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“Really?” she mocked. “You don’t remember the tool you used to nearly beat me to death all those years ago? How odd.”
“I didn’t have anything to do with that,” Marianne insisted. “I was here. Working the bar.”
Liam shook his head. “Except you weren’t,” he said. “You should know by now how thorough I am with keeping track of things, Marianne. No one saw you during the lunch rush. In fact, no one saw you until closing.”
“My timecard…” She trailed off helplessly.
“You mean the one you had Eduardo clock you in with?”
Marianne visibly swallowed as fear shone in her eyes. “You don’t understand.”
“Understand what?” my mother asked calmly. “That you took everything I ever loved away from me? Do you know what Elias did to me, Marianne? Night after night, day after day, and that was before he found me half dead in my own house just feet away from my daughter’s hiding place.”
“You didn’t deserve what you had,” Marianne snarled. “You were nothing more than a spoiled Irish princess with a silver spoon in her fucking mouth. Did you ever think about what I went through growing up? What they did to me?” She shook her head wildly. “No, of course you didn’t. Too busy fucking Liam in your ivory tower.”
“I didn’t even know you existed, Marianne,” my mother told her softly. “Not until you sold me out to Elias for the second time. You were never a thought in my mind until the day we met when we were thirteen and became best friends.”
Marianne scoffed. “Please.” Her lips twisted into a cruel snarl. “We were never best friends, and you know it. You didn’t give a fuck about what was happening in my life.”
“I did,” my mother assured her. “If you had only told me before I became suspicious myself, then maybe it wouldn’t have come to this. I had always felt like something was missing in my life, and when you came along, I felt like that hole was filled. I just didn’t know why. But you burned that bridge when you conspired to have me killed. Fuck, it hadn’t crossed my mind that you would have betrayed me like that, but now I can see the whole picture.”
“And what are you going to do about it?” Marianne derided with a sneer. “Kill me? Liam won’t let you do that. I’m the mother of his children.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Kiernan muttered and glared at Seamus, who had elbowed him in the side.
“No, Marianne,” my mother sighed. “I wouldn’t take away their mother like you tried to Ava’s away from hers, but you will be going away for a very long time.”
“You see,” Liam stepped forward, “the Irish clan council has been informed of the treachery within the McDonough clan, and they are less than pleased.”
“Pfft,” Marianne dismissed. “The clan has no say in what goes on here.” Liam shook his head, eyes full of sorrow and regret.
“If you had bothered to pay attention to more than just your phone and vendetta,” he told her, “you would have known that every Irish clan answers to the council. They are the ones who ensure we don’t fight among ourselves or repeat the sins of the past.”
“Murdering my father—” My mother’s hand tightened on the cane she was holding. “Putting someone else in his place. Selling women and children. Those are things the council frowns upon. You will all be held accountable.”
“He wasn’t even your father.”
“He was to me,” mother breathed sadly. “And that is all that matters.”
The hand that had loosened on my hair tightened again, pulling me back into Marianne’s chest. She began walking us backward toward the kitchen doors, the gun in her hand moving from my temple to my mother.
“If you think for one second that I am going to allow you to take me in like some kind of criminal,” she hissed, “you’re wrong. I told you this once already,sister,” she spat out the word as if it were something bitter coating her tongue. “I’m a goddess, and they named me Hera.”
Movement caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. A sharp scream tore through my throat as I watched Marianne’s finger tighten on the trigger. I didn’t need to think about what I did next. The moment I saw her finger tighten on the trigger, I slammed my head as hard as I could into the hand holding the revolver.
The shot meant for my mother went wide, the bullet landing somewhere in the far wall.
That was when all hell broke loose.
Glass shattered on all sides, and smoke began to fill the room as chaos erupted.
“Everyone, get down,” my father shouted. “Seamus, secure Katherine.”
Marianne was barely fazed by the sudden onslaught of gunfire and smoke. Her grip on my hair tightened even further as she dragged me into the kitchen, the gun at my temple again.
“Fucking have to ruin everything, you stupid bitch,” she hurled under her breath. “Lucky that bastard wants you alive, or I would just stick a bullet in your skull.”
Who wanted me alive?
