“No.” She had nowhere to hide on this. “I knew Baines loved Natalie, so I thought I’d misunderstood. Baines was so clear. Lied to me without blinking, made me think I’d gotten it wrong. But the conversation never left my head. The coincidence was too big, which is exactly what I told Baines when I said I wanted a divorce.”

“That was, what, almost a year later. You knew for six months and stayed there. Married to him and pretending he didn’t kill our helpless sister.”

And that made her a monster, too. She heard the words even though he didn’t say them.

“It took me that long to be brave enough to go.” She knew Liam would never understand that just walking away sounded so much easier than it was. She remembered moving money to accounts in her own name and packing up Kennedy’s things. Planning and waiting for the right time. “I thought he might kill me, too. That I knew too much, overheard the wrong thing. What would have stopped him?”

“Me.” The word sat there for a few quiet seconds. “You didn’t say a thing to me. I was right there. You had to know I would have listened to you and stopped him.”

She hadn’t known who he would believe. She’d picked Baines over him. She’d made her terrible choices. “By the time I put together what I heard, along with his talk about possible expansion of the business despite a lack of funds, the fire happened. That week was a chaotic rush filled with fear and confusion. Me, searching through the house, trying to find any concrete evidence that would prove my theory about what had really happened to Natalie.”

“I was . . .” He rubbed a hand through his hair as even more confusion wormed into his voice. “God, I was a mess. Furious that something as simple and ridiculous as a furnace check could have saved her life. Do you know how guilty I felt?”

“Yes, because so did I. For different reasons.”

“Baines mourned. I would find him sitting in his dark office at night, crying. Hell, he rushed into the building to save her,” Liam insisted.

“Guilt, probably. Remorse. I don’t know.” Gabby heard her cell buzz. A text, and she ignored it. “I worried you’d kill Baines if you knew, and I’d lose you, too, so I stayed quiet.”

“I would have gone to the police.”