’d done it.
Maybe she should have done it sooner, but at least she’d done it.
“Get back in here, Elisa Bergeron. Where do you think you’re going?” Her dad followed from the kitchen, coffee splashing over the sides of his mug onto the worn rug.
She yanked open the front door and shouted her reply—simply because she finally could. “To do the right thing.”
twenty-three
Noah had visited the local jail once during a fifth-grade field trip. The deputy had walked the class around the small facility, shown them the lackluster meals the inmates received, locked them briefly in a cell with their teacher, and basically tried to scare illegal activity out of them from an early age.
Ironically, he was now trapped in the exact same cell, but not with his wide-eyed, giggling classmates. He was with his father.
