Page 34 of Dublin Debacle

“Because I was stupid,” she said. “I needed to fulfill my mother’s dying wish and thought it would be better to do it in person.” Emily pulled out her cell phone, brought up her map application and entered the address for the wharf.

Jack started the engine, pulled out onto the street and turned in the direction the map indicated.

“The thing is, I could have fulfilled her wish via a phone call.” She stared out the windshield, not seeing the road ahead, her mind replaying the memory of her mother lying on her deathbed, holding her hand through the protective gloves.

“What was her wish?” Jack’s voice pulled Emily back into the present and the problems she had to face.

“She wanted me to tell my father that she still loved him and always had.”

Jack nodded. “How long had they been apart?”

“Thirteen years,” Emily said. “I promised I’d tell him, and I should’ve done it through a phone call, but no. I had to make a trip to Ireland and bring Finn to meet the father he’d never known since we’d left when he was an infant.” Emily snorted softly. “We should’ve stayed in the States.”

Jack navigated through the busy streets of Dublin, coming to a stop at a traffic light. “What made you stay in Ireland?”

Emily’s face softened, and her heart squeezed hard in her chest. “Finn was only fifteen. I had just finished college. I was fully prepared to take on the responsibility of seeing him through the rest of his schooling and help him find his way in life. If my mother could still love my father after all those years, he couldn’t be all bad. Since I had a message to deliver anyway, I thought it would be good for Finn to at least meet the man.” She smiled. “I was nine when we left Ireland. I missed my Da, but life went on. I thought we left because they’d divorced, and my father didn’t want anything to do with his children. When my mother said they hadn’t, I wanted to know why he hadn’t wanted to be a part of our lives.” Her eyes filled with tears. “After I delivered my mother’s message, I asked him.” She swallowed hard on the lump in her throat.

Jack didn’t press her to continue.

Emily appreciated that he didn’t. She needed time to compose her words. “You see, the man who threatened my father’s family—my mother, Finn and myself—hadn’t only threatened them, he’d followed us on a day trip out to Wicklow National Park. My mother was taking us to see the wild horses. The man ran our car off the road. My mother almost died in the wreck.

“When my father found out who’d done it, he went after him with a tire iron.”

Jack stopped at a traffic light and turned to capture her gaze.

“They fought, but in the end, my father killed him,” Emily said softly. “The leader of the Travellers witnessed it. He told my father he would turn him into the Garda if he tried to leave Ireland, and he would have to pay a monthly sum from his profits at the pub to the Travellers to keep the peace. He also said that he would do nothing to protect his wife and children. That would be all on my father.”

“So, your mother moved with you and your brother back to the States.”

Emily nodded. “My father showed me the letters she’d sent him through the years with pictures of us. He didn’t trust that the Travellers would leave us alone, so he told them they’d divorced, and he had nothing to do with us. He had my Uncle Paddy send letters to my mother from a post office south of Dublin where she had her letters delivered to him.” She drew in a deep breath and let it out. “He loved her all those years. He was so happy to see us and sad to hear of my mother’s passing. We were only supposed to be here for a few weeks.”

“But you’ve been here ever since.” Jack shot a smile in her direction.

“That’s right.” She shook her head. “After all the years thinking our father didn’t care about us, it was hard to believe that he’d never stopped loving us.”

“What about the guy who held the secret over him?”

“We were in Ireland for two months when he died of a brain aneurysm after a fight in a pub.” Emily’s lips quirked. “My father gave free drinks on the house to celebrate my mother’s life and sacrifice. The next day, he applied for a passport and scheduled a trip to the States to visit her grave. He stopped paying the extortion money he discovered wasn’t going to the community but straight into his blackmailer’s bank account.”

“Any trouble with the Travellers after that?” Jack asked.

Emily shook her head. “None. We settled into our lives. Finn finished high school, and I worked with my father, running the pub.”

“Is that what you wanted to do?” Jack asked. “What about your career? You said you finished college. What was your degree in?”

Her lips twisted. “Marketing. Which was perfect. I was able to put my marketing skills to work improving the business. I like that the pub has been around as long as it has, and in my family all that time. I was able to trace our ancestry back to the late seventeenth century.”

“What about a family of your own? Who will inherit the pub after you?” Jack asked.

Emily grimaced. “I dated in college, but nothing stuck.”

“What about in Dublin?”

“I have yet to find someone I can imagine spending the rest of my life with. I’m not in a hurry. I always thought being in love was finding that person you couldn’t live without.” She lifted one shoulder. “But then my parents loved each other, yet they lived without each other. Which begs the age-old question,is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?”She gave him a crooked smile. “You see how confusing love can be?”

Jack nodded, his gaze fixed on the road ahead, his mouth set in a grim line.

Emily frowned. Had she struck a nerve? “But enough about me. What about you? I didn’t even think to ask, are you married or do you have a girlfriend back home, wherever home is?” She shook her head. “See how little I know about you?”

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