Page 71 of Vow of Vengeance

Reading her expression, I stop myself. She’s not flirting for tips. She’s gently prying to see if I’m unattached. She looks up at me from under her lashes, awaiting my answer.

“Yeah,” I say, nodding at Ophelia sitting at our table. “I’m with her. Thanks.”

Disappointed, she shrugs. “All the good ones are taken and all that, eh?” She gives me a wink and goes to make the drink.

I glance over at Ophelia, who is unaware of the exchange. Funny, another woman hasn’t even crossed my mind since I’ve been with her. Is that what it’s supposed to feel like? When you do ask someone to marry you—the proper way?

And if I asked her…

What would her answer be?

I return with the drink, sitting down to hear Gian’s words to Ophelia.

He’s reaching for her hand, saying, “I found the woman you were looking for.”

“Who?” I ask, clueless as to what they’re talking about. I stare at Ophelia. “Who were you looking for?”

Gian answers me, “The woman with the pearl necklace.”

What little color lives in Ophelia’s cheeks drains away. She stares at Gian as if she’s just seen a ghost. She whispers, “You’re kidding?”

Who is the woman with the pearl necklace? And what does she mean to Ophelia?

CHAPTER 23

Ophelia

My heart isin my ears.Thrum-thrum-thrumminglike a base drum. I feel dizzy. “What’s her name?”

He pauses, then says, “Freya.”

Finally hearing for the first time the name of the woman who saved me, my fingers go to my neck, searching for the pearls I’m not wearing. “Freya.” I let the name roll around in my mind.

Does she have long blonde hair like I picture her? I feel silly asking, so I don’t.

“Let me start at the beginning so I don’t confuse you,” Gian says. I listen, hanging on to his every word as he reveals everything he’s learned about my past. “When your mom was nineteen, she briefly dated someone older than her. A man named Ross Macdonald. He was a gang member of the Hoax.”

“The Hoax is the one based in Glasgow—” I swallow my remaining tonsil, clarifying, “The one you said was really bad. Right?”

“’Fraid so,” Gian says softly. “Your grandparents never took to him, even before they learned about his criminal past. Duringthat short time, Leah got pregnant by him. He wanted custody of you when you were born, and he got it.”

The question slips from my mouth. “How?”

I wait for the part where Gian reveals the terrible thing my father did to take me away from my mother. The violence he used against her with the power of the Hoax. The threats he made against her.

He shrugs, offering, “She was young. She was broke. He was older and had resources, and your mom relented.”

“Oh.” My thoughts fall away. I feel numb. Was it that easy to give me up? I’m young. I’m eighteen. If I was pregnant, I can’t imagine leaving that baby without a fight. Haze wraps an arm around my shoulders, holding me closer.

“I know more about your father,” Gian says. “I’ll start with his real name.”

“Was it not Ross Macdonald?” I ask.

“No.” Gian shakes his head. “That was an alias he used to keep away from the law.”

I feel my face wrinkle with confusion.

Haze interjects with, “It’s common in our world.”

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