Normally, Cormac loved his work. By Friday, he found himself just going through the motions while trying to decide what he should do now that he felt it was Gia who’d been telling the truth about what’d happened in high school. Since he’d joined his mother’s side, the family was split down the middle. His sisters would be upset that he’d defected—Louisa was already upset with his earlier uncertainty—and he didn’t want to put them through any more grief.
But he also felt bad that his mother had been the only outlier for so long. That couldn’t have been easy on her, especially with the public humiliation and embarrassment she’d suffered, along with the betrayal. No wonder it’d taken forever for her to start dating. Right after the divorce, she’d been busy trying to earn a living so she could finish raising her children, which she’d had to do without much help from Evan, who’d lost his job and couldn’t seem to get back on his feet. Then she’d had two weddings to pay for—alone—and grandchildren to welcome. After what she’d been through, she probably had deep-seated trust issues when it came to men.
Over the years, Cormac had taken his mother’s strength for granted, he realized. He’d even blamed her, on occasion, for breaking up their family right when her husband needed her most. Louisa and Edith had said things that led Cormac to believe they’d done the same.
But now he saw the situation in a whole new light and understood how hard it must’ve been for her. She hadn’t even been able to rally her kids around her! They’d all chosen to believe their father, despite the fact that she was the only one who was still coming through for them.
Shoving what remained of his sandwich to the side—he was eating in his office so he could be alone, since Louisa still wasn’t really talking to him—Cormac rubbed his temples. He’d not only been unfair to Gia, he’d been unfair to Sharon. His mother could’ve tried to enlist his support long ago by sharing what she’d told him this morning, of course. Maybe he would’ve listened and changed his mind much earlier.
But there was an equal chance it wouldn’t have done any good. Had she tried to persuade him and failed, it would only have created a greater division between them, which was why he wasn’t prepared to take what she’d told him to his sisters. Sharon didn’t actually know if Evan was guilty; he’d never admitted anything. Cormac only believed the way she did because he was finally open to the other side. His sisters would have to be of a similar mind, and he wasn’t convinced they’d ever get there.
He glanced at the clock. His next appointment was due in ten minutes.
Figuring he might as well get on with his day, he started to gather up what was left of his lunch so he could return it to the small fridge in the breakroom when his phone went off.
Tyler Jenkins, an old friend he’d known since elementary school, was trying to reach him. They’d been talking about setting a date to go fishing, but they’d both been too busy to make it happen.
“Hello?”
“Hey, what’s up?”
Cormac wiped the crumbs from his desk. “The usual. Taking care of the dogs, cats and horses in the area—and maybe a few other animals. What about you?”
“Oh, man, the kids have been sick. Some sort of flu. What a nightmare.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I hope they get well soon.”
“Fortunately, I think we’ve seen the worst of it.”
“Good. You still want to go fishing?”
A child started to cry in the background. “I’d love to go somewhere, anywhere—even if it’s just grabbing a drink. But I don’t know when I’ll be able to do it. At the moment, I’m not only dealing with sick kids, I’m building a new house while juggling two remodels.”
Tyler was a general contractor, so he was probably racing to get the new house roofed before the weather could turn ugly. “Too much work is better than too little, I guess,” Cormac reminded him.
“Don’t try to be positive. I’m complaining right now.”
“Sorry.” Cormac laughed. “Then...poor you.”
“That was weak, dude. Fortunately, gaining your sympathy isn’t why I called. You’ve probably heard that Gia’s back in town...”
“Of course.”
“Figured word would spread quickly.”
“How’d you find out?”
“She went through Mel’s checkout line the other day.”
Tyler’s wife worked at Higgleston’s. She was the same age as Edith and had been over at the house quite a bit when they were growing up, so Cormac had known her fairly well even before she married Tyler. He doubted Gia would’ve had any reason to associate with her, though. She probably didn’t even realize the woman running the register at the grocery store knew who she was. “She came back to be with her mother, who’s dying of cancer,” Cormac told him. “Do you know Ida or Leo?”
“No. I never even knew Gia very well. But I got invited to the Banned Books Club reunion.”
That must’ve been a mistake. He couldn’t imagine Gia meant to invite him. She knew he and Tyler were friends. “You did? Are you going?”
“Hell, no. I only joined because you twisted my arm.”
Cormac hadn’t wanted to stand out too much. There hadn’t been many boys in the club and even fewer athletes, so he’d talked Tyler into joining with him.
“We were only in it for the girls, remember?” Tyler went on. “You had a thing for Gia until—well, until she did what she did, which is downright evil. I’m guessing you didn’t get an invitation, but you’re going anyway, right?”
Cormac blinked in surprise. “No. Why would I be going? Like you said, I wasn’t invited.”
“Well...neither were your brothers-in-law.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Dan told me that he and Victor and Louisa and Edith are going to confront Gia. They want to get a retraction out of her at last—in front of everyone.”
Cormac came to his feet. “Wait...what?”
“You didn’t know? They’re sick and tired of what their wives have been going through. It’s been so long. They figure it’s time they did something about it.”
“Dan told you this?”
“Yeah. He and I ride dirt bikes together. He asked me if I’d received an invitation to the Banned Books Club meeting.”
“And...”
“And when I said I got an email about it, he asked me to forward it to him, so I did. I know how much you want to reach the truth, too. I figured you’d be going with them.”
“Oh, my God...”
“What?” he said, obviously confused.
“They’re planning to gang up on her? Four against one?”
“I guess you could say that,” Tyler said, suddenly sounding unsure. “They want to make her fess up at last.”
“What if she’s not lying, Tyler?”
He didn’t seem to know how to respond. “I didn’t even consider that because...well, we know she is lying, right? And she’s never been held accountable for it.”
Cormac dropped his head back to stare up at the ceiling. What was he going to do? He had to stop this before it turned into a train wreck. “When’s the meeting?”
“Tomorrow night.”
“Where? Can you forward me that email?”
“I can if you want, but...”
A sour-faced Louisa stuck her head into the room. “Cormac, your one o’clock is here,” she said curtly before immediately closing the door.
“I have to go,” he told Tyler. “Just...send it to me.”
“Is everything okay?” he asked. “I thought you’d be happy that you finally have the chance to—”
“To what?” he broke in. “Hurt her even more?”
“Dude!” he said. “I thought she was the one who hurt you!”
The door opened again. “Cormac, are you coming?” Louisa asked. “We can’t get behind. Maybe you don’t care what time you get home, but I have a family.”
“I’m coming,” Cormac told her and said to Tyler, “I’ll have to talk to you later.”
Because she hadn’t wanted to confront Margot when Ida was around, Gia waited until Margot had left and Ida had gone into the bedroom for a nap. Then she tried to call, but Margot didn’t answer, and she didn’t call back. It was after three o’clock before Gia was able to reach her.
“Why haven’t you been picking up?” she asked when her sister finally said hello. “I’ve called at least six times.”
“I was volunteering in Matthew’s class and didn’t have my phone on me. Why? What’s the emergency?” Her voice grew tense, worried. “It isn’t Mom, is it?”
“No. Mom’s been resting peacefully. We’re planning to watch an old movie this evening.”
“That’s what you said at lunch. So why would you call me six times when I was just there? Don’t tell me you’re that bored.”
She hadn’t been bored today; she’d been agitated, worried and angry. When she couldn’t reach Margot, it’d been all she could do not to call Sheldon and give him a piece of her mind. “Ruth called earlier.”
“So? What’d she want?”
Now that she had her sister on the phone, Gia wasn’t quite sure how to approach the fact that everyone believed Sheldon was cheating with his ex-girlfriend. “She’s...concerned about you.”
The tension returned to Margot’s voice. “Why would she be concerned about me?”
“Because of Cece.”
Silence.
“Margot? Do you know that Sheldon and Cece have been seen together around town several times?”
“They’re just friends, G.”
There was no shock or surprise, which took Gia aback. “Friends? Margot, sometimes he’s with her when she picks up her son from school!”
“You would do that with a friend.”
Shocked, Gia began to pace in the kitchen. “In the middle of the day? When he’s supposed to be at work? He doesn’t even help out with his own kids!”
“That’s not true. He...he provides for all of us.”
“He does what he wants to do and grudgingly pays the bills so you’ll continue to serve him. But that’s beside the point. What is he doing hanging out with his ex-girlfriend?”
“There’s nothing going on, G.”
“Nothing going on,” she repeated. “You’re letting this asshole betray you and make a fool of you in front of everyone you know, and you won’t stand up to him or do anything about it? What’s wrong with you?”
“My life is exactly how I want it,” she insisted. “It’s fine. Especially now that you’re here to help with Mom. That’s what I needed. That was...crucial.”
Gia found this an odd choice of words. “To...”
“What do you mean?”
“What is it crucial to?”
“My peace of mind, okay?”
Gia shook her head. Clearly, there was something going on that wasn’t quite right. “You were about to tell me something the other night before that caveman you’re married to so rudely interrupted and ordered you to bed. What was it?”
“I don’t remember,” she said. “And I can’t talk right now. The bell just rang. I have to get Greydon from class.”
“If you won’t handle it, I’ll have to say something to Sheldon, Margot. You’ve put up with a lot. The least he can do is remain faithful.”
“Don’t say anything to him!” she said. “Please! I’ll call you tomorrow after Sheldon leaves on his hunting trip. We can discuss it then.”
Gia pivoted at the stove and started back across the kitchen. Having Sheldon in Utah for a week might give her the chance to make some inroads with her sister, get Margot to see how unfairly she was being treated and make her demand more. “Fine. Okay. We’ll talk then.”
Margot disconnected without a goodbye.
Cormac had almost forgotten that he had plans for Friday night. A patient who had a single niece had set him up on a blind date. Amy Floccari was a nurse, like his mother, who’d just moved to the area and worked at the same regional hospital. He’d seen a picture of her—and she was just as pretty in person—but he was so preoccupied when he took her to dinner that he couldn’t imagine he was very good company. He kept checking his phone, wondering if one of his sisters or their husbands would contact him to tell him they were planning on showing up, uninvited, to the Banned Books Club meeting tomorrow night.
But that message never came. When he dropped off Amy where she was staying, he hadn’t heard from anyone, and it was getting late enough that he could only assume he wouldn’t. No doubt Louisa had mentioned his sudden change of heart, so they weren’t including him. Now he didn’t know whether he should warn Gia, which would really seem like a betrayal of his family, or try to convince his sisters and their husbands not to follow through.
Talking to his sisters seemed the better course—the more conscionable course given his sudden reversal—and since he knew Louisa was mad at him, he tried Edith. She didn’t answer, but before he could call Louisa, Edith called him back.
He hit the talk button as he was pulling into his garage. “Hello?”
“You called?”
“Yeah, I wanted to talk to you.”
“About what?”
“Tomorrow night.”
The slight hesitation that followed his response told him she was surprised he knew they had something planned. “What about it?”
He could sense her defensiveness and it concerned him. He could almost see her walling him out, and he needed her to be receptive if he was going to derail his family’s attack. “There’s no way any of us should show up at that meeting, Edith.” Even though he’d actually been invited. He’d found the email when he checked his inbox at lunch today.
“It’s at a public place, Cormac. We have as much right to be there as Gia does.”
“It’s a restaurant, and I’m sure the staff, not to mention the people who’ll be dining there, won’t appreciate a screaming match. Think, for a second, about how tomorrow could go down.”
“She won’t be able to say or do anything. She’s been gone for so long, everyone there will know us better than they do her. It’s time she got the reaction she deserves—instead of an outpouring of sympathy. The fact that she doesn’t care about what she’s destroyed makes me so angry.”
“She cares, Edith.”
“How do you know?”
Because of the way she’d acted when she was at his house, for one. She hadn’t been gleeful or smug; she’d been afraid to trust him. If she were manipulating everyone, he would’ve gotten an entirely different vibe. At least, that was his take on it. And then she’d invited him to her meeting after. He was sure that was just a gesture of goodwill, but it was one she didn’t have to make. “Dad already had his day in court.”
“That doesn’t mean the judge got it right. It’s time we have our day.”
“Edith—”
“Stop! I know where this is coming from. Louisa told me you’re growing sympathetic to her. She said you’ve always had a thing for her.”
“That’s not true,” he said. Then he realized it wasn’t that far off base. “Well, I mean... I wanted to date her in high school. But that’s not what’s informing this decision. Until recently, I was as angry as you are.”
“So what’s changed?”
“I stood back and started looking at the situation more objectively—taking in how Dad’s turned out, what Mom did and how she feels about what happened, what Gia’s done since then and how she acts these days. If she was lying, I feel like she would’ve admitted it by now.”
“You don’t know that.”
“What would be stopping her?”
“The hate she’d receive for lying about something like that in the first place!”
Because of what their father had done, she’d had to see a therapist. He doubted she would’ve thought to say something like that if she’d been lying. And there were so many other little things. The problem was they were subtle. Nothing he felt would convince his sisters. “Fine. If you want to approach her, do it privately. But don’t gang up on her in public.”
“We’ll take that under advisement.”
It sounded more like she was flipping him off than listening to what he’d said. “Edith—”
“You’ve said your piece,” she interrupted, cutting him off again. “We’ll either take your advice or we won’t. But that’s our decision. You may be our big brother, but you don’t get to tell us what to do. Not anymore.”
Cormac sighed as she gave him a curt goodbye and disconnected. Louisa and Edith were all worked up—too worked up to listen. And their husbands were standing behind them, supporting them in this fool’s errand. He could only hope that once Edith calmed down and had a chance to think about what he’d told her, she’d change her mind, especially because he tried calling Louisa next, and she wouldn’t even pick up.