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“Married who?” I ask, wiping the blood from my eyes and hoping to clear away the confusion as well.
“Yer dad,” Imogen replies softly, coming out of the doorway and walking toward me. “Cara is our daughter, Puck. Yer our grandson.”
The gash on my forehead suddenly pales in comparison to the one on my heart because there must be some mistake. I came here for answers, not to find long-lost relatives. But before me stands just that.
“I don’t believe it.” Imogen gasps, staring at me. “Ya look just like her.”
When she attempts to touch me, I recoil violently as I need a minute. Or two.
These strangers are mygrandparents? Do they look like my mum? I don’t know. I can’t really remember what she looks like. I don’t remember them. I know where I got my temper from, however.
I have so many questions. I don’t know where to start.
“Yer so big,” Imogen says in awe, unable to take her eyes off me.
“Aye, yer a big mawn. How old are ye?” Keegan asks, which has me arching a brow.
“Twenty-one,” I reply, needing to address the obvious. “Did ya know I was alive all this time?”
Imogen draws the lapels of her dressing gown across her chest. “Aye, but yer da—”
“We tried, lad,” Keegan interrupts, sensing the sudden shift in the air.
All I hear are excuses.
“You should have tried harder. How can ya live in there?” I ask, peering at the bungalow with disgust.
“This isn’t our home. It’s our son’s. Yer uncle’s.”
An uncle?I have another uncle.
“He’s on holidays with his family. We’re mindin’ his dogs.”
I don’t know how to process this. I have this entire other family, and they’ve moved on, moved on without me. They’ve made a life without me when all I ever wanted was to make a life with them.
“Come inside,” Imogen begs when she notices me processing what they’ve just shared.
Clenching my jaw, I can’t hide my rage as I spit, “Are ye jokin’ me? I don’t wanna set foot in there. Do ya know what I saw? What this house represents? This place should be burned to the ground. It’s soaked in my mum’s blood.”
Imogen muffles her cries, while Keegan lowers his eyes, ashamed. “Cara was awful stubborn,” he says, shaking his head with regret. “We told her if she married that hallion, we’d never speak to her again. She didn’t listen.”
“And that excuses ya for abandonin’ her?” I ask, barely reining in my temper. “She came here to escape my da? Am I right?”
“Aye.”
“She had no one,” I state, nothing but anger filling my words. “Her family disowned her because she chose the wrong man to marry. And she died here—alone. Ya may as well have killed her.”
“Don’tcha say that,” Imogen cries, wiping her tears away with trembling fingers.
“Why not? It’s the truth. She didn’t come to ya because she obviously didn’t think she was welcome. How old was she when she got married?”
“Sixteen,” Keegan replies with regret.
“And my dad?”
“Twenty-eight.”
“For fuck’s sake, she was only a chile. How could ya allow her to marry him?”
