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“The hospital? Visiting Michael?”
“Yes.”
“Who’s with you now?”
“Jamie.”
“He’s driving you?”
“No. Fenris is.”
“You like him, don’t you? Or do you want me to switch him out too?”
“No. He’s a good boy.”
“Okay, I’ll leave you to it and will work on transferring Sean over to your detail. Give Michael my regards?”
“Will do, son.” I cleared my throat. “Declan?”
“Yes, Ma?”
“You’re a good man. I hope you know that. Aela’s lucky to have you as her husband.”
He was quiet a second. “I stopped being good a long time ago, but I’ll do whatever I have to to make sure I’m good enough for her.” Before I could answer, he mumbled, “I’ll speak with you later, Ma.”
And he cut the call.
Declan had always been my special boy. So unlike his father and brothers, and for Aidan, unlike meant different, and different was bad.
Declan loved the arts. Ballet. Opera. You’d think he was into sodomy the way Aidan had gone on about that when Dec was younger.
I’d fallen for Aidan years ago, but his failings were many, and as a father, he’d been a brute. I saw that now.
Back then, I’d just thought he wasn’t as bad as my da, and I’d been trying to keep the family together.
Five boys, six with Finn, were a lot to corral. Especially when they were all so damn rambunctious.
Conor always hacking into NASA or causing trouble on the internet.
Eoghan forever taking potshots with that BB gun Padraig had gotten him for Christmas when he was four.
There’d never been a day where Brennan and Aidan weren’t fighting, and then there was Declan, trying to hide his love for opera and the arts by getting into squabbles at school that had me in the principal’s office every day.
Life had been relatively normal, then the Aryans had taken me, and I’d checked out.
Brennan and Aidan were fully grown, but the rest of my sons were still boys. Still babies. But I’d been broken. Too broken to protect them.
So many mistakes, so many forgotten promises, so much damage wrought.
Christmas wasn’t the first time I’d tried to end it all.
The last attempt, Aidan had sent me to a special center. It was why I hated hospitals now. Why my visiting Michael meant more than he could possibly understand.
Straightening up, shielding my expression, I turned away from the window, ready to show the world at large that Lena O’Donnelly was not to be messed with.
If they only knew how frail that mask was.
Declan:Did you hear about Michael?
