Page 57 of The Past

“Ye ended yer engagement to Brian,” he thundered.“Without so much as a word to me.”

My knees were practically knocking into each other I was so scared, but I knew now was not the time to bow down to his autocracy.I was old enough to make my own choices over my life.“There was no engagement,” I said evenly, and I was proud that my voice sounded strong.“Ye arranged things, not me.”

His nostrils flared, his fists curling at his sides, and I swear I thought his eyes were going to bug out of his head.“This was for yer future, Fiona.For Glenhaven.For our family.Ye don’t get to be selfish.”

I stiffened, the injustice of it burning like acid in my chest.“Selfish?”My voice shook with anger.“Ye think wanting to choose my own life is selfish?”

“Ye don’t have a life outside of this family,” he snapped.“Everything ye have, everything ye are, is because of me.”

“Yer wrong,” I said, forcing the words out, even though I’d been programmed to cower before this man.“I do have a life outside this family and I won’t be forced into a marriage I don’t want.”

His face darkened as he processed my refusal and for a long moment, the only sound in the room was my own heartbeat pounding in my ears.

Then, with deadly calm, he straightened.“I demand ye pick up that phone right now and call Brian to apologize.Ye get this engagement back on track.”

“No,” I whispered.

“Yer refusing my order?”he asked with a bark of a laugh, as if he couldn’t believe the temerity.

“I am refusing to enter into a marriage I don’t want,” I clarified.

Seamus Conlan’s glare turned glacial and he bared his teeth.“Then yer no daughter o’ mine.”The words sliced through me, leaving me cold, hollow.I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe because I had no clue what this meant.Did this mean I was free of him?

His next words made clear the consequences of my rebellion.“Get out of my house.”

Siobhan gasped but I didn’t dare look her way.I blinked, my body numb.“What?”

“Ye heard me,” he said, his voice eerily level but backed by iron will.“Ye make yer own choices, do ye?Fine.But ye do it somewhere else.Yer not welcome in my house, in my family.”

I glanced over to see my mother’s face so pale, I thought she might be seriously ill.Her lips pressed into a tight line, but she said nothing.

Did nothing.

Just sat there, watching as my father shattered my entire world.

I looked to Siobhan, tears streaming down her face, and to Paddy whose mouth hung open in shock.

Back to my father, who glared at me so coldly, I knew at that moment he didn’t love me at all.I was just chattel to him and that made my next decision a bit easier.

“Fine,” I said, though my voice wavered.“I’ll pack my bag and be out of here.”

My da shook his head.“No.Ye leave with what ye have on yer back.Nothing more.”

“Seamus,” my mother said, but she went silent when he flashed her a sharp look.

My throat tightened.“Ye can’t be serious.”

Lifting an arm, he pointed toward the front door.“I won’t have ye taking what belongs to this family when ye no longer do.So ye will leave now and ye will not return unless it’s to make things right with Brian Kavanagh, assuming he’ll still have ye.”

I turned to my mother, my last desperate hope.She was the only one who might have some pull.“Mam?”

Her expression flickered, but she stared down at her lap, her hands tightening around the silk of her dress.

She wasn’t going to help and a wave of nausea rolled through me as the finality of it all sank in.

I didn’t know how my legs moved, how I forced one foot in front of the other.The hallway blurred, the walls closing in as I stumbled toward the front door.The house that had been mine for almost eighteen years felt like a stranger, like a place I had never belonged.

Siobhan’s sobs followed me into the foyer and that spurred me to move quicker.The sounds were near to tearing me apart.I lurched out the door and noticed that when I’d walked in not but five minutes ago, the sun was bright and cheery.Now it was gone, and storm clouds loomed overhead.

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