I smiled. “Of course I would. You are a wonderful, amazing person who has been my mentor and helped me so much in the past few years. I doubt that I would have stayed in Peachwood long if it hadn’t been for you and Sadie. The two of y’all gave me a reason to live here and to be who I needed to be in this town. I know that I have a long way to go when it comes to my powers, to accepting who I am. But with your guidance, I’m learning more about my abilities every day.”
She smiled proudly. “I was so afraid to tell you. After a while, it just became easier and better to hide it.”
I reached over to her. Lady’s muffled voice came from my lap.
“You’re squishing me.”
“Sorry.” I pretended to squeeze Malene’s hand by giving the air a little squeeze. “All I want to know is, what else is going on in this town that I need to be made aware of? Leola—”
“That she-devil,” Malene hissed.
I lifted my hand for her to stop. “Okay, whatever your personal feelings are, let’s keep those out of them. Anyway, was Leola lying when she told me that you might be hiding other things from me?”
Malene mashed her lips together tightly before slowly releasing them. “Maybe not.”
“There. Was that hard?”
Malene glared at me. “You’re not the one in the hot seat.”
“This is true.”
“Yeah,” Lady added. “It’s hotter than Hades in Clem’s lap. I would say that I’m in the hot seat, too.”
I stroked her head. “That’s not what Malene means.”
“Oh.” Lady’s ears draped forward. “Then what other kind of hot seat is there?”
“It’s not important.” To Malene, I said, “How is Leola not quite lying?”
Malene exhaled. “Fine. I’ll tell you. A long time ago, in a country far, far, away—”
“This story ain’t about a princess, is it?” Lady asked.
“No, it’s about me,” Malene snapped. “Okay, it doesn’t take place in a country that’s far away. It takes place right here. I was married once to a man who didn’t mind my eccentricities. We were married for years and years. We had a daughter. Then we had a son. My daughter died and then our son vanished. These are not the happiest memories in my life, but they are memories. Then I started not getting along with that man anymore. We went our separate ways. That’s the end of the story.”
I waited for the other shoe to drop. Was there more to this that I was missing? Why would Leola have acted like it was such a big deal.
Malene clasped her hands and shrugged. “That’s it. There’s nothing more to tell you.”
“Okay. Well, that was easy.” I stared at Malene and she stared at me and somewhere, in the back of my mind, Leola’s words persisted. “Who was your husband?”
Malene’s gaze skirted away. She hunched her shoulders as if that was response enough.
“Malene,” I warned. “Who was your husband?”
“You mean, whoismy husband.”
“Okay, who is your husband? Wait. You’re still married?”
“Yes, I’m still married,” she spat. “I don’t have time to file a whole bunch of paperwork and try to get things straightened out. I’ve got enough on my plate, thank you very much.”
The world crashed down on me again. This was what Leola meant. “So not only are you still married, but this man is my grandfather.”
“That might be correct.”
Anger scoured through my veins. “Thatmight be correct,oriscorrect?”
She brushed her fingers over her mouth as she replied, “It is correct.”
