The Last Invitation (93)

“Your bag.” He smiled. “Okay, more like a dramatization of your bag, because I wasn’t about to go through your personal stuff and pack for you, but you get the idea.”

She had no clue. “Am I moving?”

Seeing her bag sitting there, deflated and waiting, ticked off a punch of anxiety. She wasn’t ready for any more change. Her house held horrifying memories she hadn’t processed. Liam had inherited Baines’s house and offered it to her, but she didn’t want it because no amount of bleach would wash away the stench of death there. Then there were the job and money issues, and Kennedy’s anger, which she hadn’t tackled yet.

Gabby wasn’t great at begging, but she would. Unless he needed her out. For all she knew, she’d finally trampled over his feelings for her, and he wanted to move on. She wanted him to be happy, but . . . Yeah, she wasn’t ready to deal with that issue yet either. She was going to need a lot of therapy.

“New York trip,” he said.

“Huh?”

He exhaled as he shot her a why isn’t she getting this? look of frustration. “It’s time to bring Kennedy home. Well, I guess that’s your decision, but it’s midterm break, and you got her a therapist, but we haven’t done a great job of spending time with her and answering her questions. Not with everything else going on.”

Gabby’s body went into a defensive clench. She agreed . . . mostly, but danger still lurked, and Faith was a huge question mark, even with the news of her being under investigation in the Young case again. The idea of dumping Kennedy into the middle of that? No.

“She hates me right now. Not teen hate. Real hate,” Gabby said, stating the obvious.

“She doesn’t. Even if she did, she can hate you from her bedroom upstairs, while engaging in therapy and family dinners.”

He made his solutions sound simple. He didn’t know so much of what had happened behind the scenes or what she’d had to concede to save him. Gabby wasn’t sure how she’d live with letting Jessa’s death go unpunished, but she would. That deal with Retta wouldn’t implode because of her.

“Look, you decide about the coming-home part, but I would like to see her,” he said.

“You have a lot of work mess to untangle.” But he sounded so . . . normal. She knew what he’d discovered about Baines weighed on him. She’d caught Liam searching for information on the fire, as if he wanted to find some tiny piece of information to contradict her beliefs on Baines’s guilt.

“I’m taking one issue at a time,” he said. “The easiest one is the money. Baines took it to go after Earl. That’s clear now. There’s a list of unforgivable things he did, but stealing to fill his own pockets and screw me and the business out of income isn’t one.”

“You’re a good man.” He hadn’t forgiven her, and she didn’t ask, but in quiet, subtle ways, he let her know he was trying. That was more than she deserved, so she grabbed on to it.

“Not really.” He sighed. “But I have to make room for grief. There’s anger and confusion, and I can’t even deal with the idea of Baines intentionally hurting Natalie. Right now, I’m blocking the idea so I can survive it.”

“I know.”

“Part of me needs to think he didn’t order her death or did and then tried to stop it.” Liam exhaled. “He was my brother, and I can’t wrap my head around him being evil. I know there’s still a lot you need to tell me and aren’t ready to do so.”

“Not yet.” She feared what he’d do if he knew the truth about Retta and her group.

“I’m not sure about your request that when I hear these horrible things that I then forget them, but honestly, not mourning who I thought Baines was might destroy me. So, I need to at least try to do that.”

And she needed him strong, because all those emotions and feelings she’d been packing away and pretending not to have were going to rush over her one of these days. He wasn’t the only one who needed to mourn. “It sounds like you already talked to a therapist.”

“Not about the Natalie part, but about the rest.” He shrugged. “I want to be there for you and Kennedy. Being pissed at Baines doesn’t help any of us.”

Hope. It flowed through him. She could see it, and it was infectious. He’d be okay. Eventually. Somehow.

“He made unbelievable mistakes and lost his way, but he loved you.” She said it because she thought he needed the reminder.

“And he loved you.” Liam’s crooked smile returned. “Well, until you left him. Then he wanted revenge.”

“He did a good job with that.” Scorched earth. Baines didn’t know another way. He was a hundred percent in, good or bad.

“About that.” Liam exhaled as if he was expecting a fight. “I’m going to put part of the inheritance in a trust for Kennedy, and part will go to you.”

No, no, no. That sounded wrong. Felt wrong. He was not her backup plan, and she needed to figure out her financial life on her own. “Not for me. You should—”

He held up a hand to stop her denial. “We’ll talk about all of that later. Work out the details, and you can tell me the billion reasons why you’d rather get financially screwed as Baines’s final act.”

She couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Sounds like you’ve thought this through.”