Meredith asked with disdain, “Who are you calling a queen bitch?”
“You, bitch, you!” Jude screamed. “All of Jon’s life, all you’ve ever cared about is yourself. Look at you now. Jon asked the two of you to help her and what do you do, start fucking again and talking about marriage as if that will solve something. Well, fuck all of you!”
“Jude, try to calm down,” I said, walking closer to her and putting my hand on her shoulder. “Let’s just sit back down and talk about this calmly.”
“No, hell no! Hell fucking no!” Jude started pacing the floor. “I decided to come out for one reason and one reason only, to inform all of you that you can’t win. You’ll never win!”
“Why are you doing this?” Meredith asked, on the brink of tears. “Why are you doing this to my baby?”
“Your baby?” Jude put her hands on her hips. “Jon never mattered to you, not really. All you cared about was putting up a pretense. You wanted everyone to think that you had the perfect marriage and the perfect little daughter, even though you didn’t. You only care about material things, just like your two fucking sisters.”
Meredith started crying harder. “I can’t take this. I love Jonquinette. I always have. You’re sick.”
“I’m not sick, you bitch!” Jude sat down in the middle of the coffee table with her legs spread open facing them. She lifted her skirt and started fingering herself. “Does this make you sick, bitch? I decided to be a whore just like you. The only difference is your golddigging ass has been fucking men for what they can give you all these years and I fuck them for the hell of it.”
Henry stood up and headed for the door. “I won’t sit here and watch this a second longer.”
Jude said, “What’s wrong, Daddy? You can’t handle it so you’re just going to cut and run out on us like you did all those years ago?”
Henry turned around and glared at Jude. “This is all your fucking fault, wench! You set me up! I never even met that prostitute.”
Jude started laughing. “Okay, fine. Since you’ve all figured it out already, I confess. I did it and I’m damn proud of it, too. You tried to get help for Jon, which meant trying to get rid of me, and I had to do something to stop you.”
“Is that why you stabbed me?” He got all the way up in Jude’s face. “It was you who stabbed me, wasn’t it?”
An expression of fear came across Jude’s face. It was brief but I saw it. I’m not sure if Meredith and Henry even picked up on it.
Meredith stopped crying and looked from one of them to the other. “Stabbed? Henry, what are you talking about?”
Jude took two steps back from him. “Yeah, what do you mean by that?”
“Don’t get cute with me, you cunt!” Henry started unbuttoning his shirt. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.” He took his shirt off and pointed to a tiny scar over his shoulder blade. “I’m talking about this.”
Meredith stood up, came over to him, and touched it. “That’s where you accidentally cut yourself with a pocket knife. I remember when you came home with it bandaged up.”
Henry smirked. “That was the story I made up to cover up for who I thought was Jonquinette. Now I know it wasn’t her at all.”
“What are you talking about, Henry?” Meredith prodded.
“I didn’t want the police to file charges against her. I knew that after all the incidents in her past that they’d allowed to slip through, one more might cause them to lock her up in juvenile detention.”
Jude hissed at him. “You’re a lying bastard! I never stabbed you!”
“You showed up at my office one day, stormed in like a hurricane, and started talking crazy. Just like you are now, as a matter of fact. I told you that it was time to get you some help. Your solution was to pick up a letter opener off my desk and stab me in the shoulder with it. I bet you were aiming for my heart but I moved out the way just in time.”
We had definitely reached a crossroads. I remained silent and allowed the situation to play itself out.
Jude grabbed my shoulders and started screaming. “I didn’t do that, Marcella! I didn’t!”
I didn’t respond. I just pushed her away from me. Part of me wanted to embrace her but I needed her to get angry. I had to allow whatever was destined to happen to occur.
Meredith grabbed her chest and looked like she was about to faint. “My baby stabbed someone! Her own daddy! Oh my God!” She fell on her knees and started crying all over again. “This is my fault. I should have listened to you, Henry! We should have gotten her help way back then!”