Page 82 of Irish Betrayal

DANIEL

As if the nightmare couldn’t get worse, now he was expected to divulge a private conversation between him and Blair to her father.

There was no way around it, though, not when Blair was missing and might even be in that man’s hands. He hated breaking her trust, but he would do that and more to get her back.

Daniel flattened his hands against the cold tabletop, his mind briefly flicking to the memory of his mom and aunts discussing the Primadonna Cloudstone for the jet’s countertops, not sure why such a useless thought even came to him.

Maybe because thinking about anything that wasn't Blair’s disappearance was welcome.

“I’ll tell you straight away that I know she didn’t tell me everything. She was purposely leaving out part of her story with Samson. I hoped that given time, she would confide in me.

“She said they weren’t together, not like dating, I guess, but that they were close.”

“How close?” Barr snapped.

Daniel clenched his jaw in anger but answered. “She only said they did…some things.”

“Were they having sex?” Blair’s dad asked; the only indication that the conversation was hurting him was the slight tremor in his hands.

“No.”

“And you believed her?”

“Yes.”

“If you believe Blair wasn’t telling you everything, what makes you believe that she would admit that?” Barr asked, but not in a disbelieving way.

Daniel glanced at his father and Ulf before confessing. “Because I took her virginity four months ago.”

Barr was out of his chair and lunging at Daniel before he even had the sense to put his hands up, hearing the women in the airplane yell at the same time.

Daniel shoved the man off, making him stumble back, where his dad and Ulf captured Barr’s arms.

“For fuck’s sake, Coll, settle down,” his dad growled. “They’re having a baby. Surely you know how that happens.”

“Better Daniel, who loves her, than that slimy bastard, Samson,” Ulf barked on his other side.

Barr winced and shook his head, taking a deep breath as his wife, Catriona, slid her arms between all the men and hugged her husband close. “Don’t fall apart now, Coll. If Blair was a virgin, and Daniel was her choice, it had to be because they love each other. You know our daughter, and you know Daniel. Now take a deep breath.”

Daniel watched as Coll shook off the men holding his arms so that he could hug her back, kissing the top of her head, much like Daniel did when he held Blair.

Daniel cleared his throat to get Barr’s attention. “I should have come to you before…before anything happened with Blair. I’m sorry for that. I’m not sorry for loving her, though.” He stuck his hand out and waited for the older man to shake it, releasing a sigh when he moved his wife to his side and took his hand.

“Okay then,” Ulf announced, “let’s get back to it.”

After they were seated once more, his mom and Rowan took Catriona back to the couches so they could still hear Daniel. He started again.

“Apparently, Blair told Samson that she wanted to be with me and that their relationship, or whatever they called it, was over. She told me that he’d become extremely angry and that in her confusion, she left for Dublin and effectively broke things off with me.”

“And do you believe that’s how it happened?” Barr asked, back in control.

“No. Ulf and I both believe that Samson was holding something over her head. That it’s the reason she broke things off so suddenly with me, and possibly why she refused to entertain any of Ulf’s offers to work and go to school in Wales.

“But again, I hoped she would tell me in time. She did swear that she hadn’t known the professor was going to follow her to Oklahoma, that he’d only been there a month when Row and I were there. She hadn’t spoken to or contacted him for the two months prior.

“He did try to speak to her on several occasions and even followed her to the Stanton property. Katy met him that day and said she disliked his attitude and that Blair seemed off. She had nothing more to add than that.

“After the fire, I told Blair that I wouldn’t come home unless she put some safety measures in place. I asked her to let Dr. Bartel know that she didn’t want Samson allowed in any of the school areas that Blair worked.