Page 14 of Wistful Whispers

Usually, we sweep this shit under the rug so I’m surprised when she speaks. “Cillian didn’t even text me back this time.”

Connor exhales, shifting a sleeping Teagan against his shoulder so he can eat. “Anyone talked to him?”

I don’t answer immediately, cutting into my lamb instead. I feel my brother’s eyes on me. Heknows.

Finally, I decide to answer. “Brennan and I tried to talk some sense into him a few months ago.”

Da, who’s been quiet, looks up at me. His blue eyes—our blue eyes—narrow slightly.

“And?” Connor’s fork is poised in mid-air.

I hesitate, then sigh. “He kicked us out.”

“What?” Ronni’s head snaps up.

“We wanted to check on him.” I wince at the memory of what we found. “He stood us up for dinner and we were worried. For good reason. He could barely form a sentence and there was an empty whisky bottle on the counter. We tried to reason with him. He didn’t want to hear it.”

Ma exhales slowly and takes a drink of water. Looks off into the distance.

“Sounds familiar.” Da sets his fork down and shakes his head.

His words settle like a weight over the table. Because we’ve all seen this before.

Lived this before.

I glance at Da, expecting him to tense up, to shut down and clam up like normal.

Instead, he looks…defeated. “This is my fault.”

Ma immediately shakes her head. “Rory, ach, no—”

Which pisses me off. She’s always letting him off the hook. If the man wants to take accountability, he should. He spent years putting the family through hell and while he’s been sober for a long time now, it’s rare to hear him apologize.

“Look. I failed Cillian.” He looks at each of us in turn. “I failed all of you. He’s got my genes…”

A lump forms in my throat. I love my brother. I can’t bear to see him throw his life away.

“Da, you’ve come a long way—” Connor reaches for Ronni’s hand. “We’ve forgiven you, so we have.”

Of all of us, Connor sacrificed the most. Nearly giving up every one of his dreams to run the family business and make sure all of us made it through school. If Cillian hadn’t wanted to take over McGloughlin Construction, Connor may have never pursued his dreams of becoming a rock star.

“You shouldn’t.” Da’s voice cracks slightly. He drags a hand down his face. “I let the drink take me. I let it make me a man I never wanted to be. I see Cillian now, and I know what his road looks like. I know where it leads.” He glances at Ma, regret carved into every line of his face. “I keep wonderin’ if I was a better man back then, would he be strugglin’ like this now?”

No one speaks for a long moment.

Then, Ma reaches out and takes his hand. “You came back to us. You changed. If you can do it, so can he.”

Da nods, pain etched in his eyes.

“I should’ve followed up with him.” I swallow thickly.

Connor shakes his head. “Your focus should be on your residency. I’ll check on him.”

“No.” Da slaps the table. “You have a wee baby and two beautiful boys to love. Cillian needs me and I intend to get him back on the right track if it’s the last thing I do.”

The conversation shifts and Ma fills us in on Brennan’s big deal for his company, CognifyAI down in Silicon Valley. Ronni excitedly gets us up to speed on her latest project. Connor gushes about Liam and Padraig’s tour and lets us know the dates for LTZ’s upcoming Seattle shows.

I listen, nodding along, though my mind keeps drifting back to Miranda.

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