Page 77 of Their Deviant Love
I look from her to Mr. Valentino. “What do you mean I’m not the O’Malley heir?”
“You aren’t an O’Malley, Connor. After you killed your father, rumors started to surface back home. I collected a sample of DNA from you last time we were in Dublin and ran it to confirm if they were true. You’re not an O’Malley, Connor,” he repeats. “Your mother had an affair.”
I blink. That can’t be right.I’m not an O’Malley? How the fuck can I not be?It’s all I’ve ever known.
I turn to my mother. “Is it true?” I ask her, but I know the answer without her having to say anything. “You lied to me. My whole life is a lie? What the fuck, Ma? Who the fuck was he?” I stand and start pacing the room.
Then it hits me. This is what I’ve always wanted. I’m not the O’Malley heir. It’s not my birthright. I smile, walk over to Mr. Valentino, and throw my arms around him.
“Thank you,” I tell him. He returns my gesture with a stiff pat on the back.
This news frees me. I’m finally going to be free of the burden of this family.
“No, Connor. This is your birthright. I didn’t make it this far for nothing,” my mother says. “I did this for you. So you can have all of this.”
“All of this?” I parrot. “I’ve never fucking wanted any of it, Ma. You wanted it. Not me.” I pull out my phone and start typing on the screen. “I need to call a meeting.”
The sooner I break this news to the higher-ups of this organization, the sooner I’m out of here. They can find someone else to be their fucking leader.
“Is it really going to be that easy?” Aurora asks. “I mean, people can’t just leave this life.”
“They can when it involves a birthright. They will find whomever was next in line after my father, likely one of his cousins. We are going home, princess.” My lips land on hers until a throat clears behind us. “Sorry,” I mutter. I don’t want to be disrespectful in front of her father.
I message Cillian.
Me:
Get everyone, meeting in an hour. My house, office.
Cillian:
On it, boss.
I need to get my mother out of here. If I don’t, she won’t have any chance of survival, not that she deserves it. But I can’t be the reason she dies. I don’t know what it is. I feel like that’s just a line I can’t cross. It was easier with my father. But a mother is… different.
I press the intercom. “Come and escort my mother off the premises.” Then I turn to her. “I never want to see or hear from you again. If I were you, I would run far, far away. You and I both know what they will do when they find this out.”
The organization will kill her. They’ll find her eventually. But it won’t be because of me.
An hour later, I’m standing in front of ten of the most senior members of the O’Malley organization. When you think about it, these are the guys who really run shit. Being their boss is aglorified position. Of course, if I said jump, they’d ask how high. But shit is fine without my input as well.
I’ve just told them about what I’ve found out.
“Do you know who he was? The guy your mother had an affair with?” Cillian asks me.
“No, and I don’t care to know,” I tell him. “However, what I do need everyone to know is that when I leave here, I’m done. This isn’t my place. I’m not the heir. And I want to make sure nothing follows me back to Boston.”
“Nothing will follow you,” Cillian says. “I’ll sort it. You take your wife and go to school like you should be doing.”
I look at him. He’s always been kind to me. I didn’t think too much of it before. Then a memory from my childhood hits me. I was ten, and Cillian came over and handed me the ball I’d thrown across the garden. My mother ran out, stood between us, and started yelling. At the time, I had no idea what he’d done wrong. It wasn’t unusual for my mother to yell, though.
Was it him? Is he the guy she had an affair with?
“Thank you.” I shake his hand. I’m not going to dig, because I really don’t want to know. Nothing good will come of it.
I walk out of the office and find Aurora in the living room with her father.
“You ready to go home, princess?” I ask her.
