Page 42 of The Banned Books Club

He sighed. “This is about Gia, isn’t it?” He should’ve called his sister and tried to work through what’d happened in the office. He could’ve reassured her, convinced her to calm down and mitigated some of her anger. But he hadn’t wanted to admit that he was becoming so conflicted. He’d hoped they could just leave it as it was, ignore that little blip in their day and pick up where they’d left off before Gia had walked in.

“You took her side over mine,” Louisa said. “I never thought I’d see the day.”

“I didn’t take her side,” he argued. “I was trying to head off an ugly confrontation. We run a business. We need to maintain a certain image in this town, be professional.”

She sneered at him. “It had nothing to do with the fact that she’s so pretty?”

He flung out his hands. “What are you accusing me of?”

“You think I don’t know how you felt about her in high school? That she was your biggest crush? I remember when you joined her stupid book club. You didn’t even read back then. You were so caught up in baseball you were lucky to get your homework done.”

“That was a long time ago.”

“Are you saying you no longer find her attractive?”

“This is ridiculous. I haven’t even talked to her, other than when I tried to stop what was happening here in the office. She’s tough. You don’t want to mess with her.”Heshould know. She certainly hadn’t backed down from arguing with him the day their dad had been fired. Most of the school had been privy to that shouting match.

“I can handle Gia,” she said. “Or I could have, if only I’d had a little support!”

He walked down the hall to his office, but once he swung the door open, he turned back. “I’m not going to gang up on her with you or anyone else. At some point, it has to be between her and Dad. I say we leave it there.”

She followed him into the room. “Why now? That’s the question. You know what she did to Dad. You’ve hated her right along with us for seventeen years.”

“Hate’s a strong word, Louisa.”

Her jaw dropped. “Oh, my God! What’s gotten into you?”

“Doubt!” he finally shouted. “Don’t you ever wonder ifshe’sthe one who’s been telling the truth? Especially after the way Dad’s lived his life?”

“He’s lived his life the way he has because of her! She took everything he had. She broke him, Cormac. That’s why I’m so angry. That’s whyyouwere angry, too.”

Cormac shoved a hand through his hair. “But is that the truth—or is that only what we want to believe?”

“You sat through the trial with me.”

“I did. But there’s such a thing as confirmation bias, which might be why we never changed our minds, but the judge, whose job it was to be impartial, came to the conclusion Dad was guilty!”

“That doesn’t mean the judge got it right. The benefit of the doubt often goes to the woman these days. You heard Dad’s attorney. After the verdict was read, he said that ten or fifteen years earlier, the result would’ve been completely different.”

“That may be the case, but that’s because the courts are finally giving victims the consideration they deserve. The fact that he was found guilty should at least make us examine the possibility thatwecould be the ones in the wrong.”

“No,” she said, adamant. “I won’t let Dad down.”

“Dad is the one who’s let Dad down,” he said. “At least since this happened. And it could be that he was the one who let us all down from the beginning.”

She threw up her hands. “I don’t know why you’re second-guessing everything. Have you talked to Dad?”

“I have.”

“And? Did he change his story?”

“No, but neither did he do anything to convince me. I’ve also talked to Mom. That’s what made me late.”

She froze. “What’dshesay?”

Cormac had to be careful. The last thing he wanted was to further damage his family, especially his father, who was barely hanging on to a productive life as it was. “Nothing new. She has her doubts. That’s why she left him.”

“But...how convinced is she?”

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