“No. It began with me. It’s my story to tell.”
Hunt turned to face her. “Then start talking, sister.”
She lifted her chin in defiance, but her voice was trembling.
“I got pregnant, but I was scared and didn’t tell anyone—not even my boyfriend. I threw up almost every morning after Mom left to take Birdie to school. But then Dad hurt his hand and was off a whole week. He figured it out and had a fit. I begged him not to tell Mama. He asked me who the father was, and when I told him, I thought he was going to kill me. He told me to call him right then and there and get him over to the house. I called him, but I didn’t tell him why.”
Birdie sighed. “Oh, Emma.”
Emma shrugged. “I had just turned sixteen. I thought I was a big deal. My boyfriend showed up, and Dad told him what I’d revealed, grabbed him by the arm, and said he was going to have him arrested for rape. My boyfriend looked at me, and then laughed and said rape had nothing to do with it, that I did what I did with a smile on my face.”
Hunt shuddered, remembering his father’s trigger-quick temper.
“What happened?” Birdie asked.
Emma looked at Junior, and then back at Hunt. “Dad doubled up his fist and hit him so hard he flew backward, hitting the back of his head on the corner of the kitchen table. It split like a ripe melon, and blood went everywhere. He dropped and didn’t get up.”
Hunt’s heart was pounding now. He knew before she said it what was coming, and it was still a shock to hear the words.
“Daddy killed him. Junior saw it happen. I saw it happen. Daddy made Junior help carry the body to the truck bed. They covered it with a tarp just as Ray came into the kitchen. He saw all the blood and freaked. Dad came in, told me and him to clean it up before Mama got home and then get ourselves to school. He’d drop Junior off later.”
“Lord have mercy,” Hunt whispered, and turned and looked at Junior. “What did you two do with the body?”
Junior wiped his hands across his face, as if trying to wipe away the memories.
“Daddy drove up to the swamplands and then up into a bayou. We carried the body to the water’s edge and left it for the gators. Daddy drove me back to town and got me a permission slip for being late to school.”
Hunt frowned. “Okay, he killed the boy, but why did he need the money?”
“Because of me,” Emma said. “School was just about over, remember? A few days after you were gone, he sent me to Florida to a home for unwed mothers. Mom thought I had a summer job there. But I was going to have the baby and give it up for adoption. He stole your money to fund that.”
Hunt shook his head in disbelief. “It was your mistake. He made me pay for your mistake? Why?”
“Because I wanted to keep the baby, but he killed the father. He said he wasn’t going to raise a kid and look at it every day and be reminded of what happened. He didn’t have the money to send me, so he took yours. I didn’t want to give up my baby, but he made me go, and we were all guilty of his death by participation in one way or another.”
Birdie was in shock. This was the last thing she would ever have expected to hear.
“Did Mama know all of this?” Hunt asked.
“Not to my knowledge,” Emma said.
“What happened to the baby?” Birdie asked.
Emma shook her head and started crying. “Oh…that was karma coming back to bite me. I miscarried in my seventh month and it died. It was a little boy. I can’t have any more.”
Before Hunt could react, Ava was beside him. And when she slid her arm around his waist, the rage within him began to fade, and the longer she held him, the quieter he became.
Then he looked at Junior.
“You were fifteen, right?”
“Barely,” Junior said.
Hunt’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Ray. “And you…how old were you, thirteen?”
Ray nodded. “The same age as Ava.”
Hunt took a deep breath and pulled Ava closer.
“And I had just turned eighteen. We were kids…just kids. He was our father, and he screwed all of us, not just me. He involved you in a murder. No wonder you were afraid to tell. I’m sorry I was so angry at you. I’m sorry that I carried such hate with me for so long. I’m sorry Mama was caught in the middle of this nightmare.”
“This is what Mama wanted,” Birdie said. “She wanted us to make peace. I just know it. Thank you, Hunt. You were always a wonderful big brother, but you have turned into one amazing man.”
Junior reached out to shake Hunt’s hand, and Hunt shook his head and hugged him. Then Emma was in his arms, too, sobbing and begging forgiveness, and Ray added his apology to the others, and then they all turned, opened their arms, and pulled Birdie into the mix.
Ava stood aside with tears in her eyes, so happy for Hunt, and yet horrified about that boy’s body being dumped in the swamp.
“Emma…I have a question,” Ava said.
Emma turned around. “Ask.”
“I don’t remember you dating anyone at that time, and no one was ever reported missing. Who was it?”
Emma closed her eyes, remembering his face and how much she’d loved him, then she looked at Ava and sighed.
“Mark Ryman.”
Ava frowned. “The Rymans who lived up in the hills west of Blessings?”
“Wait. What? The one they called Tall Man?” Hunt asked.
Emma nodded.
Hunt shook his head. “That’s not right.”
“What do you mean, that’s not right?” Emma cried. “I guess I know better than you who I was in love with.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Hunt said. “I knew Tall Man. He was a year older than me.”
“Yes, yes,” Emma said. “So what?”
“So, Tall Man was in Iraq. We were both in the army and on the same base for a couple of months before his unit shipped out to another base. He didn’t die in our kitchen…but he did die. About two years before I was shot down. He was a foot soldier. His truck drove over an IED. He was one of three who died that day. I saw his name posted. Dad didn’t kill him. Junior, you didn’t help hide a body. Ray, you cleaned up his blood, but he shed a lot more fighting a war before he died. Emma lost a baby. But you all lost what was left of your childhood because our father was a coward. Instead of assuming Tall Man was dead, he never checked to see if he was still alive, and made all of us pay so he could hide what he’d done. There is no secret to hide. And as far as we’re all concerned, Emma ever being pregnant was her business…and none of ours. Understood?”