Page 19 of Forbidden Bond

“If they truly didn’t know anything, we can’t ask them to embellish their statements just because we’ve identified the guilty party. We have the murder weapon.”

Which was just disgusting. “With your prints on it too. They can’t test him and his clothes for gunshot residue, it’s been too long.”

“Ballistics will match,” he said. “The gun to the crime, not the crime to the man. Though if he did kill Conn with it.”

She flattened a hand on her stomach. “I can’t even think about it.”

Lach pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head. “This is difficult for me.”

“Dad was your hero. I understand that—”

“No,” he interjected. “Seeing how you love him, how much you love him.”

Conn.

Her eyes closed. “Sometimes it hits me and I feel sick. I don’t want to go on, I want to lay down and…” Pushing out of his arms, she wiped the moisture from the corner of her eyes. “I told myself I wouldn’t believe it until I saw him. Until I actually lay eyes on…”

“Ire’s a tough sonofabitch.”

“You better believe it.” Because she did. “You know you have a lot in common. He lost his mother young, around the same age you did.”

“Conversation tips?”

“Very funny.” Like tragedy would be something the men could talk about and bond over. “They may not be the same as yours, but he’s a man with morals and integrity. You look at things from different angles, but there’s a lot of you in him.”

“I don’t wish him dead, if that’s what you think of me.”

“You wouldn’t wish anyone dead, Lach. No part of you could—maybe that’s the worst thing.”

“Worst thing?”

“About what Dad’s done. Killing Henry was—it’s abominable, unimaginable, but I hate him more for letting you down.”

He touched her cheek. “I’m not as perfect as you think.”

“I don’t think you’re perfect, no one’s perfect.”

“I’ll get over it. You think I’ve never been let down before? The two of you always butted heads, which put me in the middle. Dad expected a lot, expected me to be a certain way. Now it’s almost as if…”

“The chains have come off,” she said, her smile tight. “It’s how I felt after admitting I was Conn’s alibi. I never wanted to hurt you; I didn’t mean to fall in love with him. But being without him, existing every day apart from him… After telling the truth, I could be me, the truest version of me.”

“And Ronald’s struggled to accept that.”

Their father’s morals had never been hers. Obviously they hadn’t been her father’s either. Maybe it all came down to Henry. They each tried to make him proud with their grandfather’s impetus.

“There’s something to be said for freeing yourself from other people’s constraints.”

“Don’t you have new ones? Identifying as a McDade puts a different pressure on you.”

“No.” She shook her head; her smile loosened a little. “Maybe it’s because I’m at the top or because he loves me, but the McDades accept everything, Conn accepts everything. Everything about me, Lach. The worst of me, the mistakes, the lies and the truths, I tell him everything and he never judges, he never punishes, he supports me. More than that, he helps me, encourages me.”

“Maybe all this has taught us not to be so quick to judge by what’s on the surface.”

“He’s no saint.”

“Are any of us?” he asked and put an arm around her. “Dad has to give up his post.”

“For family. Yes. And we don’t take reporting him off the table. It’s selfish, but all I can think about now is—”

---