At the feel of someone shaking me, I recognized those tiny hands immediately. “A few more minutes, baby,” I said to Ciara.
“We’re here,Mommy,” she said, placing extra emphasis on my name as she did.
Here?What is she talking about? I slowly opened my eyes, then saw that we were not in our Queens loft, but instead on a plane. And, a private one at that. Bolting upright, I had to blink a few times as I tried catching my bearings. In that moment, the whole unfortunate mess came rushing back.
Pulling Ciara close to me, I clutched her against my chest as I looked around the space. Right now, we were the only ones here, but if my memory was correct, that meant...
“You’re awake, Sleeping Beauty,” I heard, and looked at the man who’d just emerged from behind the curtain.
“Cillian,” I said, a bit more breathless than I’d planned.
My worst nightmare had come to life, and there was nowhere I could run. There was no escape from him. My mother and twin had died at the hands of his family, and now my daughter and I might inherit the same fate. I began to shake, but if my daughter caught on to my distress, she said nothing. In fact, she turned in my arms and placed a wet kiss on my cheek.
“We’re in Ir...Iah?—”
“Ireland,” Cillian answered.
“There,” she said before turning toward him and smiling. The very gesture broke my heart for more reasons than the obvious one. Our daughter had no idea that this man was her father, yet it was as if she instinctively knew as she stared at him with the kind of adoration a child would have for a parent. Regret...Shame...Terror...I felt a gamut of emotions in that moment.
“Please,” I said, hoping he would understand what I was now pleading for. “It’s not too late to let us go back to America.”
There was a large bump, then I heard the sound of the plane as it sped down the runway. We’d landed, and I could feel the enclosed space of this aircraft as it fully closed in around me. If it wouldn’t scare my daughter, I might’ve even started to hyperventilate. All the careful planning I’d put in over the years was essentially ruined, and I now might not live to come up with a different plan.
So many mistakes I’d made over the years came rushing back. Obviously, if I had never gotten together with Cillian, we wouldn’t be in this situation, but there had been all the things I did and didn’t do when it all fell apart. Staying in New York had been my biggest mistake. I’d actually thought that the Big Apple would’ve been crowded and large enough to where I would never be found, but I had, and now it was the beginning of the end.
“I have a car waiting on us,” Cillian said before stepping away from us.
I watched him as he walked over to the flight attendant and proceeded to discuss something with her. The night before, I had been too shocked and terrified to fully look at him. While I still felt those things and more, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the sight of him.
The years had been very good to him. Cillian had not only filled out his frame, but he had gotten even more devastatingly handsome than ever before. He still had the same familiar mop of blonde hair and those piercing blue eyes, but his cheeks and jawline had become chiseled as if from stone. He was also possibly an inch or so taller, or maybe it had been all the added muscle that he’d put on that made him seem even larger than life.
“I’m so excited, Mommy,” Ciara said to me, and I turned my focus back to her.
She was smiling from ear to ear. She had no idea the danger we were in, and I couldn’t tell her, either. She was six years old, so this seemed like a fun adventure for her. If being honest with myself, I would’ve been acting the same had this happened to me at that age.
I couldn’t frighten her, so I had to force myself to look calm, cool, and collected. Ciara was very intuitive, even for her age, and any further sign of distress from me would only upset her. She and I needed to keep out of Cillian’s way until I found a way to rectify this situation. I could try to beg him to let us go, possibly by trying to appeal to the love he’d once had for me, but I doubted it would be successful. After all, if he had loved me enough, my mother and sister would still be here.
No, the best defense I had was a steady offense, so I would pretend as if I wasn’t scared out of my mind, and that I was willing to see this out. He would let his guard down, then we could escape to a place where we would never be found. I had noidea where this destination would be, but it would be so far away from him that I would never have to see his face again.
“We’ve arrived. I live about twenty-five minutes from the airport.”
“And it’s in Dublin?” I asked him.
“Ballsbridge, to be exact. I believe the two of you will be very comfortable there.”
That was doubtful, and I sighed. There was no need to hash this out now. My life in New York City was over. I’d likely lose my job and the loft I’d worked so hard to procure, and all for a man who’d constantly uprooted my life every chance he got.
“Mommy,” Ciara said once more to me.
“Yes, baby?”
“You look sad. I don’t want you to cry.”
Cillian narrowed his eyes at me, and I gulped hard. “No, I’m just tired. I’m not sad,” I lied.
“You’ll feel better when we get to our place. You can rest there.” Cillian then pulled Ciara from my arms and swept her up into his.
Once or twice in the past, I’d have nightmares of him finding us, then stealing her from me. It was crazy how realistic those dreams had been, especially as this one seemed to be ripped straight from one. Immediately moving to my feet, I didn’t care that my hair was tousled or that my shirt was crooked. He would be going nowhere with my daughter that didn’t include me.
