AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Bending down, I pick up Ethan’s gun.
A winded hiss leaves him as he raises both hands in surrender.
“Ya think I’d hurt ya?” I question, saddened. “I never would.”
I could hurt him to teach him and Sean a lesson, but I can’t do that to Ethan. He’s just as much a victim as I am.
“It’s only a matter of time. You think on that, Ethan, because if yer not with me, yer against me. Away now.”
His confusion is clear, but when he realizes I’m giving him one chance and one chance only, he scrambles to his feet.
“Tell him ya couldn’t get a clear shot,” I instruct, looking Ethan dead in the eye. “If ya don’t, he’ll look on this as weakness. Don’t ever think yer valuable to him—yer not. Once he’s done with ya, he’ll dispose of ye like nothin’ but shite on his shoe.
“Like he did to me, to my ma, and to yer father, Connor. Don’t you ever forget that yer a Kelly—Connor Kelly’s son.”
If Ethan tells Sean what happened, Sean will punish him for his mistake, and Ethan realizes what that means for him. He doesn’t understand why I’m letting him go, but he doesn’t stick around to find out. He takes off, looking over his shoulder once to ensure I’m not following. I’m not.
Once he’s out of sight, I let out the breath I was holding, unbelieving that my baby brother pulled the trigger on me. If his aim was straight, he would have wounded me, and it seemed as though he didn’t give a fuck about that.
He’s in deeper than I thought.
Placing the gun at the small of my back, I look at Connor’s grave. “I’ll save him. I promise ya that.”
I decide not to tell Cian what happened at the cemetery but send him a text asking if he can bring over some guns and other weaponry as soon as he can. He said he’d bring them over tomorrow as he’s busy tonight.
I spend the rest of the day buying a bunch of cleaning supplies as I want to commence work on the castle as soon as possible. As I’m picking up the endless rubbish from what was once the dining room floor, I hear Darcy call out from the front door.
She was supposed to call on me last night, but I sent her a text, asking if we could postpone. I didn’t give a time when, but it doesn’t seem to matter. Darcy wants something, and I wonder what that is.
“I’m in here.”
Her high heels announce her arrival.
I don’t stop cleaning, which is no deterrent for Darcy. “How are you?”
“Ach, I’m all right. Sorry I didn’t have a chance to tidy up before ya came over,” I tease while she smiles.
She takes the place in, not hiding her horror at the castle’s state. “This place is a right mess,” she says, placing her hand over her brow as she looks at the ceiling, which is caved in.
“It’s looked worse,” I counter, sweeping the broken bits of glass from the floor. “I mean, did ya see the fucking awful décor Fiona fitted this castle with?”
Darcy looks at me before bursting into laughter. “I suppose yer right. Yer gonna need some help restoring it.”
“A’ll be fine,” I say, not wanting anyone’s help. “Why are ya here, Darcy?”
She tucks a piece of hair behind her ear. “I need ya to sign some paperwork. As Hannah told ya, this is yours. Connor left it to ya. He also left money for ya. Fiona was given the majority, but she spent that awful quick.”
Hannah told me this. But Fiona no doubt blames me for having “nothing” when Connor died.
Darcy opens her briefcase and offers me a pen and papers as I lean the broom against the wall. “Sign here, here, and here,” she instructs, her sweet perfume lingering as she gets in close to show me where I need to sign.
I quickly scribble my signature, but I pause when I notice the date the will was drawn up. “This is the right date?” I ask her, pointing the pen to the date.
She nods. “Aye. That’s when this last will and testament was drawn up. Is there a problem?”
Looking at the date, I see that Connor finalized thisafterhe found out I wasn’t his son. Yet he still left everything to me. No wonder Sean wanted us both dead. He gains nothing with me being alive.
Did Connor know Sean was corrupt all along? Did he have his suspicions that his own brother was the one stabbing him in the back? I’ll never know, but what I do know is that Connor left all of this to me, knowing I wasn’t his son.
