Page 128 of Sins of Arrogance

I knew I should have pulled the door shut be­hind me. “Hello, Dier­dre. Are you en­joy­ing your­self?”

“Yes. Your da re­ally goes in for Amer­i­can La­bor Day. My da and Micky’s cel­e­brate Lá an Lucht Oibre of course, but not with so much fan­fare.”

“It’s an im­por­tant day for our fam­ily.”

“I’m sure. It re­ally em­pha­sizes how cru­cial her­itage and fam­ily are for the Shaugh­nessy Mob.”

I nod.

Glossy black hair, smooth de­spite spend­ing the last cou­ple of hours out­side sub­ject to the breeze off the ocean, she’s dressed in a royal blue romper. The shorts show off her long legs and her san­dals re­veal per­fectly painted toe­nails.

I’m wear­ing my fa­vorite sum­mer out­fit: palazzo pants with a hal­ter top. And some­how what usu­ally feels cool and so­phis­ti­cated, not to men­tion flat­ter­ing to my gen­er­ous curves, feels un­der­stated and al­most frumpy.

No. Stop think­ing like that. Mick’s eyes didn’t read frumpy when he looked at you ear­lier. They said he’d like to take you in­side and do wicked things with you.

My in­ner cheer­leader has good in­ten­tions, but my outer mob wife is fac­ing off with my hus­band’s ex-lover and wear­ing in­se­cu­rity like cheap per­fume.

“You play such an im­por­tant role in this tra­di­tion, don’t you?” Dier­dre asks, false sweet­ness sat­u­rat­ing her tone.

“We all do.”

“But you es­pe­cially…” She lets her voice trail off and gives me a look of pity. “What you had to sac­ri­fice to guar­an­tee an heir to your fa­ther.”

My world tilts. I suck in a breath, but I feel like the oxy­gen isn’t reach­ing my head.

Thoughts rac­ing, I ask, “What do you mean?”

“It must have been so hard. A vir­gin un­der­go­ing IVF to guar­an­tee a boy baby.” She shakes her head, like she feels sorry for me.

I shake my head, try­ing to clear it. There’s no way she can know this. No way, ex­cept…

Mick told her?

My heart­beat is a roar in my ears.

Mick told Dier­dre some­thing I’ve never even shared with my cousin or sis­ter?

I want to scream.

I want to grab Dier­dre by the hair and throw her off the dock in the cold wa­ter of the bay. Af­ter I kick her.

But most of all? I want to slap my hus­band right in his loose-lipped mouth.

“Oh…” She af­fects sur­prised con­cern. “Should I not have let you know that Mick told me?”

I grit my teeth to keep the words in that want out so des­per­ately.

Dier­dre’s mouth thins. She’s not get­ting the re­sponse she wants.

I latch onto that and use the knowl­edge to keep my per­fect mob princess façade in place.

“I just wanted to tell you how much I ad­mire your will­ing­ness to sac­ri­fice for the sake of your fam­ily’s her­itage.” She reaches to­ward me like she’s go­ing to touch my arm. “I don’t know if I would have been so will­ing to go months with­out hav­ing sex with my hus­band.”

I step back. “I don’t know what you thought to ac­com­plish by bring­ing up the past, but it’s not to tell me how much you ad­mire me.”

“But—”

Putting my hand up, palm out, I shake my head. “Stop, Dier­dre. There’s no au­di­ence to play to here. It’s just me and you and you have to know I’m fully aware of what a cold-hearted bitch you are.”