Mother. She still had a role, and she needed to play it. “Kennedy, that’s enough. I know you’re upset, but this isn’t easy for any of us.”

Wrong words. Gabby heard her mistake as soon as the sentence slipped out.

“Us? Like, this is about you?” Kennedy didn’t hold back. “You can’t be serious.”

In any other situation, on any other topic, Gabby would step in and hold the line. There were limits to Kennedy’s behavior. She’d grown up with commonsense discipline and had slammed more than one door over the years, but this intensity, the hate rolling off her, stunned Gabby. She wanted to stop it, but she knew she deserved every spite-filled word.

But Liam didn’t know this wasn’t the average teen meltdown. “Hey, that’s enough. Since when do you talk to your mother like that?” He sounded shocked and appalled.

Kennedy turned on him. “Did you know?”

No, Gabby couldn’t let Kennedy blame Liam. Not for this. Only one person deserved to shoulder the blame here. “He doesn’t.”

“I hate you.” Kennedy put all her energy into the horrible yell. Her voice shook, and she nearly doubled over before she ran out of the room and stomped down the hall.

Liam’s eyes widened. “What the hell? Why is she even home?”

“You should sit.”

“Is that about her dad?”

Oh, Liam. “There are reasons for what I did. You’re not going to want to hear them at first. You’ll be too lost. Too pissed off. But I hope you’ll let me explain. Later.”

He sat down, putting them almost at eye level. “Gab, I have no idea what’s going on.”

Of course he didn’t. He trusted and believed and was about to learn what a huge mistake it had been to invest anything in her. Their having grown up together didn’t forgive this. Her having given in to an attraction she’d fought for as long as she could remember didn’t absolve either of them, but most of the blame fell on her.

But who knew? Who would do this?

She inhaled, trying to center her body for what was to come, and handed over the envelope. “Someone gave this to Kennedy at school.”

“Did she do something wrong, because right now that shouldn’t be held . . .” He kept staring at the paper, likely reading it over and over, until his head finally snapped up. “Gabby?”