“I’m not denying anything,” Brigit replied.
“So you’re admitting you did?” Liam asked slowly. “Why didn’t you ever mention it before?”
“Why would I? He means nothing to me. He was a childhood friend,” Brigit spat.
“Why did he mean so much to Dad, then?” Liam persisted.
Natalie had slowly started to back out of the hallway, but her feet kept stalling. She knew she was intruding on a charged, private conversation, but her curiosity seemed to glue her shoes to the floor.
“Stop it, Liam. I’ve told you half a dozen times now that I’m not going to play this game with you. I’ve never seen you behave this way. You’re acting like a spoiled brat.”
“You’re acting like someone who has a secret,” Liam returned so quickly, so coldly, that Natalie’s feet came to a dead halt.
The silence that followed was so tense—so awful—that Natalie cringed inwardly.
“What if I do have a secret?” Brigit finally said. “That doesn’t mean you have the right to harass me about it. Maybe I’m keeping that secret because you’re my son, and I don’t want to burden you with it. Do you have so little faith in me? Why would you automatically assume I’m keeping something from my children with malicious intent? Do you really think that poorly of me?”
“I don’t think you’re being malicious. If you kept something from us when we were kids, I can understand that,” Liam replied, sounding vaguely contrite now. “But we’re not kids anymore, Ma. If you know why Dad was so upset on the night of the crash, why don’t you tell me? You don’t have to shoulder the truth alone. At least tell me what Lincoln DuBois has to do with anything.”
“Don’t talk to me like I’m a criminal, Liam. Do you think the world began on the day you were born? I was young once. I had a life that didn’t revolve exclusively around my children.”
“Don’t try to make me feel guilty,” Liam said, his voice once again like steel.
“We all have secrets,” Brigit continued as if he hadn’t even spoken. “Marc does. You do. Your father certainly did.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It’s just the truth, Liam. That’s what you’re so fond of, right?”
Natalie started guiltily from her hyper-focus on the exchange when the door was flung open and suddenly she was face-to-face with Brigit Kavanaugh.
“You,” Brigit said softly.
The word seemed to lance straight through Natalie. There was little doubt what Brigit meant, innocuous as her utterance may seem. It’d sounded like a malediction ringing in Natalie’s ears. Liam’s mother clearly held Natalie responsible for turning her calm family life upside down.
Brigit rushed past her.
A moment later, Natalie heard the front door slam and she was staring at Liam, whose face looked tinged with gray in the dim light.
Natalie stood on Liam’s terrace, squinting to make out the shimmering lake. The night was black. Clouds had swept in that evening, obliterating even starshine.
She heard the screen door squeak and close and knew Liam had joined her. Her hands twisted together nervously. They hadn’t spoken much since they’d stood in the hallway of the Family Center. They’d left the fundraiser soon afterward, driven to his cottage and made dinner.
You heard? Liam had asked her as they stood there in the hallway.
Natalie had nodded her head, embarrassed that she’d eavesdropped on something so personal. Liam had just taken her hand and led her out of the building. For the last two hours, she’d still been vibrating with the shock of hearing the encounter. She thought it was similar for Liam, given his absorption and distance.
Now that the shock was wearing off, uncertainty and nervousness were starting to creep into her awareness. Liam’s approach from behind her on the darkened terrace only seemed to amplify her anxiety.
Surely she should leave. She’d overstayed her welcome here. Liam had other things to think about. Perhaps even now he was rethinking the wisdom of becoming involved with her—
“Are you wondering why I didn’t tell you that my mother grew up in the same town as Lincoln DuBois?”
She inhaled slowly. His voice had resounded from just behind her. Yet he didn’t touch her, Natalie realized with a sinking feeling. She sighed and glanced down. After only a few days, she’d become accustomed to Liam’s tender caresses. Their absence now seemed telling.
“Why didn’t you?” she asked.
“I wanted to ask my mother first. It only seemed fair. In case it didn’t mean anything. I was going to tell you, I just wanted to give my mom a chance to give her side first.”