I closed my eyes. Pain stabbed into my heart. Madigan was my mother’s maiden name.
“Are you sure, Caity? ’Cause if you’re not...” My voice was a harsh whisper. Anger and pain laced into my words.
“I’m sorry, Ci. I wish it was possible.”
Looking over my shoulder at the door, I turned back to Caity. “Would you leave him if it was?” I asked. “Would you walk away? Let me do what I had to in order to make a way for us?”
Caity shook her head. “There is no way for us, Ci. If he was gone. Even if she was yours, we’d never be together. My father would never allow it.”
I wanted to tell her, fuck the old man. I wanted to assure her that we could make it work. That we could leave. I’d take her anywhere in the world. Fuck, I’d call Brian and get his help.
Every word died on my lips when the doors opened, and Eamon O’Malley, the head of the Irish Mob, my boss and her father, a man who hated me and I never knew why, walked into the room.
“You should have seen your father’s face when he walked in and found me holding Maddie.”
Duncan chuckled, and Mac laughed. Sal just shook his head.
“I wish he were fuckin’ here to know the truth,” Sal said. “Caity said he knew about Morgan. Hell, maybe he knew about Maddie.”
“Nah, no way he knew about Maddie,” Mac said.
“How do you know?” Sal asked him, and I was curious about his answer. Morgan, Sal’s daughter, was born a year after Maddie. Both girls were children when he died, but because they were girls, he never said a word about either of them. It was possible that he knew and was simply biding his time.
“Because Ci’s still alive and Eamon isn’t.” he joked, tipping his chin in my direction.
“Mac’s right,” Duncan added. “If he’d known Ci was Maddie’s dad, he’d be fuckin’ dead.”
“So, the question is, when did Kelley find out and who told him?” I asked. “If Kelley had known when your father was alive, he would have told him. He was so far up Eamon’s ass I’m surprised his hair wasn’t darker.”
Mac chuckled, and Duncan scrunched his nose at my statement. Sal looked at me and tilted his head. “That’s a damn good question. When did he learn about Maddie? We know roughly when he learned about Henry’s existence. But how did he find out that Maddie wasn’t his?”
“We need to find that other office,” Duncan said with a sigh.
“Call Callum; find out how many men he lost when he cleaned house. And then dig into those men. Properties, family, everything. See if any of those men have a connection to anyone on the lists we have from the old man’s office. I want to know exactly how far up my father’s ass Kelley was.”
We left Sal’s office, each of us with a job to do. I entered my office and sat behind my desk. Going back to the memory of the day Maddie was born.
Anger suddenly took hold of me. She fucking lied to me. I stood in that room, holding my daughter in my arms, and she lied to my fucking face.
I picked up the mug on my desk and threw it across the room.
The door swung open, and Mac stood in the doorway. Seeing the anger pouring off me, he crossed his arms and leaned against the jamb.
“You want to hit the gym?”
I studied his face. “You’re not gonna ask why I’m pissed?”
He shrugged his shoulders and said, “I figure it’s got something to do with Caity and the day Maddie was born. You’ll tell me when you’re ready.”
I sat back in my chair, rubbing my hands over my face. Frustration building as I took a deep breath that was meant to cleanse but only fueled my anger.
“She fuckin’ lied to my face.” Mac didn’t say a word, knowing I would continue. “When I asked if I could hold her, Kelley left in a huff. Then she told me her name.”
Mac’s eyebrows scrunched like he was confused.
“My mother’s maiden name was Madigan.”
“Oh shit.”
