“It’s not that…”
“Then what is it? You know you can talk to me about anything.”
I shake my head. “I… I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because…” I suck a breath. “Because I can’t bear the thought of you hating me.”
Ciara looks taken aback, but she quickly recovers her expression as she slowly sets down her mug of tea.
“Let me get one thing very clear. I could never hate you, Fiona.”
“You will…” I whisper.
When Ciara stays silent, I take another deep breath and start talking because, at some point, Ciara is going to learn the truth, and I would rather she hear it from me.
“Cormac didn’t lock me in my room because he was trying to protect me.”
“Then why did he?”
“Because…” I swallow past the lump in my throat. “Because he blames me for Scout going missing.”
Ciara looks outraged. “What? How could he possibly think that?”
“Because it sort of is.” I look down at my hands.
Ciara stills, but she doesn’t say another word, so I fill the silence with everything that I’ve been holding close all this time.
Everything from Carly’s past to the truth behind my job at Sullivan Investments, but most of all, how Lorcan has been the one pulling my strings this entire time, and how it led to us being upstairs in Kieran’s office when Scout was taken.
“So, if Cormac and I hadn’t been upstairs arguing, we would have realized what was going on. Cormac could have stopped those men from taking Scout and hurting Brennan.”
“Fiona—”
“You have to believe me when I say I never meant for any of this to happen?—”
“I know.”
I blink. “Wait, what?”
“I know you never meant for this to happen.”
I stare at her in complete disbelief. “You…do?”
“Of course. I’ve seen how you are with Scout. I’m sorry, but no one is that good of an actress.”
“I don’t understand…”
“Understand what?”
“That’s it? You’re just going to accept everything I’ve just said?”
When Ciara doesn’t answer, I tense, waiting for the other shoe to drop. But to my surprise, she gets up from her seat and comes to sit beside me.
She places her hand over mine and squeezes it once. “Why didn’t you tell us earlier?”
“How could I?” I mumble as I try to blink past the tears.
