Jessa still didn’t understand the reason for the meeting. “Okay.”

“For killing Baines.”

“Oh, shit.” No more shots. This was serious and way out of Jessa’s experience. She reached for a binder where she kept a referral list. “I’m a divorce lawyer, but our firm often pairs with excellent criminal defense—”

“He has a lawyer.”

“Then I don’t understand why you’re here.”

“Retta. The group.”

Jessa leaned back in her chair and prepared to be annoyed. “Not this again.”

“You can stop pretending it doesn’t exist and that you’re not a member or trying to be one.”

Gabby was so sure, and so right, that Jessa wasn’t sure how to react. Gabby took the existence of the group as a given and plowed forward from there. That left little room to maneuver, but Jessa tried to anyway. “This conversation is exhausting.”

“Do you understand what’s happening?” Gabby rested her arms on the desk and leaned in. Unspent energy buzzed around her. “They killed him, for whatever reason. And now Liam could go to jail. He would be ruined. Wrongly imprisoned. And my life . . . well, there are things I don’t want . . . known.”

Out of control. There was no other way to describe Gabby’s fidgeting and rush of words. It was the best position for a nemesis or frenemy or whatever she was, but Jessa couldn’t call up any enjoyment. Seeing the usually even Gabby frenetic and desperate didn’t bring any satisfaction.

Jessa tried to wade through the words and figure out what exactly was happening in Gabby’s world. “Is Liam really Kennedy’s dad? I know I said the things about the rumors, but I was messing with you. Baines referenced getting a DNA test but then refused to talk about it. He made it clear to Covington that Kennedy was his daughter, and no one could take that from him.”

Gabby nodded. “For all his faults, he did love her.”

“Covington saw a way to score points and potentially turn a judge against you. He also wanted to eliminate Baines’s responsibility to pay child support, which would amount to a lot of money, but Baines wouldn’t agree.”

“The Liam and Baines question is . . . delicate.”

So, yes. “You, the person who drags up my past and pummels me with it every five seconds, have naughty secrets to hide about your brother-in-law? What a shock.”

“I’ve made mistakes. I thought I had good reasons, but none of them matter now.”

The honest response threw Jessa off. She had the ammunition and the power but lacked the will to use them. She’d never thought of herself as the all-talk, no-follow-through type, but that’s where she landed when it came to Gabby, and that realization had Jessa fumbling.

She tried not to let it show, but she had to ask. “Did you ever think I might feel the same about my mistakes?”