The seventeen years that’d passed since her former English teacher’s trial hadn’t been good to him. Gia had been able to tell that much when he’d accosted her at Delia’s Big Buns. But with a bright sun overhead and the shadowing inside his vehicle, she hadn’t seen the deep lines in his face; those were much more apparent when standing in the same room.
Of course, she’d gotten only a glimpse of him before turning and running upstairs—although she was covered, she wasn’t fully dressed—but that brief moment was enough to tell her he wasn’t in a good state. His clothes were rumpled and dirty, his hair was uncombed and had outgrown any style or shape it once had, and the gray in his scruffy beard growth added even more years.
Because she didn’t feel as though she had any right to say anything—she was the interloper here—she was leaving whatever unfolded downstairs to Cormac. But unless she was willing to pass through the living room and risk being drawn into the confrontation, she knew she’d be trapped in the house until the coast was clear.
She yanked on her jeans while their voices rose from below.
“How could you?” Evan yelled. “How could you act so morally superior, as if you would support me if only your conscience would allow it, when you were just trying to curry favor with her?”
“I wasn’t trying to curry favor,” Cormac said.
“Are you telling me you’re not sleeping with her?”
“I’m not telling you anything, because it’s none of your business!”
“She was wearing your sweatshirt and nothing else. I saw her fucking panties as she ran up those stairs, Cormac,” Evan said.
Gia felt her face burn with embarrassment. She’d never dreamed they’d be so rudely interrupted, not this early.
“There’s no question about what you’ve been doing,” Evan railed. “And it is absolutely my business because it would color your judgment! I’ve been dealing with a deck that’s suddenly been stacked against me. This explains everything.”
“That isn’t what influenced my opinion, Dad. If you want the truth, you’re the one who convinced me by the way you’ve behaved. Can you even see yourself these days? Look at you! You never get up this early, so I’m guessing you haven’t even been to bed. You probably read until you were too tired to see straight. Then you started drinking. You smell like you just crawled out of a bottle, for God’s sake. Why wouldn’t you sleep, shower and get ready for work like most other people? Please don’t tell me you’ve called in sick again.”
“I need a mental health day, thanks to you,” Evan exploded. “How do you expect me to work when you’re going around telling everyone that I admitted to inappropriately touching one of my students?”
“That’s molestation, Dad. You molested Gia when she was your student. Let’s finally call it what it is. And maybe you could quit lying while we’re at it!”
“You’d better not tell Louisa and Edith I admitted to anything, because I didn’t!”
“Wait, hold up,” Cormac said, his voice changing tone. “You’ve talked to Mom? Did she call you, or—?”
“We’re still friends, you know,” Evan broke in.
“Friends?” Cormac echoed. “Since when?”
“She’s older and wiser than you and understands how nuanced life can be.”
“I won’t argue that there are a million shades of gray in life, but trying to get one of your students to sleep with you isn’t the least bit nuanced. It’s just plain wrong. So tell me, did Mom call you?”
Gia could tell that having Sharon go to Evan felt like a betrayal to Cormac. That his mother would contact her ex-husband made it appear as though she was siding with him. Gia could understand why that would upset Cormac, and yet Evan was also right. It wasn’t just life that was complicated—it was relationships. Sharon had married him once. She had three kids with him. Maybe she still cared about him or was acting for some other reason.
“She came over when she got off her shift at the hospital an hour or so ago,” Evan said. “Apparently, she feels more loyalty to me than you do.”
Now dressed, Gia hovered in Cormac’s bedroom, out of sight and watching the clock on her phone nervously as it drew closer and closer to the time her parents normally got up.
“That’s why she came over?” Cormac asked. “That’s what she said?”
“She’s worried about what this could do to our family, Cormac, and so am I.”
“You’re worried about what this could to do you,” Cormac corrected. “That’s what you’ve always been worried about, why you would never admit the truth, even though that would’ve been far better for Gia and the rest of us. That way, we wouldn’t have continued to defend someone who’s guilty and who doesn’t deserve it. That way, we couldn’t be split in our opinions on the matter and end up exactly where we are today!”
“Cormac, listen to me,” Evan said. “Please don’t say anything to Edith and Louisa. Why would you want to destroy their good opinion of me? It’s the last thing I’ve got left!”
At this, Gia couldn’t help herself. Throwing the bedroom door open, she walked out onto the landing, which overlooked the living room below. “Don’t tell them, Cormac,” she said. “Just...leave it. The past is the past. And I’ll soon be gone, so hopefully you won’t feel you have to continue to defend me.”
When Evan looked up at her, he seemed taken aback that she’d show him such mercy, but he was quick to take advantage of it by turning supplicating eyes on his son. “Come on,” he said to Cormac. “Even she says you shouldn’t tell them. Whatever you think, I’ve been through enough. After the horrific public ordeal of that trial, I lost my job, my reputation, my marriage...”
“And you’ve done nothing to try to build it all back,” Cormac said. “That’s my point.”
“But I will,” Evan insisted. “If you let this go, I’ll pull myself together and put it behind me at last.”
Cormac looked from Gia to his father and back again. “But it’s not fair.”
Gia sighed. “If we can stop this thing from continuing to hurt people, I think we should.”
“That’s just it,” Cormac said. “You haven’t hurt anyone. And yet you’re having more compassion for him than he is for you.”
Gia’s parents got up at seven. She wanted to be home and in her own bed well before that.
She checked the time again, saw that it was edging closer to six thirty, and jogged down the stairs. “The people who matter most believe me. I’ve got a thriving business to go back to, where none of this really affects me anymore. I can forget and move on, but—” she jerked her thumb at Evan “—he may never be able to repair his relationships with Louisa and Edith. Just...let them think they’re right. Maybe it’s better if they believe I’m the bad guy.”
Cormac scowled. “It goes against my sense of justice, but...”
“But?” Evan echoed hopefully.
Ignoring his father, he kept his gaze on her. “I don’t want to hurt my sisters.”
“Then patch things up with them and let it go.” Gia squeezed his arm as she passed him on her way to the back door. “I’ll talk to you later.”
She walked out without so much as looking back at Mr. Hart. What he was thinking or feeling no longer mattered to her. This moment was about what she was feeling, and she was feeling a new kind of vitality. The past hadn’t beaten her. Although there were moments since she’d come back when it felt as though a frightening specter was reaching out and trying to drag her back into the swamp she’d escaped seventeen years ago, she was no longer frightened. She’d finally slayed that swamp creature, put the past to rest.
Now she was facing a future free of the anger and upset, even the bitterness, caused by the injustice of Mr. Hart’s actions, because it simply didn’t matter to her anymore. By telling Cormac to let what his father had done go, she’d finally been able to let it go. She was writing it off as a loss, perhaps, but it was a loss she was now confident she’d fully recovered from.
She was finally unencumbered, wasn’t hauling around old grievances.
And that meant everything.
Thanks to his father’s unexpected visit, Cormac ended up having to skip his run, but he got Mrs. Wood and Astro out for a half hour walk, which was better than nothing. After he dropped them off at home, he went straight to the clinic.
Louisa wasn’t there yet. She was still punishing him, he supposed—letting him feel her extreme displeasure.
He heard the bell over the door and Dorothy Backus’s voice, speaking to her two kittens. Their first appointment had shown up before Louisa—a repeat of yesterday. But, fortunately, the sound of an engine rose to his ears only two or three minutes later.
He peered out through the blinds in his office to see her truck pull into the back lot. “Talk about waiting until the last minute,” he grumbled.
Telling himself everything would soon be put right, he pulled on his lab coat while she finished parking and got out. He was planning to meet her as she walked in and ask her to come into his office for a quick chat. As much as he hated to do a mea culpa when he wasn’t really the one who was wrong, he’d decided to take the pass Gia was offering him and his family. If she could be that generous, he figured he might as well accept the kindness for the sake of his sisters, especially since he believed his mother had been colluding with the enemy. He’d never seen that coming.
But when he left his office, said good morning to Mrs. Backus and saw Louisa step through the door, he could tell she’d been crying. Her red-rimmed eyes made it all too apparent.
“Mrs. Backus, would you mind giving me and Louisa a few minutes?” he asked.
The stout, gregarious woman who owned a small card and gift boutique downtown, in which almost everything was cat related, gave him a look that indicated she’d noticed the evidence of tears on Louisa’s face, too. “Not at all.”
Louisa waved a hand. “There’s no need to make anyone wait,” she said, her words clipped, and kept her head down as she rounded the counter to stow her purse.
“It’ll only take a moment.” Cormac was wearing a smile but knew she’d heard the steel in his voice when she removed her sweater, draped it over the back of her chair and followed him, reluctantly, into the office.
“What’s going on?” he asked as soon as he closed the door.
Her voice sounded choked when she responded, “I don’t even know where to start.”
“Does this have to do with Dad?” He was hoping she’d say yes so that he could go into his apology and get it over with. But she surprised him.
“When were you going to tell me, Cormac?” she asked, bursting into fresh tears.
He was at a complete loss. “What are you talking about?”
“You know what I’m talking about.”
His mind grappled for how this might fit into his current understanding of the problem, but he came up empty. “I don’t. Is this related to what happened at the Banned Books reunion? Are we going back to that? Because I’ve been thinking about that...um...situation, and I’m willing to say that I certainly didn’t mean to hurt you. I don’t know exactly what happened back when Dad was teaching, so...you should just go on believing what you’ve always believed. For all I know...”
He’d meant to say something like For all I know, you could be right. But he knew she wasn’t right and couldn’t conjure those words. “Never mind. Believe whatever is easiest for you, and I’ll go along with it.”
She gaped at him. “If that was supposed to be an apology, it sucked, especially because I know that you’ve been sleeping with Gia. I was right when I asked if you were interested in her, yet you denied it!”
Cormac nearly missed his chair when he sat down. He was so stunned he hadn’t bothered to look behind him. Why would his father go and blab to the girls when he’d been given a “get out of jail free” card he didn’t even deserve? “Dad told you that?”
“Yes, he did.” She sniffed and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “He said he went over to your house this morning to talk to you, and there she was, half naked in your kitchen.”
Cormac had just shaved and yet he could hear the rasp of fresh beard growth as he rubbed his chin. “Louisa—”
She put up a hand. “And before you go after him, insisting he really did molest Gia, I know that now, too. Mom set me straight.”
Another surprise. He sat up taller. “When did you talk to Mom?”
“She came by early this morning, said she didn’t want me to be mad at you when you were right.”
“But she also went over to Dad’s—”
“To ask him if he really admitted what you said he did.”
Cormac scratched his head. “And he told her the truth?”
“No. But she was hoping he would. She wanted to do away with every last shred of doubt, has always tried to reserve judgment—just in case he was being falsely accused.”
“And?”
“He denied admitting anything to you. But she said she could tell he was lying. And she’d take your word against his any day.”
Cormac struggled to piece together the events of the morning. “So...after Mom got off at the hospital, she stopped by his place, then went over and told you not to be mad at me because I’m right? What about Edith?”
“Mom’s probably talked to her, too. She told me we couldn’t let this tear our family apart, that we had to be mad at the right person and you’re not the one. But when I called Dad to tell him I’ll never speak to him again, he said of course you’d believe Gia—you’re sleeping with her.”
That was the missing link right there. Their father had tried to defend himself by throwing Cormac under the bus, even though it was Cormac and Gia who’d been kind enough to agree not to tell Louisa and Edith the truth. He’d known his mother had visited his father, but he’d assumed that was it, had no idea she would finally go into action and take a firm stand.
Laughing mirthlessly, Cormac shook his head.
“You think it’s funny?” Louisa asked.
It was kind of funny that the truth had come out, anyway. But Cormac wasn’t going to say that. “I think our father doesn’t have nearly the character I once believed he did,” he said instead, which was also true.
Blinking her tears back, Louisa dashed a hand across her cheeks. “Yeah, well, thanks for destroying any admiration I had for him.” She got to her feet to leave the office, but he called her back.
“I didn’t do that, and you know it,” he said. “Sure, I was going to let you know he was guilty—I thought it was only right that we all accept the truth—but you know who talked me out of it? Who said I should let you believe whatever was easiest for you to believe so you wouldn’t be hurt any worse?”
She didn’t look as though she cared to guess but was curious enough to say, sullenly, “Who?”
“Gia,” he replied.
When Sheldon’s call came in, Gia told herself to ignore it, to maintain her silence for a little longer, in case she heard from her sister and could get some idea of how Margot wanted her to handle the situation. But she was afraid she wouldn’t hear from Margot—and maybe he could provide some answers. She wanted to know what had gone wrong, why Margot had left without saying a word to anyone and where she might’ve gone. Whatever he could contribute might prove helpful.
Besides, Gia was curious to find out how he was reacting to the fact that his wife had finally wised up and left him. At this point, she figured more information was better than less, so she quickly closed the door to her bedroom and answered before the call could transfer to voicemail. “Hello?”
“What the fuck’s going on?” he demanded without preamble.
That answered one question. He was as furious as she’d expected him to be. Gia guessed she was about to see the worst of her brother-in-law—and she’d never liked him much to begin with. “That’s what I’d like to ask you.”
“You and your parents won’t even answer my calls!”
It sounded as though he was in his truck, probably on speakerphone since it was an old vintage Chevy, which wouldn’t have Bluetooth. She could hear road noise as well as country music playing in the background. “I just answered this one.”
“Is it true?” he demanded. “Has Margot taken the boys and left?”
“That’s what your parents are saying, but... I have no idea.”
“Bullshit!” he shouted. “You have to have some role in what’s happening. If there’s trouble, you’re always behind it.”
She wanted to say that even at her worst she couldn’t be as bad as he was, but she was afraid he’d just hang up, and she hadn’t gotten any information yet. “I’m telling you—honest to God—I don’t know where she is.”
“She just happens to pick one of the rare moments when you’re in town to pull this shit?”
“Wait a minute! You happen to be having an affair. That could have something to do with it, right?”
“Oh, my God. For the last time, I’m not having an affair!”
“Even if that was true—and with the rumors that are going around I highly doubt it—you were going out of town for a week, which gave her the perfect opportunity to gather whatever she needed without you knowing a thing. I bet she made her plans around your hunting trip more than my return, although I do believe I played a role, since she needed me to come home to take care of Mom.”
“You’re saying you didn’t know this was going to happen? That you didn’t encourage it, didn’t help with it?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying! There’s no way I’d suggest she run off, not considering what’s going on with my mother!” When she passed the window, she couldn’t help but stop to look out at Cormac’s house. It’d become a terrible habit. “I’m not going to lie, though,” she said when she didn’t see any evidence that her backyard neighbor was home. “If she had come to me and told me she was unhappy, I would’ve encouraged her to leave you. I knew she was making a mistake marrying you in the first place.”
There was a brief silence. Then he said, “No way...”
She’d just insulted him. Gia had expected him to come right back at her with something even more scathing, so this two-word, somewhat restrained reply took her off guard. “No way...what?” she asked uncertainly.
“I believe you. Somehow, I thought for sure you’d engineered this, but I think she knew I’d assume you were involved, which is why she left you out of it.”
“From what I can tell, she left everyone out of it. Took no chances.” Margot had even abandoned her phone, but Gia was never going to volunteer that piece of information. Sheldon would just demand she give it to him, and she wasn’t about to do that in case he could do what she hadn’t been able to and get inside it. “So...what are you going to do?”
“I’m on my way back right now to figure out what the hell’s going on. She won’t get away with this, I’ll tell you that much.”
Gia wanted to ask what he thought he could do about it, but she knew they’d end up in a fight if she did. Trying to keep calm long enough to pump him for as much as he could tell her, she asked, “Do you know where she might’ve gone?”
“I have no clue.”
“In the past few months, you haven’t heard her mention a certain place she’d like to visit? She hasn’t been looking at travel brochures or surfing other towns or cities on the internet?”
“Not that I’ve seen.”
He’d probably been too busy with Cece to notice what his wife was doing. “Could she be involved with another man?”
“She’d better not be,” he snapped.
An ironic response, considering Gia was almost certain he was lying about his ex-girlfriend. But for the time being, she let that go. “So what do you think’s going on?”
“I think people have been sticking their noses into my business and gossiping about me all over town, and it has her freaked out. If I could just speak to her, everything will be fine.”
“You think she’d come back?”
“I know she would. She has no way to survive. She has to come back.”
Gia passed the window again—and checked to see if Cormac might be home from work even though it’d only been a minute or two since she’d done it last time. “I don’t think so, Sheldon.”
“You don’t know that,” he said.
She resumed her pacing. “Except... I do.”
“What do you mean?”
Should she tell him? He was going to find out anyway, so she didn’t see where it would make any difference. And maybe it was mean-spirited, but she was sort of eager to be the one to deliver the news that Margot had taken all their money. “She called here once.”
“You lied to me, after all?”
“No. I said I don’t know where she is, and I don’t. I also said I didn’t know she was going to do it, and I didn’t.”
“So...what’d she say? She didn’t tell you where she was?”
“No, she wouldn’t. She just wanted me to give my mom and dad her love.”
“What about the number she called from. Maybe that will tell us something.”
“She blocked it before she called me.”
“And you couldn’t hear anything in the background that might give her away?”
“Nothing.”
“Well, there’s only so much money in her account.”
“She has her own account?” Gia asked in surprise.
“It’s for gas and groceries—the household account—and she’s always complaining there isn’t enough in it. But right now, I’m glad I didn’t raise her budget. That money won’t last long.”
“Sheldon...”
No doubt he heard the ominous tone in her voice, because he hesitated before saying, “What?”
“She told me she has enough to get an apartment and a new car.”
The volume of the radio went down in the background. “Where would she get that kind of money? And why would she want to get rid of the Subaru? That’s a great vehicle!” he said, but the answer to that question must’ve dawned on him immediately after. “Wait, she wants to get rid of it so the police can’t trace the license plate?”
“See what I mean?” Gia said. “She’s not coming back.”
The phone went dead quiet, which scared Gia more than if Sheldon had exploded in rage. “She must’ve taken our savings, then.”
Gia winced. Bingo! “Maybe that’s it.”
His voice dropped an octave, at least, and grew threatening. “If she did, she’d better hope I never find her.”
A chill ran down Gia’s back as he disconnected. She was used to standing up to people. And she’d never been afraid of Sheldon before. But she was beginning to believe Margot: there was something missing, something wrong with him.