Page 18 of Luca
ChapterEight
MARGARET
“Another one bites the dust,” I muttered, rubbing my increasingly large belly and staring at nothing in particular. I was too far gone in my own thoughts to see anything. I was six months pregnant and things weren’t going that great.
The whispers had started after my second fiancé died. People in the underworld had started calling me a black widow. Morons. We were never married so the logic made no fucking sense.
Pregnant. Single. No clue of who the baby daddy was.
Those were the only qualities that colored me lately. Of course, nobody but Áine knew I had no idea who my baby daddy was. I’d never admit it to anyone. Not even my brothers. And especially not my mother.
“Why are you so calm?” My mother was just about to lose her mind. Not only had I failed the family, but I got knocked up so the entire underworld had evidence to this family’s shame.
I didn’t care about my mother, but I loved my brothers. Even Uncle Jack.
“This bastard baby is a disgrace. A fucking shame,” Mother hissed, her fingers gripping a rosary. She always held a rosary, like she was some damn saint.
Far from it, I snickered silently.
I lowered my eyes, my palm roaming my bump while I whispered silently to my baby girl she wasn’t a shame. She’d be a princess. Strong and beautiful.
“Margaret!” Mother screeched. “Are you listening to me?”
She looked like she was about to keel over from the shame. I snickered again. Compared to her, I was eligible for sainthood.
Hate slithered through me, flicking a gaze her way. Her lips curled into a sneer. That sneer… I remembered it from before. Even after all this time, the nightmare of that day was fuzzy, but little things always triggered a new memory.
I couldn’t breathe.
The hand tightened around my neck. I thrashed my arms and legs, desperate to throw Benito off and get some air into my lungs.
Snot ran down my nose. Tears blurred my vision. Dying… I’d die next to Da.
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to escape the images flashing through my brain with a vengeance.
Father’s dead eyes. Benito’s vicious grin. Mother’s ugly, twisted sneer.
My chest tightened and my vision swam with black dots.
Breathe, my mind whispered.Breathe, Margaret.
I retched without warning and threw up all over the living room rug. I retched again and again, my knees hitting the ground. Puke surrounded me, the stench of betrayal and our fucked up family reeked in the air.
I disgraced our family. I failed the head of the Callahan family, my uncle. Well, fuck them all.
Aiden entered the room just as I puked again, throwing up the last remnants from my stomach. He rushed to me and sank onto the floor next to me.
“What the fuck did you do?” he hissed, accusation clear in his voice. He held my hair back, while glaring at our mother.
“Nothing,” she replied defensively. “We were discussing her marriage.”
He eyed her suspiciously, but since I didn’t deny nor confirm, he returned his attention to me. Getting a glass of water and handing it to me, I downed it with a long gulp, and all the while, my brother’s hand rubbed my back.
“We’ll figure it all out,” he murmured, eyeing me worriedly. “You just get better.” He ran a gentle hand over my hair, reminding me of another time. It was Aiden who found me in the pool of blood next to Da. He forgot a book and had a buddy drive him back.
As his friend drove us to the hospital, it was Aiden’s words that comforted me.“You just get better. For me. For those idiot twins. Just stay with us.”
I sat back on my heels, wiping my mouth clean with the back of my hand. Suddenly, exhaustion pulled on me. Pregnancy was work enough, but throwing up just drained me completely.
