Love Inspired Suspense April 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 by Laura Scott (free e reader .TXT) 📕

She gestured to the cluttered room with its peeling paint, cracks in the walls and water stains on the ceiling. “Junior and I moved here after that first year. People in Willow Springs turned mean. Real mean. Blamed Calvin for what happened. I admit he wasn’t much, but he put food on the table and kept a roof over our heads. I never had no education. Married Calvin at seventeen and never did graduate high school.”

A brief smile softened her face, giving Liam a glimpse of the girl she’d once been. “We were in love and ready to take on the world no matter what our parents said. I always wanted to go back to school or get my GED at least, but Calvin...he wanted me home.” The smile died. “He did his best to take care of us, I’ll give him that. Maybe it was his fault he fell asleep on the bus, but was that any reason to run me and Junior out of town? We didn’t do nothin’ wrong.”

Liam started to say something, but Mrs. Hawkins wasn’t finished.

“I won’t deny that Calvin could be lazy, but a woman can’t be held responsible for what her man does, can she? It wasn’t fair. Not fair at all. I know what you kids called Calvin. Old Goat Pope. He pretended that it didn’t bother him none. But I know it did. He did his job and that was that. You kids just had to torment him, didn’t you? You had no call to do that. ’Course after the accident, he didn’t have a job. That day changed everything.”

“For a lot of people,” Liam said.

Mrs. Hawkins sat back, flipped open another tabloid with enough energy to cause it to tear. “Now look what you made me do. I wanted to read what’s happening over there in England with those royals. Their shenanigans make for a good story, even if I’ve got no truck with them. Bunch of spoiled brats with too much money and not enough work to keep ’em out of trouble, if you ask me.”

Clearly, the woman didn’t expect a response to her rantings. And Liam wondered, what was there to say? Pope’s wife blamed everyone else for her circumstances. She was so caught up in her own misery that she couldn’t see beyond it to what was happening outside her own narrow-minded world.

“What happened to your husband after the accident?” Liam asked.

Mrs. Hawkins spat out something that Liam decided he was better off not hearing. “What do you think? Calvin lost his job and the puny benefits that came with it. He was called a murderer. People wanted someone to blame, and he was a handy target. The school board fired him. There was talk about arresting him and making him stand trial. Like he wanted those kids who thought they were so high and mighty to die. He didn’t have any liking for them, but he didn’t wish them dead.”

Liam flinched at the spiteful words. He tried to feel sorry for the woman, but Mrs. Hawkins’s hostility made it hard to summon up much sympathy. “You sound angry.”

Hawkins pointed at Liam with a bony finger, accusation rigid in every inch of her posture. “’Course I’m angry. Angry at you.”

Taken aback by the attack, he only stared at her.

“You’re angry at Mr. McKenzie for saving your husband’s life?” Paige asked, voicing the same question Liam had.

“I heard you were smart. Turns out you ain’t so smart after all. He should have let Calvin die.”

Her son pushed himself off the wall where he’d been leaning. “Ma, don’t be saying those things. You’ll give folks the wrong idea.”

“I don’t care what idea they got. Truth’s truth. I won’t apologize for it.” Arms folded across her chest, she sat back, anger vibrating from her entire being.

“You can’t mean you’d prefer your husband had died,” Paige said, horror deepening her voice.

“Mean it? Of course I mean it. I mean it as much as I’ve meant anything in my life. If Cal had drowned along with those kids, it would have been different.” A self-righteous sniff punctuated the words. “I’d have collected on his insurance. It wasn’t much, but it’d have been enough to keep me and my boy going at least for a few years without me working myself into an early grave. I cleaned office buildings until my hands were callused and my fingers bloody. I got to where I couldn’t do the work anymore, so now I’m on disability. Scrubbing floors and toilets is hard on the body, but it was the only job I could get. Nobody wanted to hire the wife of the man who killed five kids.”

Gone was any semblance of civility as venom continued to spew from her. Harsh color stained her cheeks, and she aimed her rage at first Paige, then Liam. “When I found out what had happened, I was furious. If Cal had died trying to rescue those kids, he would have been called a hero. Instead, he was the man who had killed five spoiled brats.

“Thanks to your man here,” she said, returning her attention to Paige, “Cal lived, so he was the villain. The rest of you got butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-the-mouth sympathy from the whole town. People couldn’t do enough for you. All I got were mean words and nasty looks. Someone even threw rocks through our windows. I ask you, did I deserve that?”

Liam wasn’t given time to react to the words about his and Paige’s relationship as the woman continued with her diatribe, repeating her words as though they were a kind of mantra.

“We were all tarred with the same brush. It got to where I couldn’t go to the store to buy eggs without people thumbing their noses at me.”

She pointed to the door. “Now, get on your way, both of you. We’ve got nothing here for you.” Another spiteful glare at Liam and then Paige. “Yes, I knew