Page 105 of Dylan
Cole wasn’t there for the things Logan shared with me. He was still too angry to speak to him. I can see why he’s a bit more confused than I am, although this too is a shock to me.
“Yes and no,” Logan replies.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Cole asks.
This is it. The holes Logan left in Ciara’s story. I need to know how it all connects. Why did I have to hold back what I know all this time?
“There were three Walsh brothers, not two. However, the third and oldest one was adopted. Adline Murphy-Walsh was, in fact, once Adline Murphy-O’Brien.”
“What?” I breathe in confusion.
That’s not our grandmother’s name. How the hell did Ciara’s grandmother have our last name? My stomach begins to turn as I try to think my way through what this all means.
“She was Oland’s first wife and the reason the old bastard became such an even bigger fucking bigot. Adline couldn’t conceive in the beginning of their marriage, so she begged Oland to adopt,” he explains.
My stomach eases and I realize how tight my jaw is set. I wipe a hand across my forehead and breathe in a deep breath. I had no idea our grandfather had been married more than once.
Logan continues as I slide to the edge of my seat. “However, when he agreed and Adline went to the orphanage to pick a child, she fell in love at first sight with O’Shea. A little brown baby whose family had been killed in Ireland, not too long after his birth. Oland lost his shit. He wanted a child who could pass for his.
“The two divorced, but he had loved her and couldn’t let go. Sucked for him. Adline met and fell in love with Bram Walsh. Oland wasn’t as big an eejit as he portrayed. Adline’s real maiden name was McDougal, not Murphy.
“However, her father didn’t want her to marry Oland to begin with and stripped Adline of everything until she was divorced, so she went by her mother’s maiden name, Murphy, until she and Oland married.
“Her father, Lennox McDougal, favored Bram and his marriage to Adline. Oland wasn’t about to go at Bram head-onwith this knowledge. Back then, everyone knew you didn’t fuck with two families in Scotland.
“The McDougals and the Blacks. Those names are feared to this day. Adline married Bram and Bram took O’Shea in as if he were his own son. Not long after they were married, Adline conceived and gave birth to Angus.
“A few years later, she had Donald. Oland was furious. In his mind, that Black child ruined his life and that evil woman tricked him.
“If he hadn’t fallen for a Scottish woman, none of it would have happened. To him, women were inferior and anyone without Irish blood wasn’t worth breathing, nor could they be trusted.”
“Fucking asshole,” I mutter.
“Aye, ya don’t tell a fib,” Logan snorts. “That’s why he found a young Irish bride to give him children and submit to him. Da was born, but Oland’s hatred only grew,” Logan explains.
“How does Grandda Ian fit into all of this?” I quiz.
“Grandda Ian and Bram were best friends, and O’Shea Walsh became Grandda’s godson. When Grandda took O’Shea to America to meet some of his birth family, Oland made his move. O’Shea wasn’t killed in the attempt but a few of his family members were and O’Shea came really close to death himself.
“Grandda Ian had already had thoughts of the Alliance in mind, but this cemented things for him. Oland needed to pay. It wasn’t good enough to go to war with him.
“Grandda Ian wanted a legacy that would wash Oland and his bullshit away forever. However, it was too soon for Uncle Joe and Uncle Finlay to be groomed for what he had planned. Don Donati’s death proved they were all moving too fast.
“None of them were ready—the originals where the concept was birthed—but things started lining up for him to shake up the world as we were born. Grandda started his match when itwas time for his children and the others to find brides and start families. The seeds ofwhat ifwere already planted.
“LaSalle and I started to fill in the spaces as Don Alfanzo decided his successor wouldn’t be one of his sons, but his nephew, and I fell in as the firstborn grandson. Grandda had Lennox’s ear. He was willing to fund the operation as long as it didn’t cause a war too big to handle for his Scottish clan.
“Unfortunately, Lennox’s oldest son didn’t like the idea. He also didn’t like the fact that O’Shea was next in line.”
“Let me guess. He had O’Shea killed,” I grumble.
“Aye, that day would come. O’Shea met and married during one of his visits to America. He brought his wife and daughter back to Scotland with him. Not one of them was Scottish born, but the clan was going to O’Shea.
“O’Shea was killed in a car accident when Raven was nineteen, going on twenty. Raven and her mother returned to America. However, Lennox was pissed and determined to stick it to his sons. The other three hadn’t helped Archie, but they hadn’t stopped him either.
“Raven wasn’t Scottish born or a McDougal by blood, fine. He placed a ton of assets in her name that still served the Alliance in the end. Same for Deja. Angus met and married her mother soon after she was born. Deja’s mother was widowed, losing her active-duty husband,” Logan says.
“But Ciara is a Walsh through and through. She has McDougal blood in her veins, as does Ciarán,” I say as I start putting the pieces together for myself.
