I looked over my shoulder at the front door and smiled. Despite what was happening right now, who I was meeting, I was starting to believe that I could live a happy life.
I’d spoken to Maddie, and it went better than I’d expected. We still had a lot to work out, but it was a start. I took a deep breath of the crisp spring air before I walked down the steps and climbed into my car.
If I could just get through this dinner, then maybe I would be headed in the right direction.
I pulled up to the restaurant and handed my keys to the valet.
Leave it to the arrogant bastard to pick the most expensive place in Boston.He was all about appearances. He always had been.
Even when Maddie and Dante were little, Sinclair had to have everything just right. Perception was paramount, he’d say; meanwhile, neither of our children cared at eight years old if there was caviar, they wanted pizza.
I shook my head as I thought about Dante. He had a daughter now. Sinclair had a granddaughter he was allowed to hold and cuddle. I didn’t even get to see mine from a distance.
Not anymore.
I gave my name at the hostess stand and followed her to the back of the restaurant. For a man who was focused on how things looked, he also preferred privacy.
“Mrs. Kelley.” Sinclair stood and took my hand, kissing the back of it.
“It’s O’Malley,” I corrected.
“Oh? I hadn’t realized missing husbands meant a woman reverted back to her maiden name.”
“Asshole,” I muttered at his sly grin.
I slid into the booth, followed by Sinclair. “Why am I here, Sinclair?”
“You are here, Miss O’Malley, because I need answers.”
“And I told you I didn’t have any answers for you.”
“And I believe you are lying,” he said easily, as if we were old friends. Sinclair didn’t have friends. He had minions. He had people who did his bidding, but I wasn’t one of them.
“I have no control over what you choose to believe. I have been through everything in my father’s office, and there is no mention of you or Dante.”
“And Rowen?” he asked.
I looked up at him and smiled. “My father had no information about a Rowen Shay.” It wasn’t a lie. The name Rowen Shay was never mentioned. What I didn’t tell Sinclair was that I knew Rowen’s real name. I knew who he was, and when the truth came out, not even Sinclair had the power to prevent Rowen’s father from tearing the world apart.
“And Silas?”
I looked down at my hands. If I gave him something, maybe he would back off. “Only that he had nightmares. And thosenightmareswill always haunt him.”
Sinclair watched me. His eyes flitted over my face, looking for deception. I’d spent my whole life living a lie that, except for Nolan, no one had guessed.
Not even my father.
But someone knew!
I stared back at the man sitting across from me. “You sent it, didn’t you?”
“Sent what, my dear?”
I took a deep breath, trying to control my temper. Sinclair had a way of bringing out the worst in people. There was a time when our children were young that I thought he might be someone I could confide in.
That notion was quickly dispelled when I found him in Nolan’s office, the two of them discussing something I never asked about. I never trusted him again after that, and now I knew why.
“How long have you known?”
