Page 58 of Bartered Innocence

I nod and mouththank youto him. Declan lets go of Aoife, patting her on the butt before leaving us in the kitchen.

“Did you want anything to eat or drink?”

She shakes her head. “No, the little one has me going to the bathroom every five minutes. I don’t like to encourage him to press on my bladder more.”

A pang of want stings in my heart and my hand rubs at my flat stomach before I drop it. My period came last week, but I didn’t think we would conceive in the first month of being married. I didn’t realize how much I actually want a baby until I spent three days bleeding, confirming it wasn’t in the cards this time.

“Do you mind the sitting room? Or did you want to go somewhere else?”

“His mother’s sitting room?” Aoife asks, her eyebrow raising with curiosity.

I nod, putting my hands in my pockets. “I can see why she liked it. The wide windows give such a comforting light.”

She smiles. “I’d love to. I haven’t been there since I was a little girl.”

We walk in silence and settle in the oversized chairs, staring at each other in awkward tension.

I clear my throat. “Can I ask you something? You don’t have to answer, but I don’t have the courage to ask anyone else.”

Aoife watches me warily and shrugs one shoulder. “You can ask, but I won’t guarantee I’ll answer.”

Blowing out a rigid breath, I fidget with my fingers in my lap. “How’d Rian’s mother die?”

“Oh.” Aoife glances away from me, staring out the windows with a somber look. “Car accident. She was recovering at home from her injuries and we didn’t catch the infection in time.”

I frown, sad that it was probably something preventable, and I bet they all blame themselves. “Was the accident…truly an accident?”

Aoife blinks and looks back at me with furrowed eyebrows. “As far as I know. I think if it wasn’t, Rian and his father would have started a war on her behalf.”

“Thanks for telling me. Anytime someone brings her up, it’s usually a happy memory, and I don’t want to disturb them by asking,” I say.

She nods. “I get it. She was the brightness in the dark reality of our world. I think when she died, a little piece of them all died too. The shine in Declan’s eyes dulled a little.”

“Rian makes it seem like she was basically all of their mother.”

Aoife tilts her head, a small smile on her face. “She was. They’re brothers in all ways but blood. Most of them are sons of the women working the underground brothels. Rian’s mother took them in when no one wanted them. They all grew up together.”

My mouth drops open. “So when he said they all lived here…he meant that literally. That they were all adopted.”

“I don’t think Liam ever made it official. Rian is his only heir, but they are all his sons.”

I sink into the chair in stunned silence. “I really thought he was just exaggerating.”

Aoife laughs. “No. The only one missing is Aisling. Those twins were trouble that only Liam and Elodie wanted to wrangle.”

“I’ve heard bits and pieces about Aisling, but she seems like a myth at this point.”

“I think she’s somewhere in Japan right now, working with Yakuza,” Aoife says absentmindedly, as if it’s not the most forthcoming information I’ve gotten in weeks.

I don’t want to draw any attention to her slip, so I ask instead, “And what about you?”

“My father was one of Liam’s closest captains, I think that’s the Famiglia equivalent. We don’t really have titles here, just higher respect for certain family names.”

“So you were just around a lot?”

Aoife giggles, rubbing at her belly and sighs. “I think they thought having a girl around would guide Aisling to different activities. But she didn’t really want anything to do with me, considering I seemed to be the one who got all the boys in line.”

I smile. “A mother hen and all her chicks?”

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