Page 30 of Irish Reign

“Board members don’t want to know you faked your marriage.”

“I didn’t?—”

“You can’t?—”

But I can’t let that one go. I shout over her: “I didn’t fake my marriage!”

“So we can sue the papers for defamation?”

The question hangs in the air, naked and vulnerable. I want to say yes. I want to say I didn’t know. I want to say that I’m the victim here, that I didn’t fake anything, that it was Braiden who lied.

But I know what Sonja will ask next. She’ll want to know why I haven’t left him, now that I know the truth. She’ll ask why I’m living with him in the Rittenhouse. Why I was just photographed with two of the most notorious criminals in Philadelphia’s long history.

And I won’t have an answer.

Sonja finally says, “Braiden Kelly has a child, right?”

“Aiofe’s not his child. She’s his ward.”

“Even better. She’s an orphan?”

“What’sbetter?” I don’t like the freshly kindled excitement in her voice.

“Bring her down to Delaware tomorrow. We can hold a press conference. Explain that you’re taking care of her. That the media are terrifying her. That you’re being abused, and an innocent little girl is being hurt. Do you have matching outfits? No, that might be too much. Can you both wear jewelry, one ofthose necklaces? She has one half of a heart, you have the other. That’s fucking perfect! I’ll get one delivered overnight.”

“Sonja!” I shout. “Stop!”

Her silence is hostile.

“I’m not bringing Aiofe to Delaware. I’m won’t use her like that.”

“If you don’t write the story, it will be written about you.”

“Aiofe has already been the subject of too many stories.”

“You’re boxing me into a corner.”

“I won’t do it.”

Another long silence. Then, finally, Sonja says, “You have three weeks before the hearing.”

“I know.”

“We can prep twenty-four hours a day, but if the facts are against us and the law is against us, none of it will matter.”

“I know,” I say again.

“If you lose the ethics hearing, Teddy Newland will be hogtied in your criminal case.”

“I understand.”

She sighs. “Let me pull together a file. I’ll draft key points. Everything your testimony needs to convey.”

“Thank you,” I say. I’ve done the same for my clients countless times.

“You’ll have to know it perfectly.”

“I will.”

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