Page 68 of Knot your Princess
“Here,” Trent says, slipping the cameo brooch over the kitchen island to Atlas, who has stepped forward. “This opens it.”
“Who does it belong to?” I ask quietly.
“Their birth mother, Niamh Murphy, head of the Irish mafia a few years back.”
ChapterForty-Three
Atlas
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Sophia spits out, frustrated with all of this. “Is there anyone here whoisn’ta mobster?”
“Ssh,” Quinn whispers.
Glaring at the puzzle box, I don’t know what to feel. I’ve wanted it in my grasp for so many years, but now that it is here, I don’t know what to do with it.
“Why do you have it?” I ask, needing to know before I go any further. It appears that Cain has no clue what it is, but Trent must. He has the key for it.
“Niamh was a close friend and ally,” Quinn says quietly.
“So you knew about us all along?” I ask bitterly.
He shakes his head. “No. She asked me to keep hold of this box until she came back for it. I don’t know what’s in it. I’ve never looked. Francesca had the key, but when Nico told us that you were searching, we split up the box and key, which was stolen, and we couldn’t track it. She was killed shortly after she gave it to me in a bloody coup that toppled her from power. She was a strong woman, an alpha female, but it wasn’t enough in a game where the males prevailed. She was run out and challenged, and she didn’t survive.”
“How did you know about it?” Sophia asks softly.
Glancing over at her, I smile. “My, well,our, birth father came to see my dad one day, apparently. It was when I was still a baby. I don’t know how he knew where I was or that I was his, Dad never said much about it. He wanted to pretend it didn’t happen. He only blurted it out one day when he was drunk, and I was moping around, wondering who my birth parents were. He said the man came to him looking for the box. He thought Dad might have it.”
“What’s in it?” she whispers. “Do you know?”
I nod slowly. “Do you?” I ask Trent.
He nods as well. “Same story, different adopted parents.”
I gulp and turn to Cain.
He is ashen.
I don’t even need to ask if he knows. He doesn’t. If the male omega who tracked down me and Trent also found Cain, his arsehole adopted family didn’t tell him.
“Our birth certificates with our birth names on them,” I murmur. “And obviously the names of our parents, which we know now our mum. Niamh Murphy.” I say it with a slight reverence that I wish I didn’t feel.
A door slamming behind me makes me look back. Cain has left the kitchen. I don’t blame him. This must be a lot.
“I’ll go after him,” Sophia says. “Maybe wait to open it until we get back?” Her suggestion is tentative and worried.
Exchanging a glance with Trent, we both nod and watch Sophia go after our brother.
“We’ll leave you alone,” Quinn says. “Would you…?” He gestures to Francesca’s cuffed wrists.
Trent snorts and unlocks them. “This is a major clusterfuck.”
“Welcome to the Quinn/Calabrese pack,” Francesca says, reaching up to cup his cheek. “No hard feelings, but try that again, and Sophia will wonder what happened that you can’t mate with her anymore.”
“Cesca!” Quinn says, stunned as she giggles uncontrollably, breaking the tension.
Following them, Nico helps Enzo out of the kitchen, which leaves Trent staring at me.
“I’ll go after Sophia,” he says. “I don’t know much about him, but I imagine Cain can be…unpredictable.”
