Chapter 33
J ust as we were about to slip out the door, Aisling caught us and ordered us to the dining room to eat before we ran off. I’m not sorry we stayed. My cousin knows how to cook. Plus, Aurora really needs the food.
“Did they feed you?” I ask, piling more potatoes onto her plate.
“Some girl kept coming in and giving me soup,” she tells me. “She smelled like old tea, but she sounded young.”
I look across the table to Patty. I have a feeling I know who it was. Fucking Maeve. I don’t know why she’d go along with my father’s insane cruelty. I honestly didn’t think she’d even have the stomach for it. Unless the old man had something on her and forced her to do his bidding.
Patty starts typing on his phone, probably finding out where Maeve is right now.
“This is really good, Aisling,” Aurora says. “I’m sure I’ve lost weight over the last couple of days, which means I can eat as much carbs as I want.”
“Babe, you can always eat as much as you want,” I remind her.
“You won’t be saying that when I’m the size of a house, Connor.”
“I would love you in any size you came in.”
“Okay, what the hell was that?” Aisling turns to Patty. “I think we need Father O’Brien. Connor is possessed.”
“No, he’s just smitten.” Patty smirks.
Aurora smiles at me. “I like you smitten.”
“I thought you liked him bleeding, considering how many times you’ve stabbed him,” Patty counters.
“Twice. It’s only been twice,” Aurora says. “And he deserved it both times.”
Aisling glances between us. Obviously confused. “I’m not even going to ask. I do have cake, though,” she says as she stands from the table.
“I can’t possibly eat another thing. Sorry,” Aurora tells her.
“That’s okay. I’ll pack some for you to take with you.” Aisling walks off towards the kitchen.
“She can cook. I think we should swap cousins. I don’t have any who can cook like that,” Aurora says.
“Babe, my cousins are your cousins now,” I remind her.
She grins. “Oh, so all of mine are yours too, then.”
“Fuck no, those assholes are all yours.” I shake my head.
Aurora’s fist hits my arm. A lot harder than I thought she would have been capable of, given her current state. “Don’t call my cousins assholes.” She glares at me.
“Sorry,” I mumble. I’m not sorry one bit. “Come on. We really should leave.”
“I’m coming with you.” Patty stands with us.
“You should go home,” I tell him.
“And miss the honeymoon? No way.” He grins.
Before we make it out of the dining room, the doorbell rings through the house. “Are you expecting someone?” I ask Aisling when she comes walking around the corner.
“No.” She shakes her head. “Let me check who it is.”
Patty follows her to the door, while I keep Aurora hidden in the dining room. As soon as I hear the person speak, I relax. I know that voice.
“I’m just going to get a glass of water. Be back,” Aurora whispers before stepping towards the kitchen. I follow her, of course.
“That’s a knife, not water, babe.” I smirk.
“I know,” she says, her grip tightening around the handle. I grab on to her as she goes to walk past me. “Let me talk to her first.”
Aurora blinks up at me. Something flickers in her eyes. I can’t pin it, though. “Why?”
“Because she wouldn’t have done this of her own free will,” I explain. “Whatever my father made her do, it’s on him. Not Maeve.”
“Did you love her?” Aurora asks.
“What?”
“Did you love her?” she repeats.
“No. I’ve only ever loved one girl, Aurora O’Malley. And that girl is you.”
“Good.” She smiles. “Let’s go and have a chat with the girl you gave your virginity to, then.”
I follow her out. How the fuck does she know that? What the hell did my ex tell her?
Maeve has her back to us when we enter the living room. “I’m sorry about your carpets, Aisling. I will replace them,” Aurora says right before she shoves the knife into Maeve’s spine.
The scream that follows pierces my ears, and my hands shoot up to the sides of my head on instinct. “Fucking hell.”
Aurora pushes Maeve onto the ground. “Tell me… is this the part where you try to take my husband from me? Is this where you try to make him feel sorry for you? Fall in love with you?”
“Aurora, stop.” I walk over and wrap my arms around her waist.
“Connor, if you don’t let me go, I will stab you,” Aurora hisses, which has me dropping my hold on her. If this woman says she’ll stab you, she fucking means it. “Tell him.” Aurora looks down at Maeve again. “Tell him what your plan was.”
My ex stares at my wife. Wide-eyed. “How? You’re supposed to be dead.”
“What the fuck did you do?” I ask her.
“I… I did it for us.” Maeve looks past Aurora. Over to me.
“What?”
“She told me that she was marrying you, that you loved her,” Aurora says. “I was chained to a fucking wall and she fed me soup. All while planning on taking you from me.”
I can feel the rage radiating off Aurora. I can see it too. “No one can take me from you, princess. You know that.”
“Oh, I know, but she sure as hell doesn’t.” Aurora points the knife at Maeve. “Well, I guess she does now.”
“Maeve?” I ask.
“Connor, don’t let her kill me,” she begs.
“If she doesn’t, I will,” I tell her. “You helped keep my wife captive. You sat back and watched as they beat her.” The more I think about what she’s done, the more I want to take that knife from Aurora and slit Maeve’s throat myself.
“I did it for us, so we could be together. Your father promised me you would marry me,” she chokes out a sob.
Aurora kneels down next to her. “You know, I don’t blame you for loving him. I get it. Trust me, I do. He’s kinda annoyingly irresistible,” she says, her eyes bouncing from me to Maeve. “But that annoying, irresistible asshole is mine. And I’m not about to let anyone try to take him from me.”
Aurora slides the blade from one side of Meave’s throat to the other. In one, quick, clean slice.
Then she stands, flips the blade around, and gives it to me handle first. “Sorry.”
I pull her against my chest. “You have nothing to be sorry about.” I kiss the top of her head while nodding at Patty. I know he’ll organize the cleanup.
Patty is driving. Aurora is lying across the back seat, and I’m playing with her hair as she falls asleep with her head on my lap.
“We’ve got about two hours left,” Patty says.
“You want to switch off?” I offer him.
We’re headed to Galway. It’s usually only a couple of hours’ drive but we’ve made a few detours to set up things along the way.
Stopping in Kilkenny to meet up with one of Patty’s uncles, who loaded us with weapons and cash.
I could have gotten everything in Dublin, but I don’t want anyone knowing what I’m doing or where I’m going.
For now, they think I’m still in the city.
They’ll all be waiting for me to hold an official meeting. My first as boss.
That’ll have to wait. I plan on cleaning house. And to do that, I prefer the element of surprise as well as the advantage that comes with it.
There’s a safe house in Galway. My father told me about it when I was thirteen, saying not even my mother knew he had it. Which serves me fucking perfectly right now. That’s where I plan on hiding out for a few weeks. To plan and let Aurora fucking heal.
The amount of bruising on her body is sickening.
I wish I was surprised, but I’m not. I’ve seen my father’s brutality.
I didn’t think they’d go as far as they did without his preferred audience, though.
That’s not something they’ve done before.
I know she says they didn’t rape her. I want to believe that they didn’t.
I have to believe that they didn’t. But there’s that little doubt in the back of my head that’s telling me she wouldn’t want me to know.
That she’d lie to protect me. And I have no way of fucking finding out the truth.
“Patty, when they were… Did they… Do you know if they…” Fuck me, I can’t even say the word out loud.
“No,” he says. “Your father wouldn’t let them go that far until you were there to see it.”
I rest my head on the seat. Thank God for that. Not that what she went through wasn’t bad enough, but add that kind of violation on top of the rest of the abuse, and I’m not sure even Aurora would be able to come back from it.