The Last Invitation (88)
Gabby could hear what Faith didn’t say. There was nothing accidental or heat-of-the-moment about Jessa’s death. She’d been hunted by her best friend’s paid killer. “Was I supposed to die, too?”
“The cause comes first.” Faith separated each word, emphasizing the horror. “And listen to you being all high and mighty, above it all, and disdainful because you don’t like the results this one time.”
Faith didn’t see how the power had corrupted her. Gabby didn’t know how a smart woman could miss it. “You think a lot of yourself.”
“Hypocrite.” Faith shook her head. Let out a heartless little laugh. “When it came time to make a deal to save your daughter and brother-in-law, you jumped right in. That result was fine.”
“I didn’t agree to that.”
“Maybe you weighed the pros and cons for a few seconds, and the guilt eats at you a bit, but when the decision was to keep all your secrets and guarantee your family’s safety, then—what a surprise—justice wasn’t a bright line. You shifted your beliefs and assigned blame to Darren. You probably felt justified doing it because a part of you decided Darren deserved being taken down.”
Gabby hated the ring of truth in those words. She had looked the other way when she figured out what Baines had done to his sister because proving it had seemed too daunting. She’d limited Liam’s role in Kennedy’s life because it was easier.
Still, she didn’t want to be lumped in any group with Faith. “I would point out I was blackmailed by Retta. That’s why my line shifted. She shifted it.”
“Poor you,” Faith said in a mocking tone. “And don’t throw around legal terms when you know better. You were faced with a decision, not blackmailed. You needed a way out, and you took it. Screw courtroom justice.”
Gabby refused to let that be true. “You’ve been doing this too long. You can’t separate out truth from fiction.”
“Retta and I were faced with similar decisions. Could she live with the murderer of her friend and godchild being made into a martyr? Could I live with women and children being used as legal fodder to ensure their powerful poor-me husbands remained free?” Faith let out a harsh laugh. “See, when you’re the one who needs to answer, you revise the question. Your sense of what’s right and what’s justice slides because the system doesn’t work.”
“Then change it from the inside.” Gabby knew it was a lame response. A knee-jerk one people threw around on social media when they secretly knew a good solution didn’t exist. “What you do is vigilantism, not justice.”
“If you do the former correctly, it becomes the latter.”
Gabby got it now. There wasn’t an argument she could make to convince Faith. This wasn’t about reasoning with her or showing her logic inconsistencies or problems in her thinking. The system had failed, and Faith had given up on it. She’d created a new way where she could bend it to her satisfaction.
“What happens now?” Gabby asked.
“That’s up to you. Are you done with your crusade? Are you willing to go back to your precious little life with your boyfriend or brother-in-law or whatever he is to you these days and keep your mouth shut?”
Gabby refused to take the bait about Liam. Refused to respond at all.
Faith smiled. “And here’s a hint—there’s only one right answer.”
Chapter Seventy-Nine
The Foundation
The women agreed to meet on an emergency basis. Again. The rule about being careful and spreading out visits had been abandoned in favor of triage. The downward spiral of blame and fighting between the founders had the group careening toward chaos. Here, chaos looked more like practiced control, but the result was the same—something had to change.
Retta scheduled the discussion but asked Faith to arrive early. Their personal issues had spilled over into the group and threatened its existence. Both believed they were in the right. Neither would concede. They had to compromise before they lost control.
Faith walked into Retta’s home office through a flurry of household activity. A woman delivered a tray of tea to the corner of Retta’s desk before rushing out of the room again. Music played but shut off when the door closed, plunging the room into silence.
Faith being Faith, she stayed singularly focused on the woman who had been her protector and ally for more than three years. “We have a problem.”
Retta had her own agenda for this private meeting. “Do you have any remorse for Jessa?”
The comment made Faith stop in midmarch and lift her head. “Excuse me?”
“The love and friendship didn’t only run one way. I know how much she meant to you, so explain why you gave the order to have her eliminated after the group voted to give her another chance.” Retta’s anger at being boxed in and not advised still burned white-hot, but the grief would hit. The loss, the waste, the betrayal. Retta packaged it all up and ignored it for now, but the sadness would break through, and waiting for the rush of unwanted emotion made her furious with Faith.
Not one to be brushed off or yelled into submission, Faith pulled out the chair across from Retta and sat down. “How do you think I feel?”
Retta didn’t care. “I’m not convinced you feel anything at all.”