Verity
After a long soak in my bathtub, during which my mood plummeted even further, I forced myself to go looking for Saoirse. Ronan had left not long after Saoirse found us. He said something about Declan asking him to chat to an O'Rourke, but I hadn't paid attention.
All I could think about was the look on my friend's face when she found me in bed with her brother.
I heard her yelling insults before I even set foot on the stairs. My bestie's red hair went hand-in-hand with a fiery temper, and she'd never held back when expressing her opinions.
When I reached the kitchen, she and Conal were in the middle of a heated conversation, and Conal looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but there, facing off against his youngest sister.
Rather than walk straight into the firing line, I opted to peer in through the partly open door. Cowardly, sure, but the thought of being yelled at again caused my stomach to clench and my head to throb with anxiety.
"I thought at least you had the sense to stay away from Ver!"
"Calm down! Verity's old enough to make her own decisions and we only want what's best for her."
"That girl has never had a clue when it comes to men and you two fuckwits are the latest in a long line of bad decisions." I froze and took a step back before either of them saw me.
"Shut the fuck up, Saoirse. Verity's sex life is none of your business," Conal snapped, clearly on the verge of losing his temper. I heard a cupboard door slam and the sound of pans rattling.
"It is my fucking business when I have to listen to her crying about another asshole treating her like shit, and we both know Ronan will be sniffing around someone new in a week. If he hasn't already."
Was I that much of a burden to her? Sure, I'd offloaded many times, but wasn't that something friends did? Hearing Saoirse admit she was sick of my drama stung. I hadn't realized how much she hated acting as my go-to armchair counselor.
"Ronan's not looked at anyone else since Verity arrived," Conal told her.
"Really? Then how come some ho-bag influencer posted a photo of him last night on Insta? She reckons she bedded him last week. Gave him a 5-star rating, apparently." Conal snorted in amusement, but Saoirse's words cut right to the bone.
I slumped against the wall. Had Ronan lied to me?
"That's bullshit, sis," Conal said after a pregnant pause, but I heard the doubt in his voice. Ronan could have hooked up with the woman when he disappeared for a few days on business. That was his typical modus operandi: get drunk and take a woman to a nearby hotel. It wasn't like he was short on offers.
"Check out the post." There was another long pause, followed by a muffled curse that told me Conal had concluded the photo was genuine, which meant Ronan had played me like a fiddle.
Black spots floated before my eyes. Would I ever learn?
Red flag men swarmed around me like flies on shit. Conal appeared to be the exception; he wasn't a player like his brother. But in my heart, I knew the truth: Conal had a savior complex. He wanted to fix me.
Since I was unfixable, it was only a matter of time before he gave up and walked away, like everyone did.
I couldn't stay here.
Dammit, I should have left after the twins fought in the kitchen. I would have saved myself - and Saoirse - so much pain.
Saoirse hated me now. How long before Ronan moved on? Conal would eventually lose patience with my moods and pathetic self.
Declan had been kind to me, but even he had his limits. He only tolerated my presence because it suited him to work with my sister - Thea's dubious connections were helpful to the Kelly family business.
Yes, Declan had done a lot for me over the years, including paying my school fees when I first attended Castlemaine Academy, but Thea paid him back once she settled in the US.
The sound of more raised voices roused me from my downward spiral into madness. I needed to leave before Ronan or Conal found me. If they tried gaslighting me again, there was a risk I'd fall for more of their bullshit lies.
I shot back upstairs and threw some things into a tote bag. My new phone sat on the charging mat next to the bed. Taking it would give Conal a way to track me, but I needed it to order an Uber. So I opened the app and booked a car. Once my driver was 10 minutes away, I headed downstairs using the rear staircase.
This was once the servant’s staircase as it led to the laundry room and a kitchen storage area. I prayed Declan and the twins would be too busy to notice my departure. It was better for all of us if I left since my judgment was seriously awry.
Saoirse had been right when she'd implied I was a mess. Hell, I hadn't even spotted the red flags when Anton talked down to me and isolated me from my friends. Saoirse had told me repeatedly to leave him, yet I'd stayed. Why?
If Ronan and Conal hadn't showed up that night in the bar, God knows what might have happened. Not that they were much better. Yes, they hadn't hurt me physically, but they had made me believe I mattered, and in many ways, that was significantly worse than anything Anton did to hurt me. And because of my desperate desire to be wanted, I'd lost Saoirse's friendship.
