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Eddie was mostly silent at dinner that evening, which was… surprising. Jamie had honestly expected her to be just as angry as she’d been on Sunday. Hell, part of him was very aware that he probably deserved it. Instead, she greeted him with a smile and a kiss when he walked through the front door, which was a bit unusual, to say the least.
He’d spoken to his sister earlier that day, so he knew they’d gotten the girl’s father for the murder of her mother. Erin hadn’t said much else, though, beyond reassuring him she and his wife were once more on the same page and that there was nothing to worry about. The longer he stared at his wife, though, the more he began wondering exactly how truthful that statement was.
“So,” he asked finally, drawing her attention away from the pot roast she’d fixed for dinner, “how’d it go with that case of Erin’s? Everything work out in the end?”
She nodded as she speared a chunk of carrot with her fork and popped it into her mouth. “It did,” she told him once she’d finished chewing. “I was right, about the daughter lying. Her dad found out about her mother’s affair. According to her, he didn’t mean to kill his wife, but…” She shrugged. “He was still willing to let his kid lie about it, so he’s a piece of work either way.”
“Sounds like it,” he agreed, reaching for his glass of water. “Anything else happen?” he quested after a few moments had passed in silence.
She shook her head, seemingly on instinct, then glanced up from her plate. The second her eyes met his, she exhaled heavily, seeming to deflate right in front of him. “Why are there so many men in this world like that guy?”
“What do you mean?”
“These guys that, they bring these little girls into the world, and they make them absolutely adore them, and then they just… they let them down, and they turn them into liars, and they break them in ways it’s really hard to repair.” She stared at him helplessly, tears glistening in her eyes. “Why are so many dads out there just like my dad?”
He felt a lump develop in his throat as he looked across the table at her, unsure of what to say. Eddie was easily one of the strongest people he’d ever met. Despite the pain she’d been put through over the years, by both her father and the world, she loved so openly and so deeply. She saw the best in people more often than she didn’t; it was refreshing, and beautiful, and one of the many things that had made him fall so completely in love with her. It killed him that her father, the man who was meant to nurture her and help her to see the good in the world, was the exact reason there were times she couldn’t see any at all.
“I don’t know,” he replied honestly. “I don’t know what makes them selfish enough to do what your dad did. I don’t know how you justify it. What I do know is that, if that little girl turns out anything like you, I think it’ll be proof enough that she overcame what he put her through.”
She scoffed humorlessly. “I haven’t overcome anything,” she muttered. “Being in the same room as that little girl made that much painfully obvious.”
“You don’t have to overcome it,” he told her gently. “What your dad did, the lies he made you tell… that isn’t something you need to forgive. But you survived it, Ed. You lived through it, and now you’ve built a life for yourself that’s not based in lies. You’re just about the most honest person I know, which can be… interesting at times, but it’s also one of my favorite things about you. You’re nothing like Armin, Eddie.”
She drew in a shaky breath, then let it out slowly. “Good. I don’t ever want to be anything like him. He’s my dad, but he’s…” She laughed tearfully, the sound dull. “He’s hardly the best example of what to be.” She glanced back up at her husband, meeting his gaze. “I just hope that, if we have kids, I don’t become him.”
“You won’t,” he said definitively, reaching across the table to squeeze her fingers gently.
“You promise?” she questioned hopefully, her gaze so trusting it broke his heart a little more.
“Yeah,” he murmured, mustering up a smile. “I promise.”