Page 51 of Broken

"Everything is fucked. My world is imploding; Kai is down here, and he wants to meet his daughter."

"Yeah, Noah said he... Wait, what? Little Aine is Kais's daughter?

Babes! Fuuuuck."

"Yeah. Sorry." I cringed. I forgot that I left that little bit of information out of my story when I told Mia and Tess about Aine. "Wait? Who the fuck did you think her father was?"

"Some one-night stand from college, maybe, or some guy you were with back then that you just never mentioned for whatever reason." She did have a point. There were four years of my life I completely blocked her out of. "Everything makes sense now. Shit Babes. I wish I had answers for you."

I sighed. I was on my own with this, with no one to blame but myself. "It's fine. I'm just really fucking lost. I broke a lot of promises over the years, but I figured keeping the one I made to you when I left a couple of weeks ago would be a good way to start over."

"Fuck yeah. I'm proud of you Babes. If you need me, I can close up shop and drive down today."

I laughed. Of course, Mia would drop everything and come to my rescue. We had been doing it for each other since we were little. "You

don't need to do that, Mia. I just needed a pep talk is all."

"Alright. As I said, you need me, just say the words and I'm there." I agreed and smiled to myself as I hung up the phone.

I had to figure out how to fix this. I promised Kai I would tell Aine about him, and that he could meet her today. Thinking about telling my daughter made my hands clammy and my forehead sweat. My heart raced, and I felt like I would be sick at any moment.

By the time I got to Riley's house, I looked like I had come down with the flu. I sent a text to my boss, calling in sick, and before I could set my phone down, Danielle called.

"What the fuck happened last night?" Danielle blurted out before I had a chance to greet her.

"Nothing. I'm not feeling well, so I went home. I think I'm coming down with something." I felt bad lying to her, but I wasn't ready to explain what actually happened last night.

"Bullshit. I went to the apartment on my way home last night, to check on you."

Fuck. This just went from messy to shit in zero point five seconds.

"Dani."

"Oh hell no. None of this 'Dani' shit. I've already left the office. I'm picking up pizza, you get the movie ready."

Danielle hung up on me at the same moment Aine got in the car.

"Hi, my little ladybug." I greeted her as I planted a kiss on her

forehead. "How does a girls' day in sound?"

"Is Dani coming?" Her face lit up like a Christmas tree. Danielle spent most of our girls' days with us.

"She’s bringing pizza. You get to pick the movie."

"Three Faces of Eve." Aine had been begging to see the old movie since she watched a preview of it on some late-night cable channel.

"Isn't that a little dark for you? Why not Funny Face?"

Aine gave me a side glance. "We've seen Funny Face a million times, mom. What about To Catch a Thief?"

"Fine. But I thought you loved Audrey Hepburn?"

"I do. But we've seen all her movies. Especially Funny Face. To Catch a Thief has Grace Kelly in it. I really like her too. Did you know she married a prince?"

"What else have you seen with Grace Kelly?" I knew Grace Kelly starred in three Hitchcock films, but my daughter just happened to pick one of the three.

"Riley and I saw a bunch of them. I think High Society is my favorite though. I love Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra"

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