Page 74 of The Banned Books Club
“What do you mean?”
“When I told him I believe he molested Gia, he said, ‘I barely touched her’ as if it wasn’t a big thing—but hediddo it. He’s mad at her for outing him. That’s all.”
She didn’t respond.
“Mom?”
“I believe it, but...what are you going to do now?”
She hardly sounded jubilant, and he could understand why. Just because they were right in what they believed didn’t make things any better. “I’m going to tell Louisa and Edith. That’s what I’m going to do.”
“What makes you think they’ll believe you? Especially if he’s already denying it again?”
“They would never think I’d lie about something like that...”
“I don’t know,” she said skeptically. “People can be pretty resistant to the truth, especially when it hurts.” She paused. “I hate what this is doing to our family. There’s got to be a better way to handle it.”
Like she had before? By standing back and saying nothing? Not trying to persuade anyone either way? Cormac didn’t believe remaining neutral was the answer, either. “How? This can’t be easy for Gia. And it’s all because of Dad.”
“People make mistakes—”
“Don’t offer that as an excuse, Mom. It’s not the mistake so much as the way he handled it—trying to blame it onher. You’ve said so before—that it was the lies that make it so hard for you, too. I’m sure an admission and an apology would’ve gone far toward helping her through the years right after it happened. That sort of thing would probably be a relief even at this late date.”
“I don’t know what to say, Cormac. I’ve tried my best to keep our family together despite what he did, and now...”
“And now it’s falling apart because of me?”
“I’m not blaming you. I just—I wish the past didn’t have to rear its ugly head again.”
“I think we should deal with it once and for all.”
“Despite the damage it’ll cause?”
“We have to face reality. Call the girls and get them to come over. Let’s have a family meeting.”
“With your dad, too?”
“No, without. But I’ll tell them what he said last night.”
“He’ll just deny it when they ask him.”
If that happened, Cormac would feel a lot like Gia had back in high school, he supposed. He’d be swearing things had gone one way; his father would be insisting they hadn’t. The irony didn’t escape him. “He can try, but if the rest of us are unified, maybe we can hold him accountable, and he’ll finally realize he has to change.”
He heard her sigh through the phone.
“What?” he said. “You don’t like that idea?”
“It’s hard to take someone’s good opinion of their father away from them.”
“Trust me. I understand that. But if he doesn’t deserve their good opinion, maybe he shouldn’t get it.”
It took a moment, but she finally said, “Okay.”
“Wait...did you just say that Margot called you last night?” Ida asked.
Gia stood at the stove making oatmeal for breakfast. Her dad sat at the kitchen table, reading the news on his phone, and her mother stroked Miss Marple while waiting to eat. But Gia was exhausted enough that she kept leaning against the counter. After leaving Cormac’s house, she hadn’t gotten much sleep. She was worried about her sister and kept trying to break into Margot’s phone. After talking to her, she doubted it would tell her much, but it gave her something to concentrate on. Because the second she lost focus, she’d have anOh, my God, what have I done?moment as thoughts of Cormac managed to intrude. She hadn’t even slept with Mike, and they’d gone out together a number of times. So she wasn’t sure exactly how she’d ended up in bed with Cormac. She supposed she’d been feeling vulnerable enough to grab hold of someone she probably shouldn’t have.
But the sex had been incredible. She could never claim otherwise.
