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Jessa lay dead, and Retta only cared about how bad a guy this Darren person was. Gabby didn’t care. “Why would he be in Baines’s house? That’s ridiculous.”
“If Darren did it, Jessa didn’t die here. She died back in that parking lot where he attacked her. He threatened her earlier then came back and followed through on his threats. Underthat scenario, Jessa is remembered as another tragic statistic. We will celebrate and honor her.” Retta glanced at her watch. “But time is of the essence. We need a decision from you.”
“Me?” Gabby needed Retta to say it out loud. To put her heinous plan into words so there was no confusion.
“Darren or Liam—you choose.”
“Leave Liam and Kennedy out of this.” No, more than that. “Stay away from my family, or I swear I will kill you myself.”
Retta nodded. “So you choose Darren.”
“I didn’t say—”
Retta looked past Gabby. “Make the arrangements. We need this done immediately. And take Jessa’s bag with you. Gabby won’t be needing whatever Jessa brought for her.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Gabby heard his footsteps and watched him leave the room. She turned back to Retta. “What is wrong with you? How did you go so far off track? You don’t get to decide who deserves to die.”
Retta stood up. “Lucky for you, right now I do.”
Chapter Seventy-Five
Gabby
The stain wouldn’t come off. Gabby stood in the shower and scrubbed until the water turned cold. She used Liam’s soap, at his house, but all she could see was Baines’s office. The bodies piling up. Jessa’s unblinking eyes, begging her to do... something.
Liar. Cheat. Untrustworthy.All the slams she’d made about Jessa over the years, and said directly to her face, ran through Gabby’s head on an endless cycle. The guilt ratcheted up, washing over her in a slime of filth she’d never be able to break out of again.
Tears mixed with the icy water. The spray pounded her with a thousand tiny needles. Her only thought as her body shook was about how close she’d come to being the group’s latest victim.
They all begged her to shut up and go away, but she wouldn’t let Baines’s death go. Liam told her. Detective Schone told her. Jessa told her. But she’d been so sure she knew better. She thought she could find justice for Baines as a final gesture of affectionfor the life they’d shared, but all she did was break her daughter and invite danger and death in for everyone around her.
God, Jessa. I’m so sorry.
Baines, Tami, Rob. So much loss.
Gabby slid down the tile wall. Wet hair covered her eyes as she gulped in air between sobs. Jessa had lied on an affidavit to make herself more important at work, and in a roundabout, messed-up way she’d died for that mistake.
Gabby sat there until the bumps on her skin shouted at her to get up and turn off the water. Strength abandoned her. All she could do was look into the rainfall and wonder what to do next. Thoughts swirled in her mind. Solutions. Options. Ways to work around the secrecy of the group and find a person not on the inside, not beholden, and not a believer in the scheme.
Minutes passed before she could finally lean forward and turn off the water.
She didn’t know how to live with what she’d started... except to finish it.
Twenty minutes later, Gabby sat at Liam’s dining room table. She opened her hand and stared at the memory stick Jessa had passed to her as she died. The little piece of plastic that had cost Jessa everything.
Retta had taken the papers Jessa brought to Baines’s house, but in the end, Jessa had outmaneuvered her mentor. Jessa had taken the risks and would have the last word.
Gabby vowed to make that true.
Chapter Seventy-Six
MILLIONAIRE BUSINESSMAN IN CUSTODY—Potomac, MD
Darren Bartholomew, 46, son of philanthropist Malcolm Bartholomew, was arrested late Tuesday at his uncle’s home on River Road, in Potomac, Maryland, for the murder of Jessa Hall, the court-appointed guardian ad litem for his minor son.
Bartholomew, a former high school and college lacrosse standout and the current vice president of Bartholomew Holdings, was recently incarcerated for violating a protective order in place for his estranged wife, Eleanor Bartholomew. He was released due to a technical flaw with the written order. On the day of his unexpected return to the area, Bartholomew allegedly confronted Hall in front of witnesses then fled the scene. Hall, a highly regarded domestic attorney in Montgomery County, Maryland, survived that confrontationbut Bartholomew returned, and Hall died from a stab wound shortly thereafter.
