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Well, if there was ever a time for the truth to come out about Jude on Days of Our Lives, it certainly would be at his christening. How much more dramatic does it get than a church confession that Nicole is the baby’s mom — from Leo?

But since that was the Thursday cliffhanger and not the Friday, it was all but guaranteed that Leo wouldn’t go through with his confession. Instead, he, Sloan and Melinda reaffirmed their pact of mutual destruction to keep their mouths shut or all go down in flames. So long as Sloan keeps the cash flowing Leo’s way that is.

So far, though, we’ve seen Leo and Sloan both struggle with the secret, while their other co-conspirator has been utterly unflappable. Or so it seems. Because what if we’ve been betting on the wrong ones to break down and give Jude back to Nicole? What if it’s Melinda who finally does it?

As she was telling Leo before the christening, she’s fine with her choice to steal Nicole’s baby because now he’s being raised by two happy, loving parents. But then Leo countered that Sloan doesn’t have a maternal bone in her body. And… he’s not wrong. After the initial joy wore off, Sloan’s been more interested in getting it on with her hubby than caring for their kid.

Sooner or later, Melinda has to start questioning whether this is actually a good situation. It may take some time because doing so would force her to admit that she’s done something really, really horrible, but that at her heart, she’s not a bad person.

That’s something Tina Huang suggested when she spoke with First for Women, “The fans love to hate me, and if they hate me enough, I’ve done my job. I really love being the villain – even though I happen to believe my character is not a villain.”

There’s a reason Melinda swiped Nicole’s baby for Sloan, and it goes much deeper than friendship. Because as much as she may want a friend through thick or thin, risking her entire life and career to steal a baby seems a bit much.

“I feel really sad about this storyline,” Huang admitted, “but I also feel like Melinda’s motivation is that she’s a survivor of abuse and wanted to protect her own child and couldn’t. So now, she wanted to protect this baby from E.J.”

And if anything makes sense in Salem, that does. It’s not to say convincing anyone that her baby died and then stealing it is justified, but she’s not necessarily wrong in thinking being a DiMera leads to nothing but trouble and pain.

The thing is, the baby’s not EJ’s, Eric is. And Melinda knows that. Right now, even if she tells everyone everything, the best case scenario in the truth coming out means Eric probably sharing custody with Nicole and EJ. But if Sloan proves to be too bad a mother, if she and Eric don’t stick together, Melinda might finally decide it’s time to do the right thing.

Because Eric would surely leave her when he finds out, and if he and Nicole learn they’re Jude’s parents, that could pull her away from EJ. We all know that the “Ericole” merry go round never, truly stops. That would protect his baby, as Huang put it, from an uncaring mother and a dangerous father.

Would she actually do it, though? That may depend on whether she could figure out how to do that in a way to keep herself out of hot water, seeing as how she’s the one who pretty much orchestrated the whole thing. But don’t count Melinda out just yet. She’s no simple villain and, at one point, she had a rigid, strong sense of justice.

She may some day decide that the best thing for the baby is to let the truth — all of the truth – come out and face the consequences of her actions head on.