One of the reasons we came to church wasn’t just because it made Evelyn happy, it was for the clan. We wore our thousand dollar suits and drove our expensive cars here to prove that we were able to take care of each other and them. We were the standard, the hope, and the law. Everything we did needed to either make us richer or make us stronger for everyone. But having Coraline just made me happy.
“Are you okay?” she leaned in and whispered, still holding on to the book.
“I’m fine.”
For now.
But by the time mass ended I could feel my heart beginning to race as Liam stepped out. I followed him while holding onto Coraline’s hand. Sedric and Evelyn walked out of the church first, and the rest of followed. When we were in the lobby area, Evelyn turned back.
“Hi, I’m Evelyn.” She hugged her.
“Hi.” Coraline giggled as she hugged her back. “I’m Coraline.”
“Come, dear, Olivia and I would like to chat with you for a moment. We heard that you stole our Declan for a whole week.”
She looked to me and I nodded and smiled as I kissed her cheek.
“I’m heading to the restroom, I’ll see you in a few,” I said to her and Evelyn’s eyebrow raised at me. I kissed her cheek. “Please watch out for her.”
She nodded to me and wrapped her arm around Coraline’s shoulders.
It was only when they were far away from me that I turned to Sedric who was already walking towards the restroom. Liam and Neal waited for me to follow. I already knew what I was going to say…I just needed to be bold enough say it to the Ceann na Conairte. He wouldn’t kill me…I knew that. But her…that was a whole different story.
The moment I got into the bathroom, the back of his fist hit me right across the face.
“Have you lost your goddamn mind?!” he sneered at me while I wiped the blood from my lip.
“Sedric—”
“The very first words out of your mouth should be an apology, not my name, boy.”
Just say it.
I shook my head. “I’m not apologizing.”
“Declan!” Liam grabbed ahold of me but I brushed him off.
“For eighteen years I have been your son, Sedric. Never once have I asked for anything. I have dedicated my life to you, to my cousins, to our family! I have lied. I have stolen. I have killed and tortured, all for the sake of this goddamn family!”
“You have done no more than I, or Liam, or Neal, or anyone else in this family!” he roared, but I didn’t back down. I couldn’t.
“Well, now I’m asking for something. I’m asking for her. I want her! After just one week. Yes, call me a fool, smack me again if you’d like, do whatever you wish to me, but let me have this one thing. Dad…please just let me just have this one thing,” I begged.
His fist clenched and he shook his head. “You’ve already made your choice…in front of the whole fucking world at that. But you’re fooling yourself if you think I have power here. It’s now in her hands. When she finds out what you are, what we are, and she walks away from you, you will have to be the one that puts a bullet in her skull. Or were you hoping that she would never find out.”
“I just need time…”
“For what? For her to love you? Do you think she can love you enough to forget that you’re a murderer? It—”
“Evelyn did it for you!” I snapped, knowing that I was pushing my limits. “She was just like Coraline once upon a time, and she stayed by your side.”
“And there are days when I wish she hadn’t. If you really care about her, let her go, Declan. Let her go before we hurt her.”
“I’m too selfish for that.”
His jaw clenched. “Tell her. Sooner rather than later so I’ll have less of a mess to clean up.”
He brushed past me on his way out, and when he was gone, I took a deep breath. Neal patted my shoulder before leaving as well. Liam and I were the only ones left. Walking over to the sink, I grabbed a handful of paper towels and turned on the water.
“Just say it,” I said to him as I dabbed at my lip.
“Say what?” He placed his hands in his pockets and leaned against the door.
“What you’re thinking. I’m insane, right?”
“That wasn’t what I was thinking.”
“What then?”
“I might end up marrying an Italian. You’re with a black girl. I was thinking, ‘when did we become so progressive?’ ”
Smiling, I gave up and threw the towels into the bin as I looked back at my reflection.
“You think she’ll stay?”
“For your sake, I hope she does.”
“Why? Aren’t you all about marrying Irish?”
He shrugged. “Like you said, for eighteen years you’ve asked for nothing, except her. Dad’s wrong, you’ve done more than I have. While I was playing around in college you were studying your ass off in computer sciences. Why? Because you thought it would help the family if we had a computer genius on the inside. You have always thought of the family before anything else, even yourself. Now all you want is a woman? I don’t care if she’s black, purple, green, Irish or not. You should have what you want.”
“Thank you.” That was all I could say.
He nodded and turned to leave but stopped. “Just tell me, why?”
“She takes away the nightmares. And for the first time in eighteen years I can dream again. She makes me smile a thousand times a day and laugh ten times as much.”
“I’m jealous.” He smirked.
“I hope you won’t always be.”
“When are you going to tell her?”
I paused for a second thinking.
“On our third date. I want one more normal day as just Declan.”
Don’t let go of me, Coraline.
TEN
“I have not broken your heart - you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine.”
?Emily Brontë
CORALINE
He had asked me to meet him at the same diner we first had coffee in. And I, being the anxious wreck that I was, sped through the rain, just so that I could get there ten minutes early. But much to my dismay, when I got there I could see him already sitting at the window.
The rain poured down and I was under my red umbrella as I made a mad dash from the parking lot to the steps. I was shocked that he hadn’t noticed me yet. He was usually always aware of his surroundings. I waved, but he still didn’t notice me. He leaned back against the booth of the chair and stared intently at the table. Even as the waitress came over to him, he still didn’t move or speak. He was like stone. Walking up the stairs, the bell above the door rung as I entered, and I closed the umbrella and shook the water off of myself. But he still didn’t look up. I could see now he was staring at a watch in his hands…something was wrong.
“Declan?”
He blinked a few times and frowned as he glanced up at me and then at his watch.
“You’re early.”
“Do you want me to leave and come back?” I laughed nervously.
“No.” He shook his head and stood up as I slid in across from him.
“Why did you choose here?”
“You don’t like it?” He paused before he could sit down. “We can go somewhere else if you like.”