“Damn it, what if they are?” he’d yelled into the phone. “How you choose to think is your God-given, constitutional right as an American. Didn’t you learn that in high school civics? What they are asking people on that stand is a violation of basic civil rights. Read the First Amendment. We have the right to assemble, the right to discuss political ideas, even if they aren’t popular. The right to dissent if we so choose. You want to talk about who is being un-American, it’s that committee. They have no legal right to ask what they are asking.”
Melanie hadn’t known what to say to any of this. Carson had clearly given the matter a lot of thought, perhaps long before now. When she said nothing, he took an audible breath and let it out just as loudly. When he spoke, his voice was even and controlled again.
“Do you hear what I am saying, Melanie?”
“Yes.”
“Look. We need to agree on this. We need to agree that we’re not going to turn on our colleagues, our friends. Right? We’re not going to do it. Tell me you won’t.”
An uneasy silence had stretched between them when she didn’t answer right away. She wished she could see his face.
“Mel?” he’d said.
“It’s not that I want to, Carson. I don’t. I really don’t. But I need to work. I need money. I’m not like you. I don’t have—”
“Hey. I’m not going to let you starve, Melanie. You don’t need to worry about that. You won’t have to go back to the glove counter at that department store. Not that they’d hire you now anyway. I’ll take care of you. I promise.”
“You…what?”
“I’ll make sure you have whatever you need while we wait this out. Food. A place to live. And a lawyer if you need one. You justneed to agree with me that we’re not going to volunteer to say anything. To anyone. It’s the right thing to do.”
“Are you…asking me to move in with you?”
“God, no. That would just make things worse for you. We need to be seen together as little as possible right now. No. I mean I will set it up with my financial guy to pay your rent, your grocery bill, a lawyer’s fees, and so on.”
She had felt her mouth drop open. “For how long?
“I don’t know. As long as it takes.”
“As long as it takes?” she’d echoed, hardly able to conceive of being as dependent as a five-year-old child on Carson Edwards, and for who knew how long? It seemed distasteful. Like she was his…call girl.
“Unless you want to go home to Nebraska and wait it out there,” he’d said.
Irving, whom she’d talked with that first day, had told her going back to Omaha for a while wasn’t a terrible idea, and advised her to maybe come up with a pretense for heading back home for a spell. A sick parent, perhaps. She’d flat out refused to consider it then and had no intention of changing her mind.
“I do not.”
“I didn’t think so. And I’m not sure how that would look anyway. Have you talked to your parents? Do they know?”
Melanie had been putting off that phone call for hours upon hours, loath to make it. “Not yet.”
“You should call them. They need to know not to speak to the press, either.”
“They’re inNebraska, Carson.”
“Trust me, if this story continues to have staying power in the news, they will find your parents. They will pay them a visit andring their doorbell just like they rang yours. They need to know not to answer the door.”
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
“I’m not. Call them and tell them, Melanie. Okay?”
She had sighed heavily. “Yes.”
“The best thing for you and me to do right now is say nothing publicly and do nothing publicly. No running away like we’re guilty but not being out in the open, either. Lay low, stay low. Hide in plain sight, as they say. All right?”
Her head had pounded with an ache that made her feel like her skull was locked in an ever-tightening vise.
“Melanie?”
