Michelle and Aoife are paying the price for what are my sins.” He sat forward and the leather seat creaked as he bowed his shoulders, letting his head fall like the weight was too much for him to bear. “Aoife will never get justice for her mother, Finn. You telling her will only wreck what you have.”
He was right.
He was only saying shit I’d already thought of.
“What made you look?”
“Aoife asked to see if someone she knew was behind the hit and run.”
“Who did she think it was?” Aidan asked, his brow furling in confusion.
I bit off, “Her father.”
“He died. Years back.”
“No. He was her stepfather.” I purposely kept my answer blunt, because I wasn’t about to tell him that Senator Alan Davidson was Aoife’s biological dad. The man was a bastard, but I didn’t intend on burning that bridge. Who knew what might happen a few years down the line? Having a President in my pocket might come in handy.
Aidan ran a hand over his chin. “Why would her father have had her mother killed?”
“It’s a long story, and it’s irrelevant because he didn’t, did he? Michelle’s murderer is in the fucking house next to us.”
“It was an accident.”
Only four words but I heard the warning in them. It was like the low snarl of a lion threatening me with violence if I didn’t back off.
I clenched my jaw and turned my head away.
“Does she know I’m your son now?”
“Yes.”
That had me whipping around to face him. “What? You told her?”
“After the accident. It was eating her up inside.” He shrugged. “It gave her closure.”
“She never— I don’t remember her changing toward me.”
Aidan ran a hand over his face. “Said she was glad. That it was just confirmation of what she’d already known—that you’re ours.”
My eyes burned. They fucking stung as tears pricked them.
All these years, all these fucking years, I’d been a part of this family in more ways than I’d even recognized.
“Do the boys know?”
He rasped, “No.”
For some reason, that made me feel better.
“Do you want them to know?”
I rubbed my chin, regretting not having shaved as the stubble brushed my palm.
“Not yet.”
“I understand.” He released a sigh. “They’re going to be mad at me, and I can’t blame them. I cheated on their mother, but it brought us you, so they’ll forgive me soon.”
“Have you really not cheated on her since?”
He snorted. “She’d have cut my balls off with a table knife, Finn. What do you think?”
That was true. Lena was as bloodthirsty as the rest of us.
“I think I’m confused and…” I shot him a look. “I’m going back home. I’m taking the rest of the week off and I’m spending time with my wife.”
Aidan shrugged. “Whatever you need. Was going to suggest it to be honest. You two didn’t even get a honeymoon, and these past few months, you and Conor have been running around like flies on shit getting us the financing for the shipments. Both of you deserve a break.”
Without waiting, he opened the door. The chill from the early morning sank in and he swiveled on his seat.
Before he could get out, I asked, “You never said. The lump…”
His shoulders stiffened then relaxed. “Benign.”
A relieved breath escaped me, and the joke slipped past my lips before I could contain it, “Only the good die young.”
As he climbed out of the car, he leaned over to grin at me. “I’ll still be around when I’m a hundred.” He straightened then, after shutting the door, tapped the roof, and I immediately started the engine and drove back up to the gatehouse.
Whatever I’d expected this morning, it hadn’t been any of that.
I’d come here wanting to find answers, and instead, I had more questions than I could ever have anticipated.
***
Aoife
The bed dipped and though it disturbed my sleep, I wasn’t about to complain. Not when Finn carefully wrapped himself around me.
When his hand came to rest over my lower belly, he murmured, “I know you’re awake.”
There was amusement in his voice, and my mouth curved of its own volition. “Not awake,” I mumbled sleepily.
“No? You’re doing a good impression of it, then.”
When he pressed his lips to my shoulder, I released a deep breath and snuggled back into him. “You smell good.” Jesus, he really did. Like sex and sin all wrapped together with chocolate—was there a better package?
“I try,” he joked, then he fell quiet. Not plunging us into an awkward silence, just into a relaxed one. Where neither of us had to