Page 58 of I Would Beg For You

Anything else, and I wouldn’t have had confirmation Valentino told me the truth.

“He raped her?” I ask softly.

“It’s what we believe. She was so far gone for him, though.”

“And you’re sure it wasn’t love?”

His raised eyebrows ask the question silently. I definitely am an idiot for thinking that.

“You knew about me?” I ask. No idea where this came from, nor why I switched topics like that.

“Knew of you, yes. Aoife went to live in New Jersey with him, and you were born five years later. Another five years on, and she was…gone.”

“How come you never reached out?”

Guess that filter was taking a beating today. He just confirmed he knew pretty much what happened with my mother and me, yet there’s no mention of them in our lives.

“You think we didn’t?”

His question slams a fist complete with brass knuckles into my gut.

“You did?” I blurt out.

“You might’ve been too young to remember, but did your mother like to hang out in the kitchen? With the cook in New Jersey? Or the housekeeper in the Hamptons?”

With the prompt comes the sudden flash of being held on a warm, slightly squishy lap, squirming while delicate hands held me. I can hear a tinkling laugh, and there’s the smell of fresh-baked cookies.

I gasp. Did I just remember my mother, her laughter, the hold of her arms?

“You do remember,” Declan says with a smile in his voice.

I blink to stare at him. “We didn’t have staff when I was growing up.”

“That’s true. After Aoife passed, your father closed off the world around you.”

And we couldn’t get our people in anymore.

Until now. With Anya.

My mother’s family never abandoned me. A sudden lightness bursts in my chest, and I gasp out a laugh as tears prick my eyes. I have people I can count on.

I laugh-cry some more, then sober up. “Sorry for that.”

Declan shakes his head. “I wish we could’ve been meeting face-to-face.”

I glance around the room, and it clicks. “This is your place.”

He smiles. “It’s yours, actually.”

“What?” I sputter.

“When my father died, whatever Aoife would’ve inherited, I put it aside.”

“For me?”

“Of course.”

He didn’t shrug, but I swear I caught it from him. Like,what else did you expect?

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