AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My cheeks flushed hot. Would they think I was stupid for getting myself knocked up by someone who should have been my enemy? Maybe I was—young, stupid, and naïve—but that didn’t make me want this baby and everything that came with it any the less. Being young didn’t automatically make someone a bad mother. And anyway, it wasn’t as though I was much younger than Hallie, and no one judged her, did they?
Hallie clapped both her hands to her mouth and squealed. “Oh my God. That’s amazing. I’m going to be an auntie? Baby Madeline is going to have a cousin? This is the best news ever.”
I exchanged a glance and tentative smile with Jay. He was happy, too. I could tell.
My heart swelled with happiness, my eyes filling with tears once more. Jesus, what was wrong with me? The slightest little emotion these days, and it was like I’d sprung a leak. But then I remembered I was pregnant and I’d recently lost my brother and had almost lost the man I loved, so it was hardly surprising I was emotional.
Tam got up and shook Jay’s hand. “Congratulations, mate.”
“Thanks. This baby will make a man of me, I know it.”
Hallie hugged her brother, then Leo and Kaja came over to say congratulations.
“Do you know when the baby is due?” Hallie asked.
I shook my head. “Not yet. I haven’t had any doctor’s appointments or anything.”
“You need to get that sorted. There are supplements you need to be on to make sure the baby develops properly.”
I smiled. “Yes, Mum.”
“So, what was the other thing you needed to tell us?” Tam asked.
I shifted uncomfortably, the shot of dopamine I’d received from the baby news fading. This was the moment where everything could change. When they found out that I’d known all along who had killed Harvey, they might easily change their minds about me.
“I believe I know who killed Harvey,” I said, my voice trembling. “He was seeing a girl from the traveller community right before the wedding.”
Tam’s eyes narrowed. “The traveller community? You mean Finbar Fury’s gang?”
“That’s right. She and Harvey were serious—at least, she thought they were. When he went ahead with the wedding, she was furious, and she arranged to have him shot. I guess doing it at the wedding drilled home her point.”
Leo spoke up. “How do we know you’re not just saying this to get your family off the hook?”
“My family have basically disowned me because of my relationship with Jay and what that’s done to us. Now I’ll have to tell them I’m pregnant with the baby of the man who killed Bruno. I don’t know how they’ll react to that, but trust me when I say it’s not going to be good. You know what happened the last time. If they hadn’t tried to warn Jay away from me, none of this would have happened. I’m not trying to get them off the hook.”
Jay backed me up. “She’s not, Leo, and she knew about this before she and I even got together. There’s proof that she knew before we became a thing.”
Tam’s eyes narrowed. “What kind of proof?”
There was no denying that Tam Cornell was an imposing man. But I’d been around intimidating men all my life.
I straightened my spine. “You’ve received several notes telling you that someone knew who’d killed Harvey.”
“How do you know that.”
“I was the one who sent them.”
Hallie frowned and angled her body towards me. “You sent those notes? Why?”
I exhaled the air in my lungs through my nose. “I was testing the water, letting the Irish know that if they tried to come after the Gilligans, I was prepared to let the Cornells know exactly what happened to Harvey. But I didn’t want the girl to get in trouble, despite what she did.” I wasn’t going to say out loud that maybe Harvey deserved a bit of what he got, especially considering I was sitting opposite his two surviving brothers. “But I also didn’t want us Gilligans to be blamed for something we never did. Same with the bombing. As far as I know, my family didn’t plant that bomb.”
“The name Doyle is Irish,” Jay said, linking his fingers between his knees. “I believe they wanted it to look like it was the Gilligans. They wanted us to fight amongst ourselves. If we’re fighting each other, no one is looking in their direction.”
Tam nodded. “And that’s exactly what’s happened. We’ve made ourselves weaker because of it. When I told you that I thought we had a lead on the name, it was also pointing towards the Irish, we just hadn’t had confirmation of it. Will you tell us who the girl is?”
I shook my head. “No. I’m sorry.”
I’d told Jay, but I trusted him to keep the secret.
