And it was true. I wanted to know everything I thought I never had the right to ask. Some of it was hard. Hearing her talk about Valentinetti, knowing how much older than her he was, made me want to bring him back from the dead so I could kill him.
He was over thirty fucking years old. He had no business getting involved with my daughter, who was only twenty at the time. Hell, he was older than Maddie was even now, and she’d lived a lifetime in the past eight years.
I couldn’t help feeling like he’d taken advantage of her. I knew she loved him. Every word she spoke about him was dripping in adoration. The man could do nothing wrong in her eyes.
But I wanted to know how he felt about her. Did he really love her? The way she deserved to be loved? Or did he see a young impressionable girl he could manipulate?
I’d never know how he truly felt.
Because Kelley had given him up to Petrovich and had him killed.
Maddie had never been in an adult relationship. Never brought a date to the many galas she attended with her mother. Caity said she’d never even known Maddie to go on a date after she graduated high school. Until we learned about Henry, I’d always wondered why.
Now I knew it was because she was still living with a broken heart.
“Nothing concrete. I have to be careful about what I ask. I don’t want her to think I’m grilling her to get answers.”
“Isn’t that what you’re doing?” Mac asked.
“No,” I snapped at my best friend. “I am trying to get to know my daughter.”
“You know her, Ci. You’ve been in her life since the day she was born,” Duncan argued.
“Held her before I did,” Sal grumbled.
I smiled at him. “Damn right I did.”
As soon as we’d known Caity was in labor, I got my ass to the St. John’s Presbyterian hospital in New York.
Twenty-nine years ago...
The drive from Boston to New York City took an average of three and a half to four hours, depending on traffic. I made it in just under three.
As soon as the call came in that Caity was in labor, I left. I didn’t care what anyone thought; I wanted to be there when her baby was born. The baby who should have been mine.
I’d sat in the waiting room all damn day, waiting. And when the nurse came out and let me know Maddie was here, I walked into that room like I fucking belonged there.
Caity’s eyes went wide when I stepped through the door. I’d told the nurse I was her brother. It was the only way they would give me any information. I couldn’t tell her I was her husband. The bastard was in there with her.
“McCarthy, what the hell are you doing here?”
“I came to meet my niece,” I said, walking past Kelley, ignoring his scowl. I walked over and kissed Caity on the head. She bit her lip, afraid of what I would do or say.
We’d argued about who the father was. I told her I wanted a paternity test as soon as the baby was born. She argued that she was already pregnant but didn’t know. She said she’d found out a few days after our night together that she was pregnant. Insisting the timeframe was too short for me to have gotten her pregnant.
I didn’t believe her, but looking at the baby in her arms, the fear I saw in her eyes, I let it go. I’d done the reading, spoken to doctors, and they all said the same thing: That if she’d tested positive days after being with me, she was already pregnant when we were together.
My heart broke knowing her child wasn’t mine. I’d desperately wanted to knock her up. I’d purposely not used a condom that night, hoping she’d get pregnant. Wanting the world to know she was mine.
Because, make no mistake, she might be married to someone else, but she was fucking mine. It was only a matter of time before Kelley fucked up and I could take him out.
“Can I hold her?” I asked, letting Caity see how much I loved not only her but this child. In that moment, I didn’t care that she wasn’t mine. If Caity gave me even the slightest notion that she’d be with me, I would proudly raise another man’s daughter as my own.
Caity nodded. As she passed the baby to me, Kelley huffed and stormed out of the room.
“She looks like you,” I said, not taking my eyes off the little girl in her arms. “What’s her name?”
Caity didn’t answer right away, and I looked over at her. Her eyes filled with tears as she said, “Madigan.”
