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“Tell me something,” Darren decided to interject. “If you knew my brother was in such a bad way, why didn’t you do something to protect him?”
“Fuck you, Darren,” I spat out. “You don’t know a damn thing about either one of us.”
“I know my brother isn’t well,” he countered evenly. “And so do you. So, why the hell would you trap him into fatherhood?”
“I didn’t trap him.” I stiffened, feeling my hackles rise and my heart crack in one breath. “I hardly got pregnant on purpose, did I?”
“Didn’t you?”
My blood ran cold. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, come off it, Aoife.” He gave me a hard look when he asked, “He’s a handsome lad. How many times was he off his head when you let him inside your body?”
“Excuse me?”
“Hey.” He held his hands up. “If you want to storm into this house, all guns blazing, laying blame at our feet for Joey’s downfall, then I’m more than happy to hold the mirror up to you.”
“I would never hurt Joey,” I heard myself defend, refusing to back down to this emotional manipulation. This shit might float on his siblings, but not me. “I love your brother.”
“No, I love my brother, Aoife,” he argued hotly. “So, make no mistake about it when I tell you that I’m willing to do whatever it takes to protect him.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that if you love my brother as much as you say you do, then you’ll do the right thing for him and make this go away.”
“This being your niece or nephew?”
“Let’s not be overly dramatic here and start labeling a fetus,” he replied evenly. “Listen, my mother already told me that you don’t come from money. If it’s a matter of not being able to afford the trip to England, then I am more than willing to take care of the financial side of things.”
“Think about it, Aoife.” Marie joined the fray, tone desperate, as she pleaded with me. “If you won’t put your own future first, then think of my son’s.”
“I can’t fucking believe this.” Choking out a humorless laugh, I roughly batted away a tear. “Every time I think you can’t stoop any lower, you just keep on hitting it out of the park.”
“Aoife, be rational here.”
“I am being rational,” I snapped, glaring at Darren. “You do realize if Joey knew what you just offered me, it would kill him? You do get that, don’t you? This is just another in a long list of betrayals.”
“I’m not betraying my brother,” he argued. “I’m trying to protect him. And the way I see it, the only way he gets hurt is if you go running your mouth off. In that instance, you would be the one crushing him, Aoife, not me.”
He had me over a barrel and he knew it.
Bastard.
“Yeah, well, we’re keeping the baby,” I spat out, feeling my hand drop to the small swell of my stomach as a wave of maternal instinct washed over me. “It’s a done deal, asshole. We’ve already decided.”
“You mean you’ve decided.”
“No, I mean we both decided,” I countered, unwilling to back down or be bribed by this asshole. “And there’s absolutely nothing either of you can say to change that. You can’t pay me off or bribe me because I’m not going away.”
“Then you’re going to ruin his life.”
“Then at least he’ll be ruined with love and not pain.”
77
Blurred Days and Wasted Nights
JOEY
