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“Mother, are you intoxicated already?” Henry checked the time on his watch as the two women glanced at each other like they were two children about to be scolded.

“Areyouintoxicated?” Millie asked Katherine.

She nodded. “Are you?”

“I think so, dear girl.” Millie lifted the flask and held it upside down over her open mouth. A single drop landed on her tongue. “Oh my, I must be.”

They both laughed hysterically.

“Not that damn Laphroaig again,” Henry grumbled, coming over to help his mother off the couch as Andrew went to Katherine’s side to do the same, careful not to bump her bandaged arm. “Come on, you two, let’s get you sobered up.”

Henry and Andrew then hauled them into the kitchen for food and coffee. From all the giggling and whisky, Katherine didn’t remember much of the walk down the long hallway. Nevertheless, she still found herself seated at Millie’s kitchen island, watching Henry and Andrew fry eggs, potatoes, and bacon.

“How did this happen?” Katherine mumbled, her head pounding.

“Yuck!” The woman next to her gagged. “This stuff will kill you.”

Henry and Andrew stopped what they were doing to look at Millie, sitting next to Katherine, sipping from a small but strong cup of coffee.

“Drink it, Mother,” Henry demanded, disappointed that once more she had resorted to using her trusty flask and its strong amber contents on poor, unsuspecting Katherine. “Drinkeverylast drop. Consider it part of your penance.”

Katherine looked down at the near-black brew of her own as the men chuckled before turning their attention back to the stove. Katherine hadn’t touched her cup yet because, like Millie, she longed for the comforting warmth only a hot cup of tea could provide. Well, the kind without Millie’s peaty-tasting whisky.

“You know Jerome and Ginny are worried sick about you,” Andrew said over his shoulder.

Katherine grunted, lifting the cup to her lips and drawing in a cautious sip. Millie was right. The liquid was positively vile, but she knew it was for her own good, so she took a drink.

“Matthew, too,” he added, setting down a plate of greasy food.

Katherine blanched, turning her head and gagging a little in the process. The aroma of breakfast, usually comforting to her, now left her feeling nauseous. In fact, even the look of it made her stomach turn.

“Trust me, it helps.”

Not entirely believing her brother-in-law, Katherine looked to Henry for confirmation, and he nodded with a smile of encouragement. Then she looked to Millie, who was gathering a heaping spoonful of mashed-up fried eggs, bacon, and home fries into one big bite and stuffing it into her mouth. She chewed and chewed, then sighed in relief.

After licking the remnants of the rich yellow yolk from her lips, Millie said, “It’s true. I don’t know how it’s true, but thank the good Lord it is.”

Katherine studied her plate in disbelief but accepted that, at this point, she didn’t have any other option. Surprisingly, they’d all been right because as soon as she swallowed the second bite and was going for a third, her stomach started to settle, and she felt slightly revived.

“Thank God,” she murmured, continuing to eat. She was grateful to be coming out from under the hazy fog that had clouded her head and made her confess everything to Millieabout what she’d read in those horrible files of Justin’s, along with everything from her past with Max.

Those files.

Even now, she despised their very existence.

“You okay, Katie?”

Katherine’s head snapped up as if she’d heard Matthew’s voice. But it was only Andrew.

“Yes.” She nodded. “I’m okay.”

“Then why are you crying again?”

Katherine touched her face as streams of tears spilled down her cheeks. “I don’t know!” she wailed like a hurt and confused child. “This just keeps happening. Trust me, I don’t mean for it to. It just does.”

Frustrated with herself, Katherine dropped the fork on her plate and covered her face with her hands. “I’m sorry, you guys. I can’t seem to make it stop.”

Taking pity on her, Andrew came over to hug Katherine as she babbled incoherently about Matthew, Max, and any other thought racing through her rattled mind. Finally, a bout of chest-heaving hiccups stopped her from more of her long-winded rambling, and Andrew held the coffee cup to her mouth like he would for one of his children. “Drink,” he said.