Page 162 of Sins of Arrogance

“Aye. Be­cause he made you be­lieve you had no value when your value to me was and is im­mea­sur­able.”

“That can’t be true. You don’t love me.”

“You are my ad­dic­tion, Kara. I need you.”

“That’s not love.”

“Nah, it’s not. But it is real.”

“You love Fitz.”

“Aye.”

“But you don’t have those kinds of ten­der feel­ings for me.”

He shakes his head. “Ad­dic­tion is not a feel­ing.”

I’m not sure that’s true, but what do I know? I never even re­al­ized my hus­band was ob­sessed with me.

The fact he has been stalk­ing me since the early days of our mar­riage gives cre­dence to his claim though. I’d only been guess­ing about the cam­eras in our liv­ing room ear­lier to­day.

But they’re there and Mick had recorded footage of me and Dier­dre from them.

How long does he keep the record­ings? Does he have fa­vorites?

And what is wrong with me that my mind is go­ing there right now? “You can’t kill my da.”

“You stopped call­ing him that. Af­ter you came home from The Mar­lowe Cen­ter.”

“I did.” I don’t know why I slipped now.

Or maybe I do. Be­cause when it comes down to it, I don’t want him hurt. He’s still my fa­ther, even if I don’t think of him as my da.

“Why?” Mick asks.

“A da is some­one who loves his chil­dren. Nur­tures and pro­tects them.” Even Mick with his ASPD, is a da to our son. “Re­gard­less, Bro­gan is your fa­ther-in-law. He’s fam­ily.”

“You and Fitz are my fam­ily.” Emo­tion­less im­pla­ca­bil­ity stares back at me from Mick’s green gaze.

“We might be your pri­mary fam­ily, but he’s still your fa­ther-in-law.”

Mick shows no soft­en­ing.

“He’s your friend,” I claim des­per­ately. “Like Brice, Conor and Rory. You wouldn’t kill them.”

“If they threat­ened you or Fitz I would.” He pauses, think­ing. “Or if they be­trayed me.”

I can’t help notic­ing me and Fitz came first, but I shake my head. “My fa­ther didn’t be­tray you.”

“Aye, he did. And Kara, Bro­gan is not my mate.”

“Well, ac­cord­ing to you, Dier­dre isn’t your friend ei­ther. She threat­ened to kill me and you told her I don’t take crit­i­cism from her very well. Why does she get a pass?”

My grand­fa­ther didn’t. And I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Life for moma, Fiona, Róise and me has been bet­ter since his death. Bro­gan Shaugh­nessy may be a ruth­less mob boss too, but some part of him cares about us.

For all his talk about fam­ily loy­alty, I’m not sure any part of seanathair ever did.