"I’m not," he said, stepping forward, voice cracking. "When I left Ireland, the plan was for me to tell my wife I wanted a divorce and then return to Maeve. When I got back to New York, I learned that my wife was pregnant again—our third child. I already have two little boys. I couldn’t leave them, Aisling. Even though...I loved your mother with every ounce of my being. I even sent her an engagement ring to prove to her that I was serious about us starting our life together.”
The words gutted her.
“I found your ring and your letter. I don’t think Noreen ever gave them to my mother.”
With a sigh, he shook his head. “That makes sense. Noreen hated me.”
Aisling nodded. “You were a married man who’d gotten her daughter pregnant.”
He wiped his face with his hand.
She pointed to the sofa. “Sit down.”
Not wanting to be close to him, she sank down into a chair across from the couch.
"I went home," Patrick continued, his shoulders sagging with the weight of it. "I stayed and tried to be a good husband. Tried to be a good father. And when Maeve came to New York...she didn’t tell me she was pregnant. When she learned I was staying in my marriage, she ended things. Cut me out of her life forever. She refused to be second in my life.”
Aisling shook her head, fury and heartbreak swirling inside her chest.
"You didn’t ever wonder about her?” she demanded.
"I did," he said hoarsely. "God help me, I did. But she made it clear I wasn't welcome as long as I was married. And...I thought...maybe she hated me enough to erase me. I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to return to Ireland and find her. I can’t tell you how many times I dreamed of seeing her again.”
He scrubbed a hand over his jaw, the years of grief etched deep into his face.
"I was wrong," he whispered. "So wrong to never consider that we might have created a child together.”
Tears burned at Aisling’s throat, but she forced them back. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction.
"Years passed," Patrick said, voice barely above a rasp. "My marriage fell apart anyway. We divorced after the kids were grown. I thought about coming back here. I thought about her every day."
He shook his head, his voice thick with emotion.
"And then...right before Maeve died, she sent me a letter. Told me about you. About everything. It devastated me. Not only had I lost the love of my life, but I had a child, a daughter who didn’t know me. A daughter who probably hated me.”
Aisling swayed slightly as if the ground under her shifted.
"She said she was scared," Patrick continued. "Ashamed. That she hadn’t wanted to trap me. That she'd thought she was protecting you."
He wiped at his eyes quickly, almost angrily.
"I was too late," he said. "Too damn late."
"And you still didn’t reach out," Aisling whispered bitterly. "You just...what? Forgot about me again?"
"No," he said fiercely. "I tried. But how do you walk into someone’s life after abandoning them before they even knew you existed?"
He paused, the silence roaring between them.
"And then," he said, voice dropping even lower, "you emailed me."
The air between them crackled.
"I saw your name on that business email," he said. "O’Byrne. It knocked the breath out of me. I knew. I knew before I even opened it. But you wanted us to do business. Not that you were telling me you knew I was your father.”
Aisling closed her eyes against the sting of tears.
"I planned to tell you that day," Patrick said, taking a careful step closer. “I wasn’t there because of your company. I was there for you. As soon as we settled into the conference room, I was going to tell you my real reason for being there. I had it all rehearsed. I was going to explain everything. Beg for your forgiveness."
