Page 64 of False Heir

“Jesus Christ, lad, no,” I said.

“You sure? If she–”

“Liam, shut up,” Kieran said softly.

I shook my head, a hard knot forming in my chest. “I don’t plan on saying goodbye,” I said firmly. “Irish or otherwise.”

“Does that mean you’re forgetting Ali?” I asked, knowing the answer before he even responded. Ali had been a storm in Liam’s life, unpredictable and fierce.

“Kind of broke up with me last night,” he muttered, flicking ash into the water. “Told her I had to leave and she was drunk at The Irish Rover. It was ugly, man.” He paused, then added with a shrug, “I think she might have blocked me.”

The confession hung heavy between us. Ali’s absence was like a void in Liam’s world, one he tried to fill with humor and bravado, but I could see the cracks in his armor.

“You alright, Liam? How are you holding up with...everything?” I asked, gesturing vaguely towards the recent events. The weight of the family business, the dangerous games we played—none of it was easy to bear, especially not for the youngest among us.

“Surviving,” he finally said, but the word felt hollow, like an echo from someone who had yet to understand its full meaning. It wasn’t just about Ali or any single loss; it was the accumulation of all we had endured, the constant push and pull of our lives within The Callahan Legacy.

We sat there, side by side, two brothers caught in the eye of an ever-raging storm, bound by blood and the unspoken promises of protection we owed each other. In the silence that followed, only the distant cries of seagulls and the lapping of water against the marina’s edges reached us, a reminder of the life that persisted beyond our own tumultuous existence.

And Kieran was also there.

Liam’s laughter had died away as quickly as it came, the sound swallowed by the vast expanse of the marina. We sat there on the edge, our legs dangling over the water that mirrored the grayness of the sky above Boston. It was after lunch, but the day seemed to have lost its appetite for brightness.

“You really okay, kid?” Kieran pressed. “No offense, you look like shit.”

“Honestly, lads?” His voice broke through the quiet, rough and raw. “I’m gutted. Absolutely gutted.”

Those words hung in the air, heavier than the scent of salt and sea. This was not the Liam Callahan who laughed in the face of danger or shrugged off the weight of our legacy with a joke. This was a young man ripped open by loss, by the unyielding demands of being born into a family like ours.

I watched him, this brother of mine, the youngest, who should’ve had the freedom that the rest of us were denied. Instead, he was here, bound by blood and all the burdens it carried.

He turned to me then, a flicker of vulnerability in his eyes that I’d never seen before. “I don’t know how you do it, man. This whole… darkness.”

The admission struck a chord, a note of shared pain that resonated between us. Words failed me; what could I say? That it got easier? That he’d grow accustomed to the shadows that stalked our every move? No. Such lies would be an insult to both of us.

“That’s the life,” Kieran said. “You do what you have to do.”

“Aye, he’s right. There is a darkness, but…” My own voice sounded distant, as if borrowed from someone else. “It’s there, always. You just...you find your way through it.”

“But you’re like, okay with it now?”

“Fuck no,” I said. “Believe me, kid. I don’t know how I do it either.”

Silence descended again, a heavy blanket that bound us together in our unspoken grief and understanding. We breathed in tandem, inhaling the brisk sea air as if trying to draw strength from the very atmosphere. The rhythm of our inhalations became a shared heartbeat, pacing out a silent song of brotherhood and resilience.

“Tristan,” Liam’s voice cut through the noise, his tone somber, “what are you gonna do about Adriana?”

I stared out at the water where the sun played hide and seek with the waves, my chest tight with the weight of a decision I hadn’t yet made. A sigh escaped me, raw and telling of the helplessness that clawed at my insides.

“Truth is, Liam...” I paused, the words sticking to my tongue like tar. “I’ve got no idea.”

Chapter Twenty-Six: Tristan

And, just like that, I was alone.

I stared out across the marina, the cold air turning my breath to mist as it mingled with the sea’s morning exhale. My brothers’ footsteps receded behind me, their departure a physical reminder of the widening rift between duty and desire, between The Callahan Legacy and what my heart wanted. As they vanished into the distance, I was left alone with the murmur of the waves and Adriana’s haunting question: “Is she even your girlfriend?” A question that wasn’t just about status, but about love. And damn if that didn’t twist the knife deeper.

Those words hung in the air, heavy as the fog rolling off the water. Guilt gnawed at my insides, stoking a fire of panic that threatened to consume me. I couldn’t shake the fear that maybe she was right, that maybe I had lost her already.

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