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“The...uh...the airport, they tried to make me go with them,” she whispered.

“Please allow me to introduce myself,” the old man began in an accent he didn’t have previously. “My name is Malaky O’Connor.”

She could feel her jaw drop. That was her grandpa’s name. But it couldn’t be. Her mam had no family left.

Like Bradshaw’s your father?

“What else did she lie about?” Shock and hurt colored her voice.

“Sit, please,” he asked waving his wrinkled hand at the couch. As she did, his guards went to stand at the door. Dom stood behind her with his hands on her shoulders—her silent strength.

“Maureen was a troubled girl. All her life, it was always one thing– “

“Don’t. Just stop. I don’t want to hear anything bad about me mam.” Her stress was building like it hadn’t in years if she was reverting to her old speech.

“You’ve just said she lied, but you don’t want to know what made her lie?” He sounded angry about it.

“I just want to know why you’re here.” Dom squeezed her shoulder reassuringly.

“Your mam sent me a letter a few months ago indicating you were in danger. I came looking.” So simple, yet so fucking complicated at once.

“Why? You don’t know me. What do you care?” She felt feisty. He was alive, and she’d never heard from him before? She didn’t get it.

“You’re me grandchild, of course I care.” Now he sounded hurt. Well, fuck him.

“I’ve been your grandchild for eighteen years. In boarding school for seven, and nearly sold before that. So please continue to act as if you care. I’m dying to hear how hurt you must be. You’re clearly a man of wealth, yet my mam struggled for more than a decade because Bradshaw is a complete waste of skin. You could have helped her. Helped me!” Tears were threatening to consume her.

“Princess,” Dom’s voice held a warning.

“No, Dominic! Fuck him and his stupid money. I was treated like shit my entire life! I never knew I had family, but you...” She pointed angrily at her grandfather. “You knew about me, didn’t you?” He nodded. “Then why? You say Mam was troubled. You had to know how bad Bradshaw was.”

/> “We didn’t– “

“We?” she murmured.

“Princess, sit and listen.” Looking to the man who held everything she was, everything she would become, she tried to understand how he could be so calm until she saw the look in his eyes.

“Oh.”

Speechless didn’t begin to convey how she was feeling. Shock could be close. Stunned would be getting somewhere. She just felt…lost.

So much was being thrown at her, she couldn’t tell who or what to trust anymore.

“Oh child, ‘tis not so simple.” Malaky sounded tired.

“So tell me,” she pleaded, wanting to rip whatever it was off like a Band-Aid. Enough of the pomp and withholding. She was ready to move on.

“I shall start from the beginning then?” At her nod, he painted a picture of her mother that she had a hard time believing. A drug addict? Alcohol? It was all mind-boggling. “She gave her mam and me such a hard time with everything. Then one day she disappeared. We feared the worst.”

He paused. She wasn’t sure if it was to give her time to absorb what he’d said or to clear the obvious hurt the words were causing.

“When was the last time you heard from her?” She had to know.

“I’ve heard from Maureen sporadically over the years. The first time was two years after she left, when we got an invite to her wedding to Bradshaw. Your grandmother tried to warn her against it. He was never a nice man.”

“Why did you let her then?”

“Trust me, we didn’t. Your grandma, Deidre, made such a fuss at the ceremony that we were removed.”