Page 45 of Bloody Union

He sighs, “Your Granda wants to sort her out.” Ma gasps as tears spring to her eyes. “But that’s not going to happen now. Fucking hell. I shouldn’t have worn my good shoes.”

“What the hell am I missing?” Da asks, glaring around the table.

To my surprise it’s Dante that answers him. “What the other’s know that you don’t is who it was that slit Makenna’s throat.”

Da’s eyes flash. “Tell me now,” he grinds out and I’ve never seen him so angry. His hands are shaking, his nostrils are flaring and he looks as though he’s going to cry.

“Tell me.”

“It was Ma,” Finn says and the room is filled with silence. You can hear a pin drop.

“It was you?” Da growls as he gets to his feet. “You’re the one that tried to kill my daughter?”

“Seamus, I’m sorry, it was a mistake,” Ma says as she gets to her feet, trying to worm her way out of it.

I throw my fork onto the table and sit back in my chair. There’s no way I’m eating after this shit.

“Mistake? Tell me what the fuck happened!” he tells her as he advances on her. “Start talking, now,” he demands as he boxes her in.

“I was having an affair,” she tells him softly, but Da doesn’t give a fuck about that right now. “Makenna found out and he was mad. He hurt her and demanded that I finish her off. If I didn’t, then he was going to tell you and he’d have killed her.”

“So you slit her fucking throat? That is your daughter. You should have come to me, I would have protected her,” Da yells as the tears stream down Ma’s face. “Who was it? Hmm, who meant more to you than our daughter?”

Ma doesn’t answer him and Da loses his patience, he puts his fist into the wall behind her causing her to squeal.

“Someone tell me who the fucking bastard was?” Da demands and my heart sinks. This is why I never said anything, my da is beyond angry. I know there’s no coming back from this.

“It was my father,” Dante tells him and Da loses it.

He pulls out his knife from his pant leg and slices it across ma’s throat, slitting it from ear to ear. The shock on Ma’s face as she realizes what’s happened is karma. She doesn't make a sound as she falls to the floor in a heap, her eyes wide open as Da turns to face us. His eyes are wild; anger, pain, disgust, and worry feature heavily in them.

I turn to Finn, he’s panting, his fist clenched and jaw tight as he stares down at our mother’s dead body. He’s not able to take his eyes off her. Looking at Patrick, I see his gaze on the floor, his brows pinched and I see a tear fall down his face. Out of all of us, he was the one that was closest to her. My attention turns to Cian, he is very much like Finn, his chest heaving as he stares widely at the scene in front of him.

I’m numb but relief washes over me. She’s no longer going to have the opportunity to hurt me again. I should feel something—guilt, anger, pain. But I don’t, I feel bad that my brothers are hurting, that my da’s hurting, but I’m not. I’m glad the bitch is dead.

“Your father isn’t going to know what hit him,” my da says.

Dante nods, “I already have a plan in place.”

Da grins. “Good, I want in. No one hurts my daughter and gets away with it.”

I’m pretty sure there was a threat in there somewhere.

“We’re the motherfucking Gallagher’s,” Da says. “We’re the ones that strike fear into everyone when they hear our name. We don’t keep secrets and we certainly don’t fucking keep secrets when it concerns my daughter.”

Killian shrugs, “Kenna didn’t want you to know and I was never around. I let it be, your boys loved their ma.”

“I don’t give a fuck. That woman should have paid the consequences a long fucking time ago.” Da stomps over to his chair and sits down, picking up his whiskey glass as he does.

“No more secrets, no more lies,” he tells us. “We’re a family, stronger than ever. We’re going to fucking rule the world, that includes being as one with the Italians. To new beginnings and being the motherfucking monsters we were born to be.”

We all raise our glasses as we toast. I glance back at my ma who’s still on the floor with her eyes open and for the first time since I was twelve I feel a little relief, and yet I know the worst is yet to come.

Fourteen

Dante

It’s beenthree days since Makenna’s father found out the truth about what happened to his daughter and did what any father would do. Killed the bitch that hurt her. Seamus has so many cops on his payroll that he managed to have her death swept under the rug. No one is going to go down for it. It’s the way it is in the Mafia. If we know the right people, have them on our payroll, everything can go away. The more money you have the better your life is. It’s a fact.