Page 51 of Out to Get Her
Samantha had hoped at least Melanie would have her back. She’d always considered her sister to be her closest ally in the family. But Melanie was still a Keller, even if she had taken a back seat as a doting, supportive wife and mother happily ditching any aspirations of her own. Now she was taking this opportunity to live vicariously through Samantha’s potential political career. Or maybe kick start her own second act as a campaign manager.
When Melanie finished detailing her battle plans, Samantha calmly said, “I don’t know if I want to do that.”
“What part?” Melanie asked.
“Any of it? All of it.”
She watched as her mother’s jaw fell slack.
Samantha had left out Nathan’s part in the previous day’s debacle. His interference and words would only add fuel to their fire.Well, of course you have to prove him wrong, they’d tell her.
She’d spent so much of her life proving people wrong. She was tired of it.
Maybe she didn’t have to try so hard. Maybe people could believe in her or not. Maybe it was up to them and not her.
Why should she have to work doubly hard to prove yet one more thing to her ex-husband, who never once tried to prove that he was worthy of anything? To her or to anyone else.
Melanie drank more wine while the men excused themselves. They didn’t even bother to come up with an excuse. Just got up and ran off like cowards. As if Samantha or Melanie would ever have been allowed to get away with that.
Silence stretched out long after they disappeared. Her mother stared her down from across the table.
Melanie downed the rest of her wine. “Shall I get us all a refill?”
“Sit.”
When their mother commanded, they did as ordered. So Melanie sat.
Samantha, however, was not feeling quite so compliant.
“There isn’t anything to discuss. I’m not dropping out of the race, but there will be no scrambling. No more appearances. No more anything but showing up to work and doing my job. The people here know who I am. What I stand for. What I’m capable of. If anyone needs to prove themselves, Jordan does.”
“Yes, but you know that’s not how any of this works.”
“That’s how itshouldwork, and that’s how I’m going to run the rest of my campaign. I’m going to focus on my investigation and protecting the people of this town, and that’s all I have left to say about that.”
Although Erin’s voice was still running on a loop through her fuzzy memory of the previous night.
You can’t change it all by yourself.
Maybe not. But Samantha had to try.
And she still had a job to do.
She sure as heck couldn’t do any of that if she was spending all her time shaking greased palms and making pointless speeches.
It was her mother’s turn to sip her cabernet, while Melanie shifted in her seat.
“How’s the case coming, anyway?” Melanie’s voice was soft and hesitant. Melanie was always the sweetest sibling, but hesitant was normally not her style. “Did you just panic up there, or do you really not have any leads?”
Her mother set down her glass and waited for the answer as well.
“I’m following up on a few things.” Samantha cleared her throat. “You know I can’t comment on an open investigation.”
“I can’t believe you haven’t arrested that Sonnier girl yet,” her mother said. “She rolls back into town withhercriminal past, and there just happens to be a body in her house? We all know that girl is trouble. I don’t understand why it’s taking so long to arrest her.”
Samantha stared at her mother. “We aren’t arresting her because she didn’t commit any crimes.”
Her mother snorted. An uncharacteristic sound coming from her. Samantha had a knack for being the one person who could fluster Barbara Keller with her mere existence.
