Page 64 of Hateful Union

“Want to tell me why the fuck I’m only finding out now?” I growl, pissed that he never fucking told me.

“Mal…”

“There’s no fucking excuse, Da, and you know it. I should have been your second fucking call. Such fucking bullshit.” I’m getting angrier by the second.

“Things are different now…” he says low.

Pain slices through me. “Ah, I get it, I’m not your son so I don’t matter. I got the message loud and clear.” I end the call and before I can even think about it, I throw the phone across the room, I don’t watch it, but hear the satisfying crash as it hits the wall and shatters.

I hear a squeak and my heart stops when I turn to where my phone’s just been flung at the wall and see Raylee standing mere inches away. “Fuck,” I whisper, I’m a fucking arsehole, that could have hit her. “I’m sorry, baby.”

“You were an arsehole to your dad, Mal, I’ve never heard you be so disrespectful to him.” Her voice filled with disappointment. “You know you’re a lot like him.”

I scoff, “That’s impossible, Raylee.”

She takes a step forwards, her gaze to the floor where she tries to dodge the broken shrapnel from my phone. “He’s not your biological father, I guessed that a while ago. The two of you couldn’t look any more different, I thought you took after your mum, but you don’t. So I assumed that you were adopted or something, but I’m guessing by your anger, that Denis isn’t your biological father.”

I nod, my jaw tight.

“Yeah but, Mal, he may not have been the sperm that made you, but he certainly shaped you. When you needed him, he dropped everything, hopped on a plane and was here for you, for me. He stayed for six days and did everything he could to help you.”

“You don’t understand,” I tell her, glad that I’m able to keep the anger from my tone. She doesn’t deserve to have it directed at her, she’s not done anything wrong.

She takes another tentative step forwards, “Explain it to me. Make me understand. I’ve got your back always, Mal. I’ll always support you one hundred percent even if you’re in the wrong. I may not agree with you and I’ll always state my case to try and get you to see differently, but ultimately, what you want goes, and I’ll support you always.”

I stare at my beautiful woman and not for the first time I wonder how the hell I got so damn lucky. I open my arms and she doesn’t even hesitate, she rushes into them and wraps her arms around my waist.

“My ma has been cheating on my da for decades. We knew that Chloe, Mary, and Gareth weren’t Da’s and more importantly, Da did too, but he never let on to them, that’s just not the man he is.”

She nods against my chest. “He’s a great father, the way he is with you, it makes me realise what my father and I had wasn’t great. I’m jealous.”

I’m a fucking arse.

“As you know, Danny and Melissa’s relationship started similarly to ours. Although they fucked before the hatred started and even that didn’t last long. But Lissa got pregnant and Danny demanded they get married. So they did. At the wedding, Ma started her fucking bullshit and tried to intimidate Lissa, something that I don’t think even Danny did. So Ma got a face full of Lissa’s attitude, and it pissed her off. She wanted to see me that night and decided to inform me that my da wasn’t really my da.”

She makes a grunting noise. “God, I wish I could get a hold of your mum for five minutes, I’d strangle the bitch. What the hell did she think she was achieving by doing that? Nothing good would have come out of it. I mean, you’re twenty-one years old and you love Denis. Your mum’s just a bitch.”

She’s right, that’s exactly what my ma is. “Holly was shot two nights ago.”

Her body locks as she inhales sharply. “What?”

“Yeah, that was my thought too, Da didn’t call me, he told me that things are different now.”

She looks up at me, her eyes shining with so much love. “Mal,” she whispers. “I don’t think he meant that you’re not his son, I think he was talking about this.” She reaches for my hand and places it on her stomach where our baby is currently growing. “He knows what it’s like to be a father and how your priorities switch. We both know the instinct to protect this unborn life is strong already, your father knows that too. With all the shit that’s been happening recently, I don’t blame your dad for thinking that you need to stay here, but he’s wrong. You need to be with your family. He should have called and it’s shitty that he didn’t.”

I overreacted. “Fucking hell,” I mutter.

“Use my phone and call him back, tell him that you’ll be on the next flight out,” she tells me and quickly moves from in front of me. “Go sort that out while I try to salvage breakfast.”

Shit, I forgot about that.

“Thanks,mo stór.” I press a kiss to her head as she hands me her phone.

I call my da and he answers on the first ring. “I was trying to call you,” he tells me, sounding wrecked.

“Yeah, well my phone’s currently lying smashed on my floor.”

He sighs heavily. “I didn’t tell you because you need to be with Raylee, your woman’s pregnant and she has a fuck load of arsehole’s gunning for her. It was never and will never be what you thought. You are my son, Mal,” he growls. “My fucking son. Do not forget that. Never fucking forget that.”

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