Page 66 of Devilish Ink

I’d gotten used to Conor and Mason and Aurnia over the last few weeks. They didn’t recognise me as Rian’s brother, and I supposed why would they. He looked like our ma and I looked like our da.

I doubted that Rian had any photos of me anyway; even if he did, they were from when I was a teenager, not the man I was now.

Their voices shouldn’t have made me pause. But there was a voice that caught my attention, the particular lilt of a male voice, the musical strains of the Cork accent worn out from living in Dublin for so long.

I crept to the window, staying pressed close to the wall, and peered inside.

It looked warm inside the cosy tattoo parlour, bright with the neon glow and all the fringed lamps, enough to fill a flea market, turned on.

There were open bottles of whiskey and plates of boxty, Irish potato pancakes, and corned beef and cabbage sliders.

Ryleigh and Conor, Mason, Rachel and Aurnia all stood smiling, laughing, arms slung round shoulders, hearts drawn close, around an all too familiar newcomer.

Like a family.

A family I didn’t belong to.

My little world shattered.

My heart seized in my chest and I clutched at it. I stumbled back from the light and lurched back into the shadows where I belonged.

She’d weaved such a spell over me that I’d almost forgotten that her apartment wasn’t ours, that her life wasn’t only mine.

Ryleigh wasn’t mine anymore.

Rian was back.

I’d gotten so used to being called Lee that I wasn’t sure I’d respond to Liam anymore.

Liam, who had the brother who hated him, seemed so far away, like he was another man entirely. As Lee, a man with Ryleigh’s love, I was reborn, remade.

I’d forgotten all the lies I’d told her. But as they say about lies… They never stay buried for long.

RY

Atightness lined my stomach with bitterness.

Lee didn’t show up the other night, cancelling on me last minute. He’d never cancelled on me before, let aloneby text. When I messaged back to ask what was wrong he replied:Something came up. Sorry. Promise I’ll make it up to you.

Something was wrong.

Even though he texted me to say good night and good morning.

And now it had been almost twenty-four hours, the longest we’d gone without seeing each other. Why did it feel like I was missing a limb? Why did my chest ache?

Hubby: Missed ur face when I woke up this morning

Hubby: Didn’t miss ur morning breath tho ;)

Hubby: Jks. u smell like roses

I still hadn’t changed his name in my phone. It still gave me a thrill every time I saw a message from “hubby”. From him.

It felt like nothing had changed except…

Me: Hey, missed u last nite

Hubby: I know. missed u too

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