Aisling and Dewi exchanged a glance.“When I got pregnant with Tamsin,” Frannie continued, what I’d been doing didn’t work, and she was born.”
“What do ye mean?”Aisling asked.
“After Ben’s murder, that bastard started riding me several times a week, trying to make me catch.But I had a recipe for an herbal tea that I drank so I wouldn’t.That went on for years.After a couple of years, he stopped for a while.He’d take lots of business trips, come back, ride me, then stop.I guess I grew complacent.By the time I realized I was pregnant, I didn’t have the heart to sneak away for an abortion.She was my first daughter.”
“Even knowing what he might have planned?”Dewi said.
“I hoped to find a way to get free of him before them.My heart ached so much.By then, my two older sons had grown and left, but were imitating their father in many ways.I didn’t recognize them as the loving children they’d been before Faegan hooked his fangs into them.”
Before she’d sat down, Aisling had pulled her mobile from her back pocket and held it on her lap.Now, she surreptitiously activated the voice recorder.“If Tamsin were here right now, what would you say to her?”
Tears rolled down the woman’s cheeks.“That I love her.That I’m so, so sorry I couldn’t protect her.And I’m sorry about Maisie and Rupert.And that I will forever hate myself for not being able to end that bastard’s life before any of this happened.Tamsin has a beautiful, loving soul.She deserves happiness, and I’m glad she has another chance at it.And that I don’t blame her for not wanting to have anything to do with me, or not wanting me to meet her baby.”
“Is that it?”Aisling asked.
Frannie’s gaze unfocused as she stared out the windows for a long moment.“I don’t deserve her forgiveness, nor do I expect it,” she quietly said.“I deserve to be hated.I want her to be happy and loved and have as many children as she wishes.Her father’s not around to hurt her any longer.That living her best life and raising happy children is the best revenge she can take on him, because he was a miserable bastard who devoted his life to spreading that misery everywhere.”
Aisling and Dewi exchanged another glance.Now Aisling fully understood why Peyton had cautioned them that they wouldn’t feel like killing, much less hitting this woman.
She was a broken shell, destroyed without consent by men who were happy to use her for their own selfish purposes with complete disregard.
“If she ever asks my opinion of ye,” Aisling finally said, “I’ll tell her ye said that.But I will let her bring it up first.I won’t be askin’ her to see ye, or to forgive ye.”
“That’s fair,” Frannie said.“Oh, I want her to have my cookbook.I will give it to you before you leave.Trevor’s men helped me scan it in so I have a copy.”Frannie sadly smiled.“She loved to be in the kitchen with me as a girl.She was so bright, a brilliant child.We cooked together all the time, and she was amazing.”
“She still is,” Aisling confirmed.“And yes, I’ll give it to her.”She looked at Dewi.“Any questions for her?”
Dewi studied Frannie for a long moment.“What is your future plan?”
“What do you mean?”
“Where are you going to live, all of that?”
“Trevor said I’m staying here.I do like it here.It’s a cozy cottage, it’s dry, it’s quiet.No bastard yelling at me or trying to fuck me.It in no way reminds me of Faegan.If I spend the rest of my life here, never leaving it, then that’s what I’ll do.”
“What if we can make you forget you ever knew Faegan?”
“What do you mean?”Frannie asked.
“I mean, what if we can have Callum work on you again, remove Faegan from your mind, and leave only good memories for you?”
Frannie’s gaze dropped to her hands, where they slowly twisted in her lap.“Maybe it’s better I do remember,” she quietly said.“As penance.Tamsin will forever be haunted by her father.It’s not fair to her to be the only one.”
On the flight back,Aisling stared out the window and watched the land race by beneath them.Frannie’s cookbook lay in her lap, her hand on it.This she absolutely would take to Tamsin.And if Tamsin asked how it came to be in her possession, she’d tell her the truth and let Tamsin guide the way from there.
“Are you okay?”Dewi asked.
Aisling nodded.“I know I didn’t expect her to be a vile monster, but I pity her far more than I thought I would.”
“Yeah, me, too,” Dewi said.“But like you said, no way will I try to tell Tamsin she should visit her and forgive her.”
“Me, either.Now, if Tam does ask me, I feel confident letting her do it.That woman’s a shattered husk.Mebbe she agreed to the swap at the start, but how much of that was really her desire, and how much of it was what Donnel believed to be the truth at the time, convincin’ himself she wanted it when all she did was mebbe not shoot ’em down from the start.Just because Donnel has to tell the truth doesn’t mean that’s what happened.It could just as easily be a stupid man’s filter of the actual events.”
“Good point,” Dewi said.“I hadn’t thought about it like that, and I’m not sure Trevor and Peyton considered that angle, either.”
“Well, they’re not cunts,” she said.“It’s actually a good thing they might have missed that.”
Dewi smiled.“Maybe I should ask Peyton to appoint you to the expanded Pack Council.”
