He nodded, then turned to hug me and kiss the side of my head before he said, “Do me a favor, will you? Don’t go into the office without me. Leave it for last, and we’ll do it together.”
This was my moment. The opportunity to come clean and tell him I’d already started. Share the secrets I’d found. But instead, I nodded. Making a promise I’d already broken.
Maybe this was a good thing. Maybe I could shield my brother from more hurt. Remove the secrets that would only hurt him further. I could live with them. I could shoulder the burden of proof for him.
“I love you, little sister.”
“I love you too, big brother.”
I closed the door behind him and slumped against it, letting the tears fall in the privacy of my solitude. Decision made; I wouldn’t allow my brother to be hurt anymore. Pulling out my phone, I called Brian.
“Hello, Caity.”
“You can’t tell him.” I pushed off the front door and walked back to the office. Pulling the key I had from the new doorknob I’d installed, I pushed the door open and walked to the desk.
“He has a right to know, Caity.”
“What’s done is done, Brian. Nothing can be changed by telling him. It will only hurt him more.”
“He deserves answers. They all do.”
“Answers won’t make things right. Please, Brian, don’t tell him.”
Brian sighed heavily on the other side of the line, and I waited with bated breath for him to agree. “I will hold off telling him for now. But it is something that will eventually come out. And if he finds out you knew and didn’t tell him, he will be hurt even more.”
“I know.”
Sal would see this as a betrayal. More so than my sleeping with his best friend. He didn’t care that I’d cheated on my husband. Sal hated Nolan. But keeping Maddie from her father hit differently now that he knew Darcy had kept his son from him. When he learned what I’d found, he’d hate me for not telling him immediately.
“He won’t know unless you tell him I was the one who gave you the information.”
“He’ll ask how I know. He’ll want to know how long I’ve had the information and why I didn’t tell him.”
“Please give it more time, Brian.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Bye, Caity.”
It wasn’t a promise. It wasn’t even an agreement to keep the information from Sal. But it was all I’d get from him. Brian, for all the criminal activity he was involved in, had very strong beliefs when it came to family.
I could only hope my relationship with Brian was a touch stronger than his relationship with Sal. I knew I was putting him in an impossible position, but it couldn’t be helped.
Once Sal knew the truth, it would destroy him. The dead needed to stay dead. And the secrets they took with them had no business being put out into the world.
You didn’t get to continue hurting people from beyond the grave.
Chapter Seven
Cian
I stared at my computer screen; the words staring back at me couldn’t be right. I ran through the information three times, and there was no other answer.
For weeks, I had been avoiding talking to Caity about Maddie, about our affair... about us. But if what I was looking at was true, I couldn’t avoid it any longer. Once the printer spat out the evidence, I grabbed it and ducked out the door.
“Where are you headed in such a rush?” Mac called as I slipped past him into the elevator.
“Checking on a lead,” I remarked as I pushed the button.
“Without backup?”
