Jessa resented that they were so alike in life history and so different in their goals. She shouldn’t care. Gabby’s life really wasn’t her business, but she did care. It was as if she held up an invisible measuring stick and judged her accomplishments against Gabby’s.

Jessa wanted to be a better person. To not get trapped in the same patterns she’d been using for years—deny, demean, and deflect. But seeing Gabby brought the insecurities and doubts back. One word from Gabby made Jessa forget about her promises to herself and about her progress.

She wasn’t the same person she’d been in law school. She’d made better choices. Concentrated and worked to the point of straining. She shoved thoughts of Gabby out of her head. The woman didn’t know her these days and should just shut up.

Jessa leaned back in the corner of the sectional sofa, letting the cushions and piles of pillows basically swallow her. Wine in hand and her mood starting to lighten, she glanced over at Faith. She sprawled a few feet away, dressed in floral lounge pants and a T-shirt. Totally relaxed, a mood that Jessa never quite accomplished but Faith worked very hard to achieve outside of the office.

“Today sucked,” Jessa said.

Faith nodded. “Funerals are seldom fun.”

Jessa thought about Tim being in New Jersey for depositions for a few days and tried not to dwell on how relieved his absence made her. She loved spending time with him, but the more entwined their lives became, the more anxious she grew. The excuses about needing to work late or go into the office on a Sunday now just flowed out of her without thinking.

“The Gabby situation made everything so much worse.” Okay, so Jessa could admit she hadn’t shoved Gabby all the way out of her head yet. “I think if she could have thrown me in the hole in the ground and left me there, she would have done it.”

Faith winced. “Well . . .”

Jessa eyed up Faith. “You’re siding with her? And as my best friend there is a right answer here, you know.”

“Not at all, but you had to expect some anger from her.” Faither swirled the wine in her glass. “Can you really blame her? You said the divorce started as a bloodbath. It settled out of the blue but only after a lot of ugly fighting.”

“I wasn’t on the case.” But Gabby had to admit that wasn’t totally true.

Baines sudden shift toward a semi-amicable settlement never made sense to anyone at the firm. He went from yelling and vengeance to being conciliatory in the span of a few days. The turnaround ticked off Covington, who had spent a lot of time preparing for war. But that’s all Jessa knew about the specifics . . . sort of . . . well, for the most part.