Page 196 of Come Back to Me

“You never liked Elena, Lindsay,” Mrs. Abelman states calmly. “Andyou,Cody, had plenty going on. You needed to find your footing here, not worry about something that’s outside of anyone’s control. Plus, you’d had that falling out with Sebastian and?—”

“What falling out?” Colton asks, his brows high. “First I hear about that.”

“Do any of you actually talk?”

That earns me a bunch of glowers.

Mrs. Abelman steamrolls over that with a grumbled, “Something to do with a girl. I take it you’ve made up?”

“Yeah.”

“How didn’t I know about this?” Colt demands.

“You’re not Zeus,”I insert lightly. “Or are you?”

Cody’s lips twist. “I sent nurses over there. By the sounds of it, Theo’s paying the ranch’s way, but they need extra help despite everything we’re doing.”

“John Frobisher always was damn difficult with charity.” Lindsay rubs the corners of her mouth with a napkin. “I can’t believe I haven’t heard anything in town.”

Mrs. Abelman clears her throat. “I heard that Elena was found in the Glovers’ general store walking around in her nightgown and that Tee helped Cody take her back to the ranch.”

“We really are on Mount Olympus.” Colt’s jaw locks. “I never heard anything about that.”

Lindsay’s hand tightens around her wineglass. “Why would Elena go to The General Store in her nightgown?”

“She was looking for me. I went to her one time after Clyde…” Cody breaks off. I wish I was sitting next to him so that I could hold his hand like I know Zee’s doing with Colt. “He...” Cody’sfingers dance over his cheekbone. “He almost broke my orbital bone. Elena took me to the doctor’s.”

“That bastard.” Lindsay’s fist bangs against the table. “I hope hell exists just so he can rot in it?—”

“What are you talking about, Cody?” Colt interrupts his mother’s diatribe.

“You were at UofS and he was mad at Callan.” Cody’s mouth tightens. “I distracted him by asking about enlisting.”

I glance at Callan and see that his pallor is peaking.

It can’t be nice hearing that your brother took a beating meant for you.

How many times did this happen?

And how did Clyde get away with it for so goddamn long?

Maybe Mrs. Abelman reads the expression on my face because she intones, “It was either shut up about it and keep my job and be here for the boys or lose my job and leave them entirely alone.” Her gaze pierces me to the quick. “Don’t judge the choices I made, Christy. Not until you walk a step in my shoes.”

My fist bounces off the table, making the dishes, glassware, and cutlery clatter. “Surely someone could have done something!”

“Against the most powerful man in town? You said it—the Korhonens aren’t mere mortals. Hell, not even Clay stopped him when he was alive. Clyde...” Mrs. Abelman’s nostrils flare. “He had a habit of threatening what you cared for most, and I couldn’t risk my job. Not when Lindsay was depending on me to keep her boys... I-I couldn’t keep them safe. That was too big of an ask when their biggest danger was their father. But in one piece? For the most part. They had me. They were cared for. I was a safe space. Only if I kept my job, though.”

“Nobody should have that much power,” I rasp, hurting for the boys, unable to imagine what kind of monster they were raised by.

“You think I didn’t want to kill him myself?” Mrs. Abelman snarls. “You know how many poisons they have on a ranch? It’d have been so easy to doctor his food. Some days, I used to wish I had the guts but?—”

Lindsay snags a hold of Mrs. Abelman’s hand. “I’m sorry I put that on you, Ida.”

“You had no choice, Lindsay.”

“Elena said that Clay wanted to marry her,” Cody inserts. “But he didn’t dare because he thought Clyde would hurt her. She said it’s half the reason he started an affair, because it had to be a secret.”

“What a horrible situation to bring Elena into,” Lindsay declares. “Sounds so unlike Clay. He was always a gentleman.”

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