She thinned her lips but kept them closed.
Kane held the floor. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stick around long on our last visit. I don’t know if anyone told ye, but I had a meeting with the manager here. There’s nothing to worry about. Everything is fine, and it went well. But I should’ve come back in and spoken to ye.”
Bethan’s focus darted over his face, her grey-eyed gaze clinging to her son.
Kane settled into the chair at her bedside. “I didn’t properly introduce Lovelyn either, though I know the two of ye had time together. I’ve recently moved to her city, so I’m closer now. I’ll visit more.”
Just like that, he found the ability to chat with her. He told his mother how he’d taken a new job, though not the dangers of it, and he talked about me. How special I was. When a nurse came in, he asked for an update on his mother’s routine, listening to every detail.
Blair glared darker.
After a while, Bethan’s eyes began to close, and her nurse dropped her voice.
“I think she might be taking a wee nap. That’s usual for this time of day.”
Kane nodded and stood. He tilted his head at Blair then pointed to the door.
His aunt followed him out. Did I go after them?
If his mother had been awake, I wouldn’t have left her alone, but she had a nurse with her, and I was sure Kane would want me near. Outside the door, he waited in the hall, capturing my hand to draw me with him down the corridor to the same room where he’d suffered a verbal beating before.
Pint-sized Blair led the way and rounded on him. “I don’t know what ye think?—”
“No. You’re going to listen to me. I don’t care what ye think about me or my life. All I want is to visit my mother in peace without your interference.”
Blair’s jaw dropped. “My interference? I’m the one who’s always here for her. Where are ye?”
“On the outside of everything. You’ve got some nerve to complain when I stayed exactly where ye put me.”
“Because of what happens when you’re around her. Don’t come here threatening to poison her air even more. You’re a blight, Kane. Have been ever since the day she conceived ye.”
Kane stilled.
I held up a shaking hand. “You’re wrong, and you’re going to listen to him.”
Blair turned on me. “Who the hell do ye think ye are?”
“Bethan’s future daughter-in-law, if I’m lucky. Which would give me the same rights over her that Kane has. As next of kin, he has the right to choose how she is cared for and who visits her. If you want to stay on that list, you’re going to stop this behaviour.”
Blair froze up this time. I watched the words register. The implication. What she’d brought on herself.
I took a step closer. “You’ve been the voice of horror throughout Kane’s childhood. You’ve belittled, broken, and hurt him at every opportunity.”
“He should never have been born.”
“You said rape, but I wonder. Is that a convenient lie now no one can talk to Bethan but you? Just another accusation to throw at her boy. The child she had that forced you to share her. But even that doesn’t matter. Children should never be blamed for the crimes of their parents, and Kane is beloved. Bethan loves him, and so do I. I will never forgive how you treated him. You damaged him for life, and it’s only the bond you have with your sister that is your saving grace and the reason we aren’t cutting you off.”
She shrank and paled. “Ye can’t. Ye wouldn’t.”
I almost pitied her. She spent her life here.
Except the bile she’d spewed on Kane had done far too much for far too long.
Kane reached for me, his hand warm. His words for his aunt returned in force. “You’re going to start talking to me with respect. You’ll hold your barbed tongue so Ma never has to hearanother negative word from out of your mouth. You’ll remember that you’re here with my good grace, and under threat of being removed, permanently, if ye break that trust. Lovelyn is too kind to say, but trust me, we would. Ye deserve it.”
Blair shook, her expression one of disbelief. The ire had left her, and I wondered if anyone had ever stood up to her in her life.
“But…but we’re all each other has.”
