Chapter 32 Verity
Verity
After a long soak in my bathtub, during which my mood plummeted even further, I forced myself to go looking for Saoirse. Ronan had left not long after Saoirse found us. He said something about Declan asking him to chat to an O'Rourke, but I hadn't paid attention.
All I could think about was the look on my friend's face when she found me in bed with her brother.
I heard her yelling insults before I even set foot on the stairs. My bestie's red hair went hand-in-hand with a fiery temper, and she'd never held back when expressing her opinions.
When I reached the kitchen, she and Conal were in the middle of a heated conversation, and Conal looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but there, facing off against his youngest sister.
Rather than walk straight into the firing line, I opted to peer in through the partly open door. Cowardly, sure, but the thought of being yelled at again caused my stomach to clench and my head to throb with anxiety.
"I thought at least you had the sense to stay away from Ver!"
"Calm down! Verity's old enough to make her own decisions and we only want what's best for her."
"That girl has never had a clue when it comes to men and you two fuckwits are the latest in a long line of bad decisions." I froze and took a step back before either of them saw me.
"Shut the fuck up, Saoirse. Verity's sex life is none of your business," Conal snapped, clearly on the verge of losing his temper. I heard a cupboard door slam and the sound of pans rattling.
"It is my fucking business when I have to listen to her crying about another asshole treating her like shit, and we both know Ronan will be sniffing around someone new in a week. If he hasn't already."
Was I that much of a burden to her? Sure, I'd offloaded many times, but wasn't that something friends did? Hearing Saoirse admit she was sick of my drama stung. I hadn't realized how much she hated acting as my go-to armchair counselor.
"Ronan's not looked at anyone else since Verity arrived," Conal told her.
"Really? Then how come some ho-bag influencer posted a photo of him last night on Insta? She reckons she bedded him last week. Gave him a 5-star rating, apparently." Conal snorted in amusement, but Saoirse's words cut right to the bone.
I slumped against the wall. Had Ronan lied to me?
"That's bullshit, sis," Conal said after a pregnant pause, but I heard the doubt in his voice.
Ronan could have hooked up with the woman when he disappeared for a few days on business.
That was his typical modus operandi: get drunk and take a woman to a nearby hotel. It wasn't like he was short on offers.
"Check out the post." There was another long pause, followed by a muffled curse that told me Conal had concluded the photo was genuine, which meant Ronan had played me like a fiddle.
Black spots floated before my eyes. Would I ever learn?
Red flag men swarmed around me like flies on shit. Conal appeared to be the exception; he wasn't a player like his brother. But in my heart, I knew the truth: Conal had a savior complex. He wanted to fix me.
Since I was unfixable, it was only a matter of time before he gave up and walked away, like everyone did.
I couldn't stay here.
Dammit, I should have left after the twins fought in the kitchen. I would have saved myself - and Saoirse - so much pain.
Saoirse hated me now. How long before Ronan moved on? Conal would eventually lose patience with my moods and pathetic self.
Declan had been kind to me, but even he had his limits. He only tolerated my presence because it suited him to work with my sister - Thea's dubious connections were helpful to the Kelly family business.
Yes, Declan had done a lot for me over the years, including paying my school fees when I first attended Castlemaine Academy, but Thea paid him back once she settled in the US.
The sound of more raised voices roused me from my downward spiral into madness. I needed to leave before Ronan or Conal found me. If they tried gaslighting me again, there was a risk I'd fall for more of their bullshit lies.
I shot back upstairs and threw some things into a tote bag.
My new phone sat on the charging mat next to the bed.
Taking it would give Conal a way to track me, but I needed it to order an Uber.
So I opened the app and booked a car. Once my driver was 10 minutes away, I headed downstairs using the rear staircase.
This was once the servant’s staircase as it led to the laundry room and a kitchen storage area. I prayed Declan and the twins would be too busy to notice my departure. It was better for all of us if I left since my judgment was seriously awry.
Saoirse had been right when she'd implied I was a mess. Hell, I hadn't even spotted the red flags when Anton talked down to me and isolated me from my friends. Saoirse had told me repeatedly to leave him, yet I'd stayed. Why?
If Ronan and Conal hadn't showed up that night in the bar, God knows what might have happened.
Not that they were much better. Yes, they hadn't hurt me physically, but they had made me believe I mattered, and in many ways, that was significantly worse than anything Anton did to hurt me.
And because of my desperate desire to be wanted, I'd lost Saoirse's friendship.
A patrolling guard barely glanced at me when I passed him on my way to the gate, a small bag slung over my shoulder. The guards usually paid me more attention, but this one seemed distracted by his phone.
Pressure built behind my eyes, dark thoughts threatening to overwhelm me as I trudged down the gravel path, staying close to the tall yew hedges.
I kept watching for more of Declan’s guards but saw none.
Rain fell. Light at first and then heavier, drenching my hair and soaking through the denim jacket I'd grabbed on my way out. A stiff wind picked up, cutting me to the bone. The sooner I was away from this place, the better.
The guard on gate duty wasn't familiar to me. He frowned.
"Nobody's supposed to leave, miss," he said reaching for me before his comms ear-piece sparked to life. I froze. Had someone spotted me leaving?
As I hovered, a parcel delivery van approached. The guard’s focus switched from me to the van. He opened the pedestrian access gate to talk to the driver, allowing me to slip past.
"Hey! Wait!" he yelled when he realized I’d escaped, but I ignored him. A silver car drove down the lane and I quickly scanned the license plate, exhaling in relief when I realized it was my Uber.
I jumped into the car's back seat.
"Let's go!" If he called Declan, more men would come running. I stared back through the rear window as we pulled away, but the guard was too busy gesticulating at the delivery driver to chase me.
I switched my phone off, removed the SIM, and pushed it down between the seat cushions. If anyone tried tracking the phone, they could have fun chasing after the Uber driver once he dropped me off at the bus station.
The lady on the airline ticket desk looked concerned at my bedraggled appearance. After a sleepless night on a series of rickety buses, I knew I looked like shit, but I hadn't wanted to waste money on a hotel room.
The cash I had on me was enough to pay for a cheap flight and a room when I arrived. After that, I'd need to find a job fast.
Calling my old boss at Lorenzo's Bar in Naples wasn't an option. Apart from the fact I'd disappeared without warning and left the bar in a mess because of what happened with Anton, I didn't want to risk Anton finding me.
"I can sell you a ticket on the next flight to Catania, changing at London Heathrow."
"I'll take it." Going back to Italy was potentially dangerous, but there had been no sign of my father since he walked out of prison, so it seemed like a risk worth taking.
I had nowhere else to go on my budget, and a girl I'd met in Italy previously was working in a small hotel in Catania.
I hoped she might help me get a job so I could afford a flight to Thailand.
Beyond that, I was all out of ideas.
I didn’t dare call Thea. It was time I took care of myself instead of relying on other people to run my life.
Living anonymously would be safer than staying with the Kellys.
With Declan fighting against a rival family, even I could see that remaining with the Kellys was dangerous.
Yes, Ronan and Conal had fed me a bunch of bullshit about protecting me, but they were part of the problem.
If I stuck around, they'd use me and then cast me aside in favor of someone new.
"Have a safe trip." The woman at the airline desk offered me a smile as she printed out my boarding pass.
My flight left in an hour, so I had just enough time to go through security before boarding the plane.
I used the passport Kyril gave me last year as a safety net if I didn't want anyone following me.
Thankfully, it had been in a hidden pocket in my bag the night I left Naples.
Otherwise, I'd have been forced to use the one with my actual name, which the twins had picked up from my old apartment.
Kyril could be an overbearing and grumpy asshole sometimes, but he always had my back. Once I turned 18 and could travel independently, he'd made sure I had a spare set of travel documents in a different name. For emergencies.
Well, this definitely classed as an emergency.
No doubt Kyril would guess what I'd done when Thea got the news about my departure, but it would give me some time to figure out my next steps before she sent Dario or Kyril after me.
Or worse, Ronan and Conal.
Those two could go fuck themselves.