Liam’s building was the type where people had live-in help. Some of his neighbors or the builders thought the assistants should use a different door than the residents. Gabby thought the whole thing was insulting. So did Liam, which was why he never used that back entrance. No one did . . . until now.

She walked through a doorway that led to the laundry on one side and a small bedroom on the other. It had been advertised as the au pair suite, and the size felt claustrophobic compared to the rest of the rooms in the spacious condo.

Liam used the area for storage. Knowing she only had a little bit of time, she locked the door to the bedroom behind her and started moving things around. She shoved an old desk aside and some boxes that Liam had probably moved from one house to another as he’d left each of his marriages. She finally unburied the back door, the so-called servants’ entrance, which she viewed as a safety hatch.

After putting her ear to it and not hearing a sound, she opened the locks and peeked outside. Detective Schone’s voice echoed down the floor. She was talking to someone and banging on the front door around the corner. Gabby ignored it all and, as quietly as possible, opened the emergency exit door and followed the stairway down to the lobby.

Three excruciating minutes later, Gabby hailed a cab, the harder transportation option for the detective to trace, or at least she hoped so, and left the neighborhood.

Chapter Seventy-One
Jessa

Twenty minutes later, Jessa still hadn’t calmed down. She called Ellie Bartholomew and her attorney and warned them. Jessa refused a call to the police or an ambulance for help because she didn’t trust either. She couldn’t afford to get trapped in a small room or hauled away to a cell that she’d never break out of again.

No, Darren being out, finding her at an address he shouldn’t have, was a message. Retta was no longer protecting her. The group was cleansing itself. They didn’t care if Darren killed her, so long as she stayed quiet.

Jessa had no idea how her life had come to this. She’d always been so careful. She hadn’t drawn attention. Sure, she’d bent the rules sometimes. She’d let others do most of the heavy lifting in law school and at work. But she didn’t deserve to die for that.

“Here’s another cup of tea. The other one has gone cold.” Faith sat next to Jessa with an arm wrapped around her. “I think we should call that Detective Schone. She knows about Darren, and—”