“You’re lying,” I counter. The chicken stirs in my stomach, and tears are bitterly welling in my eyes.
“He’s not. Our father signed the contract four years ago with your father. Lorcán was sent to be your protection, and when he felt you were ready, he was going to make a move to court you and introduce you to the rest of us. It wasn’t supposed to go this way,” Cillian explains.
All I can hear is my heartbeat booming in my ears as I look over at the man I’ve known as Logan for years. For years, he fucking lied about who he was, and my father was keeping secrets from me. It was never a choice.
It was all a farce.
“You’re just trying to make me hate you less and my family more,” I deny defensively.
Declan sighs and gets up from his chair, and my internal alarm bells start going off.
There’s no way he could do this to me. My father wouldn’t have made a contract with another family. Anthony just made the deal after he died.
My pàpa wasn’t a good man, but he was a good father, the one person who truly loved me.
Declan comes back to the table; he looks down at my naked body but says nothing as he places a contract in front of me.
It’s dated four years ago.
It has my father’s signature.
My whole world shatters before me.
I stand from my chair and lose it. My hand swipes across the table as I knock over glassware and plates. They clatter to the floor while food sticks to my arms and hands. The scent of chicken suddenly repulses me as I lean to the side and empty the contents of my stomach.
The heave is dramatic, and my throat stings afterward, but nothing hurts more than the truth before me.
“Fuck,” someone hisses, but I’m not sure who.
I fall to the ground, my naked knees smacking against the cold, tiled floor as a jacket wraps around me.
Somewhere in my brain, I know it’s Cillian’s because of the scent. There’s no way it’s Finn’s, but then again, they’re the same. The undeniable scent of one of my scent matches wraps around me, and all I want to do is set the jacket on fire.
I’m pathetic, naked, and sobbing on the dining room floor as arms wrap around me.
I don’t fight it. I just close my eyes and try to breathe as my body trembles.
Everything was a lie.
I thought that I meant more to my father, that he respected me enough to give me this choice. He didn’t.
I wasn’t the exception to how he treated people; I was just too gullible to see it.
I’m not sure who I am anymore.
I’m not a Don’s daughter. I’m not a pack’s Omega. I’m fucking no one.
Nothing.
Everything hurts, and all I want to do is sleep forever so I don’t have to deal with my life. Every man I’ve known has betrayed me, used me.
All I ever wanted to feel was loved, and now all I feel is broken.
19
LORCÁN
Cillian tosseshis suit jacket around Elena as I scoop her into my arms.
