“When I said I wanted a divorce, he threatened to turn you against me. I lashed out and said something like, ‘You don’t have the leverage you think you do in a custody fight,’ but, really, I think there was a part of him that always suspected something had happened between me and Liam. My anger just tipped him into action.” Gabby didn’t believe that’s how the timing worked, but the explanation provided a clear line she could give Kennedy in the absence of more information.

“Then he found out the truth.” Kennedy made a face. “He must have hated you.”

“But he loved you. Biology didn’t matter to him. He worked all the time, but always came to your events and told everyone in the audience you were his girl. He talked about you, showed off your picture, to anyone who would listen from the time you were little until the very end.” Gabby couldn’t think of stronger words to make this point and hoped these were enough. “Nothing changed about that. Through knowing the truth, through the divorce, you were his daughter, and he died protecting your relationship.”

Kennedy picked at the comforter, tracing her finger over the subtle pattern on it. “Okay.”

Gabby knew that typical teen “okay” packed a punch. That being reassured of Baines’s love and devotion meant everything. “Liam also loves you, regardless of what he thought his relationship with you was. He didn’t have to be your dad to want to protect you and make you happy.”

Kennedy’s shoulders slumped, and her hand fell limp. “This is so embarrassing. I don’t get how you could do that to the family. They were brothers, which is just gross. Did you two always have sex, even now?”

“No.” Gabby needed Kennedy to understand that truth and how the entire mess started. “We all grew up together. Everyone always thought your dad and I would end up together. We hung out. We talked and had fun. Falling into a romance was inevitable—then one day I realized I was more invested and in love with the idea of marriage than with your dad.”

“That’s weird.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to understand.” She’d made sure Kennedy grew up feeling loved and not looking for affection in other places. “Don’t get angry. I’m not saying you’re too young. I’m pointing out that we were raised differently. Dad and Liam didn’t have any stability growing up. Your grandfather gambled away the family car. They got evicted. Lost everything. Your grandfather, who you never knew, was always chasing a new scheme and would take his sons along. Endanger them. Then there was my family. I was with my mom, who was . . .”

“Dad used to call her a bitch.”