Once she was parked at the grocery store, Gia called Sammie for moral support. “I’m at Higgleston’s and there isn’t a Hart in sight,” she said as she got out of her father’s SUV, dropped the keys in her purse and gazed furtively around the parking lot. She had a list of items she wanted to pick up for the meals she’d planned last night, but she could wait if she happened to spot someone she’d rather not see. According to Sammie, Mr. Hart—Evan, she reminded herself, even though he’d only ever been Mr. Hart to her—still lived in town. So did Sharon, the woman he’d been married to when she was in high school, and all three of his children, two of whom were married. She didn’t want to bump into any of them.
“I told you I’d pick up what you need,” Sammie said.
Gia hitched her purse higher. “You’re at work.”
“I get off at five.”
“I appreciate the offer, but I hope to be making dinner by then.” Gia paused to let a vehicle cross in front of her. “I can’t hide in my parents’ house all winter. Even if I could, I refuse to. I’m just...trying to ease into life here in Wakefield without making too many waves.”
“Considering how fast gossip travels in this town, that’ll be impossible,” her friend responded.
Gia feared Sammie was right, but she was still raw from seeing her mother in such feeble condition. Knowing she was losing Ida—and in one of the worst ways—was bad enough. She didn’t need anything else to upset her. “You said I probably know one of Mr. Hart’s sons-in-law,” she said as she approached the entrance.
“Victor. He was two years behind us in school. He’s married to Louisa.”
“I don’t remember a Victor.”
“Your parents would know him. He worked for your dad after high school—until he saved up enough to start college.”
“Running the office?” She’d almost always had sports after school, so Margot had been the one to help their father with the paperwork at his small agency on a regular basis. Victor must’ve stepped in after Margot left.
“I think he was selling insurance, but you’ll have to ask your father.”
She wasn’t going to mention the Harts to Leo or Ida. Her parents didn’t even like to be reminded of what’d happened during her senior year. It was partly how they’d reacted, as if she should’ve somehow expected—and avoided—what Mr. Hart had done that’d cut her so deeply. She’d felt as though she’d had to convince them she’d been victimized, that they’d been tempted to believe their wild daughter must’ve been culpable in some way. “Doesn’t matter. I was just wondering why I couldn’t remember him.”
“He was a bit of a nerd—a gamer. These days he does computer programming, builds websites, that sort of thing.”
“And yet he once sold insurance for my father?”
“I think he was trying to get enough money to start college. Or his parents were tired of having him hole away in his bedroom and made him get a regular job. I don’t know. Anyway, he works out of the house and takes care of the kids while Louisa runs the veterinary office for her brother.”
Gia grabbed the closest shopping cart. After a few steps she realized it had a wonky wheel, but she didn’t bother going back to get a different one. She was hoping to make this as quick as possible. “How many kids do they have?”
“Two. A boy and a girl. They’re both in elementary school.”
The automatic doors whooshed open as she entered the store. “And Edith?”
“Edith married Dan Mudrak and they have one little boy.”
“Dan Mudrak,” she repeated, searching her memory.
“He moved here after you left,” Sammie said.
“What does he do?”
“Sells farm equipment.”
“And Edith?”
“She edits out of her home.”
“Edits what?”
“Manuscripts for writers—or anything people need her help with, I suppose.”
Keeping her head down, Gia wrestled her difficult cart into the produce section, where she started loading up on peppers, onions, cilantro and the other ingredients for fresh salsa. “Where did she get the experience to do that?”
“She majored in English. Maybe she worked in that field for a bit after college, too. I don’t know her all that well, to be honest.”
“Sounds like everyone in the family’s doing okay. Maybe they’ve moved on with their lives and won’t care that I’m back.”
“Do you really believe that?” Sammie asked dryly.
“No.” Gia felt the avocados, looking for the slight give that indicated she’d found a ripe one. But they were all hard as a rock. Giving up on them, she forced her cart into the dairy section. “But I have the right to be here as much as they do.”
“Exactly. So forget about them. What happened wasn’t your fault.”
They didn’t believe that, but Sammie had to be tired of hearing about her problems, so she changed the subject. “Did you get the email out this morning to the Banned Books Club?”
“I did. I’ve already heard back from a few people.”
“What’re they saying? Anyone coming?”
“A few said they were. Most of them have written back to ask if Cormac knows you’re in town.”
Gia stopped forcing her recalcitrant cart. “What are you telling them?”
“That you have no beef with Cormac.”
“That’s true. And how are they responding?”
“They’re saying they support you and want to see you.”
A brief injection of hope made Gia feel infinitely better. But that faded as fast as it had arrived when she guessed her friend was just trying to save her feelings. “No, they didn’t...”
“Some did,” she said sheepishly.
“And the others?” When Sammie didn’t answer right away, Gia spoke a little louder. “And the others?”
“They said you’d better watch out for Cormac, because what he said to you in the halls in high school will be nothing compared to what he’ll say to you now that the whole family’s been living in the rubble you created before you left.”
“I created!” she nearly yelled, causing a woman half an aisle away to startle and look back at her.
“They’re idiots,” Sammie was quick to say. “Ignore them.”
That was impossible. The subject matter was too sensitive. But she listened to Sammie offer a few more platitudes before telling her it was too difficult to push her broken cart and hold her phone at the same time—that she had to go.
She hung up feeling self-conscious and uncomfortable instead of reassured, especially when the woman she’d surprised a moment earlier kept turning around to see what had made her cry out. Gia was about to tell her to go on about her business when she heard a voice behind her.
“Excuse me. Aren’t you Gia Rossi?”
Gia froze. Was it Sharon Hart? Or one of Cormac’s sisters? Someone else who would have something to say about the scandal she’d caused when she was in high school?
At least it was a female voice, which ruled out both Cormac and his father.
Forcing a smile, she turned and let her breath seep out in relief when she recognized Mrs. Milton, who’d been her Advanced Math teacher in the tenth grade. “Yes, it’s me,” she said.
“Look at you! You’re even more beautiful now than you were when I knew you before.”
Gia felt the tension leave her body. This was a friendly conversation. “Thank you. You look great yourself.”
“No, I don’t,” she said with a knowing chuckle. “You’re just being kind.”
“You do! Are you still at the high school?”
“No. After teaching for more than four decades, I retired three years ago.”
“You must’ve had fifteen hundred or more students over such a long career. I’m shocked you recognized me, especially since I’ve been gone for so long.”
“I might not have realized it was you, but I was just at the pharmacy, where someone mentioned you were in town.”
Of course. It wouldn’t take long before everyone knew. But she wasn’t doing much to go unnoticed having Sammie send out that email to all of the book club members. She probably shouldn’t have done that—not so soon—but she needed to establish some sort of life here.
“How’s your mother?” Mrs. Milton asked.
“Struggling.” Gia didn’t see any point in claiming Ida was “fine.” Nothing could be further from the truth.
“I’m so sorry.” Mrs. Milton nudged her own cart a bit closer. “I’m glad you can have this time with her.”
Deluged by an onslaught of guilt for not returning sooner, Gia nodded. “Me, too.”
“I was afraid—” she lowered her voice “—I was afraid that what happened before you left might be keeping you away. But I should’ve known you’re too strong to let a few naysayers have the last word.”
“I wasn’t out to hurt anyone,” she said. “I just...didn’t know what to do. Mostly, I wanted to be taken out of Mr. Hart’s class. That was all I was expecting when I told the principal about what he’d done.”
“You were seventeen, Gia. You did exactly what you should’ve done. The rules are there to protect students. He was the one who broke them.”
“But it’s hard to know you’ve ruined someone’s life,” she heard herself saying. “Then there’s Cormac and the girls...”
“If they’re not over what their father did yet, I hope they will be soon. Like you, I feel bad for them. But they were never your responsibility. Evan Hart’s the one who let them down. He needs to apologize and make things right—for the sake of everyone involved.”
That’ll be a cold day in hell, Gia thought. After seventeen years of telling the same lie, what would be his motivation? He obviously didn’t have a conscience. “I doubt he’ll ever do that,” she said. If only he’d owned up to what he’d done instead of claiming she was out to get a better grade, maybe she wouldn’t carry such a deep scar herself.
“It’s never too late to right an old wrong,” Mrs. Milton responded. “Now that you’re back and he has the chance to apologize to your face, I hope he’ll do exactly that.”
Gia had been so defensive when she walked into the store, so primed and ready to encounter hostility, that Mrs. Milton’s kindness had completely disarmed her. “Thank you,” she said. “I—I can’t tell you how much this means to me. What he did was bad enough. But then... Not to be believed...”
The incident with Mr. Hart had lasted only a few minutes. It’d certainly upset her—thrust her into a tailspin—but after she’d come to terms with all that, the doubt and suspicion she’d faced, at least from certain parties, had lingered.
It was still there; maybe it always would be.
Mrs. Milton’s eyes filled with sympathy and concern. “I believe you,” she stated unequivocally. “And I know there are many others.”
But Mrs. Milton and anyone else who believed her had to go on faith—they couldn’t know. Mr. Hart had used his charm and persuasiveness, not to mention his sterling reputation, to make himself look like the victim, dividing the whole town. The fact that anyone could think she’d lie about something that serious ate Gia up inside. That was why she’d tried so hard to distance herself.
For the most part, when she was in Idaho, working and busy, she managed to forget—except on the odd night when she drank too much or lay awake, staring at the ceiling. Then she could get caught up in the past. But those moments had been limited, especially in recent years. It was returning to Wakefield that dredged up that incident, put it front and center and made it inescapable again.
She wanted to head back to Idaho right away—leave her hometown in the dust as she had before. But she couldn’t. She wouldn’t abandon her mother, no matter what. She’d never forgive herself if she did.
His father was calling. Cormac had just finished with his last patient and was turning off the lights when his cell phone went off. Even Louisa had gone home. She’d brought up the subject of Gia again before she left, but they hadn’t had the chance to say much more. It was getting so late by then that her husband was pushing her to get home. Victor was on a tight deadline and needed her help with the kids.
Cormac stared at his phone, trying to decide whether to answer. He had to talk to his dad at some point; he just wasn’t sure he wanted it to be now. He was starving—eager to get home and have dinner. And Duke was just as excited to escape the office.
He could call his father back in an hour or two, once he’d had a chance to unwind and consider the situation without having to focus on so many other things at the same time. He almost shoved his phone into his pocket. But then he realized that his father couldn’t be trusted not to do something stupid, especially when he was upset, and Gia’s return would definitely upset him.
Hoping to talk him down, if necessary, he answered the call. “Hello?”
“Have you heard?”
Had this been an ordinary conversation, Cormac would’ve taken his dog to the truck, loaded him up and headed home while he talked. But this wasn’t an ordinary conversation, so he remained rooted to the spot. “About Gia Rossi?”
“She’s back. Ever since her mother got sick, I knew it was only a matter of time.”
“If it’s any solace, I don’t think she’ll be here for long.”
“I can’t imagine she’ll leave before her mother dies. That isn’t what you mean, is it?”
“No, but it doesn’t look like her mother has much time.”
“Don’t kid yourself. Ida could hang on for months.”
Cormac winced at the callous way they were talking. As much as he held against Gia, they were speaking about a woman’s life—a woman who’d had no part in what had happened, a wife and a mother. “I wish her the best,” he clarified.
“So do I. It’s just unfortunate that her poor health impacts my life, too.”
“I’d say she got the worst of it.”
“We’re talking about Gia, not her mother,” his father reminded him.
Cormac began to pace in his own waiting room, and Duke, who’d been standing by the door, sat down as if he’d seen this kind of agitation before and knew it wouldn’t result in getting him what he wanted. “I’ve been thinking about it all day, and I’ve decided there’s nothing we can do about her being here except...grin and bear it. Say nothing. Do nothing. Act like we don’t even know she exists.”
“What about getting a retraction? What happened back then wasn’t as she portrayed it. She was the one who was trying to get something out of me—a grade she didn’t deserve.”
Cormac had already heard how upset she’d been that she hadn’t done well on her big research paper, how she’d been pressing his father to change her grade and how important that grade had been to her, since she hadn’t been doing as well as usual in her other classes and so everything had come down to her English grade. She’d been anticipating a college scholarship for volleyball, so she’d had that going for her, but even student athletes had to maintain a certain GPA. From what his father said, if she didn’t get an A in English, her college career would’ve hung in the balance. That would certainly motivate a student to press harder than usual. But it enraged him to think any young woman would use her sexuality to improve her report card. And then to annihilate the teacher who refused to cooperate with something like that?
“I know,” he told his father. “It’s terrible, but I don’t think we can get a retraction. If she was sorry for what she did, she would’ve spoken up by now.”
“No doubt she’s too embarrassed.”
“Or she’s convinced herself it’s true. That happens to people, you know. Especially after the passage of so much time—so many years spent convincing themselves they didn’t do anything wrong. Regardless, we need to leave the past alone and move forward.”
“So...you’re not going to confront her?” his father asked.
“Why would I do that?”
“Louisa said you were thinking about it, thought it might help.”
“I was just saying I’d like to confront her. And it would be better for me to approach her than for you to do it.”
“You’re right about that. I’m afraid to so much as bump into her for fear of how she’d construe the encounter. Once you’ve been falsely accused, you get paranoid.”
Cormac couldn’t even imagine how terrible that would be. “Like I said, it’s in the past. We need to leave it there.”
“I think you’re right. The more we stir things up, the worse it could get. What she did has taken enough of a toll. I don’t want to be forced to defend my integrity a second time.”
Cormac opened his mouth to continue to commiserate, but then closed it. He was having an odd reaction to his father’s words. They made him so defensive that he was once again dying to approach Gia, if only to let her know what a terrible person she was. And yet he was also surprised that, after years of saying how he’d confront her if he ever got the chance, Evan was backing off so easily.
But maybe that didn’t mean anything. These days, Evan talked a big talk but rarely followed through with anything. He was too beaten down. And Cormac blamed Gia for that, too. “Just go on with your life and try to ignore that she’s here.”
“It won’t be easy when everyone I meet is talking about her.”
“The talk will die down soon enough.”
“I hope so,” his father said.
Finally settled enough to leave, Cormac dug into his pocket for his keys. “So you’re going to leave her alone?”
“I will if you will.”
“Yeah, I’ve decided not to approach her.” Her mother was so sick that he’d be a callous asshole not to take that into consideration. He didn’t want to do anything that would hurt the innocent people around Gia—people who were already going through hell.
But he knew all he’d be able to think about tonight—and maybe every night while Gia was in town—was the fact that she was staying in the house right behind him.
There was even a gate between the two yards...