Gabby knew that would flip after a few minutes of explanation. But she needed time. Spitting out a family-destroying secret like this took preparation. She’d had three years, but since she’d never intended to tell she wasn’t ready. “Can we sit down?”

“No.”

Okay, fair. “I’m going to back up so that you can understand all of it.”

“I don’t care how you tell me, just tell me because right now I don’t know if I should kick you out of my house or take you somewhere for therapeutic help.”

She tried to remember how to breathe. “You think I’m making it up.”

“I fear you’ve had some sort of break.”

“Look at me.” He hadn’t looked anywhere else, but that’s not what she meant, and she thought he understood. “Do I look unhinged or out of control?”

“Just tell me.”

A calmness she’d never expected fell over her. She’d spent years running from this topic, burying it, and trying to pretend it away. She’d assumed if she was ever forced to tell, the impact would be the equivalent of a crash landing. Chaotic and fumbling, racing and terrifying resignation.

“Baines always talked a good game about becoming a millionaire and getting invited to the right parties. The drive started out as wanting to be in a place where we didn’t have to decide between heat and food on a weekly basis, but it grew into something very different,” she said, trying to lay a foundation.

Liam didn’t move. “I was there. I know how much financial security meant to him. To both of us.”

But he didn’t. For Liam, the need and determination remained healthy. His competitive nature had never tipped over into a can-never-have-enough pounding need.

She tried to make the disclosure clear. “Our marriage, which was already built more on nostalgic love and deep friendship than romantic love, began to falter.”

“I don’t get what this has to do with Natalie,” Liam said.

One had grown out of the other, but he wouldn’t understand until she’d guided him through all the steps. “He became obsessed with having enough money to start the business with you. You were both working at other places. Baines struggled because he wanted to be in charge and could be belligerent to those who were. We didn’t have any money back then. Neither did you. Then your aunt died, and the impossible became possible.”

Liam nodded. “She left us enough to buy our first warehouse and some land. Enough to get us started in a business of our own. And?”

She could tell Liam was running out of patience, so she tried to speed up without missing the important pieces. “You two got starter money. A lot went to charity. And the remainder, including ongoing royalties from the children’s series she’d written, went into a trust for your sister.”