“I see.” She pauses to twist some honey around a polished silver spoon, then drops it into her tea. “You should know that these past twenty years have been torture for Paul. I know my son. I saw how he suffered after Katherine. He was convinced her death was the universe’s way of punishing him for what happened to Bobby. Paul didn’t want to lie to you, but he’d already lost one wife because he told her the truth. He couldn’t go through that again.”

Resentment swells, both at her words and her puffed-up tone. Something didn’t just happen to Bobby. Three drunken idiots drove him into a lake and left him for dead, and Paul’s suffering can’t wipe away his guilt. But Diana has always been her son’s greatest defender. She’s always had blinders on where he and Jax are concerned.

My eyes, however, are wide open.

“But Paul did lie. He swore he wasn’t keeping any secrets from me, when really he was sitting on a big one. And now four people are dead. And okay, so maybe Paul didn’t technically kill them, but he had a hand in their deaths. He should have come clean after Bobby, but instead he doubled down. He should have confessed that very night.”

I believe this with everything I am. Murder and you are a murderer. Lie and you are a liar. This is how the world works. Loyalty to an old friend, even one you love like a brother, can’t wipe away the fact you were accessory to a crime.

Diana shakes her head. “But it wasn’t just anyone he was keeping quiet for, dear. It was Jax. The boy who risked his life to pull Paul from a sinking car. With the facts he was working with at the time, it felt like a fair trade. Paul’s life for his silence.”

“What about loyalty to me? I mean, granted, I didn’t think to include the word in our wedding vows, but I kind of thought love and honor and cherish covered all the bases. Isn’t loyalty implied?”

“Yes, Charlotte, but—”

“I already told you. It’s Charlie.”

Diana sighs, a quick burst of impatient air. “Charlie. But please try to think about it from Paul’s point of view. Jax chose Paul. He let another man die so Paul could live. There is nothing Paul wouldn’t do for Jax. Nothing I wouldn’t do for him. Jax is family.”