Page 105 of Stolen Rival
We fall into silence, and I’m so comfortable lying here holding my wife, that I almost drift off until I remember there’s something else I need to tell her. My surprise.
“I hired another company yesterday, too. They’re going to make some more alterations to the house.”
She shifts to look up at me. “What kind of alterations?”
I lock my eyes onto hers and hope she sees the sincerity and regret shining in mine. “The McCarthys were my rivals, and because of that and what your father did, I stole virtually your entire family from you. That’s something I will never be able to put right, and I am truly sorry for the pain it caused you.”
She bites her lip. “It matters to hear you admit that.”
Cupping her face, I gently brush my lips over hers. “I wish there’d been another way.”
Pressing the flat of her palm to my chest, she blinks up at me. “I get it, truly I do. It doesn’t take the pain away, but it means a lot to me to know you have regrets, even though your back was to the wall.”
“I do, but there’s one thing I don’t regret. One thing I could never regret.”
“What’s that?”
“What I did brought you to me. I believe a higher power was looking out for you that day, Sorcha. A power who knew you were too important to take from this world, that it wasn’t your time. I’m not the man I was before I met you. I’m still not a good man, but I hope I’ll always be a goodman to you.”
“You’d better or I’ll use those newfound skills you taught me and shoot off your dick.” An impish smile tilts her lips up.
I widen my eyes in mock horror. “Not my dick. Anything but my dick.”
She giggles, and the sound burrows deep within my heart.
“Like I said, I realize there isn’t a way of making it up to you, but there is something I can do. Something Iwantto do that might go some way to showing you how sorry I am.”
“What’s that?”
“I know you never agreed with your father putting Cathal in a care facility, and having met him, and seen how you are with him, I agree with you. Which is why I’m repurposing a wing of the house so Cathal can have his own space and round-the-clock medical care. He’s as much a part of this family as you and Liam and Darragh are. And the Mahoneys take care of their own.”
Her eyes fill with tears and despite her rapid blinking, they spill over her cheeks in rivers. “You’d do that for me?”
I wipe her tears away but more replace them. It’s a losing battle. “I would do anything for you,mo mhuirnín. Anything.”
Chapter 49
SORCHA
It’shard to believe two months have already passed since I watched Patrick take what I thought was his last breath.
It’s amazing how much can be achieved when money and resources are thrown at a problem. So much has changed, and I don’t just mean the fact that our home has gone from being a building site, to having not one butthreepanic rooms installed. Or that an entire wing of the Mahoney Manor has been repurposed and renovated for Cathal to come and live with us.
The changes to the house aren’t the only things that have changed. I’ve changed. I’ve gone from being a twenty-year-old, green-around-the-gills daughter of a mafia boss to a mafia wife. I’ve still got a lot to learn, and there are any number of things Patrick can’t—or won’t—teach me, but I feel much more on level ground than I did a few short weeks ago.
Besides, I’m not twenty years old anymore either. Today is my twenty-first birthday.
Does anyone in the house even know it’s my birthday?
It’s not as though Patrick and I dated likenormalpeople. We didn’t get to have candlelit dinners or coffee togetheror exchange late-night sexy pictures and text into the wee hours. There’s still alotthat we don’t know about each other, and some things I wish I didn’t know—like my husband’s proclivity for leaving his dirty fucking socks lying all around the house. How Maeve hasn’t crammed them down his throat after all this time is anyone’s guess. He must have her under his spell.
Despite it being my milestone birthday, Patrick has been away on business. He was due to come home this afternoon but messaged to say his flight got delayed. In a bid not to roll around the house like a tiny pinball in a massive machine, I dragged Rosanna out for an afternoon of shopping.
As the car winds up the driveway to the front of my home, a balloon arch catches my attention. My heart picks up speed. Maybe Patrickdoesknow it’s my birthday after all.
“I’ve never seen balloons at the Mahoney’s house before. Is there something going on tonight?” Rosanna’s hand flies to her chest. “Are you having a party and didn’t invite me?”
I lean forward and cover the hand on her thigh with mine. “No, Ro. I’m not having a party. But I have a sneaking suspicion that my husband has found out that today is my twenty-first.”
