Page 6 of Shattered Hearts
Even though I brace myself, seeing him again steals my breath.
Finn Gallagher stands before me, every bit as striking, handsome, and intimidating as he was three years ago. He’s over half-a-head taller than us, with the sharp, sculpted jawline he shares with his father partially obscured by a short, well-trimmed beard. His tousled auburn hair frames his face in that sexy bedhead kind of way very few men can pull off.
A sharp, custom-fitted gray suit emphasizes his powerful, muscled physique. Tattooed hands and fingers peek out from beneath the sleeves.
As I drink in the rest of his features, I swallow a gasp.
Long and jagged, a new scar begins by his nose and cuts down his right cheek through his lips.
Something about the ugliness of the scar, the visual receipt of a wound that could have killed him, simultaneously accentuates his harsh beauty while externalizing his rough nature.
Finn was already scary and dangerous. The scar merely adds a hot exclamation point to the end of the sentence.
He’s Shane’s son. An enforcer. The man can who can get information out of anybody. Whenever the family needs to break someone, they call the gruff, musclebound, and merciless Finn.
“Riley.”
I nearly choke on my own tongue when that rough, deep voice rolls over me.
Fathomless brown eyes drag over my entire body before returning to my face, triggering an onslaught of tingles across my skin. For a single moment, I swear his eyes warm. I must be dreaming though because a blink later, they’re as cool and detached as ever.
I nod, unable to squeeze a single syllable past my locked throat. Not when the sight of him sweeps me into a memory from the day I left.
The day, prompted by my years’ long crush, I kissed him, and he rejected me.
Shane rises from his seat at the dining table and calls for everyone’s attention, providing me with a welcome distraction from the most mortifying day of my life.
“Tonight, we’re gathered here to announce two of our own will be getting married this spring. Please join me in congratulating Harper Brennan and Finn Gallagher on their engagement.”
While the entire room erupts in applause and cheers, my body freezes. A bitter wave of betrayal crashes over me.
I sense Harper watching me from the corner of my eye, but I can’t look at her. Or him.
I feel like someone stabbed me between the ribs. Despite my estrangement from my family, I never would have believed Harper could be so cruel, yet there’s no other explanation for urging me to attend tonight’s party.
Because my twin knows. She knows I’ve truly only ever had eyes for one man in the Family.
And now she’s marrying him.
Chapter 2
Four months later
Riley
I step out of the taxi and stare up at the hulking gothic cathedral lurking between skyscrapers on a busy Manhattan avenue. I spent the past four months pushing Harper’s wedding into a dark recess of my mind as much as possible, but the day has finally arrived, and I’ve been summoned.
Inside the church’s atrium, an explosion of red and cream flowers greets me. I feel like I walked right into a two-page spread of a luxury wedding magazine.
Then I turn and nearly shriek when a giant canvas pops into my field of vision like an enormous jump scare. A photo of Finn and Harper, blown up to larger-than-life proportions. Harper’s Instagram smile next to Finn’s perpetual, brooding frown.
Nope. Not dealing with that right now.
I wind through the bowels of the cathedral until I find the antechamber doubling as the bridal suite. I push the heavy oak door. “Knock knock.”
As I round a corner, the first thing I see is Harper’s couture lace dress dripping down a mannequin near a vanity.
But the man seated at the mirror isn’t my sister.