Page 129 of Dirty Eoin

“There was nothing to miss. I don’t think you realize how well she and I understand each other now. We were together for five months, after all. It really wasn’t difficult to see it from the other person’s perspective when everything was calmly explained. Jaine’s also quite clearly spent the past weeks analyzing and filing things away in her head. I think that process helped. She’s pretty much back to being her old self.”

“So, no more flying off the handle.”

I shake my head. “I then asked her outright if she had ever loved me.”

“And what did she say to that?”

Someone you hate. I’ve never loved you.

I pause before I respond because I’m not sure I want to hear the words out loud a second time. “That she never has and that, in fact, she still hates me.”

“Ouch.” He grimaces.

“Indeed.” I run my hand over my face.

“But you’re in love with her.”

“Yes, Dylan, but did you not hear what I just said? Jaine’s feelings for me remain unchanged. In fact, they’re worse than I feared. She achieved her plan. A plan she regrets, I might add. Now that it’s over, her guilty conscience won’t allow her to continue to hold me to ransom when she clearly sees no future for her and me, and especially not now she thinks I’ve found my perfect Ma Duster.”

“Do you want me to have a word with Jaine? To explain what actually happened, and that it was all a misunderstanding?”

I shake my head. “There’s no point, Dylan. It won’t change anything. I’ll just have to accept that her feelings for me are what they are and move on with my life the same as she’s doing.”

CHAPTERFORTY-ONE

JAINE

Jaine’s Apartment, Upper East Side, New York

“You can’t putit off forever, partner.”

“No? Just watch me.”

I’m working from home and so busy that I answered the phone without looking at the caller ID. After twenty minutes of a pretty much one-sided conversation, it’s now something my ears are regretting.

“You can’t not go. It’s for Finian’s and JJ’s birthday.” She’s resorted to whining now, and I can’t help but smile.

“It’s a month too early, so it’s not like it’s their official party or anything.”

“It’s the only date the clown was available.” She huffs at my excuse-making.

It’s been four weeks since I last spoke to Eoin O’Connell. The New York grapevine is buzzing with news of his and Ava’s budding relationship. Talk of two of Manhattan’s founding influential families potentially merging? I’m sure the wedding invitations when they eventually go out will be like gold dust and sold off to the highest bidder in order to add to their soon-to-be-amassed combined fortune.

Well, good luck to them. I truly mean that. Let’s hope the ceremony goes without a hitch because my alter-ego won’t be showing up to dispatch any bad guys this time around.

At least not without an invitation. I learned my valuable lesson last time having almost lost my life at the hands of my O’Connell father-in-law. And as I’m the soon-to-be ex-wife, it’s highly unlikely an invite with my name on will be forthcoming. The future Da Duster ship has sailed. It sailed when I walked out of his apartment having just spat out the ugly word ‘karma’. I’m not proud of my out-of-character behavior. Far from it. All I could think about was my own personal vendetta. I was so blinkered I couldn’t see past it.

Everything that subsequently followed on from the utterance of that one spiteful word was just nail after nail in the coffin that contained our toxic relationship.

Do I regret ending things? I’m not sure, but I do know that itwasthe right thing to do. Eoin has signed the paperwork to enable our marriage to be annulled.

Why did I put the offer on the table when the sole reason for getting wed in the first place was for Fin’s protection? A protection that’s still very much needed given the bad guys are still on the loose.

Our nuptials should have been just one more match in the compendium of games that he and I insisted on playing with each other. But something that should have remained fake very quickly turned into something that felt way too real. The lines became blurred.

Could we have given it a proper go? Yes, but the fact that we didn’t is perhaps a blessing in disguise as, in hindsight, would any attempt at trying to become a genuine couple have been doomed to failure given where we started?

Marriage is a sacred union of two people and a merging of souls. Until death do us part and all that. Like it was with me and Ace. It’s for life. You vow to love that person forever.

---