Page 96 of Bad Bishop

“Let me take you back outside. I’m so sorry.” Tierney ushered me back to our table. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No,” I said honestly. “This guy is going to get fired, and I’m never going to see him again. Besides, he barely touched me.”

When we sat down, the baby fluttered in my lower stomach again. I instinctively pressed a hand to let him know that I noticed, and that I was here, waiting for him.

“This is starting to feel real, isn’t it?” Tierney smiled.

I nodded.

“How do you feel about it?”

“Frightened,” I admitted. “Excited. Worried.Oddly enough, I’m not mad anymore. I am mad at my rapist, of course. I want him to die a painful death. But not the baby. Once I decided to keep him, I promised to love him without prejudice.”

Easiest decision I’d ever made. My papa never loved me because of who he thought I was, even though none of it was my fault.

“I’ll love him for you, too.” Tierney leaned in to put her hand on my stomach, her expression sobering all at once. “I could never have a baby, you know.”

“Of course you will.” My eyes softened. “I will speak to Achilles myself. He will—”

She pulled away, shaking her head. “Save your breath. It has nothing to do with your brother. When I was twelve, I had a hysterectomy.”

I blinked, unsure what she meant.

“They removed my uterus, Lila.” She licked her lips, staring at her hands in her lap. “Well, they didn’t plan on it. But… Something bad happened to me, and there were complications.” She pursed her lips. “We experienced a lot of dark shit, me and my brother. I’m not asking you to forgive Tiernan for his bad behavior, but maybe you can find a way to understand him.”

My heart felt like it was melting into mush. I wanted to hug him. Hugher. But I knew Tierney would misread it as a sign of pity and wouldn’t appreciate it.

“I am so sorry.”

Tierney shrugged, throwing me a casual smile. “It’s fine.”

“Who are they? The people who did this to you.”

She shook her head. “It’s not just my story to tell.”

“You are your own person, Tierney,” I signed stubbornly. “Independent from your brother. You are smart, beautiful, kind, and worthy. Remember that.”

“And you?” She directed those verdant eyes, a shade lighter than my husband’s, at me. “Do you remember how strong you are? How resilient? How kindhearted? I never thought anyone could penetrate the walls my brother erected between him and humanity. They were—still are—impassable. Even I can’t get through them sometimes. But you did, somehow. You’re doing his head in, Lila.” She smiled. “Don’t be mad at him when he gets angry that those walls are tumbling down. The debris must be a bitch.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

LILA

When I got back home, there was a gift box waiting on the kitchen table.

It was wrapped in lush pink satin.

I shrugged off my jacket, hanging it by the door. Imma wasn’t in. Her son was visiting from Italy, so she took a few days off. Was it from her?

I made my way to the present, examining it without opening it.

When I turned around, Tiernan was standing before me, hands stuffed into his front pockets. Through the fog of exhaustion, I noticed the dark circle under his eye.

“You haven’t slept well?”

I took his silence as confirmation. He ambled toward me, bracketing my face in his rough palms, sorrow gleaming from his eye. I exhaled in relief when I saw his eye patch was back. It hadn’t disgusted me, seeing his eye socket the other night. But it did remind me of the pain my own kin subjected him to, and I felt shame and anger.

“It looked like you slept fine last night.”