Page 25 of Mending Fate
“I appreciate the apology for showing up here drunk, but we still need to talk about the things you said before.”
He turned, expression a careful mask. “I have no more to say on the subject.”
“Are you serious?” I was on my feet in an instant. “How can you act like what you said wasn’t hurtful?”
“I don’t see the point in bringing it up again,” he said. “Not when you won’t admit how wrong your actions were.”
“Excuse me?” I stared at him. His changing moods gave me whiplash, and I wasn’t in the best state of mind to deal with that right now.
“You wanted me to prioritize a stranger over my own daughter, and I see now how you can’t understand what was wrong with that. You don’t have a family.”
I took a step back, his words a slap in my face. My hands curled into fists. “You privileged bastard! Trust me, I can relate to your situation a hell of a lot better than you could understand mine. If you had even a clue of what it’s like to be a kid in the system, you would have understood why I wanted to look for Soleil instead of Evanne.”
“Evanne is my daughter. You cannae stand there and tell me that I should have put a stranger’s well-being over that of my own child–”
I held up a hand, barely holding back my temper. “Ineversaid you needed to put Soleil over Evanne, only thatIwas going to look for Soleil. You had no right to criticize my decision.”
“You’re the one who kept havering on about this missing girl while I was trying to figure out how to get my daughter back.”
I pointed my finger at him. “No. You don’t get to do that. You don’t get to twist around what I said to make it sound like I’d wanted you to focus all of your time and energy on finding Soleil. I was worried about Evanne too. I didn’t think a small bit of concern was unreasonable.” I shook my head. “It shouldn’t have been too much to ask, but you decided wherebothof our priorities should be, and you didn’t like that I didn’t agree.”
“Because you’re wrong,” he snapped. “There’s a difference between a child being taken against her will and a teenager getting herself into trouble because she hung out with the wrong crowd or put herself in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“You’re right. There’s a difference in the two situations.” Anger simmered just below the surface, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold it back much longer. “A child being taken by a mother who loves her and will protect her versus a scared, angry teenager who has problems a self-absorbed asshole like you couldn’t begin to fathom.”
“Just because I wasn’t in the foster system doesna mean I had a trouble-free childhood,” he countered.
I threw up my hands. “I don’t know why I’m even bothering. Men like you see the world your way, and anything that doesn’t fit into that world view is cast aside like it’s not even worth your attention.”
“Don’t you dare pretend you ken a single thing about me.” His voice was as dark as his expression.
“But I do,” I said, my voice a low growl. “That’s what you don’t get. I’ve known people like you my entire life. I’d just thought you were different. Now, I know better.”
A knock on my door stopped any response from him and gave me a few seconds to clamp down on the emotions threatening to spill over. I needed to get him out of here sooner rather than later, or things would get worse than they already were.
Fifteen
Alec
I followedLumen to the door. Who was knocking on her door on a Saturday morning? A spike of something too close to jealousy went through me. I had a vague memory of her saying that her roommate had stayed elsewhere last night, which meant it likely was someone for Lumen.
When the door opened, however, I realized that the people on the other side were actually here for me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
Lumen turned and looked at me. “Your brothers?”
“Aye. Eoin and Brody.”
“I remember that one.” She pointed at Eoin as she turned back to them. “Good timing. Get your brother out of my place.”
“I should beat your ass for leaving without telling me,” Brody said, looking over Lumen’s head at me. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“He wasn’t,” Eoin answered for me. “At least not with his big head.”
His gaze slid to Lumen, and I gritted my teeth. I didn’t want him looking at her or vice versa. He’d always been the kind of guy who’d had his fair share of attention from women, and the scar he’d received overseas only added to his hero appeal. If any man could live up to her ideal, it would be him, and despite the argument we’d been having only moments before, I didn’t like the idea of her and my brother being attracted to each other.
“May we come in?” Brody directed the question to Lumen, giving her that charming smile that had entranced so many women.