Page 54 of Among the Sins of my Father

“She’s here? She’s fucking here? My mother, who I haven’t seen in years, is fucking here?”

“I thought you knew,” Hope says apologetically.

“She wasn’t in a good place. I thought it would be best to wait for a few days before I told you, give her some time to come to terms with all this. Same for you.”

Gideon’s chin quivers even as his eyes blaze with anger. “I can’t take this all in right now. I need a minute.” He strides from the room, slamming the door behind him.

“That went well.” I lower myself back to my seat.

“Sorry, I just assumed you’d told him everything.”

“I was trying to, but it didn’t exactly go as planned.” Resting my elbows on my desk, I let my head flop to my hands, dragging my fingers through my hair.

Hope has calmed down somewhat from the first few days after we discovered Ette was gone. I didn’t think it would happen. She was hysterical, crying and pacing the sanctuary as though it might somehow hold the answer to who had taken her. Then a calmness descended. One that scares me. There’s a deadness to her eyes. Almost as though she’s given up.

“How’s she doing?” Hope asks.

“Getting stronger with each day. She actually managed to keep down some of the soup Mrs Bellamy gave her yesterday. That in itself is a huge improvement. Doctors say it will be a while before she’s back to normal, whatever that is.”

“That’s good, that’s good,” she mutters distractedly.

“She admitted that she accepted payment for information on me. Can’t believe my own mother would do that. It was a deliberate overdose too. Not sure if the intention was for her to survive.”

“She’s an addict, Jericho. She would have done anything to get her next hit.”

“She’s still an addict,” I say as the door opens again. This time there’s no knock.

“Sorry to barge in, sir.” Barrett’s gaze flicks between Hope and me hesitantly.

I sigh. “Barrett, I’ve told you—”

“The Gormans and the Keatings are related.”

It takes a while for the information to sink in. “How?” I demand.

“Mary Keating is Michael Gorman Senior’s sister.”

“And why the fuck did we not know this?”

“It must have just slipped through the cracks. They’re not a—”

“That fucking Montgomery. Don’t use him again. Ever.”

“Yes, sir. I mean, Jericho.”

Hope lowers herself to the chair recently vacated by Gideon. The color has faded from her face. “Does that mean…” she doesn’t finish the sentence, and instead, lifts tear-filled eyes to mine.

The thin thread of patience I have left snaps. “We should go right now. We should—”

“No!” The vehemence in Hope’s voice surprises me. “You don’t know them like I do. We can’t go rushing in there unprepared.”

“I agree with her,” Barrett says, coming to stand by her side. There’s some sort of strange vibe between them. It’s almost as though Barrett’s presence brings her comfort.

“I’m not going to just sit here when they could be right under our noses. We’ve been searching for someone who could’ve helped Dominic, that might have some stake in this and now we’ve got confirmation. I knew there was something fucked up about that family.”

“I spent years with Sebastian Atterton. If this Gorman is anything like him, I’m not risking him doing anything to Ette. We need more information.”

“More?” I roar. “What more do you want?”

---