Wounded anger flowed from their mother in waves, making Genevieve feel like Judas for pursuing this investigation behind their backs. She straightened the already-straight hem of the cropped jacket she wore with her wide-skirted dress—
Dad stood, his chair scraping against the wooden floor. Agitated, he paced the length of the kitchen. He stood in the opening that led to the formal living and dining space, his back to them. One excruciating minute passed.
Mom twisted in her chair to focus on her husband. “Judson.” The syllables carried entreaty and warning.
He returned. Still standing, he faced Mom. “I can’t have them think I’m innocent in this.”
Genevieve’s stomach twisted.
“Judson,”Mom said.
He addressed his daughters. “I can’t have you thinking that.”
“Then tell us what happened,” Natasha said.
He always looked vulnerable and a little unfamiliar to Genevieve without his glasses. Her dad might be vulnerable in thismoment, but he wasn’t unfamiliar. He was her daddy. Her first, best-trusted love.
He paced along the kitchen again.
“Girls,” Mom said accusingly. “This is allsoupsetting. This is all such ancient history.”
“Ancient history that has come back to haunt you,” Natasha returned calmly. “We need to face it now.”
“I think it best that we stop this discussion right here,” Mom said. “Let’s leave the past in the past.”
“I can’t,” Dad said. This time, when he approached, Genevieve read resignation in him. He put his glasses back on and looked to his wife. “I can’t anymore, Caroline.”
Mom reached for his hand. “Honey. I think—”
He squeezed Mom’s hand lovingly, and her words halted. “I was inside the house that night,” Dad said to her and Natasha. “You’re right about that.”
Mom bit her bottom lip.
“I’ve loved your mother since the first time I went on a date with her, when I was twenty-two years old. She broke up with me seven months later, two months after I entered the navy. She was nineteen then, and I understood why she did it. But my feelings for her never changed. Not at all. When I came back stateside to recruit, I scheduled a trip to Camden so that I could see her. That’s all I wanted, just to see her and talk with her. To know that she was happy.”
Genevieve braced herself.
“Your mom met me at a diner in Camden, and I bought her a milkshake. She put on a good front. But back when we were dating, I’d gotten to know her well, and I could tell something was wrong. I asked her about Russell.”
“I didn’t say a single negative thing about him,” Mom said to him.
“That’s true.” It seemed that the memory of that long-agoconversation at the diner was arcing back and forth between them. “But there was pain in your eyes.” He regarded his daughters. “I couldn’t get her to confide in me. We said good-bye, and we went our separate ways.”
“Someone told Russell that they’d seen me speaking with another man at the diner,” Mom said stiffly. “Russell could be funny, sweet, decent. Unfortunately, he could also become very angry. When he got angry, he was ... abusive.”
“I’m so sorry,” Genevieve whispered, feeling like the wind had been kicked out of her. Russell had beaten Mom? “We ... saw Russell’s record. We know he was arrested several times for assault.”
“We never imagined that he’d assault you, though,” Natasha said. “That’s awful.”
She’d only ever seen her mom and dad fight fair, without raised voices or hurtful words. Certainly without violence. In her current marriage, Mom was cherished. It sickened Genevieve to think that Russell had raised his hands against her.
“After I left your mother at the diner,” Dad told them, “I was so worried that I drove to the house she shared with Russell. Caroline’s car was out front. I parked a good distance away and waited for a few hours until Russell pulled into the driveway. I watched him storm inside.”
“Russell was furious,” Mom said.
The house was clean and orderly. The air smelled pleasantly of apples and cloves. Yet, the story her parents were painting was infiltrating what should have been a cozy environment with tentacles of menacing cold.
“A few minutes after Russell returned home,” Dad said, “I drove by their house. I couldn’t see anything, so I got out of the car and doubled back on foot. When I got close, I saw them both clearly through the front bedroom window. Russell slapped your mother, then threw her down on the bed and began to rip off her clothing.”
