“There’s more.” I told him what she’d done: ordering James’s death and framing Gabriel.

When I finished, he seemed to have aged ten years, his face sagging, his eyes dark with pain.

“I know that in some twisted way she was trying to protect me,” I said. “But she killed someone I loved and tried to destroy someone else I care about very much. There is no justifying that.”

He dipped his head in a slow nod.

“I know you feel you owe her, for what she did for me, but I think you’ve repaid that. You’ve repaid it and repaid it, and even if you still love her, you don’t owe her a thing.” I crumpled the remains of the tissue in my hand. “And I want you back. I really want you back.”

He tore his gaze from mine. “I will tell the truth,” he said. “But first, I need to let Gabriel work his magic, try to free me without turning on her.”

“What? No. Gabriel’s good, but I want guarantees, Dad. I need a guarantee.”

“Even my telling the truth doesn’t guarantee anything, sweetheart. If the appeal fails, I’ll do it. But you need to give me this chance, Liv. Whatever she’s done, I need to try it this way first.”

CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

Gabriel never told me why he’d taken so long to answer my calls for help. He had come, eventually, and I guess to him that was enough. Which told me what I needed to know. That he was there for me, in his way and on his time. I needed to come to terms with that.

I was there for him, no matter what. He did not need to reciprocate. Those were our choices, and I wasn’t going to change mine because it didn’t match his. He had come for me. He’d come in the middle of the night, with a wrinkled and misbuttoned shirt and the wrong shoes. The commitment was there, even if it didn’t match my own.

I did bring it up once, in the few days that followed. We were at lunch, and I said, “About that night, on the beach, with Tristan,” and Gabriel tensed fast. I said, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Gwynn sooner,” and he relaxed, brushing it off with, “That’s fine.”

“No, it’s not,” I said. “But I wasn’t sure how to broach it. Ricky found out by accident, and then we discussed it, and he agreed with me that you might not take it well.”

“Which I did not.”

“We weren’t going to hide it forever. Just until we figured out how to handle it. We agreed that if there was a chance you’d find out, though, we’d tell you. With Tristan, I tried to get you out of there to explain. It didn’t work. So I apologize.”