Page 75 of Cassio

“Can someone clue me in?” I finally chimed in. I couldn’t take the tension any longer.

“C’mon, guys,” I choked half-jokingly. “Y’all are starting to freak me out.”

Jack finally took pity on me.

“Kiddo, the only way not to break this arrangement with the King family is for you to marry in place of Margaret.”

ChapterTwenty-Five

ÁINE

My lips parted as I watched my stepfather, waiting for him to start laughing at his bad joke, but his expression remained grim. A strangled laugh escaped me, my stomach dropped, and I almost choked on my next breath.

“Right,” I scoffed. “You almost got me. You said the Callahan and King line had to come together. You seem to forget I’m not a Callahan.”

The room was eerily quiet and Mom shared a fleeting glance with Jack. Something big was about to happen. I didn’t know how I knew it, but I felt it in my gut. I could hear my heartbeat pulsing in my ears… or was it someone else’s. Or maybe it was just thundering in my ears as I watched my stepfather and mother, waiting… not sure for what.

“Áine, baby,” it was my mother that finally broke the silence. “Jack is your father.”

Boom!

“Stepfather,” I corrected, my tone hoarse.

“No, baby.” I could see my mother teetering on the edge, her hands scrunched into fists; the material of her gown trapped between her fingers. “Jack is your biological father.”

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

“What the fuck?” I exploded, blood rushing in my ears. “This is not even funny.”

“Áine! Language, please.” My mother was worried about the language after she just dropped this bombshell.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” I hissed furiously. “We are going to worry about my language after you drop a bomb like that? You two are grasping at straws right now… this is just some temporary way to delay you finding another cousin to marry this guy.” I pointed with my head towards Cassio, his good looks completely wiped out of my mind. He no longer counted in my book at all.I think.“When in fact, you shouldn’t have made the arrangement in the first place!”

My anger simmered that Mom would throw a bomb on me, just like that. In front of strangers at that.

“No, it is the truth. Jack is your father. Honey, you were never supposed to know.” The strain in my mother’s voice was clear but what the fuck! “It’s a complicated story.”

“You don’t say!” Anger welled in the pit of my stomach. “It didn’t occur to you to share that piece of information with me for the past twenty-five years.” I rose off my chair and glared at Cassio and Luca. There was no doubt in my mind they knew, the question was how. “They knew! So how in the fuck didn’t I know?”

“Kiddo, it wasn’t your mother’s fault.” Jack jumped to my mother’s defense. He always defended her, and until today, I loved that about him. But right now, I resented it.

“Oh, I am pretty sure it is,” I argued in a slightly elevated voice, not caring who heard us, locking my eyes on Mom and Jack. “Because we all know how babies are made.” Jack’s hand reached up to pull at his hair while my mother’s knuckles were so white now from her hard clenching. “Did Dad know?”

I knew my voice sounded accusatory but damn it. Everything I had ever known, just went up in smoke. No, not smoke. Fucking flames! My mom’s lips thinned and her shoulders slumped.

“Well, did he?” I asked again, my own voice sounding high-pitched to my ears.

“Baby, we should have this conversation in private.”

My gut reaction was to start screaming, throwing stuff, but instead, I took a calming breath. And another. Breathe in. Breathe out. Again.

It was the first time I had used my breathing exercise for anger rather than claustrophobic fear and panic.

“Why bother?” I uttered, disgusted. “It would seem they already know. I’m the only one clueless here.”

“Don’t be sassy, Áine,” Mom spat angrily. “I’m still your mother.”

Her anger only fueled my rage further.