Page 70 of The Irish Arrangement

Instead, she faced me and killed me with her glossy, sad eyes. “The hospital called. My mother’s been taken to the emergency room.”

I didn’t move, caught in the memories of all the times Ian and I had been in and out of the emergency room for Dad. It never felt good, and the worry about a parent was no small thing. “I’m sorry to hear that.” I was, and I hoped to back up my words with a hand on hers. Her skin felt so cool to the touch, and I wondered if she was going into shock or something.

“Has she been ill? Or…” I felt stupid and unprepared. I knew nothing about her mother other than her past, that she wasn’t a Boyle.

“For years.” She sat up straighter even though she seemed so overwhelmed. “She’s suffered an autoimmune disease, cancer on and off, an infection… the list is long.”

Fuck. That sounded like a lot.

“And now she’s at the hospital. I obviously can’t go to see her because I’m here. Then the privatized doctor who’s been most helpful with her isn’t cooperating because I’m behind on all the bills.” She grimaced, pressing her free hand into a fist and shoving it into the mattress.

“What?” I stared at her, stunned. This was a lot to take in, but that didn’t sound right. Behind on bills? What bills? She lived here, and her mother surely had her own income at home.

She lowered her head but brought it right back up. “I’m sorry, Declan. I’m so sorry I wasn’t honest.”

I braced myself for a brutal hit of truth. I should’ve been happy that she was owning up to her dishonesty, but I loathed being manipulated or lied to.

“I agreed to marry you because my father said he’d do me a ‘favor’ if I did. He and Keira didn’t want Saoirse to marry you, so they used me. They’d never acknowledged me other than that one time my mother demanded he cover my hospital bill in the city. Otherwise, we didn’t contact each other. They’d erased me from their lives, but when it came time to preventing their beloved daughter from being married to you, I was a convenient backup.”

I’d wondered. “What was the favor?”

“He said that he would cover all of my mother’s outstanding debt. All the medical costs and bills. Everything. He also agreed to fund her placement on the list for a kidney transplant. If she doesn’t have that surgery, she will suffer for years, chronically.”

Anger started on a slow simmer, but now it heated up faster. The need to hurt that spineless man was almost too much to bear. “At the church.” I narrowed my eyes as I recalled the moment Cara had paled and so quickly agreed to stand at the altar with me. “What did you receive on your phone that made you change your mind?”

She wiped her cheeks. “I hadn’t really changed my mind. In exchange for my mother’s health and to not be drowning in debt, I agreed to marry you before I had any idea who you were. When I saw you, I was scared. You looked so angry and impatient, and I had a knee-jerk reaction. Fight or flight. And I ran, but I reminded myself what was at stake.”

I gritted my teeth. “What did you see on your phone, then?” I demanded.

“Keira texted me. She’d gotten a copy of a document about Mom being on that replacement waitlist, and she threatened to pay to have Mom taken off it if I didn’t go along with their deal.”

I stiffened. “That was the deal you mentioned that time.”

She nodded as another tear streaked over her smooth cheek. “It was. I’m sorry I didn’t explain.”

I couldn’t be mad at her. She’d done the same thing I had. I’d forced Shane to give me his daughter in exchange for clearing his debt, only I’d changed my mind after the fact.

Shit. Did he do the same thing to her?

“Let me guess.” I thought back to her words. That she was behind on bills. “He didn’t pay, did he?”

She shook her head. “When you gave me my phone yesterday, I called home, and the stable hand who’s more like an uncle, like family, mentioned something that didn’t add up. So, I logged online and saw that everything was still owed. You walked in when I was about to call my father and ask what was going on, but then I planned to ask him in person at the gala.”

I shook my head. “But you approached Keira instead?”

She winced slightly. “No. I couldn’t find my father. She found me and laughed in my face when I asked about the debt being paid. She said that they never clarified when they’d pay it off, and she implied that they wouldn’t.”

You’re a dead man, Murray.

“Why did your stepsister slap you?” I asked, looking at her cheek again. “That’s what Frank saw.”

She sighed and lowered her gaze. “No. Keira did.”

I clenched my teeth and breathed through the rush of fury escalating within me even more.

“All my life, I’ve been working and trying to stay afloat. When they asked me to do something for them in order to cover Mom’s issues, I jumped on it. I had to. I have been so exhausted for years, thinking there would never be a way out of that life, nothing to look forward to but work and the worry that I wouldn’t be able to secure her spot on that organ transplant list.”

I sighed, hanging my head. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

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