“We wanted it to be quiet, so we took the kids and got married in Vegas.”

Riley watched as Jack congratulated them as well. This was wonderful, exciting news, and having met Ed now, he could see how happy Lisa was. Ed was a very different man to Jeff; Ed was affable and smiling all the time.

“We signed prenups,” Ed reassured.

Riley couldn’t look him in the eye. He was secretly very pleased that Lisa’s money was tied up, even if Ed did come from money somewhere along the line.

An awkward silence fell over the table. Riley glanced at Jack, who was frowning a little. What had Riley missed? He looked at Lisa, whose expression had morphed from happiness back to that wariness.

“Is something wrong?” Riley asked.

Lisa grabbed at Ed’s hand and held it tight. “I told him, Riley. I told him everything.”

She went quiet, clutching Ed’s hand and staring straight at Riley, whose chest tightened. He felt sick.

“Lisa?” he asked.

“About what I did…,” she began.

“…And why,” Ed finished when she didn’t expand.

Riley had no words. This was supposed to have been a secret that went with them to their graves. What if something happened with Ed? What if they weren’t meant to be together? What if he sold the story? Panic added to the concern in his thoughts until he couldn’t think of words to say. Jack placed a hand over his and squeezed him hard.

“You did what you thought was right,” Jack began in a very reasonable tone. “But, I thought we’d agreed you weren’t telling anyone what happened.”

Lisa scooted a little closer to Ed. “I know,” she said in a small voice. Ed released his hold on her hand and instead hugged her close. “I couldn’t keep the lies inside, and I—” She looked at Ed, who smiled reassuringly. “—I had a drink.”

“Shit, Lisa.” Riley knew how devastating that must be. She’d done so well in beating the drink.

“More than one. After all this time, I couldn’t fight the demons.” She sighed. “I couldn’t tell him why I was doing it, and so I was driving him away.”

Ed pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “But I wasn’t going anywhere, told her nothing was as important as our new life with the kids.”

“I let him know because I had to. Can you see that, Riley?”

Riley nodded.

Ed looked at Lisa. “I drove her to Las Vegas, and we married.”

Riley listened to every word, and he could see the desperate need in Lisa’s expression. What if Riley had a secret so big that he deliberately drove Jack away? The one man who he couldn’t imagine life without? He’d probably end up reverting to all the self-destructive shit he’d been involved in before Jack came into his life.

“I understand,” he said. He made sure not to let one ounce of doubt linger in his words, and bit by bit he began to compartmentalize how he was feeling. Lisa had told Ed that she had killed her husband, Riley’s brother. Ed was the first person outside the family who would know. What about the kids? What about Luke and Annabelle? Would Lisa feel she needed to tell them?

“What about Luke and Annabelle?” Jack asked, giving voice to Riley’s silent worries.

Lisa raised her stricken gaze. She’d been staring at her hand and the sparks of light that hit the diamonds. “Maybe, one day. I don’t know.”

“None of this would ever go back to you,” Ed said. He was trying to reassure Riley.

“I get that,” Riley said. “But Gerald confessed to the killing to keep you safe.” Abruptly something occurred to him. What about Eden? If any of this leaves the family, then the police will know she was there and about the gun.

“I won’t say a word, none of this will leave the family,” Ed said. “I promise on my life, on our baby’s life….”

Riley looked closer at Lisa, at the way she was hunched a little, protecting something. “You’re having a baby?”

“Only four weeks,” Lisa said. “It happened after we married, after I decided the secret was cancer inside me, after I stopped drinking again.”

Silence again. Riley didn’t know what to say. He knew he should congratulate Lisa, but at the same time, his thoughts were a tangled mess of what-ifs and maybes. Ed was holding Lisa so tight and tears tracked down her face, and still Riley couldn’t say a thing. Why was this the first that Riley knew about the wedding? If this all happened a minimum of four weeks ago, then how come Hayley hadn’t seen posts on Luke’s or Annabelle’s Facebook pages? Wouldn’t Hayley have said something? None of this made sense.

“Okay,” Jack said. “You told Ed. There’s nothing we can do about that now. None of this comes back to Riley or the Campbell family. You never talk of Eden being anywhere near this.”

Lisa nodded, crying silently again.

Jack carried on. “Lisa, we know how hard this must be. We know why it happened, we know what kind of man he was, and fuck… you deserve to be happy. We can deal with the fallout if it happens.”

Riley’s temper spiked and he yanked his hand from Jack’s. “How can you say that?” he demanded. “You think we can handle cops at our door raking up everything my brother was? Everything he did?”

“Riley—”

Riley stood so quickly, the chair scooted away from him. He didn’t know what to say or do. Jack was up in his space, cradling his face, staring right at him, with intense focus in his blue eyes.

“Riley, listen to me,” Jack ordered. Riley tried to step back, but Jack really had a strong grip and he wasn’t moving. “Are you listening?”

Riley realized two things. One, he was at the start of a panic attack—something he hadn’t quite shaken after being kidnapped—and two, Jack’s words drilled through the panic to reach the part of him that was still rational.

“I’m listening,” Riley said. Embarrassment started to wash over him. He’d lost it in front of Lisa and Ed, and looked like a freaking idiot. He had to calm the fuck down.

“Lisa and Ed are married,” Jack said. “There have to be prosecution laws about husbands and wives, and your mom has a whole folder of paperwork on Jeff showing exactly what kind of man he was. Lisa is telling Eden tomorrow, and that is it, done.”

“But the kids? Luke and Annabelle? What will they think when they find out—?”

“Don’t you think I’ve thought about that?” Now it was Lisa’s turn to get angry. She stood, gripping the back of her chair.

Riley shook himself free of Jack’s hold, guilt like acid in his belly. “Lisa—”

“I imagine telling them about what kind of a man their dad was, about how he hurt….”

Remorse flooded Riley, battling with the guilt and anger. “I know, Lisa. I’m sorry.”

“How will they feel if they find out what I did?”

Ed gathered Lisa into a hug. “We knew it would be hard telling you,” he admitted.

Riley shook his head. This was wrong. Lisa and the kids were his family, and he’d seen what was happening way too late. Now, he had the chance to make things right, and he was throwing it away. He’d judged Eden unfairly for not coming to him the minute she found Lisa with the gun, but he’d forgiven her as quickly.

Maybe he’d never had the chance to confront this with Lisa, to blame her, then forgive her.

Cautiously he held out a hand. “Can we talk outside?”

She nodded and allowed him to lead her out of the kitchen into the cool evening, straight over to the fence where so many deep conversations were held. Riley let go of his hold as soon as they reached it.

“You killed my brother,” Riley began. He’d considered the words to use on the short walk over, but when he opened his mouth, they spilled out, haphazard and emotional. “But for what he did, I don’t know if he deserved to die, but he wanted to destroy me, and Jack, and Beth, all those kids he’d—Lisa, I don’t think I ever properly said that it was okay, that though I couldn’t turn around and say the words, I never judged you for what you did.”

“Oh, Riley.” She leaned back against the fence for support, and the tears ran freely. She wiped at them with annoyance in every movement. “I am sorry,” she said. “He was your brother.”