Page 58 of Prudence
My brother’s joking accusation was a lot closer to home than he could ever realise. “I wasn’t there when he fainted. I was upstairs.”Dragging my tongue across Milly’s sweet skin.
“Right. You haven’t denied the lovechild bit, though. Do we have a half-sibling out there we’ve never met?”
“No,” I stated flatly.
“Then what?”
“If I tell you, this has to stay between us. Nuala will only go blabbing to Mam, and if she doesn’t know about it, then it could cause unnecessary trouble between our parents.”
Tristan leaned forward. “Of course.”
I quickly rehashed what I’d overheard between Milly and Dad while eavesdropping, and Tristan listened intently to it all.
“Fuck,” he swore, sitting back in the plastic chair and running a hand down his jaw once I was finished. “That’s a bit intense. Could you imagine if one of us got a girl pregnant as teenagers?”
“Mam would’ve murdered us.”
“Yeah, and if the girl demanded marriage, Dad probably would’ve been the one marching us down the aisle. Hey, it wasn’t that different for you. You were a little older, sure, but when Paloma turned up on our doorstep pregnant, Dad was the one who lectured you about your responsibilities. It’s half the reason you married her in the first place. Maybe Dad had all this unresolved guilt that he put onto you.”
“That wasn’t it. I wanted to marry Paloma.”
“So, why was she the one who proposed?”
I gritted my jaw. “That was because—”
“Because the person you actually wanted to be with was living in another country, and you were too chicken to go after her.”
“If you’re talking about Milly, she didn’t want me. She left.”
“But how do you know she didn’t want you? You spent so much time pining after her and following her around like a lovesick puppy, but you never actually told her how you felt,” Tristan challenged.
His tone got my blood up, and I stood. “I did tell her.”
My brother rolled his eyes. “Of course, you did.”
“I fucking did,” I shouted, causing several other people in the waiting room to startle, but I was too pissed to calm down. “I told her I was in love with her. I even got down on one knee and asked her to marry me, but she said no. She saidno. Okay? Are you happy now?”
Tristan stared at me, stunned, before another voice joined the conversation.
“You asked who to marry you?”
Turning, I found Nuala standing there, a holder with three coffees in her hands and her eyebrows risen all the way up into her forehead.
A low, guttural swear passed my lips before I sank back down into my seat. This day had started out well but had swiftly gone downhill.
When I didn’t answer Nuala, she glanced at Tristan. “Who is he talking about?”
Tristan arched an eyebrow. “Who do you think?”
Nuala thought on it for a beat, then turned to me. “Milly? You asked Milly to marry you? When was this?”
Bloody hell. I did not want to be talking about any of this, but I’d dug my own hole. “Before she went to London to live with her aunt.”
“Oh, my goodness.” Nuala looked stunned as she lowered into a seat before absently passing around the coffees. “She never told me that.”
“Maybe she was trying to help me save face. I laid it all on the line for her, and she rejected me.”
Nuala frowned. “That doesn’t make any sense. Milly was besotted with you back then. She might never have told me because she was always so shy, but I could tell. The way she looked at you whenever you walked into a room. It was like everyone else ceased to exist. Then again, she was also very determined to go to college and become a doctor. Perhaps she felt like she had to choose between you and her future career.”
