“Macie Laine, I swear you grew a full inch since yesterday.”
“No I didn’t. I’m still the shortest person in my class,” she pouted.
“Your mom was always little too. Don’t sweat it,” Killian said.
“Is that true?” she asked me.
I nodded. “Afraid so. You come by it honestly.”
“You turned out okay.”
“Well, I like to hope so.”
Macie jumped down and threw her arms around my neck and kissed my cheek before running off to play with the toys we kept in the back room for her. She had always been a sweet and affectionate child. She made parenting easy… most of the time.
The back door opened and the crew arrived. Tori, Resa, Felix, and even Kano.
“Well, the gang’s all here. What bomb are you dropping on me today?”
“She went to see him today. The rumor’s floating all over town,” Tori told my brothers.
“You just couldn’t resist, could you?” Killian said.
“Well, you sure weren’t going to tell me what happened.” I knew I was being stubborn.
Killian got a funny look on his face. “What exactly did he tell you?”
I sighed and my shoulders slumped. “I chickened out.”
“You didn’t see him?” Tori asked.
“No, I saw him.” I saw a lot of him, I thought as my mouth watered at the vision forever engrained into my brain.
“But…?”
“I chickened out, okay. The second I saw him it was like everything just came flooding back. I was relieved; I was angry; and I got scared and ran away. So there, your secret remains safe.”
“We’re just trying to protect you,” Kano said.
“I’m a big girl, in case you haven’t noticed. I have been for a very long time. And I know I’ve never actually told you guys this, but he’s Macie’s father. He’s right here. Doesn’t he deserve to know he has a daughter?”
“No,” Killian said. “Besides, he’s already met her.”
“He thinks the kid is yours,” Kano said. “Oh yeah, he was real shocked to find out you settled down.”
“Blaspheme. I’ll never settle down.”
“He knows she’s not Killian’s,” Felix said. “He even knows she’s your daughter. Judging by the look on his face I’d say he was a little pissed about it too.”
“You told him?” I yelled.
“Not that it was his. I could see him doing the math in his head though. Thinks you moved on pretty quickly. He wasn’t happy about it but said he was happy for you and that he’d be out of here as soon as the pilot gave the, all clear.”
“Who knows when that will be,” Kano said. “Silas called and said their plane took a hard lightning strike last night. It shouldn’t have done any damage, but it did and he won’t fly again until he figures out why.”
Killian groaned in frustration.
“Wait. Hold up. I just told you that Baine is the father of my daughter and not a single one of you even attempted to act surprised.”
Resa snorted. “Who else would it have been?”
“And why else would he have left? We always just assumed,” Tori said.
I shook my head. “Impossible. I hadn’t told anyone I was pregnant when he left, not even him.”
Killian’s face looked pained.
“What did you do?”
“I didn’t know, okay. I didn’t know about the baby. I didn’t know you actually loved him. I made a mistake. I can’t take that back no matter how much I wish I could, Liv.”
“What can’t you take back? Dammit Killian, what?”
“He came to me. He told me he was in love with you and just waiting for your bear to show. He told me you’d been together for nearly two years. I was so pissed. He was supposed to look after you. He was supposed to protect you. He crossed a line I couldn’t ever forgive.”
My head whipped around to Kano. “You were in on this too?”
“You’re our baby sister. We thought we were looking out for you. He was twenty-two years old and you were just seventeen. He’s lucky we didn’t press human charges for rape on top of it. It was wrong, Olivia. Or at least that’s what we all thought at the time.”
My throat went dry and everything inside of me hardened. “You said yesterday he was excommunicated. Is this why?”
Every head in the room nodded.
“It was kept quiet and done discreetly. Your dad didn’t want this to become a scandal or anything,” Felix added.
“He didn’t even say goodbye,” I whispered.
“What’s done is done, Olivia, and right now you’re just better off letting him go once and for all.”
“How do I do that, Killian? I stare into Macie’s eyes and all I see is him. Every single day.”
“He’s leaving, Liv, and this time, he won’t be coming back,” Felix told me sadly. “I’m sorry.”
“Tori, could you take Macie for the evening? I really just want to be left alone for a while. It’s a lot to take in.” My voice was distant and hollow. I noticed the worried faces of my family. I couldn’t deal with them right now; I already felt like I was drowning.
“Of course,” she said.
When I discovered Baine had left, I wasn’t sure I would ever recover from the heartbreak. This felt like my heart had just been shattered once again, only this time it was tainted by the deception of my family. I barely survived the first time. If not for Macie I probably wouldn’t have. I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to go through this again.
Baine
Chapter 7
She’d come to me. Why? For one amazing moment I thought maybe we’d talk this out and everything would finally be okay, but that didn’t happen. This time, she turned her back on me.
I had never been able to stand seeing that girl cry. Even from the top of the staircase I’d seen the shiny streaks coating her cheeks before she reached the door and disappeared from my sight. I had wanted to go after her, but a combination of shock and the fact I was in my underwear had stopped me from following after her.
I’d moped and agonized about it all day barely functioning during the run Silas insisted we take. I needed to go after her, but my pride and fear of further rejection stopped me.
The day was rough enough but being alone in the darkness was far worse. I tossed and turned throughout the night.
I got up and dressed the next morning, but by the time I got downstairs, Killian was there waiting for me.
“I know you’re stuck here for the moment, but it changes nothing,” he said. “Stay away from Olivia.”
“And did you tell her that?” I asked giving him a smirk. “She was the one coming to my room not the other way around.”
He still thought I wasn’t good enough for her and that hurt like a bitch. I instantly turned into a sarcastic smartass to cover my pain. The thing was, he knew it too. Aside from Olivia, no one knew me better than Killian Murphy.
“She did what?”
“Relax, nothing happened. She freaked out and left before even saying what she was here for.”