Page 60 of The Banned Books Club

Louisa burst into tears but continued to point at Gia while trying to excuse what she’d said. “She destroyed my father’s life! She broke up my family! She’s been lying all this time! Can you imagine being fourteen years old when a fellow student accuses your father—a respected English teacher—of sexual misconduct? Talk about embarrassment and humiliation! You have no idea!”

Cormac pushed his way through those standing between him and his sisters. “No, Cormac,” he heard someone say. An arm even came out to stop him. But he knocked whoever it was away. He wasn’t here to gang up on Gia as that person probably thought.

“Louisa, Edith, that’s enough,” he said. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Why do you think Mom divorced Dad? Because she knew things we didn’t, right? She had a reason to believe that Gia was telling the truth, and I believe that now, too. I’m only sorry it took me so long to figure it out. If I’d listened sooner, with an open mind and heart, maybe I would’ve had the chance to convince you that it’s Dad who’s been lying, and you wouldn’t be so set on this stupid confrontation.”

“Cormac, you need to stay out of it.” Victor came to his wife’s defense, but Cormac whipped around to face his brother-in-law and challenge him in return.

“Ifyoucan get into it, I can. And I don’t think coming here was the right thing to do. You need to help me convince your wife to go home.”

Louisa had been so distracted by the battle she was waging that it took a second for his presence to register. To him, in this moment, most of the people around them were nameless and faceless, except Gia. Maybe it was the same for his sister, because when she saw him,reallysaw him, the fight seeped out of her like a balloon that’d been filled but not tied. “I can’t believe you’d do this,” she murmured. “I can’t believe you, of all people, would turn on me!”

“I’m not turning on you,” he clarified as gently as possible. “I’m trying to stop you from making a terrible mistake. You’re hurting someone who’s been hurt enough!”

“And what about me? Haven’tIbeen hurt enough?” she demanded, once again finding her full voice, then ran from the room.

Edith looked from their departing sister to the many faces staring back at her to Cormac and started to cry herself. “What have you done?” she said to him and ran after Louisa.

Victor and Dan quickly followed their wives, leaving Cormac facing a roomful of shocked Banned Books Club members and a stunned Gia.

“I’m sorry,” he said to everyone at large. “I should’ve come sooner. Maybe I could’ve headed them off at the door or something. I was... I don’t have a good excuse. But please don’t blame my sisters for this. It’s my father’s fault.Everything’shis fault.”

“So hediddo it?” someone called out, seeking the confirmation they’d all, no doubt, craved for years.

Cormac was tempted to say he didn’tknow. That was the truth. He hadn’t been there that night. But he couldn’t equivocate now. He’d only make Gia hate him again—and possibly cause more anger and division—by trying to remain in the middle. “Ithink he did.”

“Then you did the right thing,” someone else said. But there were obviously those who didn’t agree. Ruth Stinson looked as though she’d been struck before she walked out of the room, presumably to see if Louisa and Edith were okay.

Cormac’s gaze landed on Gia once more. “I didn’t want this to happen,” he told her. “Again, I’m sorry.” He didn’t wait for a response. He’d done all he could. He’d taken a stand—publicly—against his own father and sisters, which, hopefully, had saved Gia the pain she would otherwise have felt. But he’d upset Louisa and Edith. He’d always been close—and united—with his sisters.

But he couldn’t see that he’d had any other choice.

After she got home from the Banned Books Club meeting, Gia sat out by the pool. The lights were on at Cormac’s house and she was hoping he’d come out so she’d have the chance to speak with him. But he didn’t. She wondered if he was too busy being harangued—on the phone since he didn’t seem to have company—by his sisters, their husbands or his father. His mother, if she’d heard about it, might not be happy with what he’d done, either.

Without him, the Banned Books Club meeting would certainly have gone much worse. There was no telling where the fight the Hart sisters had started would end.

She still couldn’t believe he’d shown up and defendedher. It’d been such a relief just to know that he’d finally realized she was telling the truth; what he’d done tonight was well beyond her expectations. She was grateful to him, of course, but she was worried about the repercussions. What would his father do? What would his sisters do? Would this cause him to be estranged from the other members of his family? And if so, how long would it last?Years?

She winced at the thought of that, especially since she wouldn’t be in Wakefield for much longer. They were the ones building their lives here.

He probably shouldn’t have gone to the restaurant. But she couldn’t help admiring the fact that he had. That had taken guts.

She remembered him confronting her the day his father was fired and had to admit he was the type, right or wrong, to stand up for what he believed.

Her phone rang. It was Eric. Soon, he’d be shutting down Backcountry Adventures and heading to Glacier National Park, the trip she’d been looking forward to taking with him but would now have to miss.

“Hey, how’s your mom?” he asked when she answered.

Gia glanced at the dark house. Her parents had been asleep by the time she returned because she and Sammie had gone out for drinks afterward. Ruth had never come back into the room where they were having the reunion and wasn’t answering her phone, so Gia had no idea what’d happened to her. “She’s fragile but hanging in.”

“And your sister? She still glad you’re there?”

Mention of Margot reminded Gia that she hadn’t heard from her all day. She’d been planning to drive by the house after the party tonight, but then the confrontation with Louisa and Edith had occurred and thrown the rest of the evening off course. By the time she and Sammie were ready to call it a night, she’d been so distracted she hadn’t even thought of Margot. It would’ve been too late to knock on her door, anyway. Maybe Ida had heard from her. “I think so. She’s taking some time off and letting me handle things on this end.”

“She probably needs the break.”

“I should’ve come sooner,” she acknowledged.

“You’re there now. Make the most of it, okay?”

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