Page 72 of The Irish Redemption

“Past your prime.” She sniffs with disdain. “But if he can look past that, then I will make sure you don’t let him go!”

“I thought you didn’t like strange men.”

“Well, you can’t afford to be picky at your age, so what can I say?” Mom rests back in her chair. “You’re already running out of time.”

Standing, I fight the urge to sigh deeply and instead clutch at the back of my neck. “Please call a doctor tomorrow, okay? Get your ankle looked at. And I’ll call the building super about your fuses.”

“Is that it?” Mom glares at me. “You’re leaving already?”

“I have to,” I reply. “I have things to do.” That and I just want to crawl into bed and sleep. Holly was more draining than I expected, and time with my unhappy mother always takes years off my life. “But I’ll call you.”

“No you won’t.”

It takes me an hour to leave my mother. Each time I try to slip away, she comes up with another thing to nit-pick about my appearance or lifestyle and always ends with a guilt trip about leaving her all alone in her apartment. In the end, Cormac is the one who pulls me away because it’s so late, but he promises to send someone tomorrow to take her to the doctor. She’s so shocked at his offer that we’re able to slip away, and I don’t breathe until we’re back in the car.

“Wow,” Cormac groans as we start driving. “The way she was talking, I thought she’d make me inseminate you right on the coffee table.”

“I’m so sorry. She’s convinced I’m too old and that I’m wasting my life by not being married and having kids. She’s… old-fashioned.”

“Or backward.” Cormac snorts. “I didn’t think people still held those views.”

“I’d try to say she’s traditional, but she didn’t exactly embrace the role of mother.” Facing her after a lovely few days with Clodagh just highlights how cold and empty my childhood was. Is it any wonder I turned to material things for love?

Maybe it’s why I’m so enamored of Cormac. He’s shown so much care for me in such a short time. By comparison, his actions are more loving than my mother’s ever were.

“I’m sorry you had to grow up with that,” Cormac says gently. “I can’t imagine what it was like to experience that.”

“That’s kind of why I didn’t want you to come,” I murmur. “It’s embarrassing.”

“Evie, there’s nothing?—”

“Cormac!”

We see the lights too late. As Cormac pulls out of the intersection, a horn blares and a gigantic truck runs the red light. I clutch at Cormac’s hand for a split second, then the truck collides with us with an almighty crash and scream of metal. My head whips to the side, cracking into the glass, and then darkness takes me as warmth trickles down from my hairline.

“Cormac!” I jolt awake, my head pounding and my vision swimming. Everything is bright, too bright, so I close my eyes again and groan softly. My throat is so dry that the groan catches and I immediately start coughing.

“Easy,” says a voice, and a cool hand lands on my bare arm.

I crack open my eyes once more and lock eyes with someone above me. Someone who makes my confused heart sink.

“Evelyn,” says Detective Cogs. “You have some explaining to do.”

29

EVELYN

“Where am I?”

“The hospital.”

“What happened?”

“You were in a car accident. The vehicle you were in was T-boned by a delivery truck.”

It comes back to me slowly. The conversation with Cormac in the car, the comforting smile on his face, and then the blinding headlights of a truck we had no hope of avoiding. My head swims and I close my eyes, swallowing around my tongue that feels like cotton.

I’m alive.

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