Chapter 19 #2
“And?” Sophie looked incredulous. “Does there to be an and ? She lied. She manipulated her way into our family?—”
“She didn’t manipulate anything,” Keefe cut in. “She was scared. She had no idea who Darcie really was or what kind of family she might be walking into. Hell, she didn’t even think she had a right to want a family.”
Nan sighed. “Sophie, love, you’ve got to let this go.”
“I’m trying,” Sophie snapped. “But I can’t just smile and pretend everything’s fine.”
Nan gave Keefe a look. Then she looked away.
Sophie caught it. “What was that?”
Nan blinked. “What was what?”
“That look.”
Nan shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“There! You just did it again!” That look could only mean one thing.
Nan sighed. “No, come on.”
“No, you come on! You can’t be serious. You already knew? You knew and didn’t tell me?”
Nan looked at Keefe again telling him the jig was up and to put on his big boy underpants and tell his sister the truth.
Keefe sat forward and broke the news. He knew this day would come and it had. It was time to face the music. “Gwen met Shamus.”
Sophie stared. She couldn’t be hearing this right. “What? When the hell was this?”
Nan cleared her throat. “A couple of weeks ago.”
“A couple of weeks? And you didn’t think I should have a say in this?”
“A say in what? Shamus meeting his long-lost niece?”
Nan may have had a point but that didn’t make any difference to Sophie. “Unbelievable.” she paced a few steps away, arms crossed. “So what? Everyone just forgives her now?”
Nan stepped forward. They might as well rip off the last bandaid and get it over with. “Sophie, pet. You should know that Darcie and Connor met Gwen too.”
Sophie whirled around. “ What? You can’t be serious.”
“They met at the pub. And they liked her.”
“You’re all acting like she didn’t lie to our faces!”
Nan’s voice took on that low, warning tone that meant she was running out of patience. “Yes, Gwen lied. But we all know why. And every one of us has forgiven her. Except you.”
Sophie’s jaw tightened. “You all can do whatever you like. But Keefe is my brother. And I’m not going to sit on the sidelines and watch him get his heart broken!”
Keefe stood now, eyes locked with hers. “You’re not watching anything. You’re trying to control it.”
“That’s not fair.”
“No, it’s not,” he agreed. “It’s not fair that I found someone I love and instead of being happy for me, my sister is trying to blow it up because she can’t let go of something the rest of us already have.”
Sophie’s expression flickered—hurt, frustration, maybe even doubt—but she masked it fast. Gwen, Ruby, whatever she was calling herself these days was trouble.
“What was that look?” Keefe demanded, narrowing his eyes.
“Nothing,” Sophie snapped. “Don’t twist my face into something it’s not.”
“Oh, come off it, Soph. I saw it plain as day.” He crossed his arms. “You hate her.”
“Damn right I do.”
Keefe closed his eyes for a second, breathing hard through his nose. “Just…listen to me, okay? Please. Just this once, will you stop and think? Gwen’s not who you think she is. She’s?—”
“She’s a lying, two-faced, trouble-making bitch of an Irish whore!”
His head snapped back like she’d slapped him.
“Sophie,” Nan said a warning as much as anything. She had stayed out of this fight but she could see it was shaping up to be much worse than she could have imagined.
“Sorry Aunt Nan but no.” Sophie whipped her head back in Keefe’s direction. “I don’t care how many pretty eyes she bats at you! I see right through her!”
He took a step forward, desperate now and so furious that he struggled to keep control.
He kept his voice as even as he could. “She lied, yes. But not for the reasons you think. You don’t know the whole story.
Hell, even she didn’t mean to stay! Have you even considered the possibility that you might be wrong just this once? ”
“I’ve been right about all the others!” she spat.
“Every single last one! And if you’d listened to me back then, maybe you wouldn’t have ended up sobbing into a bottle of whiskey while I picked up the pieces.
” Unable to look at her brother’s stupid face anymore, she turned around out then whirled back.
“And those others didn’t have a murderous father! She’s just like him!”
“I don’t deny that. But I think you’re wrong about her—Darcie didn’t turn out like their father.”
“She lied and used you! You were a means to an end. She’s exactly like him! And in case you forgot: Darcie didn’t grow up with him!”
Sophie’s voice rose higher. So did his. This was war.
“Neither did Gwen! She spent her life all alone! He hardly had anything to do with her! But you wouldn’t know that because you won’t give her a chance! And by the way, she tried to tell me the truth—repeatedly! But something always interrupted her. Hell, you being one of those things!”
“So, what, now you’re going to ride off with her into the shadows and become one of them ? Clearly, I’ve got more sense than you.”
“More sense my ass! You’ve got the brains of a bloody turnip.”
She let out a bark of laughter. “I’d rather be a turnip than dumb as the dirt it grew in like you!”
“Christ, you’re impossible!” Keefe threw his hands in the air then raked them down his face. He was losing his patience.
“Oh, don’t you throw a tantrum just because you’ve lost what little common sense you were born with.”
Keefe’s voice dropped and slowed as he spoke very carefully. “Sophie. I love you, but you’re making this worse. You’re not helping anyone right now.”
“Aunt Nan, could you examine my brother’s head? There’s been something wrong with him since birth!” she spat.
“There must be, I went into business with you, didn’t I?
” he fired back. That had come out louder than intended.
He took a moment to breathe. They had both said things but he was over this.
He would take one last try to get her to see reason.
Surely, this would do it. “Soph, Darcie forgave her,” he said evenly, which was no small effort.
He let that hang in the air for a moment.
Sophie couldn’t believe it. Her mouth fell open.
She looked from her brother to their aunt who nodded her head confirming what Keefe said.
She blinked a few times trying to wrap her head around all this but she just couldn’t.
The O’Brian family had all lost their damn minds!
“That’s Darcie’s business. She’s not my brother.
It doesn’t change the fact that Gwen’s so evil if you threw her in the river, she’d float upstream! ”
That was it! Keefe clenched his fists at his side. Now Nan intervened before this turned into a brawl. “Keefe,” she said in a warning voice, “you’ve never hit a girl.”
“That’s not a girl! That’s my sister!” He shook his head then stormed away punching the kitchen door open.
Nan stepped into Sophie’s view saying nothing for a long minute hoping that Sophie would apologize. Instead, Sophie yelled at the door, “You can fold it in five corners and shove it where the sun don’t shine, Keefe O’Brian! And don’t you dare even think about crying to me when it falls apart!”
Nan couldn’t believe what she had just witnessed. Never in all their years and all their arguments had one of the twins ever walked out. They had always stayed until it was over and they made up. She didn’t know what to say. Nan stood looking at Sophie with an astounded expression.
“Sophie, you need to apologize.”
“I’d rather feed my foot to a hungry dog,” she said, staring at the swinging door. Sophie looked her aunt square in the eye and said, “Keefe can do whatever he wants. I’m done.” And with that, she turned and stormed out, slamming the pub door hard behind her.