My heart physically hurts hearing her say those words. I could have lost him forever. Fuck Nessa. Damn it, why didn’t I just hear him out the next morning?
“Maeve, you know that none of this is on you, right? This is all Nessa’s doing, and I will get down to the bottom of it one way or another. I lost two children that day.” Aisling looks down at her lap. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there, Maeve. I should have been. I did everything I could without ruining what had been set in place. I’m sorry I failed you, I’m sorry I failed your mother.”
And that’s the drop of water that breaks the dam. I begin crying, and Aisling reaches for her napkin as her tears fall. I wrap my arms around her and hold on as we both cry the tears we had been harboring for years. After a few minutes, she pulls back and holds my face in her hands, wiping my tears from my face with her thumbs.
I hear my phone ping, and I check it, knowing who sent the message. I huff out a laugh, and Aisling raises a brow in silent question.
“Your son,” I say. “He asked if I needed him to come out here.” I shake my head and we both laugh and turn to the window where the guys were sitting in their seats, ready to fight whatever was threatening us. We both just smile and wave to them and watch as they physically relax. I turn to face her again. "They are ridiculous sometimes."
“You know those boys would give their lives for you,” she says. She moves a stray hair behind my ear, looking over my facial features.
“Yeah, I do. I don’t know what I would do without them.” I take a quick glance over my shoulder, seeing the boys laughing at something. Callum looks in my direction as if he knows I’m looking at him. I smile at him before turning back around. “Callum doesn’t know that I know he watched out for me during college. I knew he was always close by, and I think that’s the only thing that kept me from dropping out.” I lean back in my seat, tracing the condensation on my water glass. “He has always been my safe haven.”
“If only you knew the lengths he went to and will continue to go through to ensure you are safe.”
I nod. The waiter approaches our table, and we order our salads.
“Can I ask you something? And please don’t hold back because you think I can’t handle it. I’m tired of everyone keeping me out of the loop as if I’ll break at the first sight of danger.”
Aisling places her fork down and wipes her mouth with her napkin. “Okay, what is it?”
“This…rift. This thing between our families…” I say, trying to form a complete thought under her intense gaze. “Why?”
She lets out a slow, controlled breath.
“I’m sorry we put you and Callum through that,” she says, looking down at the rings adorning her fingers. “There was a leak somewhere within our organization, and we were trying to smoke them out. It went on far longer than we originally intended.”
Anger flares within me, but I wait for her to go on.
“Something big happened, and we found out that whoever was leaking information was also the catalyst for it.”
“What was so big that we had to destroy everything our families built?”
“Oh, dear. We never stopped communicating, and we continued to work together. Now, we did have to get creative to make thefrancachbelieve it was real. We still don’t know who it is, but this has gone on long enough.”
“But Callum and I weren’t allowed to see each other,” I say, my voice shaking.
“Maeve, we never once said you two weren’t allowed to see each other,” she tells me, reaching out to grab my hand. I think back and realize that she is right.
“My dad was so strict about me going anywhere,” I say, an attempt to rationalize it.
“Your father,” she pauses, sighing. “Your father loves you very much. He’s scared that he’ll lose you, or that someone will take you from him.” She clears her throat and sits up, taking a sip of her wine with a faraway look.
“All of that started before… before I was taken,” I say, clearing my throat. “Why was he strict before that?” I ask, watching her face closely.
“That is something you need to talk to your father about, Maeve.” Her face is apologetic.
What the hell.
“How long has Callum known?” I ask, still watching her expressions twist her face.
“We told him shortly before you two stopped speaking,” she says, and my mind starts reeling.
Why didn’t he tell me when he found out? We’d told each other everything, purged all the secrets. Or at least Ithoughtwe had.
Aisling and I eat in silence for a few minutes, each of us lost in thought.
“I wish she were here,” I say, pushing a piece of lettuce around my plate. I didn’t have to say who. She knows who I’m talking about.
